BEAVeR

It looks just perfect for a build of this scale. The corridor coming out into the room looks very good, and all the control panels maintain a distinct look, good of you not to fall into repetetion. Also, you've placed the snow and ice tactically. That hologram is a nice creation. If you want to rework some areas, maybe do something about that door the Rebel is coming through. It's just a rectangle, and isn't even high enough for the rebel to pass. Way to go! So... what's the location of the Rebel base then?

For such a tiny build, it looks pretty good. The snow is well made, and you've covered those crate perfectly. The overhanging slopes are a nice touch too. That data server looks really good with those SNOTted grill tiles. You've made a small area very interesting! It's a bit a pitty the door is qo squarish. Some slopes or those curve pieces you used on the server would look good here. Also, a little something on the floor would be great to fill the room some more. Some broken tubes would be easy to do, and already give quite some effect. But I think your build has turned out pretty neat and cute so far!

Thank you everybody, really. I had never expected so many people to like it so much. Thank you for your kind words and suggestions. Thank you for caring for the Wampa's too. This model isn't just an entry for SoNE. It's an action as well to make every one aware of the suffering the Wampa's and Tauntauns go through. Together, maybe we can change that! Thank you both you (still) like it. As for placing the Tauntauns on top of each other, that was a real pain. I had to use scaffolding, and it kept snapping to certain positions. I'm not totally happy with how the pile turned out, but it sufficed. I wonder how many people noticed the Tauntaun hovering above the ground. Well, that's one of the many disadvantages of LDD. Now comes the technical part where I try to explain to you how I made these images. It really wasn't easy. I had to use many different programs and tricks to get to the final image. Let me briefly explain the road I went on. The first picture you see is just the regular LDD screenshot. Not much to see here. Even though the brick shading is in the maximum quality, it doesn't look good either. The transparent parts look of, the shadows are unnatural, and you can't see the lines were different bricks are joining. Moreover, there are no logo's on the studs. To make it look better, I rendered it using Pov-Ray. That's a ray-tracing program. So in fact, it shoots rays of light onto the model, and calculates how they will reflect. This is a very time consuming process for the computer, but in the end it's definetly worth it. The problem is, you can't just render a LDD file with Pov-Ray. So first, you have to convert your file. For this, I used LDD2Pov-Ray, developed by EB user hrontos. It also allows to easily control the level of detail, the light setup, some color adjustment... If your model has no transparent parts in it, you're pretty much settled than. If it does, then you have a problem. You can imagine that transparent parts are very difficult to calculate for your computer. You have reflection, distortion, color change and whatnot. So if you want to run a high quality render, you'll have to leave the transparent pieces out. Else, it will really take days for your computer to render the image, or it will even crash. The solution (suggested by Napachon) is to split into partial renders. First, you make a render of the model with the transparent parts in it, on a low quality (i.e. with the quality in the LDD2Pov-ray settings menu set to "LDD geometry", rather than "with bevels"). This is the first image on the second row. This render doesn't take really much time (1 hour max). In a second render, you render the model in full quality (i.e. with bevels and the logo on the studs). This will be the main portion of the final image. This render takes quite some time though (about 8 hours on my computer, which has a really strong graphics card and 8 cores). But don't worry, eventually you will end up with a picture like the one in the middel of the second row. Then you want to combine the best of both images into one awesome picture. So you'll need a way to easily select all the portions of the good image you want to replace with the low quality renders of the transparent parts. You could go and manually use the lasso tool to make your selection, but you can also color the transparent parts in a color that isn't present in a model, and do a render on the lowest quality you can get. This one takes two minutes or so, and produces the image on the right side of the second row. The reason I colored the Wampa white, was that I wanted him to be easily selectable too, to give him a diffirent color tone than the background, to make him stand out more. Finally, you upon all three images in a photo editing program. I use GIMP for this, and it works perfectly for me. You don't need any advanced functions, so a lot of photo editing programs will suffice. So you place all three images on different layers, with the high quality render above the lower quality one. Then you go to the colorful, extremely low quality picture, and you use the magic wand to select all colored (i.e. transparent) parts. You gow back to the high quality picture, and maintaining the same selection you hit delete. The transparent parts will now appear. Then, I went back to the colorful picture to select the Wampa. Back on the high quality layer, I give it a slight yellowish tint. I inverted the selection, and gave the rest of the image the blue tint so characteristic to Hoth. That's how I ended up with the final picture. Hope that helps you when you make some LDD build yourself. Here are some links: - Lego Digital Designer: http://ldd.lego.com/ - LDDPovRay: http://ldd2povray.lddtools.com/ - Pov-Ray: http://www.povray.org/ If you've got any problems, you can find help files there. If they don't resolve your problem, ask your question in the LDD forum. Here is a link to the lddpovray topic: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=71654

