AmperZand
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What are peoples thoughts on modifying pieces IE cutting chopping using glue etc?
AmperZand replied to lockdownTF's topic in General LEGO Discussion
I'll cut pieces if there's no way to achieve what I'm trying to do without it, if the cut won't be seen or is non-obvious, and if I have a spare of the part anyway. For example, there's no very short LEGO bar, so I cut the haft of a weapon to create one to make the ladybird buggoid's poleaxe: -
I use a combination of things: - cotton buds, dry - cotton buds with isopropyl alcohol in liquid form or hand sanitiser gel - a soft bristle nylon paint brush - a blower with a nozzle & brush attachment. The blower is the kind used to clean keyboards and the like - washing up liquid and warm water for certain individual parts such as baseplates. The dust that’s brushed/blown away doesn’t resettle on the LEGO because I move the minifigures or builds from their display shelves to my desk for cleaning. My desk, in turn, is dusted using a Dust Magnet and vacuumed. I have designed my display collection so that it’s as modular/moveable as it can be. It’s not perfect; some areas are more easily reached/removed than others due to the limited space I have. But it mostly works.
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Deutsche Post question - sending LEGO to UK
AmperZand replied to AmperZand's topic in General LEGO Discussion
Quite frustrating to be honest. If Deutsche Post accepts memory sticks, why not LEGO of the same size and weight? The seller suggested that I just add to the order to make it worthwhile, but I’m only really after those two hats. I just bought the D&D set, so I’ve already maxed out my LEGO budget for the time being. The parts I wanted plus what I was expecting P&P to be was already above my spending plan, so adding to the order plus €10 P&P is too much. -
Deutsche Post question - sending LEGO to UK
AmperZand replied to AmperZand's topic in General LEGO Discussion
LEGO parts but rare ones. No-one seems to sell them in the UK unfortunately. Only a handful of continental sellers have them and only German ones at anything approaching a reasonable price :~( -
Deutsche Post question - sending LEGO to UK
AmperZand replied to AmperZand's topic in General LEGO Discussion
@Black Falcon & @Greshi210, Thank you for your replies. I think I understand now: the international rates listed here are for written or printed paper only, not for other items, correct? In the UK, we don’t make a distinction depending on what is being sent. The price just depends on the weight and volume. -
I wanted to order a couple of minifigure hats from a seller in Germany to be sent to the UK. The seller told me the cheapest postage was over €10 by courier. When I suggested that they could go by Deutsche Post for only €1.70 or €3.70 depending on the packet’s thickness, I was told that those rates don’t exist to the UK, only the EU. Is that true? The reciprocal, sending a large letter from the UK to Germany by Royal Mail for a few £s, is possible, so I’m surprised that Germany-to-UK isn’t. Please note that this is emphatically NOT a political thread about Brexit. Please don’t go there.
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Thank you @MAB. I suspected as much but couldn’t find official confirmation. I was thinking of going to the LEGO store on 1 April to get the Dungeons & Dragons set but if I do, there seems to be no easy way of getting the related D&D booklet in printed format. I’m being incentivised by LEGO to order both online. That may be intentional on LEGO’s part, I’m not sure. But regardless, I don’t seem to have a choice which isn’t cool.
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If you have sufficient Insiders points for a particular physical (i.e. non-digital) reward, can you get the reward without it being part of a larger order? In other words, can you get a reward by itself? If so, do you have to pay P&P? Can you click-and-collect at a LEGO store? If it makes any difference, I’m in the UK.
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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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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.