Caitlyn Gauss XL

[Aanchir]

EDIT: Updated photos in this post!

Caitlyn Gauss, a magnetism-themed Hero. She stands 12 inches (30 centimeters) tall and uses 168 pieces. Her skeleton is heavily inspired by this MOC of Christoffer Raundahl's which I reverse-engineered back in Spring and has been a work-in-progress for about that long, though it was Pate-Keetongu's Zero-Suit Samus that inspired me to rebuild the model (which I had scrapped for parts) and bring it to a state of completion.

All images link to Flickr.

Caitlyn has an impressive amount of articulation, as you can see in the following photos. Her shoulders, hips, knees and elbows can all bend well beyond 90 degrees, and she can even stand on her tiptoes.

Full Flickr Gallery

Since building her, I have swapped the mask for Furno XL's based on feedback from other MOCists, but I don't want to take new photos unless I make some more substantial changes.

Anyway, thoughts? I'd really love to get as much feedback as possible because I certainly intend to continue refining and perhaps even completely re-imagining parts of this model. It's easily the largest humanoid model I've ever designed, and I'm sure that in the coming months I can improve it even further.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Chro]

Pretty neat. The build looks great from the front, though I'm not sure about how the midsection sticks forwards as seen in the side view shots. The legs are very cool.

It's too bad there's no gunmetal helmet available that would look decent here (from what I can tell)... but the Furno helmet probably works alright too.

I don't think the clawed feet and hands (but mostly the feet) really fit with the rest of the MOC, but that's up to you.

[Voxumo]

I have to admit this looks amazing.. I mean i think the helmet is a bit small for the whole body.. maybe a Fire-lord helmet would work better,, but still pretty neat.

 

I agree with chro that the way the midsection sticks out.. to me it seems kinda of odd but besides that it looks great. I like the armor partially covering the hero core. Overall a great moc.

 

Also looking back at the moc you reverse-engineered i can definitely see it's build in this.

 

 

EDIT: WOOT WOOT! 2,000^th post

Edited December 19, 2013 by Voxumo

[Hitoshura]

I like how you added all those details. The helmet looks alright, it doesn't look too small to me. The claws look quite neat, giving it a bestial look. Agreed with Chro about the midsecton, not much else to say.

[Aanchir]

Pretty neat. The build looks great from the front, though I'm not sure about how the midsection sticks forwards as seen in the side view shots. The legs are very cool.

It's too bad there's no gunmetal helmet available that would look decent here (from what I can tell)... but the Furno helmet probably works alright too.

I don't think the clawed feet and hands (but mostly the feet) really fit with the rest of the MOC, but that's up to you.

Thanks for the feedback. The midsection sticking so far forward is partly just because I did a poor job posing this model when taking my photos. The entire torso should be tilted back a bit farther. I have some photos further down in this post of my most recent revamp/update of this MOC, so you can judge for yourself if better posing makes a difference.

 

I could probably cook up a custom head that would match the color scheme better, but I doubt I could make one quite as expressive as a prefab helmet piece. The "first draft" of this model which I made back in spring had a simple custom head, as you can see in this photo. It was also more bestial-looking, in accordance with the clawed hands and feet.

 

I agree, the claws don't really fit too well on this version of the model. But I've had a dickens of a time finding some way to replace them and keep the articulation of the hands and feet intact. I considered replacing them with Silver Metallic Barraki eyes, of which I have ten from Bricklink, but while these look awesome on the fingers, they look incredibly awkward on the toes — it makes them look far too long. And having the tips of the fingers and toes in different colors, or having spiked toes and blunt fingertips, is just as awkward. I'm definitely going to keep looking for solutions.

 

I have to admit this looks amazing.. I mean i think the helmet is a bit small for the whole body.. maybe a Fire-lord helmet would work better,, but still pretty neat.

 

I agree with chro that the way the midsection sticks out.. to me it seems kinda of odd but besides that it looks great. I like the armor partially covering the hero core. Overall a great moc.

 

Also looking back at the moc you reverse-engineered i can definitely see it's build in this.

 

EDIT: WOOT WOOT! 2,000^th post

I considered using Fire Lord's helmet, but I didn't think it looked appropriate for a female character in either configuration.

 

The armor covering the hero core just happened to work out that way because the armor left a small gap and a Hero Core filled up that gap better than any other piece or combination of pieces I could find.

 

Thanks so much for your feedback!

 

I like how you added all those details. The helmet looks alright, it doesn't look too small to me. The claws look quite neat, giving it a bestial look. Agreed with Chro about the midsecton, not much else to say.

Thanks! As I said above, I took some new photos after making some significant updates to the model. I took special care not to have the torso tilting forward as awkwardly in the new photos. Please tell me if this makes any improvement or if the midsection still looks awkward!

 

Anyway, here are the new photos. The changes I made include additional armor on the shoulders, additional armor on the back of the legs, and a different helmet. I also took some pics of her in additional poses and two "fun" photos comparing her height to 44012 Evo. All photos link to Flickr, where you can see larger versions and more detailed descriptions.

