Morgan19

Thank you! Which reminds me-- the first round of voting has started (and actually ends tonight in a few hours), in case anyone's interested: Voting - FC Haunted Halloween Custom Minifig Contest m19

Fantastic! On that Flickr photo– have we seen any previous images of 6253 - Shipwreck Hideout? That seems new (well, newer than the other ones, anyway). m91

Yay for surveys! ;) -Where are you from? Virginia (USA) -How old are you? (general is ok too) 29 -Name? Jamie -male/female? Guy -single or married? Married -kids, pets, imaginary friends, real imaginary friends, side personalities in minifigs/username? No kids. We had a black kitty named Cleo who just passed away last month, though... She was our daughter. :( -what do you do for a living? Graphic designer -Any other hobbies/activities? The usual: movies, reading, games, etc. -Why did you become a Lego fan? I've been one for as long as I can remember, so probably somewhere around age 5 or 6. -When did you start? This quiz? Just now! -Why did you join the Eurobricks community? (what do you think about it. remember you can PM me just in case) I joined up in 2005 but am not terribly active; I'm much more likely to be posting at FBTB because of the Star Wars slant. I'd been reading news and posts on EB before ever joining, though. I really like how EB folks always have something to say about MOCs– there's rarely a thread that just goes by the wayside. -What do you do here? (do you have any jobs, lead anything, create anything, are part of anything?) Not that I know of. ;) -How much time do you spend here typically? Usually just enough to read new threads or check out the frontpage news. -How much time do you typically spend with Lego? Not much, actually. Our apartment doesn't have a ton of play room, which is why my building spurts tend to be way spread out. Once we have a house, though... Watch out! -Have you gone through a "dark period" with Lego or the website? Yep, 1992 to about 1999 or so. None of these "oh I don't like LEGO for two months, I'm in a dark age!" stuff. ;) -Why? It just happened, I guess. -How do you feel about being part of this community? Fuzzy. -How do you feel about being a Lego fan? Even more fuzzy. -How do people around you view it? They see it as something that makes me unique (among adults, anyway)– I've been lucky enough to never really have to deal with "you play with TOYS!?" comments. -If in a relationship, what are the interactions with them and your Legos? (what do they think, do, how they feel) (save purchasing/monetary topic answers for later) I like to give my wife the smaller Town/construction sets for her birthday or Christmas. She'd never go out and buy LEGO for herself and she'll only build them if I'm hanging around, but she likes them and gets a kick out of figuring out how to put them together. m19

As opposed to the wonderously healthy upward swing it's been on for the past eight grueling, deteriorating years? Yeeeeah... =P Happy here as well– I know it's only one thing that's really changed since yesterday but damn, does it feel good. Finally feels like this place can turn around and go in an upward direction instead of a slow downward spiral. m19

Krylon Fusion spraypaint all the way. I've used it countless times, mostly to make things black, and have been happy with the results nearly 100% of the time. m19

The "model"? Not sure what you mean. The cathead is an edited vector element from Shutterstock and the rest of the shield was built from scratch by me; any similarities are most likely coincidental. (And I'm not sure what that last part of your sentence means.) m19

(I guess these are considered minifig MOCs...? If not, mods please feel free to move it to a better section.) These are my three entries for Little Armory's "create your own faction" contest. Each image links to the larger Brickshelf version; you can also click the two links below for the galleries. • Brickshelf gallery (once live) • Flickr Disciples of Baula, the Horned God Order of the Hallowed Path The Bloodpride m19

After a break for some exciting wisdom teeth extraction, I have a few more including the two latest: Hit up the first post for links to the Brickshelf and Flickr galleries. m19

I'm not going to post thumbnails to each individual one (because it's getting somewhat unwieldy), but I've posted a bunch more over the past week: Flickr gallery m19

Not at the moment, no; they're my own design and I don't have plans to release them (yet?). Sorry! m19

Ha! I'd missed the rabbit on Flickr– like Clue and an evil episode of Looney Tunes rolled into one. Nicely done. m19

Another day, another batch. ;) m19

Updated the first post with a few more... m19

It's a Best-Lock (clone brand) riot shield from a pack of their military figs-- the zombie leader's hat is also B-L. m19

It didn't! It's actually a custom head by Tothiro, painted by me. All my entries so far, yes. I'm pretty burned out after spending most of my evenings this week doing these, but I've kept the 'figs out on the coffee table and am planning doing a few more as inspiration strikes. The zombie's armband is a sticker. Each minifig itself can take anywhere from five minutes to an hour to put together, depending on how "in the mood" I am and how quickly I can find the pieces I'm looking for. Photography, editing, photo research, and Photoshopping for each one usually takes fifteen minutes to half an hour, again depending on a bunch of factors. m19

Heeheee, I remember seeing that Amazon. (Interesting that "the drowned" popped up in that one too– I know I've heard it in folklore before but it's interesting to see it again in a LEGO context. There's something about creepy Halloween characters that begs the use of calling them a "The...", I guess. Sounds creepier. ) m19

These are my entries for Kam's "creepy Halloween minifig" contest over at Fine Clonier. Galleries: Brickshelf Flickr m19

I was kidding... Of course that wasn't my goal. m19

How did you guess? m19

Sorry, "regular old" is just a saying– as in there's nothing particularly fancy about it. The specific model is an HP Scanjet 8200, if that helps at all. And you mentioned printers... These decals aren't actually printed, in case that's not clear. I'm scanning the minifigs themselves in and then copying the illustration directly onto the digital images. So there's no actual printing involved. m19

Yep! The short answer is that I scan each minifig on a flatbed scanner with the "lid" left open, and two sheets of white paper behind the fig. It's a fairly simple setup that I've found gives the perfect amount of lighting and detail; the double-sheet of paper gives the nice, consistently neutral grey background each time. On a regular old flatbed scanner, pop open the top so the glass is bare. I put the fig face-down on the glass, then put two "supports" a few inches from the left and right of it– in my case, I use any flat-bottomed object that's about an inch tall. Then put two sheets of paper over the fig and the supports (the supports are there to keep the paper flat and not "bent" around the fig). I scan the fig in at 200 dpi, which gives me exactly the size I need for my images– which means every fig image I make is the same size right off the bat, without me having to guess how much to shrink them down. m19

This image shows him with a bit of stubble and a soulpatch, which I liked better than just a clean-shaven look. So I went with it. "Virtual decal" means I make the custom decals myself in Illustrator, but don't actually print them out: they're Photoshopped onto a scanned minifig and adjusted to look like they're printed. It gives me a nice-looking final image without having to use up decal paper or brasso any figs. m19

Altair, from Assassin's Creed (reference image) Asuka, from Neon Genesis Evangelion (reference image) m19

The "actual thing" is a little murky in this case, Pencoin: you're comparing his model to an in-game sprite instead of the original Amano artwork�€“ it'd be like saying LEGO's Boba Fett minifig isn't accurate because it doesn't look like initial concept art, for example. As is often the case with anything vs. Amano's artwork, they're two very different things. Compared to the Amano painting, yep, it looks really good. It's a little on the chunky side and could use a bit more color variation, but recognizable nonetheless. A Magitek armor is one of those thing I keep meaning to making one of these days and just never get around to. m19

I'd spoken with Arealight shortly before the contest and I got the impression the scooter pieces would be going on sale to the public in the near future. That was a few months ago; I'm not sure what the latest is, to be honest. m19