Issue 72 • March 2022
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Dave Schefcik’s Rainbow Heart
Kelly Barlett’s Creations
The Wonderful World ® of LEGO COLOR INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!
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Issue 72 • March 2022
Contents From the Editor....................................................2
People Kelly Bartlett: Building Brick Art!............................................3 Chris Perron: Designing the White Dragon Horse Jet...........................................................10
Building Ben Thompson: Space Builder..................................................16
Dave Schefcik’s Rainbow Heart...............................................20 Lucas Evart: Building a Space Program!.......................26 Amantha Vandiviere: Making Walt Disney World’s Main Street... ..................................................34 You Can Build It: MINI Stone Needle Diorama...................40 Minifigure Customization 101: RWBY (WIP).....................................................46
Community Beijing, China: Block-Joy Planet Assembly Art Exhibition.................................................54 Building an Art Exhibition...........................62 Bantha Bricks Files: Builder and Photographer Anthony Bill.....................................................68 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs....................................................................80
From the Editor: Hi!
March 2022 Issue 72 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 BrickNerd Editor Dave Schefcik Bantha Bricks Correspondent Steven Smyth Contributors: Patryk Antczak, Kelly Bartlett, Anthony Bill, Jared Burks, Cool Toys Trend, Christopher Deck, Lucas Evart, Bartlomiej Huetter, Łukasz Mackowiak, Chris Perron, Rafal Piasek, Krzysztof Pusz, Dave Schefcik, Steven Smyth, Ben Thompson, Amantha Vandiviere, and Greg Hyland. 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: Dave Schefcik’s Rainbow Heart graces the cover! Photography provided by Dave Schefcik. About the Contents: Looking down one of Ben Thompson’s interior builds. Render by Ben THmpson.
You might have noticed an article or two missing the past couple of issues. There were two articles in this issue that did not make it by press time (and both were in the issue’s description). The interviews with Inez Vasquez and Caz Mockett will be in the next issue. The Space Shuttle mod article hasn’t been completed because we only got confirmed with NASA in the past week. Why? Well... it’s a long story. That said, this issue has a little of everything, including two event reports! We usually don’t cover those because of the time of publication happening months after the events, but these are different. You’ll see why when you read them. Also, we have a LEGO Designer talk a little about a set he did—which was a fun subject to talk about! There’s more builders, too—who built Disney-inspired models and mosaics, and much more. So get a drink, get comfy in a nice chair, and start reading... 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
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)
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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)
BrickJournalTM issue 72, March 2022 (ISSN 1941-2347) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage pending at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BrickJournal, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Joe Meno, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. BrickJournal Editorial Offices: 6701 Coachman Drive, Springfield, VA 22152, USA. E-mail: admin@brickjournal.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 US, $103 Elsewhere, $29 Digital Only, and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com. 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 © BrickJournal Media, LLC 2021, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.
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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 of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
People Kelly Bartlett began LEGO building when she was about five years old, starting with many of the classic castle, space, and pirates sets from the Eighties. Back then, she and her brother would make a few MOCs with the loose pieces they had, but there just wasn’t the large variety of parts and colors available like there is now. As kids, they mostly built sets and kept them together so they could set up towns and tell stories with them.
Kelly Bartlett:
Building Brick Art!
Article by Joe Meno Photography by Kelly Bartlett Kelly with a map of Hawaii, made with LEGO World Map parts.
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Fast forward a few decades: Kelly now lives in Portland, Oregon with her family and works for the Oregon Library Association. When she started building sets with her children, she realized LEGO had come a long way from the basic sets she’d had as a kid. She was envious watching her then-eight-year-old daughter build the Pet Shop Modular and the Parisian Cafe sets by herself. So Kelly’s husband bought a set just for her: Assembly Square. Kelly couldn’t get enough—every time she finished a build, she wished it had lasted longer, and she kept wanting sets that were bigger and bigger because she enjoyed the process so much. Because of this, she enjoys building Creator Expert and Ideas themes, but really prefers any set that is huge and/or complicated. It took an event and a LEGO Master to start Kelly on the path of MOC-building. The event was Bricks Cascade (a LEGO Fan event in Portland, Oregon). She had gone to the convention with her family and was in awe of the creations on display. “The builds were all so amazing,” she says. “I marveled at how LEGO fans could create such great models and sculptures from their own imagination and without instructions.” Her family encouraged her to build something of her own, but Kelly had no idea where to start.
