Entry posted by xccj
1,598 views
Okay, I want to show off some of the things I've been working on for BrickCon next week.
Angled Mosaic
Okay, I've blogged about this one a lot. I don't have enough cheese slopes to create something big enough to fit a 32x32 baseplate. (Much less a really massive one.) So I've made a deal with Dan Parker (thru Swert) to use his collection of cheese slopes to produce a 32x32 mosaic in this style. However, he wasn't as enthusiastic about the Hau / Krana idea, so instead I'm doing a classic Pirate / Ninja mosaic, featuring current Lego figs. It's not Bionicle, but it should be pretty cool. Besides, we don't want the first Bionicle angled mosaic to be a puny 32x32... 
And yeah, the other challenge is I'll be building this AT the event... to which I saw, bring it on. I can put mosaics together moderately quickly.
The Dark Side
Last year, they introduced a new theme called the Dark Side at BrickCon. If was for MOCs that wanted to utilize light, so it was a covered area to provide darkness to better enjoy the MOCs. I wanted to make something for the display this year, but I never really got the chance to play around with wiring up a lighting system in a MOC. Instead, I decided to go with their second option: black lights.
I knew that trans neon green and trans neon orange looked good under a black light, so I went to build some MOCs in those colors. To practise, I got a small black light and used it to view my collection. Man, Lego sure looks different under black lights. In particular, I noticed that parts known to be made in china (Collectible Minifigures) look very different... especially the red paints. As mentioned, both neon orange and neon green look awesome under it. However, trans medium blue also looks exceptionally cool, but none of the other trans colors do. It's kind of sad that trans medium blue isn't as widespread in system, but practically all the trans blue Bionicle elements are of this color.
So I made a couple of models for this. First is one I've been thinking of for a while: BZP Laser Tag. Basically, a recreation of the fun times had with BZP members at the Laser Tag arena next to the BrickFair convention. I also tried to makes some glowy Bionicle creatures, which at the very least will look cool under a black light. Sorry, I don't have the technology / patience to photograph these models under a black light, so I guess you'll need to come to BrickCon to see them. 
Rainbow Spaceship
Dang, Ben, you got me thinking about building a SHIP and now I can't stop! Last year I attempted this with a couple of submarines based off the old AquaZone themes, and they were cool but the building styles were too similiar. For Bricks Cascade this year, I built a handful of smaller space ships, but nothing extra large. So it was time for something new.
I've had this basic idea for a while. It's always a pain to choose a color scheme, because then you're stuck building the whole thing in that color. And I like to have variety in my colors. So why not have a ship with compartments that are in different colors? Like a rainbow ship! When thinking about it, I thought I might have trouble covering the color purple since I don't have a ton of elements in that color... but then I realized I was also fairly low on orange too!
After getting a small parts order with some orange elements, I decided to utilize what I had in my collection and try something out. And this is what I ended up with. There are some design features in there that were forced due to my limited pieces. But overall I'm fairly satisfied with the overall flow of the thing. It's still short of SHIP standards... only about 80 studs long instead of 100. And I didn't compartmentalize it like I did with my subs last year, so it might be tricky to transport. But it should be slightly visible in the BrickCon Space Display.
Bionicle
Um yeah I'm bringing about two dozen Bionicle Rahi and such, but nothing that hasn't appeared at Bricks Cascade or BrickFair (or both) so nothing really exciting to blog about. Also have a few more mosaic-type creations that'll show up, as well as two mechs and a couple of steampunk MOCs. Even though I want to contribute to Bricks of Character, I don't have any decent ideas for something to make, so it'll have to wait until next year.
Well, that's it for now. But I had to bring something new. I mean, if I'm going to a Lego convention, I need to bring some of my MOCs with me. Even if I'm not recognized as a great builder, I wanna show that I can still build. (Besides, I could fill in some blank categories and win trophies by default again!! Or not since BrickCon is much more packed than Bricks Cascade, which was only on its first year.)
3 Comments
Recommended Comments