Si-MOCs

Mumbles So Jealous.

Wow! The crazy amount of detail in such a small place! Great work.

Thanks for the nice comments all! I didn't think anyone was that interested in the actual guys :P I was going more for the pics of the MOC, but since you asked so nicely.... Emperor and his Entourage: Spearman: Foot Solider: Custom bits from BrickTW. Everyone else on the wall are stock LEGO minifigs. Haha If I had known you guys were so into armies, I would have just posted the army next time and skipped the MOC

haha. I'm slow. it took me a sec to get it ;) I was too busy admiring the little details of your build. Great work - Really liking the window/sky - simple but super effective.

Nice! Digg'n the 2002 theme. And the variable thrusters and landing gear are nicely done.

Remind me never to go to mars

It's not through Amazon - it's an independent vendor - so they're just selling it through Amazon's engine. So it's someone gouging trying to catch unsuspecting people

After 2 Brickfetes, and two displays and a Train show, it was time to retire my Great Wall. I enlisted my friends in helping with the dismantling of the wall... Using Nick's TechBot we tested Machine vs Wall.... Tech Bot (and Hulk) vs Great Wall Watch the video of it's destruction: Round 1 - TechBot VS Great Wall: Round 2 - TechBot and Hulk VS Great Wall: and finally what's left: Great Wall of pieces by Si-MOCs, on Flickr -- The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortification built over a millennium. Despite popular belief, the wall was not originally constructed to protect against Mongol invaders, but instead built by the various Chinese states to protect their own borders against each other during the Warring State Period in 5th century BC. Most of the original walls was destroyed after Qin conquered all opposing sates and unified the country. The remaining wall was extended into a new northern wall which would protect against the empire against the nomadic Mongols from the north. The first walls were simple walls made up of rammed earth and stones. By the Ming dynasty in the 16th century more advance techniques were used on the rebuild the walls, bricks, tiles and cut stones. The MOC depicts the great wall in later age as a young Emperor watches his army march to battle. More shots: Full gallery

Hehe the fish are awesome :) Looks like a thriving little town!

oh BrickTW! Fantastic stuff. fantastic stuff for far east moc'n!

The build is absolutely stunning. I love all the little details you put in. I think I set a new record looking at the pictures. Truly fantastic work. I can't even pick out my favorite thing here - there's too many! Very inspirational build :thumbup: :thumbup:

Man I'm jealous, that looks like some party they're having - I wana go!

hahahah this is so clever and funny. :thumbup: :thumbup:

Nice! Is there a front too? excellent details in a very small space.

Hey Everyone, thanks again for the kind comments, I'm glad everyone is enjoying our builds... I was blown away when I saw it was on the front page :) <3 EB Nope it's all real - just some fun lighting techniques and such. I'm not a photography expert by any stretch but I'll try to answer best I can... Where to start? Tip 1) TRIPOD! very important, in low light conditions - even the 'brightly lit' shots were longish exposures. Tip 2) Delayed shutter release - aka timer - I use it a lot for low light -as even releasing the shutter button causes SLIGHT vibrations. so if you have a 10s delay that vibration subsides by the time you take your shot - alternatively use a remote to trigger your camera. Tip 3) Lighting is important. Even when there is lack of light Regardless if it's light or dark, try to make it evenly bright/dark over a large MOC. If you don't, since it's a long exposure one side will be unnaturally bright in one area. Tip 4) In photography terms: Depth of Field or 'DOF' is what's in focus - in large mocs this is the hardest thing to work with. The easiest trick is actually shoot your moc from as far back as you can and 'zoom' with your lens. Alternatively you want the high 'Fstop' (that's F# like F9) that will give you a greater depth of field. you can read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number#Effects_on_image_quality Check out the image and seeing how just changing the Fstop can change how the picture looks (also good to know for when you want to do the reverse). Tip 5) Take your time! and take lots of shots! - pretty obvious but take your time, I think I took over an hour taking pictures and 'trimmed' it down from 99 to the ones in the gallery. To answer you specific questions: I have a ball joint tripod that helps move around and take shots faster, but any tripod would work. I have a Nikon D90, but really any camera could have done if you follow some of the tips below - I used to have a pocket camera, and some of my favorite photos of all time were taken by that 'crappy' cam. I used a lot of different lighting depending on the shot - anywhere from 2 bright spot lights (bounced off wall/ceiling) to a pocket LED flashlight to light up specific areas to using my TV to bounce some coloured light to absolute darkness - it depends on the shot (any in particular you were interested in?) I think that's about it ;) Let me know if you have any more questions! Depends on the picture. Shortest I think was 1/2 second (it was low light) to upwards of 4 second exposures. Make sure you set the timer / use the remote for long exposures. The Docked SHIP is the Grace Jones that's Iain's baby. I didn't do too much for that one - mainly just comments during construction and Lifelite retro fit ;) Oh I also contributed the Akabar screaming about a Trap in the window Here's a link to a close up of the comm tower (also the 'spinning top' - which was broken... the gears slip and we it would have taken too long to fix) Here's two more with just my regular lights on: Note the yellow 'tint' in the last two - they're from my halogen track lighting - different types lights have different uses I ran out of lights/batteries (26 Tripple As!) ... otherwise I would have lit it up more Awww I like you too