“Olympic Tribute.”
It was a class that Kelly took from Boone Langston (a LEGO Masters Season One contestant) a few years later that gave her the push she needed to try making small MOCs. The class was a week long, and she made sure to complete a build each day so she always had something to turn in. “I wasn’t always happy with them, but no matter how basic those first MOCs were, Boone always gave helpful feedback, and I felt encouraged to try again.” Since then, Kelly has stayed with creating MOCs and hasn’t built a set from instructions in a long time. For Kelly, inspiration comes from a few places. She is often influenced by the natural world, and loves the challenge of using plastic LEGO elements to create art that has an organic look and feel.
“Army of Frogs.”
A closer look at the “Army of Frogs.”
“Impostor.”
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She also loves reading books and stories, so the idea of creating a MOC that has a story to it appeals to her. She draws inspiration from the books she reads, though not specifically to recreate scenes. Kelly says, “I’m inspired to do with LEGO what a good author has done for me with their book—the way they capture emotion and character and make me feel something with their art.” For Kelly, building a MOC from start to finish usually takes about a month, depending on the size and complexity of the build as well as what parts are needed. “I don’t have a huge collection of pieces, so usually the most time-consuming thing is waiting for my parts orders to arrive.” Sometimes she has a very clear picture in her head of what she wants to make, and the build goes quickly over a few days or a week. Other times, she has a general idea of what she wants to make, but it takes her a while to construct all the different elements that go into it. Kelly says there is always a lot of deconstructing and rebuilding before she figures out what pieces she needs to make the model look the way it does in her head. The butterfly mosaic “Emergence” took about a week to build, while “The Chocolate Shop” took about eight months because of all of the elements inside and the tedious nature of the walls and floor.
A constellation map using LEGO Art Maps Set.
Pussy willow branches.
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People
Chris Perron:
Designing the White Dragon Horse Jet
Article by Joe Meno Photography by Chris Perron and Joe Meno Set Art provided by The LEGO Group
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One of the sets that I bought was the White Dragon Horse Set (80020)—not because I am a Monkie Kid fan, but it looked cool on the box. What I didn’t expect was that the hours building the set would be a fun exercise in techniques, including a few really unconventional methods. The set showed me so many new techniques, I wanted to find out about how this set was designed. The set designer announced the set launch on Facebook, so I contacted him to find out about the set and his approach to design. I also took a look at some of his work on Flickr to see if there were any builds he did that could be forerunners to the LEGO set. Bur first, a quick introduction to the LEGO designer.
Chris Perron has spent most of his life LEGO building—he started when he was two years old. Having a desire to build and create things (probably from growing up spending most his time building LEGO creations), he wanted to pursue something in the field of design. With that, working for the LEGO Group was always a dream of his, so while finishing his degree in Industrial Design, he decided to focus on becoming a LEGO Designer. Five years ago, he became one. His favorite building theme is Space. He always loved the LEGO Space themes growing up, with the bright colors and big transparent canopies and panels, which were always huge draw for him. He loves playing with different color schemes and making interesting shapes and silhouettes and then turning those into some kind of sci-fi design, whether it be a spaceship, rover or mech.
The Dark Phantom, which uses some shaping and parts he used in the set.
This approach helped him create the White Dragon Horse set, and I chatted with him through e-mail about the design process behind the set. Joe Meno: I have seen your work online and you have a unique design sense that uses color in unusual ways. When did you begin building in that manner? You are something of a color sculptor and it shows in the set. Using gradations of green (an uncommon color) makes the craft very distinct. Chris Perron: I think color was always what would inspire my LEGO creations, especially canopies. For example, I would pick up a transparent-green canopy that I thought was interesting and then start trying colors that I thought looked nice with it. Then if I decided I wanted to use dark red as the primary solid color, I would look at what different shapes came in that color and use that as a starting point for my designs. Since starting at the LEGO Group, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a designer who has quite an extensive knowledge of color theory, and I’ve been trying to learn more about that to bring into my models as well.
Before the set was released... These models were built by Chris, experimenting with the forms and parts that he would later use in the White Dragon Horse Set. The Xenon Zapper.
