#Lego micro build

[m8qlaff]

You can't take the sky from me!

[jaystepher]

Let's build some micro vehicles with LEGO bricks for today's tutorial!

[glowingbrickette]

Hogwarts Castle micro build set

My castle collection grows! I love the micro build castles, they look great and don’t take up too much space.

My new macro lens is fully manual, which isn’t a huge issue since I shoot manual anyways, but when I pushed the trigger it wouldn’t activate the shutter. 😨 I was panicking because I thought I’d have to return it, but it turns out that there’s a setting to activate the trigger when there’s no lens (or a manual lens it can sense). Whew, I can keep my new shiny lens and I’m thinking of ways I can use it.

[buff-daddy-cole]

hello if you didnt know

NINJAGO City Docks is the next micro ninjago city set!!!

[un-pearable]

ninjago city gardens mini bounty i would give my life for you

[so-many-pink-elephants]

i feel

~ alive ~

[evancelt]

Winter Kingdom

[tlbodine]

Stuck? Try junebugging.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but we're 5 days into nanowrimo so maybe this will be helpful.

Do you want the safety and surety of knowing what happens next in your story but can't stick to an outline? Does knowing in advance what will happen suck the joy out of discovery writing? Do you try to wing it through plots but get tangled in plot holes or have a story that runs out of steam because you can't figure out what went wrong? Are you at your most creative when you have a little bit of guidance? Do you tend to under-write? Do you get ideas in your head for random scenes and snippets that drop from the sky without context?

If any of these apply to you, junebugging a draft might be for you!

What Is Junebugging?

Since you're on Tumblr, you might already be familiar with the concept of junebugging as it relates to cleaning. If not -- I think the idea was first introduced to me by @jumpingjacktrash.

The basic idea is that you tackle cleaning by way of controlled chaos. You pick a specific area you want to focus on, like your kitchen sink, and then wander off to deal with other things as they occur to you, but always returning back to that area. You end up cleaning a little bit at a time in an order that may not make sense to an outsider but which keeps you from getting overwhelmed and discouraged.

How Does Junebugging Work in Writing?

OK, so that's great, but how does this work with writing? Well. In my case, the general idea is to jump between writing linearly, outlining, and writing out of order. It usually looks something like:

Start free-writing a scene, feeling my way through it and enjoying the discovery process.

Thinking, ok, now I have this scene, did anything need to happen to lead up to it? Do I need to go back and add some foreshadowing? Does this scene set anything up that needs to be paid off? And then jump forward/back to make those adjustments.

I'll usually have a bunch of disconnected ideas of ideas that have popped into my head, so I'll write those down in a list somewhere and then try to figure out what goes in between them and what order it goes in.

I'll write what I call "micro-scenes" which is where I'll just sketch out a few essential elements of what's going on without worrying too much about details, description, etc. -- just he did this, she said that, the setting was this, real bare-bones script. Then I can come back through and flesh out each of those microscenes into an actual scene later.

Got a story that has a complex structure? No problem. Write through each storyline one at a time and then chop them up and weave them together afterward. Write all the B plot scenes first then come back through to do A plot and C plot. Move the pieces around like legos. No one ever has to know.

This method works for me because I can't "decide" story elements in advance. I have never been able to just sit down and "figure out" what happens in a story beyond a couple steps ahead -- I have to discovery-write my way forward. But at the same time, that gets really daunting. So I zoom forward with micro-scenes, roughing out the beats in the most bare-bones way possible, then when I run out of clear vision for what happens next I backtrack, flesh out those scenes, build in connective tissue, etc. and by then I will probably find more inspiration to jump forward.

It's basically folding drafting, outlining, and revising all together into a single phase of writing, which is chaotic and goes against everything people teach you, but if it works? then it fuckin works.

Anyway, sorry for the jumbled-up post, I'm dashing this off quickly while I heat up a pizza and I'm about to dive back into my WIP -- but I hope this was a little helpful. If nothing else, take this as my blanket permission that it's 100% OK to jump around, write out of order, write messy, outline sometimes, pants sometimes, and do whatever else it takes just to get through the story. You've got this. Good luck.

[brickcentral]

Hello community!

