Banksy

Hans Dendauw (Tigmon74) built this excellent pair of buildings for a VirtuaLUG collaboration at Bricks by the Bay 2012.

Replicating graffiti in LEGO is tough enough, but Hans has LEGO-ized one of the most recognizable designs by one of the most recognized graffiti artists on the planet.

The Banksy wall certainly caught my eye, but Hans’s corner building is the real artistic triumph.

Via Brick Town Talk.

Sail away to your new home aboard the NCP Colonial Fleet

Mike Yoder has his own corporate entity reminiscent of Black Mesa from the Half-Life universe and Weyland-Yutani from the Alien franchise. North Central Positronics is a shadowy, semi-military organization with heavily defended bases on earth and a full-fledged fleet in space. Mike’s latest addition includes a pair of cargo barges, a pilot ship, and several heavy fighters.

How-to: Tools of minifig customization – Confessions of a customizer (Part II)

In our first guest post from Jasbrick, we learned about how to get started with minifig customization. Now, let’s hear what he has to say about the tools of the trade.

Now that you have a concept and have gone as far as you can by conventional means it is time to bring in the tools. The range of customisation techniques mean that even with limited tools you can get some pretty impressive results without breaking the bank.

Painting and re-colouring

I use painting to add details or re-colour parts that would not otherwise be possible.

For example the following minifig fits the steampunk genre with its almost rust / bronze coloured metallic effect which would have been impossible with the original bright white Buzz Lightyear original scheme.

Those of you who have everything you need but with parts that are not quite in the colour you want have two options: Dyeing or Painting.

Dyeing using vinyl dyes works well with parts that you want to change completely, but is limited in colours available and achieving a particular tone can be tricky.

Painting can offer more flexibility in colour choice and coverage, however the biggest downside is that painting plastic is difficult. I see examples every day of great custom concepts that are ruined by the quality of the painting. As painting is a favourite technique of mine I will go into much more detail on this and how to avoid creating a dull, streaked and unconvincing paintjob.

The key tools you need for painting are shown in the image below:

1. Spray undercoat (essential for smooth painting on a plastic surface);
2. Games Workshop Foundation paints (high opacity paints that give a good coverage with a single coat;
3. Games Workshop Normal paints (good range and availability);
4. Privateer Press P3 paints (slightly better quality than GW paint in my opinion, smaller range of colours and poor availability);
5. Vallejo Paint (Excellent range of paints that also has colour range that is named after military colour schemes e.g. Lluftwaffe Blue);
6. My device for holding helmets / heads for painting;
7. Games Workshop brushes of various sizes.

The most crucial of all is the spray primer, as painting a smooth coat onto plastic is virtually impossible without it. Spray primer covers the part with a very thin layer of paint which is much more likely to bond with the plastic and not scratch off easily. Subsequent coats of paint adhere to this base and settle without streaks or chipping. So if you want a minifig helmet to be a nice shade of dark blue to match your plan for a Judge Dredd figure then you need to spray it before applying the perfect paint colour.

Your choice of paints is also important and I suggest you experiment with different types before applying to a Lego part. Characteristics like price, coverage, mixing, drying time, finish and colour choice all need to be considered. I personally use the Games Workshop model paint range as they score highly on all of the above criteria (except price). Games Workshop also have a great range of inks for washing and foundation paints for good coverage. Other good ranges are Vallejo and Privateer Press P3. All of these sell starter sets which contain a good selection of paints and brushes to get you started.

With paint brushes it is not just about size but how you use them that counts… You will need to have good quality model brushes in three main sizes: fine detail, standard and basecoat. Working out the right brush for the job is essential as a small brush will not cover a large area as smoothly as a basecoat brush. As with most things brush control improves with practice and it is advisable to test your new skills on something less precious than your rare minifig part. The following is an example of fine brush work:

This wrestler’s mask was painted freehand with a fine detail brush in multiple layers.

