Missing Brick

I brought the book and built the figure: It's totally awesome. Stands half a metre tall, packed with fantastic details and cool building techniques. The hardback instruction book is super - better than Lego quality. The model goes together like a dream. Parts cost about £120 in total. Highly recommended. There's a Brickset review here : http://brickset.com/article/17841 And here's the Arvo Brothers website : http://www.arvobrothers.com/index.html

Thanks everyone. Now I just need to find something to do with 100 black dinosaur tails.

That's a badass snowcrawler. Great job.

Like the way you've managed to seamlessly build around the curved hulls - both at the front and rear, and the way the decking fits into those corner panel pieces. Genius.

Fantastic all round but the interior is jaw dropping. You've really captured that oppulent, gilt-edged, red velvet, over-the-top ornate decoration. Great job.

Great reproduction. Re the vehicle design: maybe the FO were in the process of attaching the head when the photo was taken? > the design of the AT-AT that had the walker head was vulnerable to air strikes > I think that First Order knew this so they design their walker like that. I'd like to believe that too but if so, how do you explain their transporter design where the pilot sits in an exposed portaloo on the roof, just waiting to be shot off? A more likely explanation: A super talented guy called Ralph McQuarrie designed all the iconic OT ships and vehicles, but unfortunately he died in 2012, so they got someone else in to do it who isn't anywhere near as talented. And while we're criticising his work: anyone else think the way those TIEs are just sitting on the ground without any support or docking structure just looks totally lame?

Some scenes from James Cameron's Aliens featuring Blacktron's custom figs. I shot these a couple of months back but have only just been able to post here thanks to a trick that restores flickr functionality on old iPads using https://secure.flickr.com/

Just a quick update in case anyone else is having this problem: You can get the old iPad2-compatible flickr back by using https://secure.flickr.com/ Works great !! Thanks to Hacim Bricks for the tip. [update: That didn't last long - Looks like Yahoo have now broken the secure site too. Shame.]

Generally speaking I don't like brick-built creatures either but check this out: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=89514 Imagine that in dark red Smaug colours...

Great review, but I voted 'Poor' for the set. It's £100 for 5 unposeable rigid-legged figs, a single-use pre-moulded dragon and some wall. I would have preferred a set focussed on a really cool brick-built dragon like the ones designed by Mark Of Falworth on flickr. I guess this one is more for kids to play with so has less interest for builders. My disappointment with Jackson's Hobbit films also colours my opinion: too long, too much CGI, running time determined by the accountants rather than the story & drama. I loved Tolkein's books and Jackson's LOTR but his Hobbit was very disappointing - like this set.

At first I thought it was 4864b mounted sideways but that doesn't explain the frame at the top & bottom. So yeah - looks like some kind of new 5-high panel piece with 1-stud-wide indents.

I'd be excited if I didn't already have 2 Fire Brigade modulars. Roof could use a little more detail too. Maybe some aircon units and pipes? With the detectives office and brick bank on my wanted list, not sure I can spare £250 for this plus £45 for the car.

Nice review. One thought: I wish TLG made a bit more effort to dress the underside of their flying vehicles. I can understand not bothering with the underside of a car or truck - but flying / hovering ships would benefit from just a little effort to disguise some of the anti-studs and holes. TLG's attitude seems to be : "If you can't see it on the box cover art, we don't care how it looks". On the plus side it does give modders something to work on.

Apparently they can fly too: http://tosche-station.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/star-destroyer.jpg

Waiting to see if the film is any good before considering any TFA sets. But I will say the orignal source material design for this ship is pretty bad: If I'm a rebel gunner or X-wing pilot I know which bit I'm aiming for: Wouldn't want to be the poor stormtrooper who gets to man that portaloo on the roof.

Nice mod but IMHO, when both sides of the wing need to look smooth, the only way to get a really nice look is to use bricks instead of plates. ie. make the side wings in the same way as the central wing.

You raise some good points. Maybe fixable with a little mod work. Perhaps the square corner pillars could be replaced with rounds same as the central pillars - although perhaps the square pillars are needed to give the corners a framed look. Perhaps that 2x2 brick with tracks on all 4 sides would look better. Assuming you could recess the gold bars to line up better with the face of the arches - what happens on the corner pillar? You can't recess in two directions at once. So would need a different kind of decoration for the corner pillars.

No problem. You could probably also use an axle that goes straight through into the hubcap like TLG used on the Police car in the supercycle set http://lego.brickinstructions.com/lego_instructions/set/70808/Super_Cycle_Chase . However, that would take up alot of interior space and prevent you having a nice detailed interior for minifigs to go in. I think Larry may have used a short black axle on the original - but an axle pin is better since it doesn't take up any interior space atall. The hubcap connection is kinda weird but quite secure: it makes a nice 'click' when you push the dish onto the stack of round plates in the centre hole.

Hi Ken, The wheel connection is pretty straightforward: Just use a tan technic axle pin #3749 http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?P=3749#T=C to connect the wheel to a 1x2 technic brick with hole #3700 http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?P=3700#T=C You may need to adjust the ground clearance by offsetting the 1x2 brick up or down using 1x2 plates. You can probably make something more elaborate to allow the wheels to steer - but I just went for the simple fixed straight steering. (Interestingly, the actual APC has 4-wheel steering like the airport push-back truck it was based on). The hubcaps are attached using 1x1 round plates pushed into the centre hole of the wheel. I hope that helps.