Wow! Thanks for all the great responses guys&gals! For the local crew, I'm aiming to MAYBE have a new one out for the next show. You okay bud? Want me to send some LGM your way and help you up? THanks! I hope they come out with new AC aliens soon, I need some more 'helpers' Crap... I should have never said anything... now I've raised expectations for version 2 Thank you. Hmmm. I'll keep your moc description suggestion in mind for my next post.

Woh very nice clean model. I love all the weapon layout shots /w the monochrome photoshoping - very effective! :thumbup: Those exhaust engines are also pretty great. Love'n this ship.

Looks cool! I like the trans neon - but they`re begging for some lifelites

I know very little about Gundams. I barely know what they look like, but these are fantastic. I've seen super huge ones before, but the amount of detail and articulation you've packed into these are fantastic! Well done. :thumbup:

Thanks! When we went about designing the station, we thought about how to build something that would be 'realistic' - but also useful and practical to dock other attendees SHIPS - 2001 was a bit of inspiration as well as the standard 'spoke' station. most of the tower and supporting ships were just random make believe The theme of the convention was 'old school' hence the total CS love going on ... unfortunately I didn't have enough trans yellow otherwise it would have been TOTAL CS love. Thanks! Heh, I actually ran out of table space - I had more ships to put around the station - but we decided to put it on a table instead of floor - it was painful enough to setup on a table, I couldn't imagine the pain of doing it on the floor Thanks :) Though to be fair, this took awhile to build up, and most of the ships I've built previously. The antennas are lit up by 2 sets of lifelites. Each LED is stuck onto a 1x1 cone which is then connected to the antenna so that light propagates up the shaft. you can see some of the wiring tucked away under the baseplate in this picture I can build, but I can't drive/build a techbot to save my life You definitely have me beat on the Technic stuff.

/bow merci! Thanks so much for helping out keeping it going all day... You're an honourary LGM in my books Woh wah? Moc tag? how'd that happen? I have a huge black glass table that I play legos on

Must have missed this the first time around. Nice clean build. hehe nice use of hands and colour blocking :)

Nice! Got any more shots it feels like something that could be actually made in real life ;)

SiAra Station The original SiAra beacon was established as a long range sensor/communication relay beacon. It was infamous as the point of first contact and was subsequently destroyed in the First Interstellar war. Its replacement, the first SiAra station was a military outpost on the edge of Colonial territory and was the site of diplomatic events and as well as acting as a first line of a Colonial defence. Today, the SiAra station still maintains a small fleet garrison, but mainly acts as a commerce center allowing ships of all sizes from all sectors to dock and conduct business. Besides being a convenient resupply depot, It is also responsible for search and rescue operations and assisting ships in distress. Security measures activated - Quarantine shields up!: In space... it's really dark: Estoc and Falx ships on standby ready to launch for S&R or intercept missions: -- Collaborative build for Brickfête by Iain and myself. More pictures in gallery SHIP picture is Iain’s Grace Jones. Shot of SiAra with more SHIPS docked at Brickfete:

The build is great. But what makes this really awesome for me is the humour you threw in there. I laughed. Good job!