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THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES! ®
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Issue 66 • March 2021
Contents From the Editor....................................................2
People Tom Gerardin: Building Ideas!.......................3
Building Alexandre Rossier: Back for More!...............8 Jerry Hung: A City Layout Like No Other!...................16 Stijn van der Laan (Red Spacecat): Building Future Visions..............................22 Damian Thomas: Building Dinosaur Bones!... ......................28
John Randall: Displaying Like a Master!..........................34 Dario Minisini: Building Butterflies and More!...............40 Dario Del Frate: Building a Fairy tale Castle.......................44 You Can Build It: X-29 Forward Swept Wing Plane..........48 You Can Build It: Razor Crest.......................................................52 Minifigure Customization 101: One Original Thought is Worth 1000 Meaningless Quotes!......................58
Community Bantha Bricks Files: Eloi Parizeau’s Nebulon-B Escort/ Medical Frigate and GR-75 Medium Transport.......................................66 SORTLUG: What Happens When the Cons are Gone?.........................................................72 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs....................................................................80
From the Editor: Hello there! Another two months, another issue! And this one is different, for sure.
May 2021 Issue 67
There’s a lot of... different building in here. We have a skeleton builder and a space builder and a butterfly builder and...
Publisher John Morrow
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon
LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh Bantha Bricks Correspondent Steven Smyth
Contributors: Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Dario Del Frate, Tom Gerardin, Alexandre Rossier, Jerry Hung, Stijn van der Laan, Dario Minisini, Eloi Parizeau, John Randall, Steven Smyth, Damian Thomas, and Greg Hyland.
...then we have displayers of sets, but in permanent displays—they don’t go to events. As a result, they have details and lighting—things that are not in too many event displays yet. We have builders that tell stories with their builds. And we have a castle builder here, but not necessarily of castles that we usually think of. So sit back, relax and take a look at what we got for you! You’ll love it! Joe Meno, editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at brickjournal@gmail.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply.
P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup — http://www.facebook.com/group. php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader!
P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to www.twomorrows.com or scan below!
Website
Subscriptions
Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:
www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com
About the Cover: Tom Gerardin’s characters Billy and Charlie make the cover with their adventures! Photography provided by Tom Gerardin. About the Contents: One of the many sections of Jerry Hung’s city layout. Photography by Jerry Hung. Star Wars and all related characters and properties TM & © Lucasfilm.
Glossary AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO) TFFOL (Teen Female Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece) POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces)
SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) MECHA (a large armored robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside) MECH (a large piloted combat robot) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2011, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $68 Economy US, $80 Expedited US, $103 International, or $27 Digital Only and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 9001 Barb Anne Ct, Springfield, VA 22152, USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in China. ISSN 1941-2347.
BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of2the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
People
Nathan and Tom at LEGO Masters UK in 2018.
Tom Gerardin has been building for 17 years, and he’s a 21-year-old university student in his third year studying 3-D Design. In those building years he went from a person who built sets to a builder that not only has created a LEGO Ideas set that made its support goal, but also has competed on television with his skills! As a child, Tom would try to build sets himself that were too expensive for him to save for, and as he got older, he discovered that he wanted to build his own ideas and models. He developed his building skills while building sets, learning techniques, and coming up with new ones and using them in his own creations from his teen years into his adult years.
Tom Gerardin:
Building Ideas! Article and Photography by Tom Gerardin
Best friends Billy (right) and Charlie (left) on the town!
Inspiration for his builds comes from a variety of places. Tom really enjoys character design, so he might come up with a character in his head and then translate it into LEGO bricks. He also draws a lot so his builds might come from aspects of his drawing. Sometimes he plans a build before he starts making it, but most of the time he just gets stuck in with the bricks and experiments until he has a final design. Building time can vary—designing and building one of Tom’s small models can take only 30 minutes to an hour to design, while something larger like a vehicle from a film or a building can take up to a few days to create. It really depends on when he thinks a model is ready for building. The hardest model (and model he is proudest of) is Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit fame), which also became a successful LEGO Ideas project. Tom was inspired to build Wallace and Gromit by his childhood. He spent a lot of time watching the classic Aardman shows such as
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Building
Alexandre Rossier:
Back for More! Article and Photography by Alexandre Rossier 8
BrickJournal showcased Alexandre Rossier’s builds last issue, but had to return to for more! His MOCs are as extraordinary as his work as a designer and photographer. The detail and craft he uses in both his creations and photography are simply beautiful, and prolific online. Here are some more LEGO projects that he has built. If you haven’t see his work online, you can view it at his Instagram feed. Til then, enjoy his creations here, with his notes on the builds!
Some of the modular buildings in John’s layout.