The Violet Vanquisher.
Building
A small ship interior.
Ben Thompson:
Space Builder! Article and Photography by Ben Thompson
An example of Ben’s interior work.
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An artist and graphic designer, Ben Thompson has been building all his life. His brother knew Ben would get into building before Ben was born, as he said, “I’ll have to hide my LEGO.” Building was something Ben did through his childhood until high school. A friend of his had a better collection, so both of them built there.
Lunar habitat laser communication station.
Before both Ben and his friend “gave it up,” they did one last big build—a big base which was still built until recently.
A botanical bay.
Ben returned to the hobby when his old friend bought him a set as a gift in 2016. From there, Ben started collecting a few Star Wars and Classic Space minifigures for a while, eventually progressing to kits and parts and finally building his own creations.
Different views of the starship bridge.
Futuron and Space in general are the themes that Ben likes to build the most. For him, the blue and white color scheme always looked really cool and blended into the semirealistic style he built. They seemed like proper explorers, before Space Police was needed. Chatting at the bay.
A look at the detail of the bay deck.
Ben has always been interested in space travel and science. However, while Space is Ben’s favorite theme to build, he really doesn’t want to be an astronaut. He instead wants to go to space as he imagines it to be. His building strives for a look like NASA crossed with 2001: A Space Odyssey— the space stuff he kind of wished he could have built as a kid, and how he wished real space technology would have become. He works to make his ships look realistic, at least to him. Movie inspirations include 2001, Alien, and The Abyss. Inspiration also comes from designers like Stanley Kubrick and Ron Cobb.
Starship bridge.
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Building
Dave Schefcik’s
Rainbow Heart Article by Joe Meno Photography by Dave Schefcik
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I went to my first LEGO fan convention post-COVID in August 2020: BrickFair Virginia. After over a year of staying home and only virtually attending events, this was a nice step back to normalcy. There were protocols that had to be done at the event, but it was also an opportunity to meet friends, make friends, and see what everyone built during the pandemic. One of the creations that got my attention was a mosaic built by BrickNerd chief Dave Schefcik. The idea was simple: a heart radiating a rainbow of color. However, what made it interesting was that it was composed of tiny tiles, so it had the feel of stained glass. The bigger surprise, though, was seeing it during the World of Lights, where the expo hall lighting is dimmed and illuminated MOCs make themselves known. Dave’s mosaic was lit, and with rotating colors of light, it glowed and pulsed as if alive! It wasn’t a hard decision for me to request an interview with Dave, so let’s find out about his mosaic: “Rainbow Heart.”
Joe Meno: The design of the heart is so colorful and eyecatching. What inspired you to create it? Dave Schefcik: There are a few inspirations behind my “Rainbow Heart” mosaic. First off, there were a few craft stores that had LEGO Dots sets at a really steep discount last summer in the United States. With the help of my LUG, I was able to get quite a few of the bracelets and extra Dots bags which were fun to sort, but that led me to have an excess of small tiles in my collection. I thought a mosaic would be a fun way to utilize some of the pieces, but I wanted to try a new technique—using all the small, printed tiles as a way to increase the overall detail. Unfortunately that got very complicated quickly and I realized that even with the sales, I didn’t have enough printed tiles for an entire mosaic. So I focused on the quarter circle tiles (or pizza tiles as some people call them) which I had in abundance. I had so many different bright colors that I thought something rainbow related would really be fun, and Pride month was on the horizon, which was an added motivator. I also wanted to create a mosaic that was a bit more artistic and intentional than many of the computergenerated ones you see around, though I used my fair share of technology to create it.
Lots of Dots.
Lots of sorted Dots.
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Building
The CSV Vespucci.
Lucas Evart:
Building a Space Program! Article and Photography by Lucas Evart
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My name is Lucas Evart and I’m 39 years old. Currently, my day job is at the U.S. Geological Survey where I do a variety of tasks including, but not limited to, editing scientific papers, creating and editing training materials, and processing geotechnical data. For hobbies I enjoy reading, video games, woodworking, and LEGO (obviously). I got LEGO as a gift at my first birthday party, so I’ve been a builder at least since then. Over the years, my building style and what I get from the experience of building with LEGO has changed from swooshing spaceships around, complete with my own Michael Winslow-level sound effects, to creating artistic pieces that represent my hopes for what humanity might someday achieve. I never had what I’d call a Dark Age, but in my late teens to early twenties, I moved around a lot and had to put my LEGO away for practical reasons. In the early 2000s, two things happened: the UCS Star Destroyer set came out and I discovered BrickLink. The Star Destroyer introduced me to the concept of building with normal bricks and plates over a Technic framework, which reinvigorated my love of the brick.