How do you give constructive criticism on a creation that's almost flawless? Well, you really get into the details. For example: how did both the Rebel and Santa ended up in that cave? There's no way of entering that, besides through the wonderful crack, but that couldn't be done with that chest with clothes. A door would be nice here, or a bigger crack. Secondly: Steve's commiting suicide. Who does he think he is, placing a ladder on a slippery surface of ice? That isn't a sensible thing to do, even when you're hanging up wonderful lights that go straight to the power hub (nice touch!). Up to the next mistake: how can they throw snowballs, when they can't see each other. There are no lights to see, so I have no clue how they wander around. do they use sonar? Fourth point... Ah, I can't help it. I just like your build too much to go searching for any absurd things. Let me point out the things I love too. That door for instance is gorgeous, just like in the movie. That dark red stripe was really a good idea to break up the monotony of the scene. Maybe you should have done that with the decoration room as well, cause the floor's a little bland there. An extra crate of presents and lights in the middle of the floor would've been nice. The cave is executed to perfection. I really adore the spiky edge at the cutaway. Glad to see that kind Wampa want's to help the Rebel out with that crate. Clumsy as he is, he seems to have mistaken the Rebel for a piece of clothing, I see. Your scenes are really hilarious What was that rebel doing with a bone anyway? I've come to really appreciate the irregularity of your bases. The corners are rounded of beautifully, and that lets the straight lines come to their right more. Same goes for the height differences you build in. That gradual slope towards the back really is genious. It keeps the small scenes small, and the big scenes big, just like they deserve. The minifigs look very good in those, by the way. You've posed them perfectly, so that they really tell a story. So yeah, congratulations. Is this enough of criticsm for you?

There's so much to like here! The yellow construction-thingie the pilot is standing on, the improvised snow trench, the hole in the floor, the perfect shape of the gate, the tubes leading to the snowspeeder, the command room with all that angled debree, the wardrobe with all those nice stands and closets... and that Commander... I already here the French Cancan playing in the background as well... This really is a gem with plenty of things to look at. All the greebles, tools and little trolleys make it nice and cosy... for Hoth standards then. It's very good you thought of adding lights. If only a section of the upper level had collapsed, it would have been totally awesome!

You've done a great job! The bottom part looks just like an icy cave, with all those columns and stalactites, and that christmas tree makes a nice addition to the scene. It works really nice in the fist shot I also really like the contrast between the studded snow at the top and the studles ice at the bottom. Those curves add to it, although I would prefer to see them more scattered. Also, it's very nice to see the attention to detail. The drill (that looks very good), the rope, the skis... everything is there to make it a believable scene. It's good to see One-arm patched himself up (I told you so that Wampa's were very civilized!), and it's very friendly of him to prepare some food for when the troopers come back. I'm really digging this multi-leveled MOC. Only thing I would do, is to give it a blue hue and don't put those chair pieces just on the ground. Good job, and good luck with kracking the Rebel's secrets!

Just wait a minute for me, or else I'll make some enthusiastic typo's... OK, I think we're ready to go. Well, this is a very nice model! I mean, you're the king of wreckage! All those broken computers and especially that broken tube are well done. The irregularity of the walls, the differences in height... there are a lot of details that contribute to the wrecked feel. Great stuff! I like all the different scenes, but I slightly miss some kind of overarcing story. You just follow the mission, while it's Life Day... There are some nice touches in the story though. The Princess' bedroom is kinda akward. She has a lot of strange things in there... I always knew the leaders of the Rebels are somewhat crazy... Oh, and I see that Wampa has come to join in the fun too! He wants to help with cleaning up the place. But just for safety (cause with such a big and clumsy body you never know), he puts those Imperials safely away. How kind of him! So wow, what a great build. Both technically and creativeally you've proven yourself a master again.

Maybe incorporate the missile pods between the wings and the body, as some kind of shoulder muscle?