The joker here has face details that were painted on freehand and the hair which was primed and then painted with a dark green colour using a basecoat brush.

Painting detailed designs requires not only brush control but paint control as well. Another obvious problem in some custom work is the thickness of paint application and poor layering. Experience in handling paint can be shortcut by the use of a tool known as a Wet Palette. These are so easy to put together and it is definitely going to improve your paintwork. Quite simply all you need is a small tray, about the size of an 8 x 16 brick, and some absorbent cloth or paper towel. Put the cloth in the tray and then add water to it until the cloth is completely damp… That is it, now all you need to do is transfer your paint to the wet palette before painting on the part. The damp cloth waters down the paint slightly, keeps the paint from drying and also allows you to mix with more control.

There are a whole host of tutorials on the internet for how to create a wet palette and how to paint, however I hope to bring more Lego-specific tutorials to you in the near future.

An important part of painting is the final finish. Paint applied properly will be more resilient than you think possible. However, to seal the deal you can use a varnish to protect your work. Varnishes can be matt or gloss, with the latter being particularly useful for returning a shine comparable to pure unadulterated plastic.

How-to: Confessions of a minifig customiser – Part I: Getting started

As we say in our AFOL jargon glossary, purism is “a form of religious fundamentalism.” LEGO fandom includes a broad range of preferences for what’s “legal” and what’s not. In the spirit of broadening our horizons, we’re very pleased to bring you the first in a series of posts about LEGO minifig customization by master customizer Jasbrick.

Contrary to popular belief customisation of minifigs is not a dark art and even established purists have tried their hand at slapping some paint around (albeit on the Friends Mini-dolls). Some will never stoop to the mutilation of their favourite brand of ABS plastic, however I do believe that if done properly it can at least be appreciated by all.

The Brothers Brick have given me the opportunity to introduce you to some of the tools and techniques of my trade to help those amongst you that have the desire to walk on the dark side for a while. In later posts I will go into specific techniques that I developed in my time as a customiser. Hopefully you can benefit from avoiding the pitfalls I fell into and get a few projects like these underway:

These minifigs involve more advanced painting techniques and some third party accessories.

This group utilises painting, combinations, third-party accessories and printed decals.

Establishing a strong concept design

One tool a customiser must have is a highly developed imagination (something pretty common in the Lego community); everything else is optional.

Those moments when putting a particular combination of parts together and a perfect fig pops out are wonderful, but about as rare as chicken dentures. The key to a good custom project is pre-planning and a well defined concept. This does not have to be something completely new, as for example computer game concept art offers a rich seam of material to be interpreted, or real life inspiration can be just as good. The minifig on the right was created for a Green Beret Major currently serving in Afghanistan who sent me a photograph of himself to copy.

But if you want to start from scratch then a sketchpad is your best friend. You don’t even need to be good at drawing to develop a decent concept due to the simplicity of the design of our little friend the minifig. As this series develops I hope to be able to share with you some of the concept designs that I have developed and how they become a reality. Alternatively you can sketch your concept over a template like this:

Once the concept is set (not in stone, but pretty solid) the next step for me is to determine how much of this can be achieved with standard parts or by utilising third party accessories. I will be delving deeper into how to get the best from suppliers such as BrickArms, BrickForge, Brick Warriors and Arealight later, but I highly recommend checking out these companies as they offer a great range of products that can serve as inspiration in themselves.

Parts Library

As an AFOL who has amassed quite a large collection of minifig parts and accessories I have a library that I can dip into that can make most custom projects a matter of tweaking to get the final effect rather than building everything from scratch.

The following image is a recent group of minifigs that I put together that are without any noticeable customisation. I managed to achieve a lot with just the combination of parts and a few third party accessories thrown in to tie the concept together:

I recommend that you take a close look at the Minifig and Minifig parts areas in the catalog on Bricklink and see which figs / parts speak to you of further opportunities. Developing an inventory of useful parts is essential to allowing you to get projects moving swiftly before your enthusiasm for the concept dies.

