Issue 74 • July 2022
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Jürgen Wittner’s Treadable Jhaelon Edwards Smith’s Starkiller Base
INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!
Star Wars and all related properties and characters TM & © Lucasfilm.
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Issue 74 • July 2022
Contents From the Editor....................................................2
People Rita Ebel: Ramping Up Accessibility in Germany! .......................................................3 Joe Lam: Brick Artist! .........................................................5
Building Adnan Lotia: Cover Artist .....................................................12 Thomas Carlier: Building Casita Madrigal ..........................16
Patrick Higgins: Building Disney’s Haunted Mansion’s Ballroom .................18 Sebastian Bachórzewski’s Science over Superstition ...........................22 Bantha Bricks Files: Lee Goldman’s Fury Interceptor ...........................................27 Jürgen Wittner’s D-25 Treadable .............................................32 Jhaelon Edwards Smith’s Starkiller Base ................................................40
BrickNerd Instructions: Flying by Bespin ...........................................46 You Can Build It: Mini Vehicle Concept I ...............................52 Minifigure Customization 101: RWBY: The Final Chapter...........................61
Community Creating Mando’s New Ride!......................68 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word ...........................................................79 AFOLs ...................................................................80
From the Editor: Hi! So we did another Star Wars issue— this time with some help from a Star Wars building group! There’s some neat stuff in here, including instructions for a concept fighter that was designed but never made.
July 2022 Issue 74 Publisher John Morrow Editor in Chief Joe Meno BrickNerd and Assistant Editor Dave Schefcik Photography Editor Geoff Gray
There’s also some ships—including the new ship the Mandolorian has (all of these were designed and submmitted before the official set was announced, too!). While we don’t have a minimodel from Christopher Deck this issue (he’s recovering from COVID), there are some other models to build!
Proofreader John Morrow
Outside of that, there are some other neat builds, including album cover mosiacs, Disney’s Haunted Mansion, and Casita Madrigal from Encanto! And ramps!
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan
Have fun!
West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon Bantha Bricks Correspondent Steven Smyth Contributors: Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Steven Smyth, Inez T. Vasquez, 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: Jürgen Wittner’s Treadable model takes the spotlight! Photo by Jürgen Wittner. About the Contents: A close-up of Adnan Lotia’s mosaic of Blondie’s Parallel Lines album cover. Render by Adnan Lotia.
So sit back, relax, or go to your building space and take a look. 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!
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 74, July 2022 (ISSN 1941-2347) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid 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
A ramp at Hamm, Germany.
Siegburg, Germany.
Rita Ebel at one of her ramps, in Bensheim, Germany.
Walking up a step is something many of us take for granted, but for some it’s a challenge. Those who travel by wheelchair or other aids cannot step up—a wheelchair is simply not designed for such movement, and using canes and crutches require balance and effort that may be taxing to a person.
Rita Ebel:
Making these places accessible is the mission of Rita Ebel, herself a wheelchair user. Her solution to the step? Build a ramp with LEGO bricks and mount to it. The idea isn’t an original one—Rita was inspired to do this when she read an article in a trade magazine for paraplegics about a woman, Corinne Huber, who builds ramps out of LEGO. After seeing a picture of an electric wheelchair going over the LEGO ramp, Rita was totally sold on the idea and wanted to build ramps in her hometown of Hanau, Germany. After contacting Corinne, Rita got instructions for ramp building and started a group (Team Legooma) to build them. Rita’s first ramp was built in 2019, and since then has built over 70 ramps for stores and businesses. She takes ramp requests by mail, which must fit some basic conditions: only one step in height (17 cm high), the ground in front of the step must be reasonably level, and only stores and businesses can submit requests—the only exceptions are residences with children who are dependent on wheelchairs. Those meeting the conditions are put on a waiting list and are processed one by one. Each ramp is glued together and placed on location—they are not fastened, but a mat under the steps prevents slipping.
Ramping Up Accessibility in Germany! Article by Joe Meno Photography by Rita Ebel (@die_Lego_Oma)
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Building
Blondie’s Parallel Lines album cover, rendered by Adnan Lotia. © Chrysalis Records.
