DOOM with MOOD

Accomplished builder Anthony Wilson (The Secret Walrus) brings us a magnificent micro inspired by the video game DOOM. Whether you've played or not, I think you'll be able to appreciate Anthony's handiwork:

 

This build has a healthy balance of quality detailing and effective techniques. The pentagram and demonic skull are cleverly designed, but the majority of the build features simpler architecture that gives it hearty substance without overwhelming the viewer. 

What struck me most immediately about this build is the excellent presentation! Real lighting effects and the inclusion of smoke (perhaps real, perhaps added in post-production) energize the build, giving it a mysterious and malevolent atmosphere. A single nanofig stands at the threshold of unknowable evil, illustrating the feeling of enthrallment this build creates. In the foreground, tangled brambles add visual variety and another color to the build without forsaking the pervasive feeling of DOOM. 

Anthony has suggested a fitting soundtrack to accompany this masterpiece. Click on the image above to visit the original photo and find out what it is!

"There were a lot of explosions for two people blending in"

Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie of all time,* and one of the best scenes in the film is the battle on the planet Jedha. A mythical city home to ancient secrets of the Jedi and the Force comes under assault from Imperials and rebel insurgents alike, and amidst all the new characters and vehicles, the tried-and-true AT-ST still finds a place in the fight. I'm a fan of the official Jedha AT-ST set, but this midi-scale version by the Rogue Bantha himself, Tim Goddard, is equally fantastic. The use of myriad small elements that comprise the guns, joints, and armor show Tim's renowned skill for sci-fi building. 

*You heard what I said.

“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.”

Check out this microscale model of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an ancient Greek theater in Athens, built by George Panteleon (ZetoVince). I think Greek architecture is absolutely beautiful, and seeing a classic drama performed in this ancient theater (which has been renovated and is still used today) is something I'd like to experience. Despite its repetition and bland color scheme, this model pops because of the contrast of textures: the smooth SNOTed sections reflect the chiseled rows of seats in the amphitheater, opposing the rough rocks and crumbling ruins on the edges of the build. You can check out this construction shot to see how it's built (although I must confess I'm still not entirely sure!). 

The history of the world is at stake!

In 480 BC, King Xerxes of Persia sent a massive army to invade the Greek city-states. A tiny force of Greeks (the subject of the movie 300) stalled the Persian advance at the pass of Thermopylae, giving the Greek general Themistocles just enough time to launch a naval defeat of the Persians in the straits near the island of Salamis. This deterred the Persian invasion, led to the proliferation of ancient Greece, and ultimately shaped the history of the world. 

That's not what's going on in this scene by Micah Beideman (Hacim Bricks), but it could very well be something just as important. Maybe that trade ship is holding the future king of a country? In any event, there's a Greek trireme involved; that was enough to kickstart me into history mode. 

Note the nicely constructed mountainous background, and a pretty cool part use on the trireme: a flaming sticker from a Racers set holds a cheese slope on the front of the ship! 

Micro monsters

LEGO 7 has put together two expertly built microscale monster trucks, in a race to the finish on a dusty desert track. 

The bush element used as a dust plume is great, but my favorite detail is how the wheels are connected - the hubs aren't specifically molded wheel pieces, but just 1x1 cylinders. This allows them to be attached to a pair of handlebar elements, giving the splayed-out look of heavy-duty suspension as these monsters bounce across the rough terrain. Fantastic microscale building!

The Kingdom of ABS

As ABS Round 1.6 rages on (and I keep struggling to come up with more uses for the seed part), we seem to be heading off in the Castle direction - usually not my preferred genre, but when the builds are as cool as my competitor Mark of Siloam's new microscale MOC, I really can't complain! 

The seed part was used six times: four times in the castle, one in the windmill, and one in the cathedral (the builder's favorite). I really like the rockwork and the SNOT techniques in the castle walls and the cathedral. Really nice work, and some more tough competition for me in this round! 

Stay tuned for more ABS coverage, including some personal insights into the contest...

Tokyo skyline

Tokyo is a beautiful city: a blend of sleek modern technology and tranquil nature. Past and future blend together here like nowhere else, and this has been replicated wonderfully by Cecilie Fritzvold (cecilihf) in her MOC of the Japanese capital:

From left to right, the buildings displayed are Meiji Tower, Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, the Tokyo Skytree, and Senso-ji. 

