Rail Co Posted January 29, 2019 Hello, I have been working for awhile on my latest MOC, it's different from my usual MOCs and I am happy to present it to everyone here. [MOC] Lego Insects: A Ladybug, Butterfly, & Dragonfly by Rail Co, on Flickr The Butterfly: The butterfly was one of the most challenging but interesting builds to design. The key factors that make this model special is the ability to move and alter the wings however one pleases. The wings are built using mainly standard bricks and plates, bringing back a simple and nostalgic building experience from the childhood of many. However, there are a few SNOT building techniques. The bottom of the wings use the "headlight" bricks to invert the orientation of the studs allowing me to add the ability to have the bottom curve of the butterfly's wings. There are also studs on the side construction to achieve the curved sides of the wings as well. [MOC] Lego Insects: A Ladybug, Butterfly, & Dragonfly by Rail Co, on Flickr The Ladybug: The Ladybug is what inspired this whole project. The ladybug is small but has a lot of interesting and fun building techniques to get the shape of the ladybug just perfect. Using studs on the side construction as well as the "bracket" pieces make the ladybug slightly more round giving it a more realistic design than other techniques that were tried. The bottom is smoothed out using a mix of headlight bricks, plates, and even 1x1 round plates with a hole in the center! These actually connect to the center tube of the 1x2 brick giving another connection point to make the model more sturdy and makes building the model more engaging, as well as giving others building ideas for their own models. [MOC] Lego Insects: A Ladybug, Butterfly, & Dragonfly by Rail Co, on Flickr The Dragonfly: The dragonfly is the most simple model of the three, however, it still has some tricks up its sleeve. Dragonflies are a very thin and light. The model accurately represents a Dragonfly. The main interesting aspects of the model is the simpleness. After building the first 2 complex insects with small pieces and quirky techniques. This model gives the builder some room to breathe and is composed of simple construction. The most interesting part of the dragonfly for me personally is how I was able to us black minifigure hair to be the eyes of dragonfly. I tried many pieces but nothing ever looked right until I stumbled upon the minifigure hair. This is what makes the dragonfly stand out and still engages the builder with every building step. [MOC] Lego Insects: A Ladybug, Butterfly, & Dragonfly by Rail Co, on Flickr As of now my model is only digital but I hope to start accumulating the parts to build it sometimes within this year. I hope you enjoyed looking at my creation, if you feel so inclined I would love for your support on LEGO Ideas here: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/d94ec0ee-9bee-4757-953f-ba39e85f81c2 Thank you all for looking! -RailCo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmynick Posted January 29, 2019 These insects are very sweet, and they remind me of the Birds project that Ideas released several years ago. I'm not convinced by the use of 1x1 round plates instead of square ones in the butterfly, but it looks just like the ones I see outside, so well done there. I think the dragonfly would be improved if you offset the wings - the top and bottom wings of real dragonflies aren't stacked one above the other. Good work, and thanks for sharing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rodiziorobs Posted January 31, 2019 Thanks for posting this here, it nice to see some true-to-life models, and these are really nice. They look simple enough and the designs don't make them appear cluttered or overwrought at all. The hair for eyes is a nice touch. My only nitpick would be the same that @jamesn named about the dragonfly wings, but I think you've got a great thing going here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rail Co Posted January 31, 2019 On 1/29/2019 at 1:51 PM, jamesn said: These insects are very sweet, and they remind me of the Birds project that Ideas released several years ago. I'm not convinced by the use of 1x1 round plates instead of square ones in the butterfly, but it looks just like the ones I see outside, so well done there. I think the dragonfly would be improved if you offset the wings - the top and bottom wings of real dragonflies aren't stacked one above the other. Good work, and thanks for sharing! Thank you for the constructive feedback and kind comments. I made the choice of the round 1x1 plates to give the look of a rounded circle that these butterflies have in real life, that is just my preference, but I went back and forth between the two styles. I never noticed that dragonflies' wings were offset, I'll have to look at that and maybe make an edit in the future. 16 hours ago, rodiziorobs said: Thanks for posting this here, it nice to see some true-to-life models, and these are really nice. They look simple enough and the designs don't make them appear cluttered or overwrought at all. The hair for eyes is a nice touch. My only nitpick would be the same that @jamesn named about the dragonfly wings, but I think you've got a great thing going here. Thank you for your comments! I was quite excited when I realized that the hair were a very close shape to the dragonflies' eye shape. No Lego piece is that exact shape I was looking for but the hair was a pretty close fit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