We've asked to our spotlighted artist Yuan He to provide an exclusive picture for Brickcentral along with some insights on how he made it, and here's what he have to say:

"I’m an interior designer, therefore most of my MOC projects are setting up in interior spaces or architectural scenes. I haven’t done too many projects in natural environment, which sometimes I found it very challenging and interesting. In this shot, I wanted to create a scene of bunch of friends gathering together in a forest, sort of like a camping trip, and in this case, it’s the characters from Winnie the pooh. In this project, in order to hide the boundary of the scene and creating a more realistic environment, I designed some rocky structure on the back, along with some trees and bushes. There is an awning at the center, and the friends of Winnie are playing music, telling stories and dancing, surrounding a fire pit, enjoying themselves and having fun. I planned the scene to be set in night time, in that way I can create contrast of cold and warm lighting colors in this shot, and the viewer can easily focus on the characters, to experience their joy.

Despite the scene looks complicated, it’s actually a relatively simple scene, just lots of random items and repeatable steps, and takes time to build. I spent almost two weeks on it, most of the time are just placing flowers, grasses and trees.

As I mentioned this is a night time scene, I needed to set up some camping lighting to light up the awning area. I’m using micro-LED lights inside of the translucent bricks, but they are not that bright, just for decorative purpose. Another light source is in the fire pit, again it’s not bright, but sometimes it would be helpful to add more details at the scene.

After posting all the minifigures, and it’s time for the big boys to actually light up the whole scene. As you can see in this photo, I have 4 blue lighting fixtures to create the night time atmosphere. The two tubes on the back are for slightly lighting up the blue backdrop paper, to separate the trees and also mimicking the night sky, will get into that later. Besides of those, the front left light is serving the purpose of creating the general blue-sky light at night, which can be reflected on the front elements like trees, grasses etc. There is only one warm lights in front of the scene, since those decorative micro-LED lights are too weak, this small cube light is the key to light up the awning and minifigures, and generating a growing spot at the center. The small LED tube at the front right acts as a fill light, specifically for brightening minifigures, restores more details on the dark side.

If we are shooting indoor, there are few tricks to create more realistic background for the photos. I used to have my computer monitor as a background to simulate the sky, distanced buildings etc. But sometimes it can be tricky, I might need to adjust lighting and monitor brightness levels to accommodate each other, or my scene is just too big to move. In this project, since the trees needed to be blended in with the “sky”, I’m using a blue paper as a backdrop to creates more depth on the scene and making it look bigger, it works great for night scene, but different scenarios like broad daylight might be too bland for just using a paper.

Hope you enjoy this project and found it useful for creating your LEGO photos. I’ve learned a lot from other amazing photographers and creators all these years, I found it very interesting and inspiring to watch how others create their amazing photos. And like I said earlier, for LEGO photographers, camera gears are not that important, what matters is how your story want to be told."

Thanks for all the insights Yuan He! If you want to read this artist profile, head to our blog at https://brickentral.net/ - @theaphol, Community Outreach Manager

[blogtaculous]

I really want to give a shout-out to the Mobile Frame Zero community for the really, really cool work they’ve done since the following work was made possible by their efforts.

So, I watched all of Evangelion and was like “wow, mechs vs monsters is so sick like for real”

So my next Lego project is going to be mechs vs monsters in a micro city, thus continuing my trend of projects that stretch my collection instead of building on it.

While Brikwars shenanigans continue I have been building the mechs.

Here they are, a handsome little collection.

I wanted to write this post to expand on the lore of each machine but also to give credit to the excellent mech and frame builders I copied from. I think I have a real talent for castles and landscapes but machines and space builds still don’t feel right, so I’m thankful for others who have paved the way.

From left to right:

—

W-024 “Ancient Ode” is one of the original War Class mechs before the expansion of their battlefield roles, and is now one of the last to operate. It owes its longevity to numerous upgrades given its stellar combat record across conflicts and operators. It keeps its original colors, an homage to the Army it used to serve.

This one is based on principles from Josh's Super Chub Marines, though I've multiplied the legs and made some significant changes to the arms and shoulders. This mech was originally going to be a melee focused machine, but the super chub legs have some balance problems when posing, and I was frustrated by the lack of articulation in the ankles.

