BEAVeR

Thanks for you heartwarming comments everyone! Thanks LucasLaughing. I'm sure you have a "special" relationship with this vehicle now . As for the rubber band, it wasn't included in the parts list because I always find it tricky to specify the size (if there even exists an offical LEGO rubber band with a suitable size in white), is impossible to work with in LDD (which would bring a disadvantage to the eventual team that would try to recreate it digitally) and because I only added it after the contest had started . Yes, the EU is really a treasure chest full of awesome designs I find very inspiring. Rebels is doing a good job bringing a lot of those in, giving us "new" ships that perfectly fit in the universe. And if the Outrider doesn't show up as a LEGO set, I guess we'll just have to MOC one Thanks for the awesome compliment, TWP. If you'd have read all the way through my writeup above, you would know it is a render after all. I'm still just a guy behind a PC through lack of the bricks I need (although I did a few real life experiments to see everything worked nicely, like testing if the wings had enough friction and seeing if the rubber band was feasible to attach). I try to keep improving my renders. What I tried to do this time was to take gravity into account by creating a stand and adding imperfections in the background. Maybe one day the studs will have mold marks and all... But I'm not going for hyper realism with dust and scratches and stuff... I try to aim for the "LEGO box picture look", and believe that I'm close to achieving it. Glad you appreciate the amount of work that went into setting up the render!

1. You can still go to the first unread post of a topic simply by clicking the brick icon in front of it in the forum view or the star icon in front of it in the activity view. 2. Go to your account settings and then to signature. Delete the video you have there now. Paste the link of the video back in. It will display as a video, but at the bottom of the editor a popup message will appear saying "Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as link instead" Just click the underlined part, and there you have it as a link. Then you press the chain icon in your editor with the link selected, and then you can chose the display text of the link. The result is the link below: testing youtube links

Before my life as an AFOL started, I’d never come into contact with the Expanded Universe. But thanks to exposure to all of those strange new MOCs I’m a bit more knowledgeable now of all of the amazing stories you can’t see in the movies. There’s one storyline in particular I’m more knowledgeable – and appreciative – of now. It’s Shadows of the Empire. If you don’t know it, it’s kind of Episode 5 ½ in the Star Wars saga and tells a.o. the story of how the Rebel Alliance came to acquire the plans for the second Death Star. Along the way, it explores many familiar characters and introduces a couple of unforgettable ones. The story was told through various media when it came out in the lead-up to Episode I. There’s a book, a legendary game, comics, action figures, a soundtrack I’ve played tens of times… If you want to delve into the story, the Wookieepedia page is very comprehensive. However, I found it more fun to watch this very well put together series on Youtube. I got introduced to it thanks to our little role playing game here in the forum, with the 100% original name Shadows of Nar Eurbrikka. I had been participating as a player until I joined the team of organizers when I joined the forum staff. Ever since, I’ve been looking into the existing stories to give the game a more authentic feeling. The most recent result is the twelfth episode coming to a close. The episode revolved around figuring out who is after an attempt on Luke Skywalker’s life. This figuring out happened in two ways. Firstly, the players had to tell a story and build a scene about their character investigating. And secondly, they had to guess about a secret model that indicates who’s the one responsible. A partial part list was available for this model. The parts that were missing were only known to one of the two competing factions. They had to incorporate those parts into their builds, and the opponent had to guess what the secret seed part was. If you want to learn more about how the episode worked, how it ended and how well everyone incorporated the parts, be sure to check out the topic. I had a lot of fun coming up with the concept and tweaking it together with the always awesome organizing team. However, apart from the concept, we also had to come up with an actual secret model. Quite a challenging task if you take all of the constraints into account: it had to be something logical to the story the factions could guess if they knew the EU a bit or were good at Wookieepedia-ing. It had to be rather small in order not to make the parts list too big and the challenge impossible. It could only include parts that were readily available and available in LDD in order to make replication easy. It couldn’t use illegal techniques that would make LDD useless. And it had to include a sufficient number of parts that were interesting enough to serve as seed part. Despite it being a small model, it was quite the design challenge! The result? [MOC] Prince Xizor's Virago by Bert Van Raemdonck, on Flickr It’s a rendition of Prince Xizor’s personal ship, the Virago. It could be found by going to the Luke Skywalker page, going to the legends tab, searching for “attempt”, concluding that Prince Xizor was after the story the episode described, and reading it with the mind of finding something suitable for a build to come across the Virago. Complicated, but not impossible. I absolutely love the design of the ship. It looks very menacing and alien, but at the same time feels right at home in the Star Wars universe. The key element were the wings that I tried to replicate with a variety of more exotic parts. I like the way they have a curved look to them, exactly like on the actual model. Well, speaking of “actual” model. It was not hard finding reference images online, but the problem was there were a number of different versions. I picked the elements that were most feasible and good looking from the models. The main inspiration were model kits, but they have a cockpit with an incredibly sharp angle which I couldn’t replicate, so I got the cockpit design from another image. The horizontal stripe is achieved by a rubber band, which for obvious reasons wasn’t included in the parts list for the episode. I did experiment with real life rubber bands though in order to make sure it could be implemented. [MOC] Prince Xizor's Virago - running away mode by Bert Van Raemdonck, on Flickr Especially the body was hard to view on reference images, so I hope what I went for looks reasonable. I’m not too happy about the engines at the back of each wing. They look a bit simple, but they manage to conceal the “unwanted” features of the panels pretty well. I’m very pleased with the intakes of those engines though, with the chair pieces nicely fitting around the panels. [MOC] Prince Xizor's Virago - landing mode by Bert Van Raemdonck, on Flickr The original model also has the ability to fold back the wings in a landing mode. Since I strived to make my model as complete as possible, not just fit as a secret model for the episode, but also something you can display and play with, something to be proud of, this feature is included. I imagine the friction of the pins might not be enough to keep the wings unfolded during swooshing, but I’m confident it will look good on display, and the landing mode is a nice bonus. Finally, you can see the model from all angles by checking out this video. The underside is pretty similar to the top. This is the first time I rendered a LEGO animation, and I must say I was surprised it was finished in a reasonable amount of time. Overall, I’m very satisfied with how all of the renders turned out. I can definitely recommend using Blender for your LEGO renders and animations. ImportLDraw tool is the perfect way to get your models from LDraw to Blender (and everything’s free!). I hope the results have fooled you, even if just for a moment. If you want to explore the model, you can find the LDD file here. It can also be found on Rebrickable to make replicating it easier.. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have any questions or remark, feel free to leave them here. Thanks for bearing with me! I’m now off listening to the SotE soundtrack again…