Rocket Transporter
A homage to the legendary Mobile Rocket transport 6950 set from 1982, but more than twice the original size. It is based on the drivetrain of the recent 42311 Volvo Hauler, with the automatic gearbox, knot steering—and the rocket articulated support instead of the dump unit!
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Building
Jerry Hung:
A City Layout Like No Other! Article and Photography by Jerry Hung
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John Randall’s train display.
Some of the modular buildings in John’s layout.
In the daytime, Jerry Hung is an online vendor of computer and automobile cables. Off the job, though, he is a collector of LEGO sets, and has been since childhood. His fascination with LEGO City sets started when he got his first city set from his father: the LEGOLand Fire Station (6382) from 1981. Since then, he has gotten many more sets, and he did what many would do: he started building a layout with his sets.
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Building
The A-32 Skyracer.
Stijn van der Laan (Red Spacecat):
Building Future Visions Stijn’s KA-9 robot.
Article and Photography by John Randall
Stijn van der Laan is a Project Manager and Art Director at a digital agency, with his main focus being helping the healthcare sector better connect with patients by improving the online presence. He’s also an incredible LEGO builder, as you’ll see. BrickJournal talked to him about the hobby and his building. BrickJournal: How long have you been building? Stijn van der Laan: LEGO has always been my go-to toy growing up. But then the “Dark Age” hit when game consoles inevitably won the battle for my attention. About 15 years ago I came across some randomly assorted bricks at an online marketplace, which I immediately purchased. This brought me out of said “Dark Age” and I haven’t stopped building and buying more LEGO ever since. What got you into building as an adult?
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The realization that I could buy individual LEGO parts online definitely rekindled my interest. Shortly after that revelation I learned about the SNOT (Studs Not On Top) technique by seeing some builds from creative talent and fellow Dutchman Fredo Houben (Fredoichi). That really got my motor running and even motivated me to start sharing my own creations online via Flickr
some 10 years ago. The feedback and encouragement I received, coupled with the profound sense of community, really anchored me there. Over the years I’ve connected to many people, some of whom I now consider my friends. This also motivated me to make numerous trips to AFOL conventions around the world in order to meet these people in person, with the Japan Brickfest in 2019 being a recent highlight.
An expeditionary modular autonomous vehicle (EMAV).
What’s your favorite theme? Looking around the room where my collection is on display (I keep most of my builds intact), there’s no point denying that I seem to exclusively build sci-fi themed MOCs. Most of them could be categorized as “semi-plausible nearfuture”, with some outlandish SHIPs in between. One attractive aspect of the sci-fi theme is that anything goes. It’s fun to dream up things that don’t exist while also challenging in trying to build something that feels real and plausible without having a real-world reference. What inspired you to build something besides a set? Personally I’ve always regarded LEGO sets as 3-D puzzles with instructions. The challenge for me is to create something in real life that I can think up with my mind. LEGO is currently my favorite tool for accomplishing that task. What are the inspirations behind your builds?
The CFX-7 Peregrine unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).
As with most builders, my inspiration can come from anywhere. I could get inspired by something a fellow builder created, or something random I saw on TV. The most difficult thing for me is to start building without a clear vision of the project. For instance, if I’ve set the goal for myself to just build an airplane, without being inspired by something first, then I will really struggle. Whereas when I happen to see a cool airplane and then start designing my own, the process will go much more smoothly. How long can it take to build a model? I’m a very slow builder because I keep reworking and finetuning the model until I’m completely satisfied with the result. This can become somewhat frustrating at times because of the slow progress, but I just know I won’t be happy with a rushed creation. So at a minimum I’ll spend a few months on a MOC. Depending on the size of the build this time can grow to up to about six months before I feel comfortable posting it on the internet. The USS Spirit, a near-future assault craft.
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Building
Damian’s Tyrannosaurs Rex skull.
Damian Thomas:
Building Dinosaur Bones! Article and Photography by Damian Thomas
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The idea of building something new in LEGO is one that drives many a builder, yet is actually very challenging. For Damian Thomas, a technical illustrator in the aerospace sector, it was a matter of building bones: dinosaur bones. His models are also unique in that he uses Technic elements to build his creations. To do this, he had to build on a lifetime of building experience. For him, it started when his family inherited a basic LEGO collection from a neighbor when he was a boy. Damian remembers playing with it for hours at a young age. Now 49, Damian recalls when he came back to building as an adult: “The wife was getting rid of a desk that was in the kids’ room and I thought the top would be the ideal place to build a Hoth MOC on, and it all started from that.” From there, he realized he had many favorite themes: Star Wars, Ninjago, Batman—anything that looks good, really. For Damian, the problem is that LEGO is coming out with so many sets, it’s become hard to choose which one to buy. Building his own models was the next step for him. Damian reflects: “I think as a child I was limited to what I had and what I could build and as an adult the doors just opened up to the LEGO candy shop… and then with social media there were so many examples of great creations… and I thought, I
want to do that.” Finding the new thing to build was a matter of searching online for something that Damian hadn’t seen anyone else build with LEGO before. He saw that dinosaurs had been built using standard bricks, but nobody had tackled building them using Technic parts. For him, it seemed like a good challenge… and the rest is history. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was the first dinosaur that he tackled, and with it came a big learning curve. It took around 70 hours to build the skull. He originally wanted to build the full skeleton, but figured it would cost too much to build in standard bricks, so he turned to Technic parts because their panel parts were bigger and he could get better coverage. Once he started building with the panels and pins, he realized that he could make great shapes, and his building went forward from there.
