[MOC] Pink Floyd - Building All The Albums

[Retro]

When Pink Floyd announced in around 1994 that they would be releasing new music after a long hiatus, no one was happier than their art department (Storm Thorgerson and friends) who finally had a new project to get their teeth into.

One of the main results of their new work was the iconic scene of the two heads talking to each other. There were many different versions of this concept produced, both physical statues and drawings. I have not followed them literally but just chose what I thought looked nice!

For Lego and Pink Floyd purists, this one is all Lego and is also the closest I got to what was on the CD cover, with Ely Cathedral in the background.

Number 1: The Division Bell

 

Some of my other experiments were as follows;

 

 

 

 

 

 

The music on the album was not well-received critically at the time, but I think it has gone on to become a minor classic.

Edited February 5, 2020 by Retro

[Retro]

I couldn't resist using a few more filters which seemed kinda' Floydian...

 

 

 

[MAB]

Looks good, the shape is definitely there but I wonder if you need a bit of texture on the sides. Have you tried lowering your camera, so you are in line with the mouth sections when taking the shot to alter the perspective slightly, similar to the album cover.

[Retro]

Thanks @MAB. Do you mean adding texture to the statues themselves, or to the 'sky' and 'fields'? 

With every kind of Lego model you have to make approximations of some kind for the scale you're working at. (For example, I ignored the slope on their noses - too hard to achieve at this scale.)

For the background (in the brick built scene), I decided maybe the sky and fields looked better as just blocks of colour since the profile of the statues was powerful enough. I did think of experimenting with brick built clouds etc...

The angle of the mouths is already as forced as I could make it, since the cathedral is only about 100mm behind the statues. To make it any more realistic I think you would need to increase that to about 300mm and then the 'sky' and 'fields' would need to become enormously wide to fill the camera shot!

 

 

[Littleworlds]

Its nice to see one of my favourite Pink Floyd albums represented here. It is maybe a bit underrated compared to something like Dark Side of the Moon. 

I would give the heads more depth and texture though. If you look at the source material, they don't only have quite visible riveting, that helps creating the shapes of the heads. The heads themselves are also very 3D. Its easiest visible at the eyes, which are clearly recessed, while the nostrils, for example are slightly raised. Maybe this effect can be created better if the heads are built from tiles and plates. Certainly not a trivial task, but these on first glance so simple heads are actually not that simple.

[MAB]

35 minutes ago, Retro said:

Thanks @MAB. Do you mean adding texture to the statues themselves, or to the 'sky' and 'fields'? 

 

The statues. As they are viewed side on only, it may be that you can add a bit of texture on the side using curved slopes or similar to emphasis the nose and cheeks. Even if these stick out too far, that shouldn't matter too much as the viewer only sees them from one angle.

As to perspective, I mean just drop the camera down slightly. The original photos emphasis the scale of the statues, since the camera is roughly level with the mouth and looks up slightly. Whereas yours look small since the camera is about level with the eyes of the statues, looking downwards towards the mouths. A small change in the camera placement might change this.

[Retro]

Thanks for the feedback @Littleworlds. I've always liked The Division Bell (and A Momentary Lapse of Reason). I'm not English, but for me TDB has always had the feeling of the best parts of England, a quiet, pastoral timelessness.

I was re-reading about the heads recently in Mind Over Matter by Storm Thorgerson. One of the great things about them is that so many versions were produced (physically or graphically). There were the two physical types. Yes, I followed the outline shape of the metal, rivetted heads, but you could say I was more following the texture of the stone heads! I think to try and add the subtle details of the curves under the eyes, or indeed the rivets of the metal heads might end up with models looking too 'childish', not to say be impossible to do well at that scale. My models are really a bit of a hoax. The models are very small and have a very ugly rear and side view since they are built from a variety of odd bricks tenuously fixed together (but they are fixed - you could lift each one by the top of the head). 

So, unlike say a lovely Lego spaceship that you can view from all sides, my set up is a small viewed-from-the-front-only scene, where I've used available lighting and then filters as much as possible just as an exercise to make nice photos.

[rodiziorobs]

I enjoyed this particular recreation, particularly that you were a little loose in the interpretation. It is instantly recognizable and I think, especially given the soirce material, that the simplicity works in its favor, rather than being slavish to every detail.

[Retro]

@rodiziorobs thank you

@MAB I added a few more bricks to the wall (ahem) so that I had more sky to aim at, and by taking various contorted positions tried to view the heads from lower down to make them look larger and more menacing!

 

 

 

 

[Henk61]

Like it very much! Beautiful done!