Oh no! That poor, poor Tauntaun . What kind of people are you to let them just starve and freeze to death? Unfortunately, that Wampa arrived too late. It could/would have saved it... the only thing he can do know is to eat it according to the traditions, to give that Tauntaun one last goodbye... As for the build! I really liked it! Build-wise it's really strong. I don't consider the studs an issue in this one. And most walls are well garnished with slopes and tubes (the only exception being the one in the first picture to the left)(the one that stands out however, is the one in the Princess' bedroom). Several details like the destroyed panels, the wreckage, and the crates that are sinking into the floor are really well executed. All those doors are well made. And that blood of the Tauntaun is pretty believable for being made in Lego. It's amazing you could maintain this level throughout your whole build I also like the way you present this MOC. I like the kind of modular layout, and it looks really great from the top view. You've taken some really nice pictures as well. I like the picture of the woman at the panel, with the light coming from it. The picture of the trooper and the droid in the corridor is especially appealing. With such great pictures, the graininess doesn't bother me. You present some worthy competetion, and it's good to see you back!

You pretty much nailed those TIE's. That cockpit, those pylons and guns already look really good. The proportions are a little bit off though. Actually, the angled pieces of the wings are a bit higher than the vertical panels. So you could shrink the fixed panels to three studs (but maybe in proportions that wouldn't look to great compared to the cockpit), or you could make the angled wings four studs high (ending up with a rather big model). Commander Colt already pointed out the abundant use of gray on the back of the inside of the fixed wings. I do not gree to totally delete the gray however. Jist like in the real model, stick to a thin band of grey in the middle. Looking forward to seeing a diorama with all these models! Are you planning something similar, or are you going to display them on seperare stands like you showed already?

Glad finally someone noticed those micro Tauntauns! They were hard to get down right. I have some experience with micro scale building, but now I could only work with pieces in the regular LDD mode. And you're right, it's only the Rebel's story we see on screen. Never a word of the thousands that died in the explosion of the Death Star (two times!). Those Rebels are massmurderers. They killed millions of people that were just doing their duty. How many people did the Empire kill? Waaaay less, I'd suppose. (we really need some kind of "take that" emoticon) On a side note, glad one of the best builders here liked it! That's one of the reasons I decided to make a brick built Wampa. If I would have found the body however, I still hadn't used the molded Wampa, because: 1) I wouldn't be able to add the prints, so I would end up with a plain white large piece of plastic, destroying every sense of realism in the scene... 2) Doesn't look that cute I needed to make it rather big to look good, so I had to dubble the height of my scene... I don't know what you're talking about when you're saying my story is over the top . Have you been starting to believe the Rebel's poisonous words as well? It has come far if even one of our finest troopers begins to listen to those Rebels... And why would doing it in LDD imply that it wouldn't have a lot of detail? Still, a short comment of MstrOfPppts is usually a good thing Thank you for that! ... But then, there would be no chance left to beat him being the trooper of the month, so we loose all chance of our own medal ceremony !

Welcome back to Lego and into Eurobricks We all the UCS models, and every night we too cry about the sets we'll never get So are you planning to make some MOCs? There a lot of great SW creations here, so I think you'll enjoy the ride! Good luck on your journey back to Lego.

So this time, I wanted to build a Star Wars set that hadn't been build yet. I went through all sets, only to find the only ones left were the Technic ones. You've certainly done a great job at making this index rather complete, congratulations! But I have already made some of those Technic sets, and they are rather hard to put together... Luckily, it turns out not all advent calendars are in this index. Since I love micro building, I thought that was the perfect build for me. And it was. I had a great time putting this mini models together. 9509 - Star Wars Advent Calendar (2012) - Theme: Star Wars LXF File (LDD 4.3.8) Errors: Missing prints only. Where suitable (that is everywhere except on the torso of Santa Maul) similar prints were used. It was great to get into the holiday spirit... already

Seems like I accidently included my own parts. You can enter the sets you already have, you see, to include those parts in the calculations. In the end, you'll see which parts you'll still be missing.

A little search at Rebrickable shows that you'll end up having a maximum of 80.4 % of the needed parts. This was calculated with the close color match option, because of the old light grey/LBG issue. So I don't know it included differences between light and dark grey and so on... So don't take this number for granted. The minimum amount of parts you'll have is 12.9 %, but that's calculated without all the grey pieces. In the end, it should be a very impressive percentage! Other sets to consider you can find at the bottom of this Rebrickable page. I hope that helps!

Pretty neat! Especially those corridors blocked with snow look really good. The walls are just right. And you've photographed them perfectly! That generator almost entirely covered in snow is some great work too. That AT-AT is nice as well, and is very dynamically posed. The legs are a bit skinny though. Lastly, I really dig the composition of this one. You have the Imperials with their huge AT-AT at the top, while the Rebels are softly walking underneath. I like the split nature of this one! Oh dear, the Imperials are carrying chainsaws with them, and what looks like a giant green drill!

