Kahu - Great Winged Rahi

[Makaru]

BBC 65 - FOR THE BIRDS

Kahu - Great Winged Rahi

 

 

 

[Link to the gallery]

 

So for those of you who are newer to the Bionicle scheme of things, Kahu was originally a species of bird Rahi which were the heavy-hitters of Le-Koro's air force. It was a combiner model for the Nui Jaga sets.

 

Way way back in the day, I built a Kahu (named incorrectly) for a previous BBC contest, but was overall unsatisfied with the overall feel of my creation. It was too docile. Almost pigeonlike. For this contest, I tried entirely from scratch to build something more predatorial while still keeping the feel of the old set and my creation intact.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Makaru

[xccj]

I'm gonna be overly critical cause I have my own Kahu model (not in the contest tho) that I'm comparing this to. :PWorst parts: the wings look a little sparse, and the legs are simple. (But effective nonetheless.) I suppose I could complain about the color scheme (purple and light blue) but that's what the original combo build used so instead I applaud your attention to nostalgic detail. The body looks well put together, but that head... that head is awesome. The angles and minifig-wings make it look very good, and it's a great design. Way to go.Good luck in the contest! Looks like it'll be a good bird to put on display.

Edited June 23, 2013 by xccj

[Queen of Noise]

I still can't dig the silver on the legs, but I can did the purpz and the opening beak and those friggin' eyebrow feathers. I'm gonna play with this in August.

 

Also: tell me more stories about it terrifying real birds.

 

 

BERD

[Makaru]

I was hoping to get better photos and do a little blurb on why you should think this is awesome, but I've been out of the BBC for so long, I have forgotten how much work this all is. Please do forgive me.

 

 

I'm gonna be overly critical cause I have my own Kahu model (not in the contest tho) that I'm comparing this to.Worst parts: the wings look a little sparse, and the legs are simple. (But effective nonetheless.) I suppose I could complain about the color scheme (purple and light blue) but that's what the original combo build used so instead I applaud your attention to nostalgic detail. The body looks well put together, but that head... that head is awesome. The angles and minifig-wings make it look very good, and it's a great design. Way to go.Good luck in the contest! Looks like it'll be a good bird to put on display.

The wings are a call back to both my previous MOC as well as the combiner set. They do look sparse, as was their intent, but I was ultimately trying to go for a technorganic feel (overall), hence the sparse feathers. Unfortunately, this also made them quite a bit heavier than planned, and quite the challenge for the old light blue bone joint.

 

The feet initially had posable talons that could grasp and splay. But they were unreliable and not very sturdy. I've never been a huge fan of frail MOCs in design to get appearance, so I went with a more simple design. I will definitely be revisiting the concept after the concept to blend the best of both worlds.

 

The colours are a definite call back to the combiner. I tried using dark grey for the body, but did not quite get the balance I desired, whereas black is always black. I also wanted this to look similar to markings on real birds like Magpies.

 

The head is a real beaut. I had made this super complicated head that was very hawk-like in appearance. Took hours. But when I went to use it on the body, I found it was far too small! A day before the deadline, I ripped apart the head from my previous attempt at Kahu and rebuilt it with the eyebrows and the yellow beak. The original looked too similar to a pigeon, but this attempt I found it to be an interesting Owl/Peregrine Falcon hybrid. This took minutes!

 

And it looks like I get to compete in the finals at Brickfair, so that's a huge plus.

 

 

I still can't dig the silver on the legs, but I can did the purpz and the opening beak and those friggin' eyebrow feathers. I'm gonna play with this in August.

 

Also: tell me more stories about it terrifying real birds.

 

 

BERD

 

The purple is literally the only colour I had to work with for the pebbling effect on the legs. And I know you offered the light blue tubes, but I do not think that would be much better. And the purple tubes I do have are not the same as the new HF purple, which is a bit of a downer.

 

The eyebrows really came out a lot better than I expected, and I am quite happy most people I've talked to agree.

 

As for real birds, real talk time:

 

When I went to take pictures of this late in the evening, the magpies in the back yard would not stop FREAKING OUT over this. I am 1005% sure they thought this was a real bird.

 

SEE YOU AT BRICKFAIR

Edited July 3, 2013 by Makaru