Vorkosigan

I thought about this as I made it, I would have preferred to make it dark bley but I don't have enough of the right parts. I will think about taking another pass at this at some point when I can round up more parts. I have uploaded two pictures without the sword and shield so you can see the chest area better. I liked the idea of anthropomorphizing the dragon with the weapons but people may prefer the look without them.

When I saw a thread a couple weeks ago about making armor for fantasy era trolls, I thought I had to try and make something for contemporary dragons. Leaving aside the fact that dragons have natural armor... It was different build from what I'm used to, fun but very fiddly. My technique was basically: use a ton of hinges. I do like how the radar / solar dish panels worked out.

My Target didn't have them yet, but Walgreens had a full rack that looked untouched. Shopko also had them, only 3 in stock though. At Walgreens I found 4 Athenas (bought 2) and got a jester and a space miner.

I picked up two large cups from the Mayfair / Wauwatosa store yesterday. Got around 2500 pieces, mainly because of a lot of a 1x1 round plates. Several good parts for water effects as well as light yellowish green plates good for foliage. Printed control panel 1x2 tiles were also intriguing, though how many do you need. I updated the wall of bricks page for the store: http://www.wallofbricks.com/pab-display.php?pab_store_id=98&country=USA

Just use a LED "daylight" bulb and you're good to go. Noticed a big difference between a CREE LED bulb vs an old "soft white" CFL.

Thanks its just a color laser. I created a vectorized version of the lion logo so it would look smooth enlarged. The blue crenelation pieces are from the original boat, its 6057 Sea Serpent:

This is my attempt to give the 2013 Dragon Knights a proper lair. I extended the idea of building off of old ruins like the Dragon Mountain set. I used old gray to represent an older decaying tower that has sunk beneath the water, with a staircase going down into the abyss. The Dragon Knights built their lair on top of the old tower. Also along the lines of the official sets, I gave the Lions a boat and small assault force. The boat is a lightly modded version of an old 90s Dragon Knight boat, with a custom sail (just printed on paper). Note each prison cell comes with a pet.

I personally think sorting is very important. I even snap the bricks together to save space and organize the colors, that way I can grab a "stick" of a part in a color. Recently I've begun snapping small plates together too, 1x's are attached at a diagonally and 2x's are stepped. I sort after every MOC and that is satisfying in itself. Before and during a MOC I go to my own "wall of bricks" where all the drawers are and grab sticks or piles of parts I think I'll need and put them in a tray. My only complaint is trying to keep my old gray separate from light bluish gray!

LOTR Battle of the Black gate for $29 3x Castle Dragon Mountain for $25 each Found in the garden section of a Walmart, apparently ready to put in storage. Not sure why, maybe waiting for Christmas to bring them out again. According to the Walmart app they had Castle Forest Ambush in stock for $5, but I couldn't find it in the mess of stuff.

I wish the leaves weren't purple. Some interesting sets, the tree house and the lava set.

It was actually a clone brand that started the process of getting me out of my dark age. I was traveling in Korea and saw Oxford sets. I thought it was really cool that they had military models. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) encouraged me to get a set. It was really satisfying building again, but it was still a slow build up from there. I got some more Oxford sets, then I got the Technic red sportbike and soon a slew of other Technic sets and a few City. My interested slowed down a bit due to another hobby, but after seeing the Lego Movie I started getting interested again, and when I got all my childhood sets out of storage that really kicked off. Rebuilding one of my old Castles got me really into historic themes.

It was actually a clone that started the process of getting me out of my dark age. I was traveling in Korea and saw Oxford sets. I thought it was really cool that they had military models. My interest grew from there and I got back into real LEGO. I will say I like some of the Oxford sets quite a bit. The quality is close to LEGO though the model design is somewhat simplistic. I like some of their models a lot, the Oshkosh HEMTT and missile launcher set, the blackhawk helicopter, the HMMV and some of the tanks. Their jeeps are weird looking though. The only serious quality issue is really bad color matching on the stickers sometimes. Their sets remind me a bit of older LEGO models, with very brick intensive layered builds and a fairly blocky look. I appreciate that they don't do straight up rip off of LEGO sets, its all their own models. Prices are very good if you buy them in Korea.

I wanted to give my Castle 2013 troops some more realistic siege weapons, done in the style of the official sets. First I gave the Dragons a covered ram to replace one of their catapults. Next I thought the Lions could use some more effective weapons against dragons (the creature not the faction). The mantlet is mod of the scorpion from 70401, I figured when fighting dragons you might need some shielding. The pavice is a similar concept for the individual crossbowman.

Really nice, great technique. The black lanterns use of the lever arm surprised me. The balcony supports are very cool as well.

Basically this was the best LEGO castle I owned as a kid, so I figure its a fitting start for my first custom build post. First here are a few pictures of the original set w/o figs: As you can see it has a low rear and side wall, for playabilty and cost savings. These were the first areas I wanted to upgrade, as well as taking the towers up another level to make them more imposing. All my mods are more or less 90s style, I tried to keep newer parts and colors out of this build. After the wall and tower upgrades I also added a basic interior scene instead of the original simple water well. I always wanted to add a moat to a LEGO castle, and from there I decided to add a small civilian scene. Here is the overall view of the finished build: The knights are on patrol. The peasant tends the garden. The blacksmith at work. The crossbowman watch over the countryside. Lastly I added a mini drawbridge to protect the civilians when the Wolf Pack attacks. There you have my first Eurobricks MOD / MOC. There are definitively things I will try to improve on. The stable should be more symmetric. Looking at the pics, I see I need to push the bricks down a bit harder in general. And I hope to work on some more advanced techniques soon. Thanks for reading. Here is the photo album: http://imgur.com/a/SG6nM

I really don't understand the choice to have one less minifig, I can't imagine the cost savings is worth the decreased interest in the set. Maybe they'll go back to 5 for the next generation. But with forest ambush at $8 USD on Amazon lately, Castle army building is still quite affordable.

I just recently went through my childhood Lego, here are my classic 80s/90s armies. Their equipment is a bit ragtag at the moment, I plan to sort them better at some point. Forestmen Wolfpack Black Falcons Dragons