Maybe I can help you out by posting one of your pictures here: Hoth Echo Base by Bredl, on Flickr To get it into your fist post, just copy-paste the following code: [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775159094/][img=http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5529/11775159094_4295e02057_c.jpg][/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775159094/]Hoth Echo Base[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/104305865@N07/]Bredl[/url], on Flickr For the picture I added above [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775280533/][img=http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5509/11775280533_b5e0029262_c.jpg][/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775280533/]Hoth Echo Base[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/104305865@N07/]Bredl[/url], on Flickr For the picture of the trooper burning the debries [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775013773/][img=http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7365/11775013773_8c5f20dd40_c.jpg][/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775013773/]Hoth Echo Base[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/104305865@N07/]Bredl[/url], on Flickr For the picture of the tree [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775180654/][img=http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2833/11775180654_b8f6bd8300_c.jpg][/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/104305865@N07/11775180654/]Hoth Echo Base[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/104305865@N07/]Bredl[/url], on Flickr For the picture of the door Hopefully this helps you getting up those pictures in time!

It looks great! Just like a tiny version of the official LEGO set . The proportions seem right, and I love that you've added more detail in the back. No more suggestions on this one! However... wouldn't it be great if it had some kind of landing gear as well?

This is one incredible creation! The hangar bay looks really good (although the walls are kinda boring), and you've got some great mini ships in there. I like the second largest version of the A-wing a lot! And congratulations with that DS II ! I like the fact so much is going on here. The moving pilots, the crashing A-wing, the Star Destroyers floating by in the background... you've made a real scene here. The idea of forced perspective is nice, but of course the phisycal restrictions of LEGO bricks stand in the way. Like the tiles you used for striping. In the end, they're just as wide as the people... You could go for SNOTted plates instead, so you can change the thickness of the striping. Also, the forest moon of Endor doesn't strike me as very realistic. Making it an actual sphere would help. Still, congratulations. This is one of the best forced perspective builds I have seen to date!

Once again, a big thanks to everybody for the great comments. Thanks for blogging this, Lobot! I'm glad you care for those poor Wampa's! Well, we all have are flaws, don't we? Thanks for enjoying it in spite of that... error. If some one was wondering where I got the idea for centering this build around stuffed Tauntauntoys, it's the "Tiny Deathstar" game that inspired me!

Sorry for the double post, but I want to know if other people are experiencing the same 'errors' I get. What I render a model with "LEGO logo on studs", hollow studs are filled as well. Sometimes, this happens with renders with regular LDD geometry as well. If you don't know what I mean, have a look at the following picture. concentrate on the volutes, represented by 2x2 radar dishes: [MOC] Corinthian column - capital by Bert.VR, on Flickr An even more annoying bug is when I render a 1x1 cone. Somehow, in the render there's an extra square hovering above the opening of the cone. I don't hava a picture right now, because I only edit those out. Am I the only one with this problem?

The most easy program to use is Lego Digital Designer (LDD, to be found on this website). It's really intuitive to use. To construct complex models (especially in Technic), it's not so great however. Programs like SR3D builder do a much better job when it comes to Technic. Another frequently used program that has much more parts than LDD is LDraw. The disadvantage of these two programs is that they're farely hard to use. But with all your questions about digital building, you shall find answers and people that are qualified and willing to answer over at the "LEGO Digital Designer and other digital tools" subforum here on Eurobricks.

Incredible. This wonderful scene really has that bar feeling. The baris a piece of art, but then there are those grungy sidechambers where obscure stuff happens. Really nice! Also, you make SNOT building almost look easy. Seamlessly you've incorporated it almost anywhere, to achieve this beautiful Cantina. Wow... I never tought I'd say "beautiful" and "Cantina" in one sentence. That makes me come to another point that has been made before. Maybe it looks a bit too clean. A bit too light too. Maybe a little more dark tan would solve that tiny problem. I can't wait to see what your contest entry will be, if this is just the warm-up!

As for any ideas for a new kind of contest. Try to show people Sci-Fi is about more then huge space ships, by directing attention to bases for once. I don't see a lot of those around here. People could really put theri creativity into those ones, and maybe this kind of build would attract more people who are normally into historical diorama's and such...

Good suspense in the scene! On the left side, that console is just so mysterious. You've done a great job a making irregular walls here. It's a tiny bit strange that pattern doesn't return on the left side. But there is a great walkway worked into the ground, and that archway is really well constructed. One of the best bits here are the pipes across the ceiling. They're a very original and effective idea. Congratulations! And then the middle section... could we please have a look at the door that's only barely closed? The story that goes with this is great. I like the suspense and really want to know where this is going! Keep it up, your big story is unique in SoNE, and I love each chapter.