Looks pretty good. Nice job. A couple of points: The rear end of the roof is actually supported by a couple of clip plates sticking out the inner sides rather than by the 2x4 plate you have shown. I found these APC plans useful when tweaking the model for better movie accuracy: http://forum.alienslegacy.com/download/file.php?id=10371&sid=62d4182178cd0ed9f8da346a2c75d9d4&mode=view I managed to trim 1 stud off the nose and tail to get it closer to the movie proportions. I also ditched the half-stud offset Larry used on the nose allowing a smoother side profile. Another nice tweak is to use 2x2 jumper plates to make the rear 'brake lights' instead of the 2x3 clip tile - bit tricky but it's possible.

Thanks all. Once again - alot of credit is due to previous dropship models by Babalas Shipyards, 2x4 and Havoc. Sorry I don't have instructions but it should be fairly easy to copy from the pics on my flickr. @Paddy: The tailplane & hinge strength are OK. The only issue is with the missile pod arms twisting apart when extended. My favourite solution was this one: > Somehow angle the bricks so they run diagonally in the same plane as the arm. > This would be great but I couldn't figure out how to angle the bricks at each end. Just occurred to me this might be possible using a stack of mixel joints at each end to produce the required angle. Hmm. Would still require alot of sculpting on the sections where the arms overlap and interlock - but may result in an arm strong enough to support itself in the open state. @Banjo: The custom aliens minifigs are available from Blacktron in this thread: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58464&st=100

There are some excellent 42% off Ultra Agents bargains to be had on Amazon uk at the moment: http://brickset.com/buy/country-uk/vendor-amazon/order-percentdiscount/theme-Ultra-Agents Edit: they didn't last long. Prices are back to their previous levels. Think it was just a 2 day wonder to compete with an Argos 3 for 2 offer. Not sure if it's worth holding out for even better discounts if they really are selling that badly... I succumbed to the stealth patrol for £23. Even though the giant car looks a bit junior-ized, the parts look useful ( and I really wanted that helmet !! ) Also, the UK lego shop were knocking out the last few Drillex's yesterday for £12.99 but they seem to have sold out and now the UA theme page has disappeared completely.

Great ship. Love the 'crack' at the front revealing the greebling beneath. My only improvement suggestion would be to turn the studs 180° on the tail section so you can tile around the rim so you don't see the backsides of those black plates around the engines - but that's just me being fussy.

Great lab packed with cool details. The layout is believable too with the sequence of airlocks leading to the materials testing chamber. Nice.

For 'permanent' layouts, lifelites are probably easiest and tidiest. But I normally just cobble stuff together for a photoshoot then dismantle it - so I don't care if it's a mess of cables and croc clips round the back - as long as it's out of sight. For roof lights LED torches are easiest. You can just sit them face down on a transclear brick and adjust the brightness by shifting the torch sideways to vary the amount of light that gets through the tranclear brick. All the roof-lights in my sig pics are cheapo LED torches. For large area colour washes iPads are great: just google the colour you want, screen grab it, then zoom it up to fill the screen. Then hold the ipad up next to the camera while you're taking the shot. The blue and red washes in my Hadley's hope pic were done this way. I only use the discrete LEDs for scale lighting within the scene itself. (eg. The wall lights in the Hadley's Hope pic). For connecting up I suggest you get some croc clips -so you don't have to solder anything initially. Amazon have some v.cheap packs of 10: http://www.amazon.co.uk/RHX-Alligator-Crocodile-Leads-Jumper/dp/B00BQW4U20/ref=pd_sim_sbs_60_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0587YF0REPFVJ0ENY6GB For power I use a 9V PP3 battery. This can drive three white LEDs in a daisy chain but can handle multiple chains in parallel if you need more than 3 LEDs. Remember to connect + and - terminals the right way round. If a LED is connected backwards it will block the current and prevent the chain lighting up. Long wires between LEDs are fine since you're only running a tiny current (say between 5mA and 20mA per chain). I have a reel of really thin black 'wire wrap' AWG30 wire I use for connections when croc clips aren't suitable. For the LEDs - I've got a bag of 4.9mm diameter white LEDs. These are the perfect size for fitting into a lego stud hole. These drop about 2.7V at 10mA. You need to put a resistor in series with them to limit the current otherwise you'll blow them. Eg. If you're driving one LED from a 9V battery the LED takes 2.7V so you need a resistor than will drop 9-2.7 = 6.3V at 10mA R= V/I = 6.3/ 10mA = 630ohm. So anything around 1K will do. If you're driving 3 LEDs in a chain you need a resistor to drop 9-3x2.7 = 0.9V R=V/I = 0.9V/10mA = 90 ohms. (So 100 ohms would be fine - just one resistor per chain) The resistor can go anywhere in the chain. If you want the LEDs dimmer, increase the resistor value. Brighter, reduce it (but try not to exceed the max LED current - typically 20mA - otherwise you'll damage your LED. It's easy to experiment with different resistor values if you use the croc clips to connect to the resistor. That's about it. Happy lighting!