 

 

"Oh, look, a mouse"

 

"There, there, mouse"

 

Running

 

Sitting

Feel free to share any thoughts you have on these changes, or any additional suggestions. I don't by any means think that this will be my last revision. I intend to exhibit this model, or some permutation of it, at Brickfair Virginia this year, and I'm sure I'll continue making slight changes to it in the coming months.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Voxumo]

must say the change of the furno helmet is pretty good change. It really kind of brings the whole moc together

[Chro]

Yeah, the should armor and change of helmet do look very nice. The midsection still sticks out, though... it looks like she's trying to hit something with her stomach.

[Aanchir]

must say the change of the furno helmet is pretty good change. It really kind of brings the whole moc together

Thanks! I agree, it suits the MOC way better.

 

Yeah, the should armor and change of helmet do look very nice. The midsection still sticks out, though... it looks like she's trying to hit something with her stomach.

Not much I can really do about that with the skeleton built how it is. There's only one bend in the waist... if there were more, it would probably make a more gradual curve, but that would mean increasing the overall size of the model. I've looked at what I can do to improve on this... placing one of the fur elements from the Chima constraction figures on the crotch shell results in a more gradual-looking curve, but naturally doesn't suit the mechanical look of this model at all.

 

Most recently I tried using another of the curved handle elements like the ones on the chest/shoulder area on the crotch shell, which creates more of a curve in the lower body, but I'm not too happy with that solution, which leaves a very visible gap from the side.

 

Anyway, I've finally come up with some armament for Caitlyn: a magnetic repulsor shield for her left arm and a mass driver cannon for her right. You can see the pictures (with links to Flickr) below!

 

Ideally I'd like to change the launcher pieces for her mass driver cannon to Bright Red, but I don't own Bright Red ones in enough quantity, so I had to go with Titanium Metallic. With weapons, she's now 226 pieces total. I'm guessing a model like her would cost $30 to $40 as a retail set, since she's similar in height and weight to Takanuva or Witch Doctor.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Voxumo]

Wow.. i must say i love the new weapon.. then again i have always been one for forearm mounted weapons.

[Aanchir]

Wow.. i must say i love the new weapon.. then again i have always been one for forearm mounted weapons.

Originally, I was going to have regular hand-held weapons, but it was difficult to create something appropriately formidable using this hand design.

 

In other news, I recently finished building this model on LDD. Not all the connections are fully "in click" due to a lack of patience on my part — manipulating ball joints digitally is a lot more difficult and time-consuming than doing so in real life. Still, it is complete enough to answer any questions about how the model is built.

 

 

Download the LXF file here!

[Wazdakka]

The new helmet and the armament make her previously stringy arms look better proportioned. Much better.

[Torran]

Gun metal and red look so good together. I need to get my hands on that gun metal shield piece. The construction of Caitlyn is marvelous, the intricacy of how the limbs are held together and the way everything sort of weaves together... HF really does have some helpful pieces. I agree with some who say the protruding stomach looks a bit strange, but for the sake of a mechanical being I don't see it as an issue.

[BrickPharaoh]

Looks a lot like something I've built several months back on LDD. Similar color scheme and such. I dunno why but I feel the back looks a bit too weird to be honest; the way it's bent looks quite painful tbh That and the fact that she has ape-like hands and feet don't particularly insinuate "female"

Other than that, some really cool techniques used all around.

[JAG18]

This a pretty cool moc, first the color scheme looks great and the build looks quite sturdy, which I think is very befitting of an XL hero. Also, I like how you made the hands and feet, which are just a couple of the interesting building techniques you used here. The only thing I don't like is how the her body makes a kind of "V" shape, giving her a very pronounced curve in her spine. (Yes, I know the spine is curve, but it looks just a bit to radical here. )

 

All in all, this is a great moc; good job Aanchir.

[Aanchir]

Thank you all for your feedback. It really lifts my spirits to get positive recognition for the things I did right with this MOC and polite, earnest suggestions on ways I can improve on the things I did wrong. I will probably be leaving this particular MOC as–is, but I look forward to trying out new techniques to make the bend of the spine more gradual and to come up with hands and feet that look a little less beastly/animalistic.

 

I just got a message on Eurobricks about somebody trash-talking this MOC on a Tumblr blog that's evidently focused on shaming people's activity in the LEGO community for public amusement. It's kind of sad that there are people so lacking in dignity that they would rather make a public spectacle of MOCs they dislike than offer constructive feedback to the MOCist. And it's even sadder that there's an audience for this kind of spectacle that doesn't realize its potential to hurt people emotionally. It is not the first time I've seen my work on a blog like this — some Ninjago/My Little Pony crossover sketches got shared on a Tumblr for bad Ninjago fanart. And I don't want to go out of my way to defend my honor against people who have very little of their own. But it still hurts to have this kind of thing brought to my attention in this way, rather than getting the negative feedback directly so that I can learn from it and, if necessary, defend myself.

 

I came to check this topic just to see if that person actually did leave any direct feedback. It doesn't look like they did (perhaps they are a banned member who sees these kind of shenanigans as a way of getting back at a community that wronged them), but in the very least, I feel very happy to have instead gotten so much constructive feedback from BZPower members. It is a reminder that for every person who is interested only in putting other builders, there are a lot of other builders who are happy to build each other up with appreciative feedback and supportive advice. Thank you all for helping me to continue and improve as a builder.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time