Hikari gunship by nabii

When Mark Stafford isn’t busy designing LEGO sets or baiting Justin Bieber fans, he builds awesome stuff like this Hikari gunship. From the tiny guns up front to the massive engines in back, the gunship looks prepared to retake Earth from the insectoid horde.

I especially like the mix of red and white Technic. Mark gets bonus points for getting the name of the vehicle to match up accurately with the Kanji character — “hikari” means “light” in Japanese.

LEGO invests 500 million on wind farm – energy-neutral by 2020

The LEGO Group’s parent company just announced that it is investing over half a billion dollars (3 billion Danish krone or 400 million euros) on an offshore wind farm off the coast of Germany.

The wind farm will have nearly 80 turbines, and will provide more power than LEGO’s production facilities will be projected to require in 2020, thereby enabling the company to become effectively energy self-sufficient within the next eight years.

This news follows LEGO’s announcement last summer that they are reducing LEGO packaging box sizes and obtaining their wood products from sustainable sources.

Happy Chinese New Year!

As OJ says over on The Living Brick, “The great thing about Japan and China using the same zodiacal chart but celebrating the New Year on different dates is that I get to do this twice!” Indeed.

Schneider Cheung celebrates the Year of the Dragon with the most wonderfully sculpted Chinese dragon I’ve ever seen.

Meanwhile, rack911 celebrates with a depiction of Cai Shen, the God of Wealth, complete with a golden dragon and a bowl for treasure.

Scrolling LEGO TV brings minifig Superman to life

Rod Gillies built this great TV to showcase his new LEGO Superman minifig. The TV cabinet is lovely, and the background includes excellent details like little puffy clouds and microscale, forced-perspective buildings.

But it gets even better. The background behind Superman scrolls!

The Imperial Chinese Navy takes to the stars

I alluded to the opposing force that inspired my own microscale battle fleet, but it looks like I didn’t end up blogging Mike Yoder‘s fleet on its own. Well, this wonderful new poster created for Mike by Stijn gives me a great excuse to do so.

All of Mike’s ships have a consistent design that visually places them within the same faction, while each vessel has a unique style of its own. I just love the little fighters!

2012 LEGO Friends sets bring brick-based construction play to girls [News]

Since the news is making the rounds on the web at this point, most of you are probably already aware of the upcoming LEGO Friends theme in 2012. The response has been, shall we say, mixed. Since I’m sure there’ll be quite a discussion here and elsewhere, I won’t shy away from sharing my own opinion. Bottom line for me: I’m not a huge fan of the new figures, but they bring much-needed diversity to LEGO people, and the sets themselves appear to be entirely brick-built, with some interesting new colors.

For those of you out there who’ve made statements about gender stereotyping, take a look at this photo of set 3933 Olivia’s Inventor’s Workshop:

That’s right — Olivia has invented herself a robot in her laboratory through the use of math and science.

The main difference is in the scale and shape of the figures, called “mini-dolls”. Here’s a comparison:

I’ve heard that the hair pieces are compatible with standard minifigs.

The buildings in the sets are built from standard bricks, rather than large, single-purpose elements:

Here’s the official press release:

LEGO Group Declares New Year’s Resolution for 2012: Deliver Meaningful Play Experiences to Girls Worldwide with LEGO® Friends

Company brings classic construction play to the girls’ aisle with first-of- its-kind LEGO® mini-doll figure, three new brick colors and detailed interiors that reflect four years of research in play needs of girls

BILLUND, Denmark (December 19, 2011) – The LEGO Group, the world’s leading construction toy brand, today announced LEGO® Friends, a new play theme that tailors the iconic LEGO construction experience especially to girls ages five and up. LEGO Friends delivers on a girl’s desire for realistic role-play, creativity, and a highly-detailed, character-based world with the core values of LEGO building.