The results for this episode are in, so strap yourself in for some revelations! First of all, the individual results! Faction Name Entry Score Rebels jannik Back to the hydrospanner 18 Empire goatman461 Raid on the Providence 17 Empire LucasLaughing Shock and Awe 17 Rebels MKJoshA Fleshing Out the Problem 17 Rebels Cody Startale Den Of The Dragon 16 Rebels Zaael Looking for clues on Felucia 16 Empire Dannylonglegs I am Providence 16 Rebels WickNole Tech Support 16 Empire Thebeeze111 Wading through the Jungle 15 Empire Commander Beltar The Rat 13 Rebels Forresto Siege of Javin 7 Empire pombe Commendation 7 Empire Puvel Abandoned base 7 Empire Kodan Black On the Hunt 7 Empire Mads Heering Stopping by 5 Rebels MontyPython Apart and On 5 Rebels brickmasterben11 Return to Hoth 4 Empire Tariq j Back to Tatoinne 4 Rebels Aland1916 Alliance Intelligence 4 Rebels Pertyn Sawk First Mission 3 Rebels Thelonious Sparke In the Hangar 3 Rebels Green Rhubarb On the Balcony 2 Congratulations jannik with your excellent entry! And what does this mean for the factions? Rebel Alliance: Average score of 9,09 + 12 builders = 21,09 points Galactic Empire: Average score of 10,62 + 10 builders = 20,62 points For now, the Rebels are taking the lead. However, we still have to award the 5 points for the faction that approximated the secret model best. Whoever wins those 5 points, wins the episode… Both Rebels and Imperials made their guess at what the secret model was. Let’s start by looking at what the guesses were at the secret parts of the opposing faction. Part ID Seen in… Guess Actual clue part E01 On the Hunt 15070 4175 E02 I am Providence 3680 11947 E03 Back to Tatoinne 30414 93094c01 E04 The Rat 4728 4079 E05 Shock and Awe 62386 93575 E06 Stopping by 2819 42446 E07 Abandoned base 64644 3680 E08 Raid on the Providence 3680 11946 E09 Wading through the Jungle 90397 90397 E10 Commendation 6020 92690 R01 / / 64683 R02 Siege of Javin 3040 6246a R03 Return to Hoth 2489 2489 R04 / / 18948 R05 Back to the hydrospanner 98834 98834 R06 / / 64391 R07 Tech support 30153 30153 Apart and On R08 Den Of The Dragon 3938 3938 R09 Looking for clues on Felucia 3957b 3679 R10 Fleshing Out the Problem 4697b 32138 While the Rebels guessed 2 out of the 10 parts correctly, the Imperials succeeded in correctly identifying 4 out of the 7 parts, and got 3 parts for free from the Rebels since no one used them in an entry. Now that all of the parts are known, you can find the full parts list here if you’re interested. The Empire wins this part of the challenge, but who approximated the secret model better? Let’s find out. Thanks to the admirable effort of LucasLaughing, the Empire submitted the following model, complete with breakdown shots and a list of parts that were substituted both in color as in part number by lack of the real parts in his collection: Sadly for the Rebellion, none of its troopers was able to create something. Still, Cody Startale suggested the secret model could represent the following: Now it’s time for the great revelation! It turns out one faction succeeded brilliantly in figuring out who is behind the attempt on Luke Skywalker, since the secret model is… Lord Vader, our troops have crossed the galaxy following the convoluted trail the one trying to kill Skywalker. They pieced together all the information they could find and have reached an unquestionable conclusion. All clues point towards Prince Xizor. It is as I feared… Xizor is trying to discredit me, by killing the one that escaped me. He’s out on my place at the Emperor’s side. Time to put that thought out of his head, commander. Commander, we’ve intercepted an Imperial communication saying they’ve discovered that Prince Xizor is behind the attempt on Mr. Skywalker. Intel remarks that itt wasn’t as hard to decrypt as usual though. Should we trust it? Xizor?! Really, did he deceive all of us, putting us on a completely different track? O no… Princess Leia has gone to his palace on Coruscant to ask him for help to find… Excuse me for rushing in like this. We’ve just received a distress call from Chewbacca, who went with the Princess. Turns out Xizor isn’t our big friend after all… Congratulations to the Empire, that outclassed the Rebellion by correctly guessing more parts and by submitting a strong model that is very close to the secret model. See if you can spot the differences! This means the Empire gets another 5 points and wins the episode. All Imperials who participated can have this episode’s tag displayed on their profile if they request it here. For the other Imperial participants, the tag will be added to your character in the Player Index. Finally, if after all of the mystery and puzzling you like to know more about the elusive secret model, you can download the LDD file here. You can also read all about the creation in the topic. Thanks to everyone for participating in this episode. We hope you had a good time with this not very conventional episode. If you didn’t enjoy it as much as usual, we’re happy to receive your feedback either here or in the feedback topic as we’re constantly trying to improve!