(PS. On November 29th, Pink Floyd Records will release ‘Pink Floyd The Later Years’, an 18-disc set (5 x CDs, 6 x Blu-Rays, 5 x DVDs, 2x7” plus exclusive photo book and memorabilia) covering the material created by David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright from 1987 onward. The period generated record sales of over 40 million worldwide and included three studio albums: ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’, ‘The Division Bell’ and ‘The Endless River’ as well as two live albums: ‘Delicate Sound of Thunder’ and ‘Pulse’. With additional production from David Gilmour and Andy Jackson, over 13 hours of unreleased audio and audiovisual material, including the sought-after 1989 Venice and 1990 Knebworth concerts, ‘Pink Floyd The Later Years’ is a must for all fans.) --> http://pinkfloyd.bandstores.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=PS_PNKF_1229

Edited September 7, 2019 by Henk61

[Retro]

@Henk61 I'm glad you liked the model! Thanks for the tip about the release of historic recordings. I have finally changed from buying physical discs to using Spotify, so I will check the music out if any of it appears there.

[Henk61]

10 hours ago, Retro said:

@Henk61 I'm glad you liked the model! Thanks for the tip about the release of historic recordings. I have finally changed from buying physical discs to using Spotify, so I will check the music out if any of it appears there.

Hi Retro,

I will not buy these 'new set' because it cost me around 462 euro's, way too much… I will spend it on lego !!!  and will check the internet to listen it...

[Retro]

I will put the next one here. A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

Number 2: A Momentary Lapse of Reason

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by Retro

[Retro]

This one's a bit more pink ('Which one's Pink?' and all that!). I think the original Hipgnosis photograph is more dark and purple, but some of the copies of the album had a much paler pink version, maybe just due to a dodgy printing process. I'm off to try and figure out how to build a cow now...

 

[Retro]

I thought I would pick off the low hanging fruit while I work on the next tricky one...

Number 3: The Wall

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by Retro

[Retro]

Number 4: Atom Heart Mother

 

 

 

 

[Retro]

@Henk61 I'm working backwards now chronologically (more or less). The cover that worries me is Meddle. A helpful (!) family member asked me how I was going to make that. On the other hand, moving forward, we would have The Endless River. I'm not sure of the artistic merits of that design...but should be quite possible to make in Lego.

[Retro]

Number 5: Animals

This was really an evocative model to build. The cover artwork of Animals is such a beautiful image of such a grim industrial scene, enriched by the Art Deco style of the Battersea Power Station. In the first instance it always makes me think of the industry of a bygone age, the 1920s/30s. But It also conjours up the unrest and decay of the 1970s, which is itself a bygone age now. Thirdly it always makes me think of contemporary London, a place you could explore indefinitely, and where I would always keep my eyes open in case I caught a glimpse of the Power Station in the distance.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Retro

[Henk61]

Hi Retro,

You're doing are very great job here! I like everything you have build from the albums of Pink Floyd.

There are indeed a few albums which are difficult to build, but I think that "Dark of the Moon" must be possible…

Also the Wish you were here album can be done with two minifigures, where one of them carries a backpack or something like that with fire elements attached to it.

 

[Retro]

Hi @Henk61 thanks for the encouragement and the tips! In the end I decided this would be the next one. I had to go quite far 'off piste' to achieve it. 

Number 6: Meddle

 

[Retro]

In case anyone ever reads this, and wonders what that green and brown 'thing' is meant to be, here are two images of the original Meddle album cover that I found, with varying colour quality.

 

To do mine, I took my copy of the Mind Over Matter book and built a mosaic on top of the image (seen here beside it). Then I photographed the mosaic from a couple of metres away to blur the image and applied a turquoise filter using an app.

 

[Henk61]

Great Job! You managed to build the "meddle" cover! 

The cover has been explained by its creator, Storm Thorgerson, to be an ear underwater. As with several previous albums designed by Hipgnosis, though, Thorgerson was unhappy with the final result. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meddle)

[Henk61]

Lovely done by Sus warning

[Retro]

21 hours ago, Henk61 said:

The cover has been explained by its creator, Storm Thorgerson, to be an ear underwater. As with several previous albums designed by Hipgnosis, though, Thorgerson was unhappy with the final result.

Well, I think he was wrong there. It's a great cover and it really suits the music which has an 'underwater' feeling. I suppose artists are never happy with the finished work.

21 hours ago, Henk61 said:

Lovely done by Sus warning

Nice. Is that a scene from The Wall film? I've never seen it!

[Retro]

Number 7: The Dark Side of The Moon

I used a bit of a filter on this one to try and darken it. I read somewhere that fashionable people have stopped buying black dogs because it is difficult to photograph them well for Instagram. Same goes for black Lego!

No trickery here (different source photo). 

No trickery here apart from flipping and copying.

And two wider views.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Retro