Adnan Lotia:
Cover Artist
Article by Joe Meno Photography by Adnan Lotia
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Adnan Lotia is a name that is not familiar to many, but his work has been widely seen on Instagram. His account, @uvupv, posts a build almost daily that is based on something that is relatively rare now: album covers. His artwork is digitally created and based on the albums of the ’80s. Before he was a digital creator, Adnan was a educator and graphic designer. He has been LEGO building since childhood—he and his brother shared a huge amount on LEGO and they loved building sets and freeform creations together. They both returned to collecting LEGO after college, but mostly for display purposes rather than for building their own creations. Adnan continued into building and was teaching LEGO robotics in Brooklyn, New York and inevitably ended up building quite a few interesting projects with his students, including Great Ball Contraptions and complex, multifunction robots for tournament competition. His first custom creations were alternate builds of the first big set Adnan bought as an adult: Batman’s Tumbler. He designed several versions of Batman’s Batwing, an aircraft based on a film from the 1980s. Next, he built a motorized helicopter based on Airwolf, a TV show from the ’80s; then a motorized robot based on Short Circuit, another ’80s film; and then a motorized car based on Knight Rider, yet another ’80 TV series. It’s easy to see a pattern developed with his building subjects. Adnan’s favorite theme is Blacktron—black became his favorite color at a very
young age thanks to this LEGO theme. One of his prized possessions back then was the Blacktron Invader (#6894) which blew his mind with its modular, reconfigurable design. This inspired him to start building custom creations instead of just following the instructions. The set’s color palette of black and yellow also had a strong impact on Adnan as a child—he started thinking of LEGO elements in terms of color, which is still how he sorts them. Another inspiration includes pop culture. Adnan considers himself fortunate to have grown up during a golden age of toys, comic books, animation, film, and television—all targeted at children. At the forefront of this wave of commercialism was MTV, so music was a huge part of his childhood, too. Music videos, posters, and t-shirts all permeated his adolescence. When Adnan started collecting music, it was on cassette tapes. Initially enchanted by album cover art then, and later when the format switched to CDs, he loved CD case inserts, which would often contain photography, lyrics, and provide a certain visual aesthetic to accompany the music. It’s this particular thread that Adnan thinks he is unraveling in his series of album covers.
One of Adnan’s first builds, KITT from the Knight Rider TV series. Knight Rider © Universal Studios.
Purple Rain, by Prince and the Revolution. © Universal Music.
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Building
The ballroom...
Patrick Higgins:
Building Disney’s Haunted Mansion’s Ballroom! Article and Photography by Patrick Higgins
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Haunted Mansion and all related properties and characters TM & © Disney Enterprises, Inc.
“Welcome to the Haunted Mansion...” begins one of the most famous attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. The Haunted Mansion wasn’t one of the original attractions at Disneyland (the first Disney park) but quickly became a classic when it did open in 1967. Since then, guests have been going to see the many rooms and chambers inside, including the ballroom. Home of a ‘swinging wake,’ the dining room, as seen from above by the guests in their Doom Buggies, is real... but the ghosts dancing and partying? They fade in and out of sight, glowing and translucent. The organ player fades and the organ pipes show the ‘voices’ behind it. All of this is live, and while the dancers spin and fade, the guests watching above are left wondering “How did they do that?” And how can you do this in LEGO? Patrick Higgins, a college student, showed us how. He’s been a LEGO builder pretty much all of his life, with his first set being the 2006 Batwing. His favorite theme is Batman (2006-2008). His current favorite theme is Harry Potter. He always enjoyed building new things with his parts, but then he started building big. His first huge model, since he is a Batman fan, was Arkham Asylum. He built it to make a place to store all of the LEGO Batman villains he had collected over the years. He displayed it at Brickfair Alabama, and loved that feeling of satisfaction he got from seeing the final product. Since then, he has continued making new things and trying new techniques.
...where “happy haunts materialize.”
For the Haunted Mansion, he was inspired by the actual ride at Walt Disney World. His family went to the park in Spring 2021 and the attraction has always been one of his favorite rides. While riding it, he got curious about how the effect in the haunted ballroom was accomplished, and after a few Google searches, he had figured it out. He was so impressed with the effect that he decided the haunted ballroom would be his next project, and that he would get that effect to work in LEGO scale. For this build, it took a lot of pre-planning before even the first bricks came together. For example, the motors needed to move the figures had to run under the entire build, so Patrick had to first find motors that would do what he wanted, then had to bump the entire floor up to allow the motors to operate. For the interior details, he used a book from Disney World that was full of details and pictures of the Haunted Mansion. It proved to be invaluable to faithfully recreate the Mansion, which took six months to complete.