There are some lovely building techniques used in this microscale MOC. The one that I noticed first was the many minifig hands used on the taller buildings, but a zoom-in on Flickr revealed many more exciting intricacies: an interesting pattern on Tokyo Tower achieved with 1x2 grilles and rubber bands; precariously connected clips at the base of that same tower; a laptop and some tiny tank treads on the Imperial Palace; and what I'm pretty sure are some Resistance Trooper helmets used to make the bridge. 

The architectural choices are spot-on, showcasing that blend of past and future I mentioned above. The presentation also looks great - just a sleek, solid black background, simple and elegant just like the city. This is just a great build and I can't say enough about it. 

EDIT: by complete coincidence (seriously, I didn't notice until after I posted!), this build features a microscale tree very similar to the one I showed Sheo's tutorial for in the previous post! I wonder if there's a connection...

How to plant a plastic tree

Yesterday Sheo. revealed this tutorial for building an excellent microscale tree. It uses only 19 pieces, yet the end result looks amazing:

It looks unstable, but the builder says it can be tipped upside down without any pieces falling off. The natural, round shaping and fine details are incredible at this scale - microscale nature/architecture MOCs will no doubt be enhanced by the presence of a few of these trees, modified to your needs. Here's Sheo's own example, a stately chapel: 

The builder shows off a knowledge of nice part uses, including the ski pole, spinning-plate base, and - my favorite - the reversed jumper plates for doors. 

Now that you know how to build these trees, your microscale MOCs can be further enhanced...if you use this idea be sure to leave a comment on Sheo's post to let your appreciation be known!

Cars and trucks and things that go*

*Just trucks this time

We're constantly praising microscale builders here because of the difficulty of creating an appealing, recognizable model from just a handful of pieces. The latest micro masterpieces I've found are these trucks by Robert Heim (Robiwan_Kenobi). Check out some of the part uses and, more interestingly, the ways these builds fit together. There are some great techniques used to achieve the necessary angles:

Architectural interlude

As you have probably noticed, The Brick Bucket has not been particularly active recently. All of us have been quite busy and only have minimal amounts of time in which to write (in fact, I'm typing this post in my girlfriend's car while I'm waiting for her to finish her cello lesson). But fear not, we're still here and the posts will keep coming, as frequently as we can cook them up.

Today's fare is a brilliant microscale build by John Klapheke (BrickBuilder7622). The builder says it's a "pseudo-Frank Lloyd Wright-style" build inspired by an iOS app and a fellow architectural builder. There are also some Japanese additions such as the cherry tree, rock garden, and gazebo. I think the overall effect is quite nice:

Thanks for sticking with us, Bucketheads - hope to see you again soon!

Marvelous minifig hands

Ah, the minifig hand. Since the dawn of time this seemingly insignificant  part of the LEGO person's anatomy has been used for almost anything a builder could think of. Today we have two MOCs which I was going to blog individually but then realized that both these builds contain a smart use of the humble minifig hand. So here we go: 

First up is this microscale Hoth scene from Jeremy Williams (Bricking It). This was built a couple months ago for NEW ELEMENTARY but I missed it then, so here it is. Check out all the great part usages at this tiny scale, including a metal ingot, roller skate, and of course those tiny hands...

(Sidenote: we've chosen this build as our June 2016 cover photo over on Twitter! Don't forget to follow us, and all that!)

Our second MOC is also from a licensed theme, but from the more magical side of things - a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets vignette built by Markus Rollbühler ('rolli). Not only are some sand green hands put to good use on the basilisk, but there are also some arms (and skeleton arms) in there. Plus that crow bar tongue. 

Spaceport on the dunes

We started off the month in a Castle mood and now we're finishing on a Space streak. This microscale space scene from Karf Oohlu gives off a great 50s/60s sci-fi vibe and I love the texture and color transition from the sand dunes to the sleek metal. 

Castle on the rocks

There's never a bad time for a good microscale castle, especially not now in the heat of the Summer Joust contest. (We'll have more MOCs blogged from that in the days to come, so stay tuned.) This one's by Halhi141 and features an attractive color scheme and some intriguing building techniques - you can read more here. 

Elucubration

That's one of the best words I know, and also one of the most obscure: it means "the act of working studiously at night," but the literal definition of the original Latin elucubrare is "to compose by lamplight." If I was going to elucubrate, I'd want one of these fantastic miniature desk lamps built by Kosmas Santosa (kosbrick) to illuminate my workspace. 