The solution came to me in a dream (Armored Core VI). I doubled the legs for a quadrupedal design, inspired by the success I had using them against Sea Spider. Now it stays upright effortlessly and I could also use more sand green (one of the best Lego colors). In general, the four legs allow for beefier body parts and the back-mounted rocket launcher.

“W-class” refers to a time when mechs were first used for warfare instead of construction or manufacturing. Today, Ancient Ode would be referred to a BL-Class (Battleline), but owing to its service record the original classification sticks. Ancient Ode is the Ma Deuce of battle mechs. I enhanced the build with stickers from the Avatar sets, though I was disappointed when the sand green on the stickers clashes with the brick color.

—

A-094 "Distant Oath" was one of the first artillery class mechs produced, as such the it was outfitted with a now-obsolete shoulder-mounted heavy cannon. While heavy cannon mounted in this manner such as the LM-15 Ultra Sonic have gone out of fashion in favor of much larger cannon or shorter range missile pods (a precursor of which is mounted on the right shoulder), it has been impractical to repurpose A-class mechs like Distant Oath.

Distant Oath is heavily based on the MF0 frame Uhlan Marine by skroberto on Flickr. I had to figure out most of it from his photos and other resources on the MF0 Facebook page. It's a great frame, but I made some internal changes to make it suitable for physical construction. Unfortunately, it is the least stable mech in the collection because the “knee” joint is a round tile using opposite anti-studs to hold the legs together.

Given the stability problems and its size I decided it would be an artillery piece. I added some stickers from a Mindstorms set, and the “A” in “A-class” was derived from the stickers. The cannon has one that says “Ultra Sonic” so that’s the name of the cannon. Distant Oath was almost a shade of blue, but I was using Orange while I designed it and decided I loved it too much to change.

—

S-62-2 “Wild Eyes” is a strike/support class mech designed for air superiority missions. These machines are among the newest frames produced, with boosted legs for softer landings and a lighter exoskeleton to let the booster engines really shine. They are useful for sustained flight and boosting directly into engagements.

This is a combination of concepts from -SuspendedAnimation-'s Rigel II and Andromeda MFO frames that use their X-11 core.

Wild Eyes is a strike/support class because I’ve decided that machines that are smaller and more mobile can have so many different roles that it would be impractical to classify them all different. The color chosen for the only soft blue that includes the chest piece and the shoulder bricks. Wild Eyes is a little lanky after I modified the arms to be more posable and it looked very “flight” to me so I gave them a real set of boost engines designed to fly around and harass.

I used more mindstorms stickers since they are transparent, but I was able to find some for the fund that say “Danger, Jet Blast” in a Marvel jet I could cut apart to fit.

—

S-973 No Survivors is a strike/support class mech designed for sustained ground operations. It's outfitted with stronger than standard armor and a booster engine for mobility to offset the additional weight. Additionally, it's equipped with a utility launcher for tactical munitions or a short range pile driver. Often, this style of S-class mechs carries a melee weapon, and No Survivors wields an RES (Rapid Energy Sword).

This one is a modified version of -SuspendedAnimation-'s Comanche core. I changed the shoulder and elbow assembly because I don't like how fragile modified tiles and taps are, something I also did for Wild Eyes and Ancient Ode. The rifle is their design as well.

Once again, the mech’s numerical designation is derived from the stickers. This one uses several unmodified from a Marvel jet. Like Distant Oath, No Survivors has last resort munitions in the chest. The RES isn’t a static blade like a lot of other mech settings, as that would be impractical when trying to fight in between buildings. It operates a little bit like a lightsaber, activating when necessary, and the energy isn’t all that stable. It explodes out from the handle and is closer to a giant lighter than a true sword.

—

I’m excited to get the city built for the mechs to romp around in. I have a few buildings mocked up already, but I don’t have space for more until I can block out the roadways. I love how AC6 cities are laid out and will be taking lots of inspiration from there. I also want to do some retractable structures like Tokyo-3.

Anyway, have a good day, thanks for checking out my work.

[ponett]

I've actually attempted a few Lego Orbots (I love figuring out micro-builds), but boy howdy, the parts just are. not. there. The second one with the simple ball noggin is probably the least-iffy I could come up with, and would definitely need paint for the actual face bits. Everything else just made him way bigger than Cubot.

