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About AmperZand
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Classic Castle
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In a LEGO castle far, far away...
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21348 Lego Ideas Dungeons & Dragons and D&D CMF
AmperZand replied to Black Falcon's topic in LEGO Historic Themes
A yellow Sharpie works. I’ll provide an image of an example when I’m on a EB compatible device, i.e. not an iPhone. It only works on light flesh colour pieces. If you make a mistake, Sharpie comes off very easily with isopropyl alcohol or any hand sanitiser gel that contains it. To make the Sharpie permanent, once it’s dry, give it a *thin* coat of Humbrol Satin Cote. It’ll then be harder wearing than LEGO printing.- 318 replies
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21348 Lego Ideas Dungeons & Dragons and D&D CMF
AmperZand replied to Black Falcon's topic in LEGO Historic Themes
I’ve already planned the conversion of the minifigs to yellowies. It’s a shame about the elf, but there are other elf hair/ears pieces that are either yellow-eared as sold or that I’ve recoloured with a Sharpie. As for the halfling, I don’t think of them as having pointy ears and will give it a helmet anyway - I believe it comes with one as an alternative to the hair. I’ll replace the barbarian’s sword though which I reckon is disproportionately large for any minifigure to use one-handed, let alone a halfling. I need to see better pictures of the displacer beast but judging by the current images, I’m not impressed and will hide it somewhere in the set or exclude it altogether. The rest seems pretty cool.- 318 replies
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Hope it's OK to resurrect a long dead thread but thought I'd share an error I spotted on the front and back box art of promotional set 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad. The error is the 2 x 2 light bley cone attached to the rocket's base. It's not supposed to be part of the rocket; it's part of the launchpad. The instructions show it being added to the launchpad on page 17. You can be sure the instructions are right and the box art wrong rather than the other way around because when you attach the rocket to the transporter, you can't put it in the fully vertical position when the bley cone is attached: the transporter's black thruster cone is in the way.
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[Mod] EMBIGGENED Micro Rocket Launchpad for minifigs
AmperZand replied to AmperZand's topic in LEGO Sci-Fi
I imagine that the smaller scale was chosen to keep the number of pieces and therefore the cost down. But as far as I'm concerned, that's a false economy. LEGO should just have done what I did or, if necessary, sacrificed one of the builds. You can integrate microscale and minifigure scale if you use the former as forced perspective. But that either requires lots of parts to constrain the field of vision or quite a lot of space so the microscale background is set far back. Unfortunately, I have neither the parts nor the room. Thanks . Glad you like it. Too kind! I admit that the original is cuter, but cuteness doesn't warrant the incompatibility with minifigures. IMHO minifigures are sufficiently chibi especially if you use the microfigs as kids. By the way, I like your sigfig and am hoping to add a green Classic Spaceman to my collection as soon as I can get the CS helmet in that colour.- 4 replies
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The Micro Rocket Launchpad (40712) is a great set but because it's micro scale it's not easily integrated with the rest of Classic Space. So I decided to enlarge the builds in the set to fit minifigures. My plan wasn't to recreate the sets upon which Micro Rocket Launchpad is more-or-less inspired (483, 6950 and 6803). I have repurposed the microfigures as minifigure space kids, and made some cosmetic alterations: additions, substitutions and deletions (no stickers!).
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21348 Lego Ideas Dungeons & Dragons and D&D CMF
AmperZand replied to Black Falcon's topic in LEGO Historic Themes
The dragon in this set isn’t a draco-lich, i.e. skeletal, so there wouldn’t really be an overlap between this one and yours. But even if there were, what’s so bad about having your own version of a monster and LEGO’s too? I have many such examples in my display collection, e.g. harpies, duergars, death knights and pegasi among others. I even have an overlap with two of the beasties in this set: the beholder (MOC) and the myconids.- 318 replies
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21348 Lego Ideas Dungeons & Dragons and D&D CMF
AmperZand replied to Black Falcon's topic in LEGO Historic Themes
As a D&D enthusiast for 40+ years and an AFOL for 30+, this set has me fizzing with anticipation. I like what I see! Despite its price and that I have nowhere to put such a large set, it'll probably be a day 1 purchase. I hope there's a good GWP to go with it. I have to say that I prefer my myconid (below) to the ones in the set but that's a small quibble.- 318 replies
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Why do you think classic era LEGO (70s-90s) are often looked upon more higly than modern sets?