These were built for kosbrick's Iron Builder battle against Rod Gillies (2 Much Caffeine), which you can check out here. The seed part, which you probably can elucidate from the image above, is the paint roller handle. If you want to see kosbrick elaborate on his build process, check out his blog post here. 

:P

13-piece plane

When you're building with only a tiny handful of parts, every piece counts. As far as I can tell, this Fokker D VIII plane by Karf Oohlu uses only 13 pieces, 14 if you count the 6x6 tile base. But even at this scale the model is still easily recognizable, and is full of details thanks to the minifig guns, 1x1 cylinder with "wings," and Batarang (!). 

Get out of my cabbage patch!

Grantmasters has been creating a whole bunch of builds that revolve around the Belville shoe element. His fantastic astronaut and game console have been deservedly featured on The Brothers Brick, but this little vignette seems to have evaded blog coverage thus far:

The Exo-Force hair as cabbages is not a new technique - in fact, it's been employed by LEGO in at least one official set - but its cartoonish style works well here in combination with the battle droid-arm fence and those simple yet effective rabbits. Only a handful of pieces and they're still so cute!

Forbidden fortress

It's amazing how these guys do it. With several days left to build, Iron Builder contestants Tim Schwalfenberg (One More Brick) and Legopard have already churned out almost thirty builds apiece in just a few weeks - and all of them are blog-worthy! Here's another one of my favorites, a dark microscale fortress from Tim:

The seed part features beautifully in the construction of the roof, and I love how the color scheme keeps the mood grim. Those LotR rings at the front of the bridge are a nice touch of color. 

Men of iron

I say this almost every round, but... this round of Iron Builder is looking like one of the best yet. If you read this blog regularly you'll have seen that almost all of our posts this month have been about IB, and for good reason: Iron Builder Tim Schwalfenberg (One More Brick) and challenger Legopard have been churning out some amazing models. In all seriousness, in terms of overall quality, quantity, and sheer size and detail of builds, this could be the greatest round yet.  

So many great models have been built in the last few days that I've decided to just compile all the ones I want to share into this one post, so without further ado: 

Church Organ by Legopard:

The seed part, the silver Technic connector, was used a whopping 153 times in this build, which could be an IB record. I love how creative Legopard was with the part, turning it both around at the base of the pipes and making use of the little slit in the side. There are other nice part uses as well, including bucket handles in the chair, and sword sheaths and a Viking shield for decoration. 

London Eye by Legopard:

The seed part gets a lot of uses here too, connected to the main structure via minifig hook-hands! The microscale building looks great as well. 

District 9 Exosuit by Legopard:

Interestingly enough, Legopard also uses the hook-hand pieces in this creation - but there are a boatload of other greebles as well. Exposed studs, orange elements, and of course the seed part add some excellent details to this mech. 

Fire truck by Tim:

Maybe we owe Tim a bit of an apology, since we've mostly been covering Legopard's models (which have blown us away, to be fair). To fix that somewhat, here's this antique fire truck, which is every bit as good as Legopard's models. It's in the style of LEGO's own "Advanced Model" vehicle sets like the Mini Cooper, which works in its favor. 


These are all amazing builds, and no less amazing is the very short time in which they are all created. This round of IB began on February 1st and the builders are already nearing twenty apiece in terms of model count! It's a testament to the skill and creativity of LEGO hobbyists that they are so successful. 

So what do you readers think... will Iron Builder Tim be dethroned by his challenger, or will he continue to secure his throne? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Mini mill

Somehow I missed this when it was uploaded to Flickr in December of last year. This tranquil little micro-castle build from Halhi141 has some of the best rockwork I've ever seen at this scale, and the rest of the construction isn't too shabby either. 

Check out the lovely sloped construction of the stream and the terrain around it:

This project is up on LEGO Ideas and it deserves your support. Imagine having this miniature masterpiece displayed on a shelf in your own home... https://ideas.lego.com/projects/129343

Spaceships and robots

Let's kick off the new year with a nice bit of microscale SPACE! Specifically, this support carrier by Deltassius. The use of crates for hangar areas is inspired, and for such a small build there are some fairly complex angles in there. 

While I'm on this builder's Flickr page, enjoy these two nice little mecha, with a similar color scheme:

"GHF C213h"

"GHF Darter"

Happy new year from all of us here at The Brick Bucket!