One thing that had me worried after the update was that the BBCode for tables is no longer supported and that there was no viable alternative. But now for fun I just copied some cells from a spreadsheet to see what it would give, and it seems it just keeps the table structure intact! You can edit the cells and all. Now that's a huge advantage of the new software nobody has been talking about, and something that really convinces me this update is huge New forum software con pro no more retro feel fancy new graphics no more unique clock accurate time no more BBCode you can paste from spreadsheets!!! (with links working and all) PS: with all of these people noticing there post count has gone down, mine actually has gone up significantly because uploads in the gallery are now apparently counted as well...

It seems that when you go to an old post where you can see the BBcode, click on the "edit" button and save it without any changes, you refresh it and the BBCode will get applied. That could be a solution to keep things readable (although I'm starting to "read" the BBCode quite well ) until everything gets refreshed automatically.

Exciting news! I love the way how fresh my favorite forum now looks and can't wait for all of the fog to clear up in a week. You guys are doing an amazing job doing such a major overhaul and making sure we can keep having fun here. I actually never thought about how much better Eurobricks could look and what functions it could use, but now I'm overflowing with ideas. Please don't fix the clock with its one hour difference though. I've cursed too much on it, but have to admit I have fallen in love with it, a bug feature so characteristic of Eurobricks Go to the "Activity" tab all the way on the top, then click on "My Activity Streams" and select "Content I posted in". Make sure you set the "Read Status" filter to "Everything" if it hasn't been set to that already to get it like it was before. Note that you only get the content you've posted in after the update for now, but I guess that will be solved within a week. Having a lot of fun with all of the filter options by the way!

Welcome to this Alliance recruitment center. Okay, it's actually a table in the corner of a cantina. We're not really keen on being taken out by a TIE/sa or two. Please don't draw attention to yourself by staring at the Stormtrooper patrol. They're looking for some droids and an old man and a farm boy that I'm sure are of absolutely no significance to the Rebellion. The Rebel Bloggers are launching a renewed effort to keep up with MOCs and news both here on EB and on other sites such as Brickshelf, MOCpages, and flickr. We're looking for one or two new bloggers to join us in lounging around in the Rebel Base this effort. How do you apply? It's as simple as sending a PM to Lobot, our Blog Master. Your PM should include two example blog posts: The first post should be your version of a blog post written to cover the official release of the new 75159 Death Star set. The second post should be of an MOC of your choice that you deem blog-worthy. Of course, this should not be an MOC that we've already blogged. You can blog any MOC (other than your own) from any site, and we'll be lenient as far as the time it was originally posted. Anything from, say...the past year or so should be okay. If you have any previous experience or skills that you think will be helpful, be sure to let us know about those in the PM, too. What do we expect from you? We don't expect perfection, but good English is important. (Especially when it comes to a blog that primarily features MOCs -- builders like it when you talk about their MOC with more than just "awsum!" or "Nice MOC".) Prior experience with WordPress, CSS, HTML, or blogging is helpful, but not required. We'll help you with that if you're chosen, so don't worry about it. We know you can't be active all the time, so there's no requirement for the number of posts you must make in a time period. Rather, it is the responsibility of all the bloggers (So that would include you if you were chosen.) to make sure that we don't go too long without posting new content. Experience and activity on other sites such as flickr and MOCpages is a plus: There's not always something to be blogged at the right time on EB, and not everybody posts their MOCs on EB, so we need to keep up to date with other sites. Having an account and being active on other sites is not a requirement, but it is something we will consider. What can you expect from us? You get a Rebel Blogger tag. Everyone goes crazy about getting more tags, right? (And you get the page on the blog which you can write a bio of yourself on and access to our Rebel Blogger subforum.) The afore-mentioned WordPress, CSS, HTML: these are tools we all work with, so we'll help you to improve your understanding of them, if you need help. You get to write for a blog that is read by hundreds of people every day, including people working in Billund!