AmperZand replied to Kit Figsto's topic in General LEGO Discussion
Both @John Carter and @Mylenium are right. LEGO has - or had - its own design language. Back in the '70s but decreasingly true over the decades, LEGO parts were designed to emulate hand made wooden toys: the shape of minifigure heads can be turned on a lathe, animals have flat sides because they're easier to make than rounded ones, prints were made to look like they could be hand painted etc. There was a simplicity and naivety to the look, and it was coherent. Since then, the aesthetic has become muddled with super detailed prints, intricate pieces, and textures & fine details in sets using lots of small parts alongside the same cylindrical minifigure heads and blockish bricks. It's a visual mess. That's why so many of the earlier sets and themes remain popular. They speak the same design language rather than trying to speak multiple languages simultaneously. That's not to say that for some AFOLs nostalgia doesn't play any part. No doubt it does. But there's more to it than rose-tinted retrospection. -
Questions about using hydrogen peroxide (and other methods) to restore colour to a very special piece (Expedition Balloon)
AmperZand replied to Autumn's topic in General LEGO Discussion
@Autumn , I used sunlight as well as Vanish but whether it’s strictly necessary is uncertain. If you can do it on a window sill, that’s probably better but likely not a deal breaker if not. -
Questions about using hydrogen peroxide (and other methods) to restore colour to a very special piece (Expedition Balloon)
AmperZand replied to Autumn's topic in General LEGO Discussion
@Autumn , I didn’t realise the part was originally light grey, not white! I didn’t know until I looked up the set’s inventory just now. Not sure how well it would work as I’ve only ever done it to white parts, hence the addition of the Crystal White. @Elephant Knight reports above only limited success with hydrogen peroxide and that doesn’t surprise me. I don’t think there’s any risk, but you shouldn’t get your hopes up of it fully restoring the original colour. Instead of Crystal White, you may want to add regular Vanish powder instead - about 5% to 10% to hydrogen peroxide by volume. Note that the mixture gets hot - the reaction is exothermic - and froths like mad, so you want to do it in a glass jar or bowl with a tray or similar underneath for the overspill/frothing. The Vanish acts as a catalyst, hugely accelerating the process. What takes a day without Vanish, takes an hour with it. -
Sets and MOCs - Do you replace parts with redesigned ones?
AmperZand replied to AmperZand's topic in General LEGO Discussion
Curious what you did on 10497. Do you have pics or can you describe what you did? -
Questions about using hydrogen peroxide (and other methods) to restore colour to a very special piece (Expedition Balloon)
AmperZand replied to Autumn's topic in General LEGO Discussion
@Autumn To the hydrogen peroxide add a good amount Vanish Oxi Action Crystal White. The yellowing won’t return any faster than before. I used the above method for some parts in 2014 and have kept them in the dark since. They remain just as white as new parts from the same time (see image). Using hydrogen peroxide + Crystal White + sunlight doesn’t make parts any more brittle. However, it does give the part a slicker, glassy feel which some people interpret as being more fragile because of the association of glass with fragility. There’s no empirical or chemical reason to believe that’s the case. I’m not the right AFOL to ask about painting LEGO. @Wardancer is an expert in that. -
Sets and MOCs - Do you replace parts with redesigned ones?
AmperZand posted a topic in General LEGO Discussion
When LEGO releases new parts that are more appropriate than existing ones, do you update your sets or MOCs with those new parts? For example, in 76202 Wolverine Mech, the legs are offset with one slightly in front of the other because there was no part at the time of the set's release that allowed you to have both hips in line. With the release of the 1 x 2 plate with ball connectors at both short ends (below), that's no longer the case. I have updated my mech with that part (and a 1 x 2 plate in dark bley to fill the gap). I also replaced the mech's finger and thumb parts with a bunch of these that are also new-ish: Do you update sets/MOCs or do you leave them as they are? -
Mothers Back to Black. It’s designed for car enthusiasts so you can’t get it in small bottles, but that’s the stuff you’re after. It doesn’t just work on black parts by the way.
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New Classic Space set - Micro Rocket Launchpad
AmperZand replied to AmperZand's topic in LEGO Sci-Fi
It may portend a minifigure scale Classic Space set. LEGO sometimes releases a smaller version or similarly themed set ahead of or at the same time as a larger one, e.g. the tennis shoe and the small GWP tennis shoe. When I saw the picture, I assumed stickers too. However, if they’re prints, that would indicate that the printed parts will be reappearing in another set - which would probably be Classic Space.