Dilophosaurus skull.
From there, he went on to build a Triceratops skull, where the challenge was its support frame, which took just as long to build as shaping the skull. The total time on that project was, like the T-Rex skull, around 70 hours. After that, he built a Dilophosaurus skull that took only 40 hours to complete.
Triceratops skull in progress.
A look at the support structure of the Triceratops model.
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Building
Dario Del Frate:
Building a Fairy Tale Castle! Article and Photography by Dario Del Frate
Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Recognize this castle? If you are a Disney fan you probably know it as the castle that is at Disneyland Paris, named Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (French for “The Castle of the Beauty in the Sleeping Wood”), but known in English as Sleeping Beauty Castle. Called by many Disney fans as the most beautiful Disney castle of any park, this model was built by Dario Del Frate, who was in the last issue showing his crystal 44 models. BrickJournal talked to him about the castle.
BrickJournal: What inspired you to build the Castle, and what made you choose microscale? Dario del Frate: Paris is the first Disney park we visited— ten years ago now—and when I stepped in and saw the castle, soft pink in the raising sun at the end of Main Street... I was in awe! I didn’t expect it to feel so real and so enchanted at the same time. It blew me away! From that moment I wanted to build it with LEGO!
Sleeping Beauty Castle opened up.
Microscale is my favourite style—mainly because they are tricky to build and force you to use quite some imagination to pick the right piece! The castle on top would have been prohibitive to build (for me) at minifig scale—far too big: if you have a lot of LEGO and do not live in a castle... well that’s the only way to go! How did you plan the build, especially the interior? What did you use for reference? There’s a lot of pics available on the web; even Google Earth was very useful for the overall proportions, and I spent an entire morning taking pictures and videos of the real castle the last time we visited (just before starting the build) to have the best possible source material! And then the question was to define the actual scale based on one reference brick—in this case I wanted to use the round 2 x 2 as a section of the side towers since they fit so nicely with the cones for the roofs which were available in blue, and built from there! There’s also a golden frog... let’s see if you can spot it! Did you build it digitally first, then for real, or the other way around? I always build my “serious stuff” digitally! I need to plan my builds, I am not a fast builder at all! I go through several iterations. I then start building with real bricks, whatever colors I have at home and test the build’s solidity (looking
One side of the interior, showing a spinning wheel and Belle’s Rose.
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You Can Build It MINI Build
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Main Body
Qty Color Part 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 36841.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 36840.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 49307.dat 3 1 2 2
Razor Crest Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck Hello everybody and welcome to an exciting building session in this issue of BrickJournal! Today we want to step into the world of the Star Wars live-action series The Mandalorian. The main ship of the series is the Mandalorian’s personal starship, named “Razor Crest.” With its round truncated nose and sloped cockpit and the huge wing-mounted cylindrical engines, it looks like a hybrid of Republic Gunship and the bounty hunter gunship “Halo” from the animated Clone Wars series. With almost 70 pieces, the model is very compact for being quite small. It features some quite enjoyable building techniques, and is very detailed for its size. Many newer date pieces like 1x1 brackets (36840, 36841), shortened 1x1 cones (85975), 1x1 rounded slopes (49307), and curved wedge slopes (29119, 29120) made this possible. Some remarkable details are the angled cockpit, a retractable cargo hatch at the ship’s rear, and additional landing gear that can be attached on the underside. Therefore you simply need three 1x1 round plates (4073), and three minifigure ice skates (93555). You can see the landing gear detail on the second image showing the ship in landing position. With that I am done for this issue’s building session and hope you will be having fun and excitement during building this little model. Have a good time and see you next time!