All I'll say is that there is no need for a stand and that none of the parts, both public and private, are used to build one.

I'm seeing that not every team has someone who is good enough with LDD. Know that you can also enter pictures of a brick built model. You can always indicate parts that should be in another color than in your pictures or where certain parts should go that you don't own. The better the documentation of your model, the better we can judge it. Of course a full digital model is the best documentation, but if you can't create that, you'll have to find a creative solution!

Just three more days until September 4th! Be sure to finish your entries on time and remember that any secret faction-specific part (the E and R ID's) that hasn't been incorporated in a build (only one ID per build, and it has to be in the topic title) will be made public!

A, yet another awesome creation by dmaclego! Forgive me for saying so, but I think you're being a bit humble with your topic titles. Because yes, we've already seen a lot of X-wing MOCs, but yours isn't yet another rendition. Has any other version ever even come close to the awesome texture on the fuselage you represent with those tiles, or achieved the shape with such accuracy as you did, without leaving the smallest gap (really impressed by your use of that Technic half beam to close that gap at the back of the fuselage. I would just have been happy with tiles and the barely noticeable gap they leave, but you went the extra mile!) ? And with every X-wing MOC everybody is having doubt about the proportions of the engines, but here? Here, they are perfect! And other X-wing creations already struggle to hide a good wing mechanism from view, but on your creation it has been incorporated seamlessly and it even can be operated from a stand (that video on Flickr truly mesmerizes me...). You even incorporated extra functions like the smoothly opening cockpit and - even better - a beautifully working landing gear. And never did an X-wing look that good in the dark. You see, even without talking about the best thing about your creation, it already stands out from the crowd of X-wing MOCs. But the next thing makes sure your creation stands out from the crowd of not just X-wing, but any type of spaceship MOCs and probably even further than that. It's your incredible attention to detail and the ingenious ways in which you manage to incorporate them into your creations. I'm sure at least a small number of people have noticed those fine stripes in the back of the model, but I suppose no one ever could find a good way to incorporate them. Those flippers are damn genius! I love how you don't just see the details in the original model, but also manage to translate them perfectly where others gave up after sifting through their entire parts bin. Your solutions for the details on the sides of the wings, the tips of the cannons or the spiraling cords are another perfect example of this: clever and incredibly elegant solutions to represent a piece of detail most of us probably haven't even noticed, even after watching the movies countless times. Your attention to detail has almost become proverbial to me. That's why I ask myself why all four of the cannons have ribbed tubes where I can only spot two on most reference images. I'm sure you have a perfect reason. Also, it makes me believe there's a very good reason for that one guy walking around with a radio... I bet that guy plays the Imperial march when no one's listening! With all of these qualities, how can this creation be yet another version? To me it probably is the version. Bu I won't be complaining if I see yet another topic crop up again in the forum, because then I'll know it's going to be a good day! And maybe, one day, the immense inspiration you give to all of us will result in all of us building creations of a similar level... I see the missionary sense of your topic titles now but I highly doubt if I will ever reach your level. But thank you, thank you for giving us this creation that will haunt our dreams in the meantime...

What a delight to see this topic! I have been updating the ldraw.xml file myself whenever I needed to. I'll see which part mappings I have that I can contribute... To help me do the part mappings, I wrote a simple program to do the equivalent rotation thing for me, so that I don't have to mess around with matrices or quaternions. I rewrote it in Python with only the most basic of functions. This way, you can plug it into an online compiler like https://repl.it/languages/python and simply hit the run button without any installing or programming knowledge required. I wrote instructions on how to use it, so once you hit run everything should go by itself. I hope this can help people who are less savvy with these kinds of things to contribute! So here's what you do: 1. Go the the website I just mentionned 2. Paste the code from the spoiler below into the left window 3. Hit the "run" button 4. Follow the instructions the program gives you 5. Paste the code you obtain from the program right into the ldraw.xml file on the place where it belongs. Don't be afraid to ask any questions though! O, and thanks again for putting together this document, everyone!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE! It has become clear a small error appeared in the parts list. The part in question is R09, which should be Light Bluish Grey/Medium Stone Grey instead of white. The amount of instances in the clue model stays the same. I'm sorry for this error that slipped by me, and hope it doesn't cause too much trouble. Now you all need to make sure to adjust that entry in any custom document of the parts list that you might have. I've already updated the public and Rebel parts list.

