Month: December 2016

Building up and catching up

ramblingbrick Lego ,

The month is well underway, and now we are up to days seven and eight of 40222:Christmas Buildup. At this rate I will catch up with the rest of the world in time for the eleventh of December.

Day 7: I’m leaving on a jet plane

Many of us spend our holidays travelling: to visit friends and family, see new things or get back where we belong. This great little plane is made of 15 pieces. I particularly like the use of alternating clear and coloured plates to represent the windows, as well as as the red and green lights representing port and starboard on the wings.  It reminds me of the Caravelle Jet – set 687: Initially released in 1973, I remember receiving this set as a get well soon present in 1975 after having my tonsillectomy.  I still have some of the windowed 2×4 bricks with window printing on the sides.  Aaah happy days. I can taste the jelly and ice-cream just looking at it…

Day 8: Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse 

This mouse (or is it a grey squirrel with acorns tucked away in his mouth?) demonstrates a couple of great techniques: the round tiles representing ears and also the ‘tooth’ pieces representing the whiskers. Reminding us once again that a single piece can serve the role of others.  I certainly preferred this build over the dog-monkey beast from a few days ago.

 

The Build-up Catch-up continues…

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Day 5:  Snow Business 

This terrific little snowplough may or may not have a new piece in it. According to brickset’s database, the bright yellow panel 1x2x1 with rounded corners, element ID 6146219,only appears in this set. However, bricklink lists the piece as 4865b and it seems to appear in 37 other sets in yellow.

Closer investigation reveals that these may in fact be element 486524 – essentially the same panel, in bright yellow (TLG) but with square corners. These may be the closest thing to the sole source of this element at present.  That or some online databases have become a little mixed up…

Snow ploughing and Christmas are a little incongruous in Australia. In Melbourne we are the grips of summer at Christmas time, but even in winter it virtually never snows here ( it did once, but that was over 30 years ago), and certainly not enough to justify a vehicle to clear it.  But it’s not all about me!


Day 6: Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Measuring 2x4x6 1/3, this little build is the epitome of Christmas Eve. The fire, mantelpiece and chimney, with plants and a hanging stocking, waiting for Santa. This is a near perfect build, with just 27 pieces. 

Catching up on the Buildup to Christmas

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Day 3: do you see what I see?

This bright green gift is made of 24 pieces, including a 3×3 white plate. The model is not quite a cube: three studs Square at the base, would mean it should be six and a half plates tall. A selection of cheese wedges fashions an elegant bow on top.

The great thing about such a cuboid shape is that it provides a great opportunity to demonstrate the differences between using a typical wide angle lens such as that from a phone, and a 50mm lens.  

On the left, the image was captured using the telephoto ’50mm’ lens on an iPhone 7plus.  On the right, the standard wide angle lens was used. 

Do you see how the distortion is reduced when the ’50mmm lens is used?  It makes a huge difference in the shape of the model.  Food for thought, especially if you are planning to take some photos of you minifigure a in the wild, but not lug the SLR around.

Day 4: fauna.

Is it a puppy? Is it a monkey? This debate lasted for a whole day on some forums. I’m going with puppy. Such detail in 26 pieces. Even the tail moves.  I can see where the controversy lies: you may imagine a dog’s nose be set up more as sitting in the end of a snout, rather than on top of the jowls/ mouth like this. But the rest of the build suggests canine. Place your vote here.

 Until tomorrow….

play well.

Building up 40222: The First couple of days…

ramblingbrick Lego

Yesterday, we had a quick overview of the 40222: Christmas Buildup.  Let’s start looking through the daily builds.  We will have some catch-up for a couple of days. I hope you enjoy finding out about the first two.

Day 1: I saw 3 ships go sailing by.

Well, at least one anyway. This small sailing vessel is made of 19 pieces.  Recently LEGO:Rebrick held a competition looking for microscale builds, and I think this is a great example of what they were looking for. I suspect we will see a lot of these sorts of builds in the run up to christmas, as we often do in the more traditional LEGO® Advent Calendars. The use of bricks with studs on the side to attach portals to, as well as the cheese slopes for the bow and stern introduces SNOT  techniques in a small build.  But my favourite lesson in this model comes from the the grey plates above and below those SNOT bricks: bricks side by  side should be locked in position by other pieces bridging the gap.

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Day 2: Mixel eyes make everything better.

Our second build teaches us the most important lesson about building with LEGO® bricks: You often need to pull apart your previous model to build the next one.  The first step of this build (and every subsequent build) is to pull apart the previous day’s model with the brick separator: the dark grey 1×4 plate from the base of the boat forms the structure of the antlers.  I have also taken artistic license here, and angled the corner plates to take the typically organic antlers off the grid.

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I enjoyed both of these builds, and am looking forward to the finding out what is in store next.

What is the highlight of your LEGO® Advent Builds?

Christmas Build-Up: 40222

ramblingbrick Lego

We all love the build up to Christmas don’t we?

I would like to start by apologising for not starting this article earlier… Taking my own shopping advice, I was attracted to this set, and delayed my shop.lego.com order for a few days, until it became available.  Unfortunately, the package containing this great seasonal gift with purchase didn’t arrive at my home until December 5th.IMG_2623.JPG

This set comes in a solid cardboard box, with double folded reinforced ends, similar to the LEGO® Ideas sets.  It feels solid and tangible when you pick it up.  The cover art depicts a selection of the models constructed as part of the great Build Up to Christmas.   When you open it up, there are a few things you notice: There are several polybages containing 250 pieces in total, a brick separator and two instruction manuals.
IMG_2624.JPGThere is an interesting collection of pieces to be found inside the set: balls,  bricks with studs on the side, offset plates and masonary bricks, just to name a few.

And plates.

Lots of plates.

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The set promises a new model to build, every day in December up to Christmas Eve… Building up to Christmas: Each day has a small, micro type build. However, not all models can be constructed at a time, and we are reminded of this frequently on the box art.

I will aim to catch up over the next few days, and get the first  few models posted.

I am yet to pass judgment on this set for its quality or content.

 

I love the box: it feels like a sturdy place to keep the pieces from this set, as well as some of the mystery.  It would be great to be able to build all these models at once.  That said, most of the parts are fairly generic, and not unique to this set. Except one…

Let’s see how things pan out over the next few days…

Come back tomorrow, and I’ll get the building underway.

Play well