Raystafarian

[MOC] Laysan Albatross (Bird)

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My MOC of a Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis), scale is roughly 1 stud : 1 cm of an adult bird, give or take a few cm.

Laysan%20Albatross%20Render.png

The model is about 34 studs bill to feet and 84 studs wingtip to wingtip when not folded at all. There is a vertical round brick with axle hole on the underside of the model near the center of gravity so the bird can be displayed in flight.

To say this isn't inspired by the work of Thomas Poulsom would be disingenuous at best and an outright lie at worst.

The model was first built in Stud.io and then went through several revisions of the physical model.

My favorite part of the build was trying to figure out how to keep the bill attached to the head securely - 

Laysan%20Head.jpg

 

It was also kind of tricky to get the legs to extend out past the tail, which is a defining feature of the albatross.

The only part I'm not completely happy about is the eye - the bird should have a dark patch around the eye, but that was near impossible to do with the way the plates are stacked on the face. I also know there under-wings should have some dark pattern on them, but that was simply too difficult to do - adding more (smaller) plates would make the wings too fragile to stay together. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. 

Bricksafe gallery with more photos, io file and pdf instructions

 

Laysan%20Albatross%20Close%20Head.jpg

Laysan%20Albatross%20Full%20Rear.jpgLaysan%20Albatross%20Full%20Front%20Righ

Edited by Raystafarian
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Albatross! Albatross! Albatross!

Beautiful plumage! 

(I'm mixing my sketches here.)

Lovely model. 

 

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3 hours ago, Retro said:

Albatross! Albatross! Albatross!

Beautiful plumage! 

(I'm mixing my sketches here.)

Lovely model. 

 

It's simply pining for the fjords. Thanks!

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Exquisite work! I registered after years and years of lurking just to express my admiration for it, so that should give you an idea how much I love the model!

Poulsom's & Ideas' Birds is one of my most priced LEGO possessions, and I absolutely would love to see this albatross next to it. :)

 

On 11/5/2019 at 3:17 AM, Raystafarian said:

I also know there under-wings should have some dark pattern on them, but that was simply too difficult to do - adding more (smaller) plates would make the wings too fragile to stay together.

Have you thought of, rather than adding anything, just replacing some of the white plates in the underwings (say, a 12x4 and 10x1 on each side?) with black ones? Sure, it wouldn't be as intricate as the real pattern but at least they'll be two-coloured.

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