(Though honestly maybe a slightly bigger attempt wouldn't be a bad idea for those two. Lego's never been much for scale and Cubot seems *too* tiny next to Minifig Sonic.)

good attempts, honestly! but yeah, any attempt at doing orbot is gonna be limited. seems pretty obvious that they only included a lonesome cubot in the death egg robot set because he was the easier of the two to figure out in lego form, what with him being square and all

[m8qlaff]

Rolf needed a piano so I made one.

[waitmyturtles]

GMMTV 2024 Part 2, let's go

I've had my MULTIPLE cawfees and I'm watching the GMMTV Part 2 trailers. @my-rose-tinted-glasses, this one's for you!

TL;DR what I'm excited for: Ossan's Love with trepidation; Revamp: The Undead, I'm first in line; The Ex-Morning with open arms; Us, once we have a better sense of the screenplay; Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist, drop it like it's hot, Mark; Thame-Po, boys look gewd

****

1) Ossan's Love: THE KEY WORDS BEING "INSPIRED BY"

If I take away the inclination to do any sort of comparisons to the Japanese version whatsoever ("INSPIRED BY"), I'm thrilled that EarthMix get to do romcom. Earth at this level of baka is utterly unbelievable to me, you are too smokin' hot, boy, but try to bring it, because if you do, and it's a success, then I'll be fucking really impressed.

2) Leap Day: Looks scary. Gun!

3) The Heart Killers: ...

Man. Man! First in muscle shirts and an earring, kisses pushed up against walls, etc. Where have we seen this before. Lemme guess, they all get together in the end. I would like to force myself to be excited about this somehow, Jojo on 10 Things, but. I haven't been there with JoongDunk yet, either, so actually, they seemed kinda refreshing against the FK vibes, ha. Anyway, this reignited my OF burnout, which I'm honestly trying to ignore as I get close to re-watching The Eclipse for my Old GMMTV Challenge project. @my-rose-tinted-glasses, my trust issues switch is flipped to "on."

(Get Jojo away from ships, please. He had Tay kissing Joss and Mild in the same year AFTER Dark Blue Kiss. He fucking doesn't need to use ships.)

4) Friendshit Forever: no subs, seems intense, the gals are smokin', NEW AND BOUN?! Hate to say it, but even without knowing what this is exactly about, I'm intrigued? My Boun! New and Boun!

5) Perfect 10 Liners: They're letting New Siwaj do 30 episodes, folks. I have no predictions on this one, y'all will have to tell me if it's good. Perth is back with New Siwaj directing after 2018's Love By Chance. If they give Chimon a little comedy, I'll be happy. I asked for Junior again, but maybe I wasn't expecting him to go to school, but I will admit I like JuniorMark together, and if they get to helm 10 episodes as the center stars, then good for them! Maybe that'll be the bit of this series that I watch.

6) Us: I believe in this screenplay more than how 23.5 is working out. I think Fon Kanittha needs more stuff on her plate to play around with to make a great show. This trailer was great. I'm watching My Precious the Series now (after having watched the movie this past weekend, which I was disappointed by -- the series is MUCH better, and going better than 23.5), and I'm seeing that Fon does stuff very well, background community building that gives us macro- and micro-level understandings of her characters. If those levels are Sing Harit, I'm here for it, that was an unexpected appearance, but if he's recalling the strength he brought to Todd in Not Me, then I'm a happy camper.

7) Hide and Sis: I love Piploy. Wednesday Club was a total holiday trash watch for me last year, but I loved her a lot. Looks like they're promoting this as a multi-generational show with known older actors, the approach of which I like. Everyone hates each other and maybe tries to kill each other; Keeping Up With the Thai Kardashians, maybe? Surprise, Gawin's a cop. Chimon as murderer, I'll support that.

8) Thame-Po: This looks cute. I'll consider a pre-order! Separately, I happen to adore cute Lego from LYKN, so good on those dudes for getting a show, and I like that William is pushing his boundaries outside of music.

9) Break-Up Service: I am happy that Off has gotten this kind of sneaky love romcom (?) role.

10) Revamp: The Undead: I'm here for it. I'm so happy for BounPrem. I'm happy to see some strong support dudes in Kay and Mark in this project. I haven't watched My Only 12%, so I don't know from Santa, but I know a lot of friends love him. I am totally seated. GMMTV is really the BL Machine, huh, absorbing this project.

11) Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist: Do not get me wrong, I am very excited about this; I am just wondering if Baby Ohm needs a little workshopping to get more diversity in his expressions. But I am very excited, Mark looks SO DOWN and ready to lead. View! Jimmy! I'm good with this.

12) The Dark Dice: High School Squid Game, I can't

13) The Ex-Morning: I gotta admit. This kind of moment is one of the reasons why I'm so happy doing the OGMMTVC. The big-ass smile I had on my face seeing KristSingto again, even though I really wasn't the biggest fan of SOTUS -- I've done a whole accountability turn on Krist after seeing him in Be My Favorite, and I appreciate that this show will go meta on the KristSingto background. It fucking sucks that Shadow sucked, because Singto is such a good actor, just seems like his scripts are here and there lately, but anyway. Aof Noppharnach writing this? Last Twilight ended cringe, but I'm still an Aof girlie, so I am 100% excited for this.

14) Scarlet Heart Thailand: That wasn't really a trailer, but considering the reputation the base story has in Asia and globally, I like, business-wise, what this means for GMMTV, a historical that will have appeal to multiple generations. I understand the original novel for this, Bu Bu Jing Xin, isn't translated into English, and that's a bummer, because it seems like this Thai version, which has already been dramatized in China and Korea, is based squarely on the novel. Fuck Win. These were the kinds of shows I loved as a kid when I watched Asian shows with my folks, so I have to admit that I'm intrigued, but I would have liked to see a meatier trailer.

That's it!

[restinslices]

Hi I I aorry if this is a bad request but do you think you could write something with Annabeth where you're her Athena sister?

I wrote general headcanons since there wasn’t a specific prompt. If you want smth in particular or smth expounded on, feel free to ask!

I’m gonna mix in book lore and tv show lore

Remember I don’t have perfect memory though so be easy on me

Anywho-

Being Annabeth’s older and accomplished sister means she admires you but is also jealous 

I don’t think the jealousy leads to her trying to sabotage you or anything but I think it’s obvious to spot 

You have a special eye that she wishes she had 

Annabeth is great at architecture and noticing small details, but nothing slips past you 

If she notice small details, you notice micro details 

If she’s great at architecture, you’re perfect at it

If she’s a great captain, you’re a perfect captain 

You let her run the team to be nice. Apart of her hates it but the other is appreciative 

I think she’d appreciate it more if you gave suggestions and helped in places where she lacked 

I think that hubris thing would slip in and she wouldn’t wanna accept the help but then she’d realize you have points and she’d give in 

I think having Annabeth as a younger sister means watching how her and Percy’s relationship grow 

You’re the first to be like “so, Percy? When are you two getting together?”

She denies it, very loudly may I add 

“What?! Me and Seaweed Brain?! HA! US? TOGETHER? NEVER!” “…” “…” “Seaweed Brain and I. Guess you can’t think while you’re crushing”

It aggravates her that you seem to know everything before it happens 

You two have the most realistic sibling relationship in your cabin 

Sometimes other campers try to watch Annabeth’s temper 

Not you 

You two poke at each other, you stress each other out, you make each other laugh, you give her advice, you comfort each other, you challenge each other, you do it all

After Luke’s betrayal Annabeth is pretty sensitive so you try to be there for her and fill in the empty roll Luke left 

You’re working double time

Considering you’re her older sister, you also help when it comes to training 

I don’t mean in groups, I also mean one on one 

But naturally, that also means you’re very hard on her 

It’s for her benefit. She’ll understand that one day if she hasn’t already. It’s to make her the best warrior possible 

Being Annabeth’s sister means giving her womanly advice also 

Athena ain’t there and Chiron is not teaching any of that shit. Let’s be fr 

That’s what also adds to your bond 

It’s not like you’re only family when you’re at camp 

You’re family and still help each other even when you’re out of camp

And you don’t just talk about camp and monsters 

You talk about other shit in the world 

Yeah, don’t die by monsters but you know what else will fuck you over? Not doing your taxes.

I feel like I also have to address when Annabeth was taken 

You obviously wanna be apart of the team that goes to get her, and tbh if Percy wasn’t the main character and had to be the 5th person, you’d go 

Whenever she returns, you’d check in to make sure she’s alright and try to keep her spirits high after seeing Luke

Off topic but dare I say y’all build Lego shit together?

