ShaydDeGrai Posted May 21, 2015 Being based on George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and the HBO series Game of Thrones, I'm not sure if this belongs in historic themes or in "special" as just a sculpture, but since Martin was blatantly ripping off the Colossus of Rhodes and that was clearly historical, I think I'll post this here. (Moderators, feel free to move as you see fit) This guy stands about three feet tall (just shy of a meter) and made his public premiere at Brickfair New England, 2015, where it/I took the Brickee for Best Individual Builder (I offer a big thanks to all my fellow AFOLs who voted for me). A fair bit of engineering went into figuring out how to get him to lean/loom just right without collapsing under his own weight. The arms are cantilevered on technic beams through the shoulders. No glue or trans-clear parts are used to extra support, the shoulder joints actually do support the weight of the extended sword arm and the shield. Actually, there's quite a lot of technic action going on under the skin, the whole sculpture is pretty much a system of trusses with studs out in every direction and then it gets skinned in tiles, slopes and bows to give it its final form. The shield and armored kilt went through quite a number of revisions, reworkings and a few "why on earth am I even trying to do this?" moments, but in the end I came up with designs that generally worked for me. I hope you like them as well. Thanks for stopping by. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tomsche Posted May 21, 2015 It`s an awesome build I spotted him a few weeks ago in the picture report of I think Philly? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirBlake Posted May 21, 2015 Very cool. I can't imagine the engineering that went into making this thing support itself. Scale is great, design is great. Thanks for sharing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr Greeble Posted May 21, 2015 Wooooow! Nicely done. All those curves and that stance, superb. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deathleech Posted May 21, 2015 Wow, this is excellent! Instantly recognizable from the show! I love how you made his armored parts smooth while keeping the studs showing on the kilt. It gives a very nice contrast in texture. The armor looks hard and shiny while the kilt is more soft and threaded looking. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Balbo Posted May 21, 2015 Amazing . I love all the techniques you used, for instance for the shield Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eurolock Posted May 21, 2015 Amazing work. The positioning of the arm (slight flex at the elbow and tilt of the wrist) looks very natural. The sculpting of the armour and helmet are fantastic. Be great to see something else in the picture to get a better idea of scale..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacob Nion Posted May 21, 2015 Absolutely stunning! Not only is this the first Song of ice and fire build for a felt eternity, it's also amazingly done. Really love it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheLegoDr Posted May 21, 2015 Amazing. The only word for it. Definitely resembles the show. I can't even begin to think of how to incorporate the pieces underneath the armor. In all of the GOT MOCs I thought about doing, this one never came up. Color me impressed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Missing Brick Posted May 21, 2015 Great job on the curves and angles. Love his skirt :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gunman Posted May 21, 2015 That armor and shield... :wub: Amazing.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wardancer Posted May 21, 2015 A man likes what he sees! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bart Posted May 21, 2015 Amazing! especialy the overcome of the techical challange to have the whole figure self supporting within itself. I'm scared to ask but did you shoot a picture before you put the 'skin/armour' on? Bart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Full Plate Posted May 22, 2015 Awesome work! Have no experience building on a scale like this, but I can only imagine all the headaches with the loads and angles. Really well done, and of course it looks great! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Legocity2713 Posted May 24, 2015 Wow that is massive. Awesome work man. Very inspiring. :thumbup: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrBrick&BoB Posted May 24, 2015 Thats really impressive. Great job here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccoyed Posted May 24, 2015 Must be pretty heavy. Is it fairly sturdy too? Poseable? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hobbythom Posted May 25, 2015 Wow, amazing build. In itself it is impressive. As a hommage to the source material even more so: spot on. As others have said the posing is natural and the textures work very well. I don't know if you will ever dismantle it but if you do sharing some pics of the interior would be very welcome as far as I am concerned! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ShaydDeGrai Posted May 25, 2015 A warm thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment on this guy, I really appreciate the feedback. I'm especially gratified that several of you mentioned the textures, kilt and shield, I struggled with many redesigns trying to come up with renderings with which I was happy. It's good to hear the effort is appreciated. Amazing work. The positioning of the arm (slight flex at the elbow and tilt of the wrist) looks very natural. The sculpting of the armour and helmet are fantastic. Be great to see something else in the picture to get a better idea of scale..... I've got a "blooper shot" of my cat leaping between the legs (she hopped up on the table just as I was taking the shot). I was going to post it but my cat wouldn't sign the release, she's heard a lot about cat image exploitation on the Internet and is threatening to get an agent. In any case, the statue is about three feet tall ( a little under a meter ) including the base. Amazing! especialy the overcome of the techical challange to have the whole figure self supporting within itself. I'm scared to ask but did you shoot a picture before you put the 'skin/armour' on? Bart I took a few Work in Progress photos at one point, but never uploaded them. I'll see if I can find them now. Must be pretty heavy. Is it fairly sturdy too? Poseable? I've never weighed the finished piece, but based on postage for Bricklink orders, I bought about 12 kilos (about 26 .5 pounds) worth of parts (plus what I already had on hand), so I'd guess it's fair to say that this guy weighs about as much as a small child. He's pretty dense and made from a lot of small parts (layered plates, cheese slopes, technic pins) and technic beams so there's a fair bit of ABS in play. As for "sturdy" it's probably more accurate to say that he's structurally stable, right down to the slight forward lean to stare down at incoming ships. The inner core is Technic, using frame bricks and pins rather than simple studs to resist decoupling in any given direction. Normal stud construction just doesn't have the clutch power to support the torque on the arms - I know, I tried. The technic skeleton is then covered with plates with studs out in all directions to allow for "SNOT skin" to be applied and hide the mechanics entirely. Where I switch to studs and clips to support the skin is where things become fragile. The kilt is very delicate, as is the helmet and the sword hand (the shield hand is balled into to fist so that's fairly solid). The kilt is built like a cross between a hoop skirt and a tiled roof with plates clipped onto concentric rings of plate hinges, creating overlapping layers that form an oblong taper cone. I like the effect but it's a pain to build and repair (and it needs repair every time you hit a pothole when transporting this guy to a show). Other than adjusting the head slightly, he's not really posable. A lot of hinges went into his construction to achieve his fixed pose, but those where used to triangular structures for his joints so they are pretty much locked in place at this point. Given how much strain holding just one pose puts on the structure, I not sure arbitrary articulation is really feasible. Wow, amazing build. In itself it is impressive. As a hommage to the source material even more so: spot on. As others have said the posing is natural and the textures work very well. I don't know if you will ever dismantle it but if you do sharing some pics of the interior would be very welcome as far as I am concerned! After my first experience trying to get my Argonath Sculptures to and from a show, I learned the importance of designing for transportability. The Titan is actually designed to dismantle into several large pieces. The arms are attached to Technic beams that run the entire width of the shoulders. These beams allow the arms to cantilever, using the mass of the torso (and a Technic cage running through the shoulders) to keep the far end of the beams from lifting. Each arm beam is half the mass of the shoulder section and the head sits on a post that comes down through a hole in the top of the torso to lock everything in place The torso itself breaks at the waist, in what is effectively a mortise and tenon joint. The lower portion has a mortise (cup-like structure) 4 studs by 12 studs by six bricks deep and the upper part has a mass of technic blocks (pinned together vertically to prevent separation) than exactly match the size of the hole. The skirt and legs are one piece (give or take road vibration doing a job on the kilt) and are basically an A-frame built with technic. The ankles have hinged tenons (like the waist, but with more angular wiggle room) that slip into mortises in the statue's base. The feet are actually part of the base, not the leg. The little bits of island on the "outside" edge of the bases are solid masses of brick used to buttress the ankle connections and prevent the A-frame of the legs from splaying more than intended. Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to comment on this guy. I'm glad it found an audience and I really appreciate your feedback. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bart Posted May 29, 2015 thanks for the explainations, maybe you can take a 'minifig view' picture too, must look huge when sailing underneath it. Bart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Dee Posted May 29, 2015 I'm not much on pop culture so I appreciate your reference to the Colossus of Rhodes - and that's how I think of it. This is an amazing creation. I don't usually care for large-scale builds but this is excellent and could still be used in a minifig-scale scene in its historic context. The different components - the helmet, shield, skirt, arms and legs, etc - are designed and built really well. The broken sword just looks perfect. I wondered about transport and suspected you built with that in mind. I'm sure it will be a hit at future shows. Superb work! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cowboyfan2006 Posted August 22, 2015 That's pretty cool. I wish TLG would do a GOT license...but I guess that show is a little too grown up! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adolfo Posted August 23, 2015 Amazing job! I can spend hours studying the details to build the curves and the structure. Congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
