Jerac Posted July 29, 2021 Aristocrat right from the capital of Hell, the City of Dis. Inspired - obviously - by Eero Okkonen's work, though initially started as a spaceship. That spaceship however sprouted a tentacley wing, then I thought the wing would look better on a demon of sorts, then the demon got more elegant in form. Add some fitting clothes, get a thrall from a dungeon and there you have - a (slightly) demonic countess from the more civilized parts of Hell. I rarely build in this scale, but I have to say, it is a fantastic exercise, and surprisingly affordable. This probably doesn't exceed 500 parts and even if you have just one or two of some cool elements, they can still be used. Figuring out proportions of a human body is a dificult yet fascinating work, and at that scale you really have to put some thought into that. Technically there's nothing really complex. I use standard large ball joints and exo-force click joints, hide narrow pieces behind tyres and there are no additional external supports. Countess' poseability is quite high, though I didn't explore it fully yet, and the thrall due to kneeling position is more purpose-built, as having his legs poseable for example would make rear part of the legs open and ugly. All in all, I am pleased, especially considering how this started as a spaceship and was assembled quickly over a course of few scattered evenings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jp-30 Posted July 29, 2021 Woah, that is stunning, and horrific. Amazing work. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lego David Posted July 30, 2021 Amazing MOC! I love the design of the clothing in particular! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jerac Posted July 30, 2021 On 7/29/2021 at 9:21 AM, jp-30 said: Woah, that is stunning, and horrific. Amazing work. 1 hour ago, Lego David said: Amazing MOC! I love the design of the clothing in particular! Thanks! i don't know if I can use it into far more than capes and skirts, since those are intended to be used as capes and skirts but... I'll try with some more figures! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vaiman Posted July 31, 2021 Amazing character design, brought to life by amazing building techniques and part choice. I love the chrome gold dome used as a bowl and the elegance of the various pearl gold swords. To me the most effective thing about the entire design is the use of colour. The clothing, eyes, hair (?) and red marbled in the dragon wing for the tentacles are the only parts with colour on the design. This draws the eyes away from the figure's mostly featureless appearance and makes the overall form feel mysterious yet regal. Very well done! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrickzAndBrezn Posted August 1, 2021 What a fascinating transformation. Will we soon get a glimpse of the not-so-civilized parts of hell from you? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jerac Posted August 1, 2021 12 hours ago, Vaiman said: Amazing character design, brought to life by amazing building techniques and part choice. I love the chrome gold dome used as a bowl and the elegance of the various pearl gold swords. To me the most effective thing about the entire design is the use of colour. The clothing, eyes, hair (?) and red marbled in the dragon wing for the tentacles are the only parts with colour on the design. This draws the eyes away from the figure's mostly featureless appearance and makes the overall form feel mysterious yet regal. Very well done! Thanks! I appreciate such detailed comments so much. They allow me to understand what works best and what doesn't. She's completely bald btw, I intentionally didn't add hair because this would either be a new colour, or would mix with existing ones and cause confusion. 23 minutes ago, BrickzAndBrezn said: What a fascinating transformation. Will we soon get a glimpse of the not-so-civilized parts of hell from you? I have few more ideas, but I'd like to stay away from the archetypical hot Hell with horned devils. Or mix them somehow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pate-keetongu Posted August 1, 2021 Very good! Strong colours and the shape (or flow) with the dragon wing, tentacles and the cloth parts look fantastic and work well with the gold areas (that are nicely layered). Cool use of half-sphere as a bowl, too. The bald head look works fine with the character, and I like the mundane mouth-line achieved with that cheese slope. Couple of minor crits: I think the fingers are bit too sausage-ish for this character. There are plenty of options for creepy fingers - probably HP wands or gold/red horns instead of the bulbs? The lower end of the scepter feels also tad too mace-like for this, hmm, regal character. But hey, wonderful to see you being inspired by my works. I was very very blown away by your motorized Mega Core Magnetizer... 12 years ago. I was 14. What the hell... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jerac Posted August 1, 2021 1 hour ago, Pate-keetongu said: Very good! Strong colours and the shape (or flow) with the dragon wing, tentacles and the cloth parts look fantastic and work well with the gold areas (that are nicely layered). Cool use of half-sphere as a bowl, too. The bald head look works fine with the character, and I like the mundane mouth-line achieved with that cheese slope. Couple of minor crits: I think the fingers are bit too sausage-ish for this character. There are plenty of options for creepy fingers - probably HP wands or gold/red horns instead of the bulbs? The lower end of the scepter feels also tad too mace-like for this, hmm, regal character. But hey, wonderful to see you being inspired by my works. I was very very blown away by your motorized Mega Core Magnetizer... 12 years ago. I was 14. What the hell... I am truly honored! You're the undisputed king of poseable figures in my eyes! Also I never found your account on eurobricks before... mystery solved, finally! Yes, I fully agree about the fingers, so far I didn't find anything better but this only means I need to search more. I tried using this approach: but those look a bit too short to me? Not to mention they also feel "robotic"? hmm... As for horns, this is a classic, however I think it does not work here. First, she's generally not that type of a spikey demon and those look too long. HP wands are even more spikey. Second, and the actual dealbreaker for me regarding this idea is that such fingers cannot be bent. Which means you can't hold anything with such a hand, because you can't wrap it around the item. I'll go through stuff with clip, maybe I'll find something better. Scepter, yeah. I didn't tinker much with it; it just felt right-ish and I stopped there. Will work on my accessories more next time ^^ That MCM you mention still lives, btw! I gifted it to my friend who loves classic space and it is displayed there like a grand prize! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pate-keetongu Posted August 2, 2021 Ah, it's always instant hard more if not going for spikey fingers! I know the pain. One possible option would be black sausages on those clip/bar hole fingers; they're more slender, probably TOO long and curve for the "grip" effect. But often gripping effect is too hard anyway - like on those Countess's current fingers and my usual skeleton arm ones; straight as anything, but probably that's not too bad... Another trick would be exo-force robot arms + minifig hands, but they're too quite skeletal and spikey. And the clips are so robust that they limit the posing. I hope the fortunate owner of your MCM drives it around the concrete every now and then! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jerac Posted August 2, 2021 Sausages are far too long. Fingers are about as long as the rest of your palm. This maybe... I am not super fond of them being permamently bent, but at least they are bent with natural angle. Different color of the hose (sort of darker dark bluish gray?) is also not helping, HOWEVER, this helps greatly with gripping stuff. Hmmm. Exo force robot arms are good and I am using them in the Slayer model, but he has huge male hands, not filigree slender fingers of a lady. MCM gets driven often - I am actually servicing it about every time I visit the guy ^^ Though not on concrete - this destroys the wheels quickly! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pate-keetongu Posted August 3, 2021 That looks great! Shame about the shade of the hose. There should be blacker black ones too. No idea when this "greyish bluish black" hose was made, but I at least have both types... I've never bothered to cut it very much myself. I wasn't worried about the sausage finger lenght, as it's not 100% human character, but looking back now, the proportions are very human-like, so they might look off. I agree wholeheartly with the exo-force robot arms, they're more for hands-size-of-shovels -type of things. They work all right on slender models though if they are very big. Oh yes, the concrete was only on the main photos! Now whe I recall you MCM video, it was on regular floor. Wroom. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