“Grim grinning ghost come out to socialize.”
The base is covered with the logo for the Disney attraction.
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Building
Sebastian Bachórzewski’s
Science over Superstition Article and Photography by Sebastian Bachórzewski Somewhere, a scientist is working in his lab on an experiment that will change the world! The lab is filled with the crackle of electricity and the smell of oil and soot. The scientist checks his notes and calculates and recalculates. With a throw of a switch, he will tap into a source of energy that could power nations! The villagers have viewed the mansion at the edge of town with suspicion. Strange lights and sounds have been seen and heard there, and only a few know about the recluse who lives there. For the villagers, it is a place to fear. But if they had to courage to knock on the door... what would they find? This layout, Science over Superstition, was built by Sebastian Bachórzewski, a builder who has a family shop with LEGO bricks. Before the shop, he spent many years in advertising as a designer. He’s only been building vignettes for about seven years, continuing with bigger creations four years ago. Since then, he has been constantly trying to improve his skills.
Beginning the layout, with larger elements built and placed.
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The completed layout.
jurgen wittner
Jürgen Wittner’s
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DN-25 Treadable
Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Jürgen Wittner 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. Jürgen Wittner, who is an inspiring Star Wars LEGO builder in the community, built a minifigure scale DN-25 Treadable, the vehicle associated with Lando Calrissian, but technically belonging to Kalo’ne, in Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. I thought it would be great to learn more about this fantastic friend of the Bantha Bricks community, an extremely talented builder, and his custom LEGO vehicle build.
Steven Smyth: How’s it going, Jürgen? 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 awestruck by your DN-25 Treadable. You have definitely built some amazing MOCs and even dioramas to go along with them, but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do. Jürgen Wittner: Hi everyone! My name is Jürgen, 44 years old, architect, and I live in Berlin, Germany. I am a very new member of the whole LEGO Star Wars and MOC scene. I had a lot of LEGO bricks in my childhood and LEGO was my absolute favorite indoor activity in the 1980s and early 1990s. LEGO came back into my life with my now seven-year-old son. He is a really big LEGO and Star Wars fan and we built a lot of smaller LEGO Star Wars sets together, looked at Star Wars books, and I explained the story and characters to him in a suitable way for a child. During the first COVID lockdown in April 2019, I was looking for an additional hobby that would challenge me both mentally, but also involve some work with my hands. So I wished for the play scale Millennium Falcon, set 75257, as a birthday present from my girlfriend. That was the starting point for my first MOC and laid the foundation for my renewed enthusiasm for building LEGO.
Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us? Yes, Star Wars is my absolute, and currently only, LEGO theme, no shockers! But I must admit that I am not a hardcore Star Wars fan, but, like almost all people of my generation, I grew up with the Star Wars movies, and especially Episode IV to VI are still among my absolute favorite movies, which I watch at least every 1–2 years. Basically, I have always been interested in science-fiction, no matter if it was a movie, series or book. I am most attracted to spaceships and futuristic vehicles, so a new theme for me would most likely go in the direction of Battlestar Galactica, Alien or another science-fiction saga.
Data File: DN-25 Treadable The Treadable was first seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as a vehicle owned by Lando Calrissian. This is a desert vehicle that is used to travel on the planet Pasaana. Source: Star Wars Wookieepedia
BB-8, Finn, C-3PO, and Chewbacca encounter Lando.
Why did you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself? As I said in my introduction, a main reason was my son, and my basically always present interest in LEGO. I also did a lot of model making with classic car model kits from Revell and other brands, but that could not catch me anymore. For me, there were two arguments in favor of LEGO. First, I can build together with my son. That would simply not be possible with classic model kits, where you have to glue and paint with very fine motor skills. On the other hand, I simply love the challenge of using the given building elements from LEGO to get closer, piece by piece, to the most perfect result possible. I also really like the combination of physical building and digital design in BrickLink Stud.io as an iterative process. Another look at the Treadable.
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jhaelon edwars smith 40
The front half of Starkiller Base.
Jhaelon Edwards Smith’s
Starkiller Base
Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Jhaelon Edwards Smith Jhaelon Edwards Smith, who is a well-known community member and YouTube sensation under RichboyJhae, built an amazing Starkiller Base. I thought it would be great to learn more about this extremely talented builder and his custom Star Wars LEGO build.