INTERVIEW: Oky Today we're interviewing Oky, a talented builder, reviewer, funny maker, and fellow blogger. EBSWF: Welcome Oky! How did your LEGO story begin? What are your favorite themes? Well, it all started when I was born… (Don’t worry, I won’t go into my whole life story. ) I have always had a desire to express my creativity and have been building with Lego as long as I can remember. The earliest recorded instance of me playing with Duplo is a home movie from when I was 2 years old. At some point I transitioned over to playing with System and never stopped. I never really had a “Dark Age”, although there was a brief period during my early teenage years when I had limited funds for my hobby and couldn’t buy new sets even though I wanted to. Being a teenager sucks. My favorite themes have always been licensed themes. It started with Star Wars, then Harry Potter, and now it’s Super Heroes. There’s just something about seeing my favorite franchises represented in the charming Lego style that I love. However, when it comes to buying sets and building new creations, I like to dabble in all themes to have some variety and take on new challenges. EBSWF: You've been a member of Eurobricks for a long time already. How did you get involved here? What has changed over the years? What do you like most here? I got introduced to Eurobricks the same way that most people get introduced to it: Google! I was looking for Lego news online and because I was living in Germany at the time, the first search results were sites like 1000steine.de and Imperium der Steine. From there, I followed a link to Eurobricks and immediately felt right at home. What I like so much is that the EB community is so friendly, helpful and massive, and it’s one of the places where Lego news hits first. I also love all the great creations, reviews, and contests. The contests are always fun to enter because it's a nice challenge going up against so many other talented builders and it gives me the motivation to put my best effort into a build. In a time where the internet is filled with hate and immaturity, it is comforting to know that there is still a place where you can have an intelligent conversation about your hobby with like-minded people all over the world. While the look of the forum has changed quite a bit over the years, the high quality of its content and members has remained the same. I did notice an increasing number of trolls and spam in recent years, but I think the moderators are doing a great job keeping the forums clean by dealing with these problems as soon as they arise. EBSWF: You're also a blogger for the Eurobricks Star Wars blog. How did that happen? A long time ago, in a PM inbox far, far away… the creator of the blog, KimT, approached me along with Brickdoctor and Clone O'Patra when he couldn’t run the blog by himself anymore. I was very honored of course and accepted. At the time, I was writing reviews of Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes along with def and I carried that tradition over to the blog when def was unable to continue. This tradition still lives on today with our Star Wars Rebels Reviews. EBSWF: What's the best thing about blogging? Do you have a favorite moment or anecdote? I’d say the best thing about the blog are our readers. I know that sounds super corny, but it’s true. Being able to share our opinions and finds from around the web with other Lego Star Wars fans is what the blog is all about and what motivates me for blogging. The best moment was when we reached 1 million views. It is humbling to know that so many people are interested in reading these silly little posts that we do. EBSWF: Apart from long time active forum member and blogger, you're a Reviewers Academy teacher as well. What drives you to share your thoughts on sets? Like every Lego fan, I tend to have strong opinions about some sets and just feel the need to share that opinion with others to find out if anyone shares my opinion or not. Analyzing a set to see what makes it good or bad can be quite fun and allows me to let anyone who might be interested in the set know whether it’s worth buying or not. Also, as I have learned in the Reviewers Academy, writing a good review is an art form in and of itself and can be a fun challenge. Helping others master this art form by passing down my knowledge as a teacher is very rewarding. EBSWF: What's the favorite review you did? And what's your favorite review by another reviewer? Any tips for beginning reviewers? My favorite review that I have done is definitely that of 10246 Detective’s Office. Not only is it the largest set that I ever reviewed, but I also got the privilege to review the set before its release. The intro was a lot of fun to write and it allowed me to pay tribute to one of my favorite movie genres. It was a lot of work, but I am quite happy with the result. It’s impossible for me to pick a favorite from other Eurobricks reviews. They are all so good, especially those from my fellow Academy teachers, and everyone has their own style, humor, and approach to their reviews, making each of them unique. A tip for beginning reviewers? Join the Academy! It’s the best way to learn how to make quality reviews. And no, this is not a shameless plug at all! EBSWF: The thing you're most famous for are your hilarious, unparalleled single pane funnies. You are practically the reference in the genre. How did you begin making them? Where does the inspiration come from? When Clone O'Patra started the Single-pane Star Wars Funnies thread, I liked the idea and just thought it would be something fun to do, so I made one… then another one… and I kind of just kept going. Honestly, I’m surprised myself that I have been able to keep it up for so long. Coming up with ideas for funnies has become an everyday game for me. Most of the time, they will randomly come to me when I’m commuting or in the shower or just lost in thought. Other times, whenever I watch a movie, I constantly think to myself: “How can I make fun of this?” The Actor With Most Minifig Representations thread is also a great reference for making fun of an actor appearing in multiple different movies/shows. After so many funnies, it’s getting hard to keep coming up with good jokes, but I still get a good idea every once in a while. I have taken a little break from making them lately, but I’m ready to get back into it! EBSWF: We also see you MOCing quite a bit in a variety of genres, and notably Disney and Pixar oriented. You're also very active in discussion threads about their movies. Even your avatar is largely inspired by them. How do they appeal to you? If there is anything I love more than Star Wars, it’s Disney/Pixar movies. Their talent for storytelling and animation is outstanding and produces some of the best and most original movies out there. I grew up watching mostly Disney movies and shows and I love them to this day. Buzz Lightyear is my favorite animated character of all time which is why I modeled my avatar after him. It is my dream to work for Pixar someday, and since I am such a huge Disney fanboy, it is only natural that I like to build in that theme. Of course, I still like to build in Star Wars and other themes as well. My favorite thing to do is combining two themes I love, like my Star Warsminifigure mashups, or building one type of build in a variety of styles, like CubeDudes or my Superhero Racers. EBSWF: Are you currently working on any projects, or do you have something of which you've always dreamed doing? I recently moved into a new apartment and bought a coffee table that doubles as a display case, so I’m planning to make a large diorama to display inside of it. I am also planning to build some custom Brickheadz once they are released, and with the release of the Disney CMFs, I plan to make lots more Disney MOCs! Also, look out for some special reviews coming from me soon. One thing I have always dreamed of making is a feature-length brickfilm, but I don’t have nearly enough free time for such a large production. Maybe someday… EBSWF: What do people who aren't LEGO fans think of your hobby? My family has always been very supportive of my hobby. They even let me use a closet in their house to store my collection and I still get at least one Lego set from them for my birthday and Christmas. My friends also think that what I do is pretty cool as they are impressed with the sets and MOCs that I have on display. I think the rise of mainstream geek culture and the success of The Lego Movie has helped making it “cool” to be an Adult Fan of Lego, even if the villain of the movie is an AFOL. EBSWF: How has the LEGO hobby changed or impacted your life? Do you have any practical uses for LEGO? I think Lego has had quite an influence on who I am today. I am a digital artist creating videos, animation, and other creative material for marketing. My desire to create videos for a living began when I started making stop motion films with the Lego Studios camera. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go to art school as an animation major and even used Lego as a medium for some of my school projects. Even to this day I still use Lego as an inspiration for my work and to plan out some of my projects. EBSWF: Other than LEGO, do you have any other hobbies or interests? As you can tell, I am very passionate about animation. I love watching cartoons and going to comic/cartoon centered conventions. I like watching movies in general and go to the theater at least once a week. I also enjoy playing videogames every once in a while (mostly action-adventure, racing, and puzzle games) and eating junk food. You know, typical nerd stuff. EBSWF: You're many things: active member, blogger, reviewer, photographer, MOCcer... Where do you put yourself in the AFOL spectrum, and how do you see yourself evolving? That’s an interesting question. I guess I am a little bit of everything. I just do whatever I feel like doing when I have the time for it. The important thing for me is to express myself, be it by sharing my opinion through a blog post, review, or forum discussion, or expressing my creativity through a photograph or MOC, and entertaining others while doing it. One way I could see myself evolving is by combining some of my talents in the future. Maybe someday I will combine my neck for video creation, Lego reviewing, and making jokes to start a YouTube channel for comedic Lego reviews. Meditate on this, I will.