The LEGO Friends collection of 23 products ranges in price from $5.99 to $99.99 USD and the first 14 will be available for sale in select toy, discount merchandise, specialty and online stores beginning December 26, 2011 in the United Kingdom and January 1, 2012 in the United States. A rolling International launch will follow in the spring, with the remaining nine sets launching in the summer months.

“We felt it was time to test assumptions that girls aren’t interested in building and to breathe fresh air into a toy category filled mostly with pre-fabricated play experiences for girls,” said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO, LEGO Group. “We focused on creating a play experience centered on the joy of creation, while heeding the way girls naturally build and play. We are incredibly proud of the solution we deliver with LEGO Friends, and are resolved to build this platform for years to come.”

LEGO Friends is the first 100 percent LEGO building experience fully optimized to girls’ tastes and interests. Thousands of girls and their mothers worldwide participated in intensive research that validated the desire for more beauty, realistic details, accessories and interior building and role play opportunities in a LEGO offering.

Introducing the LEGO mini-doll figure

Anchored by the introduction of a new mini-doll figure, LEGO Friends introduces a new LEGO minifigure platform tailored to girls’ requests for a more realistic, relatable and stylized figure. Designed to the same scale of the classic LEGO minifigure, the mini-doll figure stands roughly 5 millimeters taller than its minifigure sibling, yet features similar constructability, shares the iconic “claw” hand to hold the same accessories, can wear the same hair and headpieces, and is compatible with all LEGO building sets. A total of 29 different mini-doll figures will be introduced in 2012.

“LEGO Friends is one of the most researched LEGO projects ever and is a culmination of years of anthropological research with girls around the world to understand what they expect from a construction toy,” said Nanna Ulrich Gudum, senior creative director, LEGO Group. “In talking with girls and their moms, we understand that girls really want a LEGO offering that mirrors what the boys experience, but in a way that fulfills their unique desire for remodeling and redesign, combined with realistic themes in community and friendship.”

“Unlike previous LEGO toys for girls, LEGO Friends, at its core, does not apologize for being a construction toy and delivers, for the first time, a building experience in the same scale as our classic offerings,” Nanna Ulrich Gudum continued. “What LEGO Friends does differently is deliver the beauty, details, accessories, real world themes and need for strong interior play that the research revealed would make all the difference for girls ages 5 and up.”

Welcome to Heartlake City

The LEGO Friends story centers on the everyday lives and personalities of five girls in a fictional hometown called Heartlake City. Each of the friends—Olivia, Mia, Andrea, Stephanie and Emma—has a distinct personality and interests, such as animals, performing arts, invention and design, that are reflected in the models. Building sets reflect different parts of town where the girls’ adventures take place—downtown, suburbs, beach, camping grounds and mountains.

The product collection

Half of the launch collection includes construction sets themed to introduce girls to each of the “Friend’s” personalities, including: Stephanie’s Outdoor Bakery, Emma’s Splash Pool, Andrea’s Stage, Olivia’s Inventor’s Workshop, Stephanie’s Pet Patrol, Mia’s Puppy House and Emma’s Design Studio. Girls are also invited to construct the Friends’ favorite locations in Heartlake City with larger building sets, including: Stephanie’s Cool Convertible, Olivia’s Tree House, Heartlake Dog Show, Butterfly Beauty Shop, City Park Café, Heartlake Vet, and Olivia’s House. The remaining nine sets launching later in the year deliver the same range in price and theme.

Immersive brand experience

Children will be immersed in the new world they can create with LEGO Friends through a variety of brand experiences planned for 2012. In addition to providing product information, the LEGO Friends website will allow children to explore the personalities of each of the five Friends and the different spots in Heartlake City. The site will also feature an avatar creator, mini-movies, games, video building tips, story extensions, contests, news and an events calendar. Also planned are Interactive building events and road shows, promotions, magazines, digital content, a mini movie, in-store experiences, books and more. Check www.LEGOFriends.com for more information.

So, what do you think? Sound off in the comments.

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