Steven Smyth: How’s it going, Jhaelon? 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, like your YouTube channel, have been flat out stunned with the magnificence of your Starkiller Base. You have built some amazing MOCs and dioramas, but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do. Jhaelon Edwards Smith: Ah, thanks Steven. My name is Jhaelon, but most know me as RichboyJhae. I am a huge LEGO Star Wars fan! I primarily build MOCs (My Own Creation) of Star Wars scenes and sequences. My builds are typically pretty large in scale, but I always strive for that not to come at the expense of detail. I also make an effort to incorporate a custom vehicle I have designed into all my builds. Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us? Unfortunately, I have no surprising answer here. Star Wars is absolutely my favorite theme. I am probably a bigger Star Wars fan than I am a LEGO fan. Why did you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself? Towards the beginning, LEGO was the medium I was just most familiar with. It is a lovely medium for any type of art, but it’s versatility, and scale of minifigures, makes it perfect for Star Wars creations.
What inspired you to take on this epically huge Starkiller Base MOC? I can’t say I ever intended for it to be epically huge. I typically do not decide on the size of the build up front. I always start by figuring out everything I would like to include in the build, then I determine what size is most realistic to achieve that. Starkiller Base was one of those unique and diverse locations that lent itself well to an immersive LEGO build. I got to build a forest, a large snowscape, mountains, a giant base interior, as well as a huge army assembly all in one build. I cannot think of a single other Star Wars location that would allow a builder to incorporate all those elements, all at once. Can you tell us a bit about the construction—were there any special techniques you used? I am almost embarrassed to say it, but I have been working on this build for so long that I have forgotten a lot of the techniques I used to achieve certain things. I will highlight one technique in particular, that I used a lot, and that I am most proud of. The rockwork technique I used for the interior of Snoke’s room, as well as the prison section, was very unique and visually appealing. I took a bunch of smaller rock assemblies, making sure their shapes were complementary to each other, somewhat like a puzzle, then clipped them into a wall. The result is pretty impressive!
Rey with stormtrooper in Starkiller Base.
Data File: Starkiller Base Seen in The Force Awakens, Starkiller Base was a military base on the ice planet of Ilum. Armed with a superweapon capable of destroying star systems, the base was destroyed by Poe Dameron. Source: Star Wars Wookieepedia
Starkiller base Kylo Ren’s meditation chamber with Snoke hologram.
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Building
Minifig Customization 101: half-sister Yang Xiao Long. Please see the two prior articles in the series for more details, or hit your favorite search engine and look up RWBY.
The Final Chapter Article by Jared Burks I finally have an article trilogy! The previous article was definitely my Empire Strikes Back, as I hit several roadblocks to the character projects, which kept keeping them from being satisfactorily completed. I believe I have most, if not all, of them solved at this point and I am happy to share the story.
The Story So Far
Let’s begin with a bit of a recap: I am attempting to create the four huntresses from team RWBY, pronounced “Ruby.” This group of huntresses are featured in an anime 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.” As huntresses along with huntsmen, Team RWBY fight the Grimm. Team RWBY, is composed of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna (of the half-human, half-animal Faunus race), and Ruby’s
In my first article on making these minifigures, I started with Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee. For Ruby, I found reference art and began work on her hair, accessories (scarf/ hood combo, cape, and skirt) and weapon (Crescent Rose). For Weiss, I found her reference art and worked on her hairpiece, skirt, and weapon (Myrtenaster). I expanded my work to include Blake and Yang in my second article. Refinements were also done for the initial two minifgures, with accessories and weapons improved for both. For Blake, reference art was found and work started on hair, accessories (waist cape and hair bow) and weapon (Gambol Shroud). Yang was in the initial stages of design with reference art found and the first version of her weapon (Ember Celica) designed. Today, I will show you how I wrapped things up and finalized the figures. I am pleased, very pleased, but there are still things to do like airbrushing Weiss’ skirt, adding some paint details to the Gambol Shroud, creating a completely custom hair for Blake, and further improving my cloth parts. I am actively working on these bits, but honestly the figures are complete as they are; those are just bonus points and when I create figures like this there are always lose threads to tie up. So let’s jump 61 into what I have to share today.