Sweet first episode entry, Mads Heering: you'd say you've been doing this for a long time already with such a nice build! And I must say it's a very clever one too... I'm hard pressed to find a part that doesn't appear at least twice in your creation... cunning! But we're not here to discuss your talent in playing the game of this episode, we're here to discuss your talent as a builder. You use mostly basic bricks in your creation, but you use them quite expertly. You succeed very well in not making your building look like a boring cube and giving it personality through its shape without going into extravagances. I love those white columns that run all the way across the building, and the fact that they are some studs away from the facade. The doors/windows not being at the same level as the front wall and the columns is a good way to give your model some depth and a more intricate shape in a way that is fitting for a humble building. Those lights are a good way to break up the shape on a smaller level. So great job on the shaping with basic bricks! Maybe it could be even better if all of the features in the shape weren't concentrated at the front. You have some small things that break up the sides a bit, but even if you had more details, the sides would still look a bit barren because it doesn't have a distinct shape. You can get away with it if the building is in a closed environment, but here it is exposed at all sides, so there really is little reason why everything should be concentrated at the front. The side could have benefited by a protrusion, platform, ladder, crane, column, conveyor belt or even a smaller side building. Your building only gets more realistic if it becomes clear that every side plays its part. Not every side should be as sensational as your front, but you can't leave that nice piece of work unflanked. Another suggestion to make it all more real, would be to avoid using so much straight angles. Sure it makes sense that the building should be straight on the road, but your build would be more interesting if the road would be at an angle with the frame. And there is no strong argument why that device should be on the same line as the building. Also, minor things like the parked vehicle or even the stormtroopers standing around would look a lot more lively and less like statues if they wouldn't stand in perfect straight angles. Speaking of the vehicle, it's nice with those beefy engines and strong cannon, but would benefit from a more bulky frame to bind it all together. It's great how you see that there should be some platform to hold troops, how there should be railings and how the nose should be as aerodynamic as possible, but sadly the vehicle on its whole looks a bit too fragile. It would be interesting to add some extra slopes and wedges and greebles around the engines to give it some more bulk and bind everything together to make it stronger. Use those elements to give it a solid and distinct shape just like you did on your great building, and you will have a vehicle with character to complement your building nicely. But of course this is already a strong entry! Apart from the things I mentioned, I must applaud how you added asymmetrical features to your building, fully fleshed out the roof (with not a stud to break the feeling!), great addition of a road and lights (which many people tend to forget!) and creative shaping of the base (having at least one row of studs between the elements of your build and the edge of the base would place it more in a larger environment and make it feel less chopped off). That's already a long list of achievements for your first SoNE episode entry! Glad to have you here!