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1 2 2 3 1 1 9 2 2 1 1 2
Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Down Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Brick 1 x 1 x 0.667 with Curved Top Light-Bluish-Gray 52107.dat Brick 1 x 2 with Studs on Sides Light-Bluish-Gray 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 32828.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Bar Dark-Bluish-Gray 61252.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Thick C-Clip) Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 60478.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handle on End Dark-Bluish-Gray 11458.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Offset Peghole Light-Bluish-Gray 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 Light-Bluish-Gray 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 61409.dat Slope Brick 18 2 x 1 x 0.667 Grille Light-Bluish-Gray 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Trans-Clear 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Light-Bluish-Gray 29120.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left Light-Bluish-Gray 29119.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right Light-Bluish-Gray 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove
Top
Qty Color Part 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 36840.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 34103.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3022.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 26601.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 29120.dat 1
Light-Bluish-Gray 29119.dat
2 2 1 1 1
Dark-Bluish-Gray 2412b.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3069b.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 87079.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 41770.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 41769.dat
Engines
Qty Color Part 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 98100.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 17485.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 85975.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 4274.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 32187.dat 1
Light-Bluish-Gray 15535.dat
Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 3 with 2 Studs Offset Plate 2 x 2 Plate 2 x 2 without Corner Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Tile 2 x 4 with Groove Wing 2 x 4 Left Wing 2 x 4 Right Description Brick 2 x 2 Round Sloped Brick 2 x 2 Round with Pin Holes Minifig Hat Fez Technic Pin 1/2 Technic Transmission Driving Ring Extension Tile 2 x 2 Round with Hole
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Bantha Bricks Files 66
Bantha Bricks Files: Eloi Parizeau’s
Nebulon-B Escort/ Medical Frigate and GR-75 Medium Transport Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Eloi Parizeau
Galactic greetings! I’m Steven Smyth from Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. Since the community’s founding in 2016, on an almost daily basis, I have witnessed amazing and creative Star Wars builds in the best Star Wars themed building brick group on Facebook. Eloi Parizeau is one such creative builder and recently shared this Nebulon-B Escort/ Medical Frigate and GR-75 Medium Transport combo. Steven Smyth: How’s it going Eloi? I’ve known you for years now through the Facebook group, first as a member and then as a moderator of the all-volunteer Admin Team that helps monitor the group content to maintain a family-friendly atmosphere. Everyone in Bantha Bricks has been wowed by your many awesome Star Wars brick builds, but
few years, but I am now working in microscale and detailed spaceships. I love being a moderator in Bantha Bricks, I believe we have an awesome team; it has allowed me to meet some amazing builders and have friendships with some fabulous people. Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a surprise theme for us? Back in 1999, I saw a LEGO X-Wing on a shelf at Wal-Mart and couldn’t help myself, it just fell into my cart and I bought it. I now have over 300 different Star Wars sets in my collection and I also love collecting Star Wars minifigs. Lately, I discovered the Hidden Side theme and I have to say it is really cool! Sadly, LEGO pulled the plug on this theme by the end of 2020 so it will stay on shelves for less than two years. I love to see what the Ideas theme brings to us every year, but TLG seems to only release big costly sets lately. I end up passing on them most of the time. I keep my money for parts! Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself? Three years ago, two friends asked me to enter their LUG and attend some events to show my builds. I have done four events since then and really appreciate the interaction with the public, so it convinced me to work on better MOCs, and I have really improved my skills at this point. LEGO lets me show my love for Star Wars by creating some great models with awesome techniques. I have learned a lot by talking with people in my LUG and other exhibitors at events. I have also learned tons of nice building techniques in the Bantha Bricks Facebook group. It’s in that group that I have learned how to use Bricklink, and it’s now a cool part of my life! In regards to your latest build, of the Nebulon-B Escort/Medical Frigate and GR-75 Medium Transport combo, what inspired you to build those particular ships?
A group shot.
for the uninitiated please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do. Eloi Parizeau: Hi Steven, I’m doing fine, thanks for asking! I have been in the LEGO world all my life, got my first set at the age of 4 years old. My father is an architect, so I have some related skills in my blood for building MOCs. Speaking about architecture, I am an architectural technician, a career that really stepped up my taste for great builds. I grew up trying to explore different styles of builds. Offroad trucks, spaceships, space bases, medieval castles, race cars, anything offered by LEGO at that time. I really loved the Castle and Blacktron themes during my childhood. I still have some of my castles and all of my Blacktron in my collection. Now I focus on Star Wars builds. I have built many lightsaber hilts in the last
Since 1999, I really hoped LEGO could release a set of the Nebulon-B. I remember having spent so many hours trying to build it when I was a kid but at that time, the variety of bricks was not good enough to build such a complex ship. When I first joined Bantha Bricks almost four years ago, I saw the Mortesv model and I was stunned by the accuracy of it. It stayed in my head all the way until the beginning of the pandemic back in March of 2020. Being confined at home gave me some free time to play with my bricks, so I started the dream project. Surprisingly, it took me only twenty hours to create it. I then realized how I could think about a model and it appears in my mind so clearly that I can build it in one try. The only modifications I have done since are greebling upgrades. As for the GR-75, it was an automatic; when you have a Nebulon-B you need a GR-75 Transport! So I did the same thing, worked on a way to do the shell with curved slopes, used modified plates with handle and with clips to add to the curved
Another group shot.
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