Building in 1991.
Early Years Like many builders, I started out very simply. Choosing my favorite theme is a hard task. Like a lot of people who build in space/sci-fi themes, especially those of my age and a little older, I have a soft spot for Classic Space. Nostalgia for the late ’80s to early ’90s space themes runs strong in me, so I might say Space Police, Futuron, M-Tron, or Blacktron are contenders for my favorite theme. Then again, I really enjoyed Space Police III with its callbacks to some of those old themes.
By the early 2000s my building style hadn’t really evolved much from my studs-up childhood. A picture of a vehicle I built in 2003 shows how simplistic my designs were.
I couldn’t say what inspired me to build anything beyond a set, as I’ve been doing it so long that it’s just second nature to me at this point. In fact, nowadays, I’m not as interested in sets as I am parts.
My Builds I tend to build big spaceships. As I mentioned in my background, I really got back into LEGO in large part because of the UCS Star Destroyer. The idea of being able to take my builds to grand new levels by skinning over Technic frameworks got my imagination going. For a decade or more I played around with trying to build hulls from plates. The design of the UCS Imperial Shuttle used bricks along with Technic lift arms in the wings/fin; drawing inspiration from that set, I experimented with similar techniques. It was during this period that I began to do a lot more SNOT building.
Lucas’ Mobile Command Center (2003).
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Building
Ruby with her Crescent Rose (in progress). All RWBY characters are TM & © Roosterteeth.
Minifigure Customization 101:
Article by Jared Burks RWBY, pronounced “Ruby,” is an American anime influenced computer animated web series created by Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth. RWBY is set in the fictional world of Remnant, which is composed of four kingdoms plagued by malevolent creatures known as the “Creatures of Grimm.” Prior to the events of the series, the world was overseen by two opposing deities, the god of Light and god of Darkness. Humanity is obliterated by these gods due to the actions of Salem, a vengeful woman cursed with immortality for trying to manipulate these gods into reviving her beloved Ozma. Ozma was subsequently reincarnated into a world as the gods abandoned it to serve as a guide to the new human race leading them towards harmony. Eventually, the discovery of
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the element Dust triggers a technological and industrial revolution among humans and leads the story to the present day. In the present day, Ozma’s current incarnation Ozpin has established academies in the four kingdoms to train young warriors known as Huntsmen and Huntresses to battle the Grimm and to guard the world’s secrets. These academies secretly conceal four relics that when united summon the gods back to Remnant to judge the progress of humanity toward harmony. Want to watch it? It is available here: https://roosterteeth.com/series/rwby The series focuses on four girls that enrolled in Beacon Academy in the kingdom of Vale: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna (of the half-human, halfanimal Faunus race), and Ruby’s half-sister Yang Xiao Long. Together, they form team RWBY (“ruby”), which as you have gathered is derived from the names of the four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Monty Oum based these characters on their respective theme colors around Red, White, Black, and Yellow and designed the characters with assistance from artist Ein Lee, utilizing designs inspired by classic fairy tale characters. The characters’ names also share the same letter and the meaning as the color (e.g. Ruby refers to the ruby gemstone, “Weiss” translates to “white” in German,
Character Inspirations Ruby Rose’s character design was heavily inspired by the fairy tale character of Little Red Riding Hood. This is evident by her red hooded cloak, and this inspiration was also hinted at during the “Red” trailer when she is fighting off Beowolves, a type of monster resembling werewolves. However, she subverts the traditional version of the story; instead of being rescued by a hunter, she herself is the huntress. Weiss Schnee’s character was inspired by fairy tale character Snow White. This was referenced by the song she sang during the “White” trailer, called “Mirror Mirror.” Her full name also translates from German to “White Snow.” Blake Belladonna’s character was inspired by the character of Belle from “The Beauty and The Beast.” This is referenced in her last name Belladonna and also in the “Black” trailer, when she is with a boy named Adam. Adam is the name of the man who became The Beast in Beauty and the Beast (1991). Yang Xiao Long is inspired by the fairy tale character of Goldilocks. While her inspiration may not be quite as obvious as the other three main characters, series creator Monty Oum has said that Yang’s personality is to jump straight into a situation without thinking, which relates to Goldilocks’ story where she enters a strange house to eat food and sleep in a bed without thinking about what would happen when the owners returned.