Thanks for the insightful answers, Raskolnikov! They make me appreciate your creation even more Thanks a lot ! I'm a month behind schedule because I could blog less during exams and not while I was away on holiday, and I just can't bring myself to skip the wonderful creations that came in the meantime, so I have quite the backlog that I can only very slowly work away. But hey, these MOCs don't get worse by letting them wait for a month. In fact, I'd argue that looking at a creation, not thinking about it for a month and then looking at it again makes you see more and therefore appreciate the creation better! So I'm not to worried about it, which certainly isn't good news for my backlog O, nice modification: it certainly makes the back more interesting. However, the engines still look a little bit disconnected: I think you need more things like that 1x1 cone to bridge the gap. Potentially, you could place some grey Technic axles in that wheel and hold it together with a rubber band to fill up the gap nicely. Sounds like a very promising addition to your fleet! I have been reading up on Imperial technology lately, and a treatise on walkers told me that there are no known depictions of ships carrying AT-ATs... maybe such a ship would be a perfect "smaller" compliment to your fleet, and it would challenge your design skills I now know you have! As for instructions of your LDD model: I've never done anything like that before, but I do know that practically your only viable option is to use Blueprint. I've heard some very positive things about it. I could have known someone like you would already have thought of that! I was a bit confused as to how the Technic pieces hinged, but now it's clear to me, and I see how little room it leaves for details. The only way I can think of to add details there, would be to have movable panels. So that when you open up the ship, you can hinge down panels with details. It's cumbersome, but you get the details. If you really want to be fancy, you could always try to invent a mechanism that moves the greeble panels automatically into place while you open up the big panels. Maybe something with strings or levers. The Technic handle and the motorized cannons on your Tyrant show that you have the necessary skill, so if you have nothing better to do... Once again thanks for the time to craft such insightful answers. And thanks for the teaser as to what we can look forward to (and blog ) in the future!

Superb creation, Raskolnikov! It hits all of the right marks just like your Tyrant, but only on a smaller scale, which might make this creation slightly more impressive. It also makes sure you're creating a very coherent fleet. I hope you continue expanding it. And then you should take it to a convention to display it side by side with mortesv's equally awesome Rebel fleet for the ultimate space battle. Make it happen guys! All joking aside, I do like this creation a ton. The shaping is exquisite, which is remarkable since a part of the design comes from your own imagination. The resulting ship looks like a very coherent design though, arguably even stronger than the designs it was inspired off! That's because your central trench of details stops before the point which gives the ship a bit of tension, like it's lurching, preparing to jump forward. The paneling surrounding the greebled trench give it a similar lurching look: the fact that they form a little overhang with those shadows beneath makes the ship mysterious and makes you wonder about the parts you don't see. Good call! The stripes on the bridge and the little extra angle that makes the tips pointy give the ship an aggressive look, even though it doesn't have a lot of weapons on display. Those extra "meridians" on the spheres and protrusions of the body give the ship a more interesting and strong look as well. So you get all of my praise like with your Tyrant, but get my extra admiration for so judiciously redesigning this Interdictor while keeping the Star Wars essence! The attention to details on the parts you did base on the source material are of course lovely as well. I dig the use of the new disc shooter pieces as perfect translation of the source material. And the shaping of the bridge, especially with those sweet angles at the base of it look incredible. The other greebles are great, especially considering how little room you had because it all has to open up. The Technic handle blends in rather well, although it might have been even better concealed if you incorporated similar Technic units in the greebles, or sprinkled some greebles on top of the handle. Other areas that might be a little improved would be the engine section (as has been discussed expertly above) and the bottom of the ship, which might have done well with some more unique cutout shapes like on the Rebels version, although I see that that would be hard to incorporate with your interior and all. Speaking of interior, I really didn't expect one, even though I know what you achieved with your Tyrant. Once again, I'm stunned by how you manage to incorporate such a wonderful interior without any exterior or structural (judging by the handle) compromises. It's also remarkable how you keep every interior section so clean. Even the Technic parts of the frame look like they're deliberate details depicting the framework of the ship! Maybe some interior greebling depicting more of the mechanics of the ship would pull it to a next level, with cables and pipes connecting the sensors, controls and weapons. It's not that you don't have some room left ! If you could pull that off, you would be the first to achieve the "Star Wars cross sections" style I love so much in a MOC. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but when I see you building such creations with detailled interiors and room to spare, you make me dream... Congratulations with and thanks for your stunning MOCs once again, which belong to the best in the theme with their beautifully executed (and designed!) shapes, details and interiors. Especially with that handle, you make it look like the set TLG is always trying to recreate, but never even comes close to. So keep expanding your fleet with stunning creations to keep inspiring us!