I just feel like if you can’t build actual buildings, use Legos

Since the two of you train a lot, especially one on one, y’all balance each other really well 

Take the two major battles for example. The one at camp in BOTL and the final showdown with Kronos in TLO

Anyone going against the both of you would get hit repeatedly 

And I don’t mean only one of y’all are swinging, I mean both of you are playing off of each other 

The modern youth would call this “jumping”-

That doesn’t sound as beautiful though 

If she’s throwing a left, you’re on the right 

If she jumps to hit the enemy high, you’re sliding to hit the enemy low

If she’s grabbing someone, you’re delivering the final blow via stabbing 

You spend so much time together, your minds are practically linked  

When one of you is injured in battle, the other will make sure to aid them, even if neither of you are nurses 

After TLO, Annabeth is told she can rebuild Olympus in her image 

Guess who she’s asking for help?

You of course 

When you eventually leave camp to do your own thing as an adult, it’s very bittersweet

Bitter because you’ll miss each other and won’t be able to talk to each other late at night 

Sweet because you’re both in good standing with each other, Iris messages, and you both know you’ll do great things on your own journey 

When she needs help though, she’ll call you

And you’ll always answer 

Because you’ll always be family 

You promised 

That ending was corny asf. I’m sorry.

I’ve only read the PJO series so far. I’ve been procrastinating on the others, so I only mentioned those books. And if her personality ain’t 100% accurate, my bad.

[photomark6]

Only the bravest knights explored the deepest Temple ruins. Rumour spoke of mythical monsters that stalked the darkness. Even by candle light, you can’t be sure of what surprises await…

My entry into the @brickcentral monthly theme for April celebrating the 10 years of BC

I originally had something quite small planned for this months challenge to celebrate @brickcentral 10 year birthday! However, after a couple of days building, this MOC emerged! Inspiration came from some great fantasy artwork I found (like the below) and I really wanted to create a similar vibe.

Everything is practical with only a tiny amount of post processing. The all important candles where lit using some micro orange LEDs and they provided most of the light for the scene (a long time was spent hiding wires from the camera!). There are also two small LEDs used as ‘fill lights’ just to bring out the dragon and our brave knight a little more. Some slight haze was added with a face mister to help add to the vibe (also gave the added benefit of making the LED candles look a bit more realistic).

Safe to say, I’m am very happy to have stumbled across the @brickcentral community a couple of years ago. Without the amazing friendships made and inspiring pictures taken each month (and useful tips and hints) by the community, I don’t think I would have had the motivation to push my Lego photography forward. Happy birthday @brickcentral.

[bracketsoffear]

Donquixote Doflamingo (One Piece) "doflamingo fits as an avatar of the web because he is a puppet master. he acted in secret as the one piece world's top underground broker, distributing an illegal & fake version of devil fruits (devil fruits grant power) called SMILE in order to provide an army for Kaido, a major world power that worked against the world gov't. He has planted moles among the marines, the world gov'ts main military/police force, as well as sold weapons to countries to provoke war, and manipulated the world gov't thru blackmailing them into making him a warlord of the sea, a title which gave him legal immunity from the marines taking action against him. additionally, the devil fruit he's consumed is the "string-string" fruit which lets him control strings he creates which allows him to literally puppet people, trapping/controlling their bodies against their will. he's also emotionally manipulative, convincing his donquixote pirate crew that they're family so they love/adore him but he's 100% willing to literally kill his family, and he has killed his father and brother."

President Business (The Lego Movie) "His whole raison d'être is the fact that he sees free will as a threat to a perfect world. He runs a corporate empire fueled by his need to control and feel superior towards others, which controls the entire world and everything in it--including the oppressive police, surveillance cameras, history books and voting machines (with only one option). He's obsessed with having everything in a specific order and plans to use the Kragle to mold the world just the way he wants to. His elite minions are cube-shaped robots about the size of a lego car with tube arms and legs called "Micro Managers". This is because he's based off of Finn's control freak father who is also incredibly anal about his LEGO to the point of gluing his made-by-the-instructions builds together…which in the LEGO world translates to freezing everyone and everything in place so it fits his idea of perfection, leaving everyone conscious and paralyzed forever."