Blake is an old English word for “black,” and Yang’s name means “sun” in Cantonese). There are many other Huntsmen and Huntresses teams in the show. The second major team is JNPR, which are inspired by historical or mythical crossdressers, Jaune being Jeanne Arc, Pyrrha being Achilles, Nora being Thor, and Ren being Hua Mulan. Team JNPR was originally going to be the “B-team,” however their role in the show has grown. I may eventually dabble in making JNPR as well, as I find the design behind the show intriguing. One of the other very interesting bits of the shows is the weapons that the Huntsmen and Huntresses use to fight off the Grimm. Though standard weapons exist, the majority of weapons shown in RWBY are usually designed to be transformable, using a foldable frame that is capable of shifting various sections to change the weapon from one form into another in mere seconds. Weapons with a foldable frame possess two or more selected forms, and the wielder is capable of freely swapping between each weapon state, depending on their needs. Typically, such weapons would have both a melee state and a ranged combat state, but are not necessarily limited to those specific types of attacks while in each state. Weapons can
The Crescent Rose.
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Builder and Photographer
A New Hope.
Anthony Bill
Anthony Bill Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Anthony Bill
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. Anthony Bill, also known as BillsBrickz on Instagram, is an extremely talented builder and photographer of custom Star Wars Lego. I thought it would be a lot of fun to catch up with Anthony and find out more about him! Steven Smyth: How’s it going, Anthony? I know you have quite a following with the members of the Bantha Bricks group, and I know people in the community and beyond in other online discussions have been blown away with your builds and photography. You have truly built some amazing MOCs, dioramas and vignettes, but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do. Anthony Bill: I’m all good, thank you! I will keep the boring stuff short and sweet. My name is Anthony and I go by the name of @billsbrickz on Instagram and other communities. I live in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and by day I am a Technical Representative for a high-tech engineering company; by night I am a LEGO MOC builder and photographer! I am an avid MOC builder with my main interest lying with the Star Wars theme. I was lucky enough to have lots of LEGO throughout my childhood; my first set was from the pirate theme, but I had a diverse collection throughout and always loved building MOCs, especially with my younger brother. I then rediscovered my love of the brick and got back into building around five years ago; whilst out shopping, I caught a glimpse of the UCS Slave I, Boba Fett’s Firespray starship, and that was it—I was hooked again!
Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us? Now obviously my favorite theme is Star Wars, but I do have a varied collection including some of the Ideas, Stranger Things and Ghostbusters sets; lots of nostalgia! One of my personal favorites is the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters, which I luckily bagged on sale just before it was retired. What inspired you to build these scenes and then photograph them? After several years away from the hobby, I started acquiring a number of sets and my Star Wars minifigure collection was growing rapidly. I wanted to design a unique display solution depicting different scenes for each, and at the time, the only bricks I had were LEGO pieces I had in sets that I owned. I did not have the array needed to complete my ideas. I decided to download the digital design software called Stud.io from Bricklink, which enabled me to create all my designs digitally before calculating what I needed to purchase to make them a reality. Another great feature of this software was being able to create. Can you tell us a bit about the construction—any special techniques you used? My favorite techniques include SNOT (Studs Not On Top) builds, particularly for walls and floors. I also try to make the scene, especially the environments, as detailed and realistic as possible with minimal studs showing. Did you freestyle build this or did you use a computer design program to lay it out first? Once our twins were born, the time and space I had to build was very limited. Unlike most other builders, I do not have a work area with parts sorted into bins; mine is all in Ziploc® bags checked into two very large containers. When I do build in real life, I tend to have thousands of bricks sprawled out on the
AT-DT walker with trooper.
Queen Amidala follows Obi-Wan (center) and Qui-Gon Jinn (right) in Theed Palace.
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