Awesome! Your creation is so cute yet so sophisticated! I love how you made it chiby by making the engines more lumpy. The amount of detail is exceptional for a microfighter. The engines look genuinely greebly and have all of the right lines and shapes (even the slope at the back of those protrusions!). The structures on the sides of the pod give a lot of texture on a small scale, which makes the model look pretty big. The use of the pineapple is great as well as the clever use of the rubber band to cover up the gap and give some extra detailing. I find it really inspiring how you could apply the microfighter aesthetic to such an unlikely candidate (aw, Sebulba looks so cute and harmless now...) and at the same time show how detailed creations in that genre can actually be. That's a lot of skill expressed through only a couple of bricks! Congratulations, and good luck in the further rounds of the IDSMO! When you're done there, I expect a full microfighter rendition of the Mos Espa race because this is just too good!

Such an awesome creation, mortesv! Somehow you succeeded in creating an UCS model in such a relatively small scale. The shaping and amount of detail is just spot on. What amazes me most is how some parts both have a function in shaping and detailing the ship: they're multitasking! The wedge plates and bricks are a good example. Obviously, they're needed to create the adequate shape. But at the same time they have those notches in the side that often ruin the look of a ship, but here function as details. They give the gap that extra jagged edge and do it on a small scale too, so that the eye is tricked in thinking this model is bigger than it actually is. I would already be happy when I could make a single part multitask, but in your creation those kind of parts are everywhere! The use of different bows is another example. Of course you need variety to achieve the right shape, but using different bows means an inevitable ridge on the transition, which tends to make ships more blocky and less realistic. In your ship though, those ridges are what give it extra realism because you intently use them to give the characteristic ribbed texture to the hull. The same goes for the small engine cylinders. That ridge when you stack 1x1 round bricks is usually a nuisance, but in this creation they again function to give extra texture and detail. Even the antistuds visible from the bottom help to give the ship the worn-down personality it needs. I think it's incredible how much you think about every aspect of every part to find the perfect piece for a job. I'm humbled by your understanding of the bricks, and it's an ability that makes me question my own knowledge of even the most basic bricks. The result is an amazing creation that looks quite authentic too because it seems to use only fairly simple bricks. However, there are some nice surprised on closer inspection, like the use of the arched window in the back purely for structural reasons. Again, you use every single aspect about it like its central opening and the small extensions on the side to fill in every hole. Absolutely elegant and genius solution! The greebles in the gap and around the engines blend in perfectly as well because you surround them by more beefy brick built structures that flow into them, so that the more "advanced" pieces don't look out of place in a model that uses mostly "basic" bricks. Another thing that is so inspiring about your creations, is how much attention to pay to details in barely visible areas. There are those greebles in the gap, but what stuns me more when I inspect the digital model, is that there are details shimmering through the beautiful forest of containers as well! They bring layers to the detail that make it look like a fully formed ship and not just an outer hull. It is clear that you take no shortcuts in your models (you don't even make them symmetrical), which speaks of your dedication to quality. This model shows once again that you're a genuine artist. Your creations weren't built for show: you care about way more than what the people will see and say online. You just want to create good MOCs, and that results in these combinations of pieces that look like they were meant to be put together this way. It results in a creation we can admire, but not fully understand, with all of the untold stories of your struggles and decisions. That's what puts them on the same level as some of the best paintings or sculptures: it's not a show, it's something that comes from a person's heart. Thank you for sharing this creation. I couldn't imagine a better topic to write my 1000th post on this wonderful community in, because it represents everything this forum stands for. In this topic you have a great creation and a great conversation. Great bricks and great people.

I already added LEGORACER1 to the Imperial comm channel, so I hope you can now fully participate in the contest!

10183 - Hobby Train (F model) – Factory 2007 - Diesel-electric German locomotive Download 10183 - Hobby Train - 6.mpd (OMR compliant), built with LDCad 1.5 Known errors: None 10183 - Hobby Train (G model) – Factory 2007 - Flatcar with container Download 10183 - Hobby Train - 7.mpd (OMR compliant), built with LDCad 1.5 Known errors: None 10183 - Hobby Train (H model) – Factory 2007 - Diesel-electric American locomotive 2 Download 10183 - Hobby Train - 8.mpd (OMR compliant), built with LDCad 1.5 Known errors: None 10183 - Hobby Train (I model) – Factory 2007 - 3 axis steam locomotive Download 10183 - Hobby Train - 9.mpd (OMR compliant), built with LDCad 1.5 Known errors: None 10183 - Hobby Train (J model) – Factory 2007 - Passenger car Download 10183 - Hobby Train - 10.mpd (OMR compliant), built with LDCad 1.5 Known errors: None General remark: apart from the first model, I didn't have official instructions, since these aren't available any more since a couple of years. I did however, work with the official .lxf files for as far as they still are compatible (some techniques are now considered illegal by LDD). In combination with that, I used generated instructions available on brickshelf. They aren't always logical or correct, but close enough, and better than the ones generated by LDD, so the steps in my models follow these instructions closely. ___________________ 20 more models to go! Luckily I'm still enjoying the variety of models and the unique techniques in all of them. I am getting a bit tired of building endless variations of the bogies, but it's still fun, and everything is going very smoothly in the render department now that I have my setup.