BrickJournal #67 Preview

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Issue 66 • March 2021

Contents From the Editor....................................................2

People Tom Gerardin: Building Ideas!.......................3

Building Alexandre Rossier: Back for More!...............8 Jerry Hung: A City Layout Like No Other!...................16 Stijn van der Laan (Red Spacecat): Building Future Visions..............................22 Damian Thomas: Building Dinosaur Bones!... ......................28

John Randall: Displaying Like a Master!..........................34 Dario Minisini: Building Butterflies and More!...............40 Dario Del Frate: Building a Fairy tale Castle.......................44 You Can Build It: X-29 Forward Swept Wing Plane..........48 You Can Build It: Razor Crest.......................................................52 Minifigure Customization 101: One Original Thought is Worth 1000 Meaningless Quotes!......................58

Community Bantha Bricks Files: Eloi Parizeau’s Nebulon-B Escort/ Medical Frigate and GR-75 Medium Transport.......................................66 SORTLUG: What Happens When the Cons are Gone?.........................................................72 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs....................................................................80

People

Nathan and Tom at LEGO Masters UK in 2018.

Tom Gerardin has been building for 17 years, and he’s a 21-year-old university student in his third year studying 3-D Design. In those building years he went from a person who built sets to a builder that not only has created a LEGO Ideas set that made its support goal, but also has competed on television with his skills!

As a child, Tom would try to build sets himself that were too expensive for him to save for, and as he got older, he discovered that he wanted to build his own ideas and models. He developed his building skills while building sets, learning techniques, and coming up with new ones and using them in his own creations from his teen years into his adult years.

Tom Gerardin:

Building Ideas!

Article and Photography by Tom Gerardin

Best friends Billy (right) and Charlie (left) on the town!

Inspiration for his builds comes from a variety of places.

Tom really enjoys character design, so he might come up with a character in his head and then translate it into LEGO bricks. He also draws a lot so his builds might come from aspects of his drawing. Sometimes he plans a build before he starts making it, but most of the time he just gets stuck in with the bricks and experiments until he has a final design.

Building time can vary—designing and building one of Tom’s small models can take only 30 minutes to an hour to design, while something larger like a vehicle from a film or a building can take up to a few days to create. It really depends on when he thinks a model is ready for building.

The hardest model (and model he is proudest of) is Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit fame), which also became a successful LEGO Ideas project. Tom was inspired to build Wallace and Gromit by his childhood. He spent a lot of time watching the classic Aardman shows such as

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Creature Comforts and Chicken Run, but the movies he watched the most were Wallace and Gromit. He watched the original three shorts so many times, he fell in love with them. Even back then, he tried to recreate scenes from the shorts out of LEGO—his creations back then didn’t look anything like the characters, but that didn’t matter to young Tom. Fast forward to today—he decided to revisit his younger self’s dream and try again to combine Wallace and Gromit and LEGO.

Billy and Charlie spot a cake...

For Tom, translating a plasticine character to LEGO was no easy task. It was really difficult recreating all the curves and lines of Wallace, especially around the mouth area.

But after the model was finished, Tom was very pleased with the result: a set that is 2,198 pieces and includes five brickbuilt characters and accessories. He continued his work on the rest of the characters for the Ideas set and was repaid for his efforts by receiving 10,000 supporters to his project in only six weeks!

Reliving his childhood dream is one of the reasons why he builds. Tom loves LEEGO, and he always has. He continues to build because it’s going to help him get his dream job, which is to be a LEGO model designer. This has been a dream since Tom was four. When he builds and plays with LEGO bricks, he gets taken to a place that he calls the zone—for Tom, it’s hard to explain. He knows it sounds cheesy, but it’s when he is sitting on the floor or at his desk surrounded by LEGO where he is in his element building, not thinking about anything else but what he is designing. He forgets about his classes and other parts of everyday life and he just does what he loves, and he can do it for hours. LEGO just makes him so happy—he thinks he’ll always love LEGO. His love of LEGO got him another opportunity to build.

In 2018, he was a contestant on LEGO Masters France. For Tom, it was an amazing experience, especially because it introduced him to people in the LEGO community. It was great for him to talk to an amazing group of people that shared the same passions as himself.

...plan, and...

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Playing video games.

Building

Alexandre Rossier:

Back for More!

Article and Photography by Alexandre Rossier 8

BrickJournal showcased Alexandre Rossier’s builds last issue, but had to return to for more! His MOCs are as extraordinary as his work as a designer and photographer.

The detail and craft he uses in both his creations and photography are simply beautiful, and prolific online.

Here are some more LEGO projects that he has built. If you haven’t see his work online, you can view it at his Instagram feed. Til then, enjoy his creations here, with his notes on the builds!

Building

Jerry Hung:

A City Layout Like No Other!

Article and Photography by Jerry Hung

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John Randall’s train display.

Some of the modular buildings in John’s layout.

In the daytime, Jerry Hung is an online vendor of computer and automobile cables. Off the job, though, he is a collector of LEGO sets, and has been since childhood. His fascination with LEGO City sets started when he got his first city set from his father: the LEGOLand Fire Station (6382) from 1981. Since then, he has gotten many more sets, and he did what many would do: he started building a layout with his sets.

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Building

The A-32 Skyracer.

Stijn van der Laan (Red Spacecat):

Building Future Visions Stijn’s KA-9 robot.

Article and Photography by John Randall

Stijn van der Laan is a Project Manager and Art Director at a digital agency, with his main focus being helping the healthcare sector better connect with patients by improving the online presence. He’s also an incredible LEGO builder, as you’ll see. BrickJournal talked to him about the hobby and his building.

BrickJournal: How long have you been building?

Stijn van der Laan: LEGO has always been my go-to toy growing up. But then the “Dark Age” hit when game consoles inevitably won the battle for my attention. About 15 years ago I came across some randomly assorted bricks at an online marketplace, which I immediately purchased. This brought me out of said “Dark Age” and I haven’t stopped building and buying more LEGO ever since.

What got you into building as an adult?

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The realization that I could buy individual LEGO parts online definitely rekindled my interest.

Shortly after that revelation I learned about the SNOT (Studs Not On Top) technique by seeing some builds from creative talent and fellow Dutchman Fredo Houben (Fredoichi). That really got my motor running and even motivated me to start sharing my own creations online via Flickr

some 10 years ago. The feedback and encouragement I received, coupled with the profound sense of community, really anchored me there. Over the years I’ve connected to many people, some of whom I now consider my friends. This also motivated me to make numerous trips to AFOL conventions around the world in order to meet these people in person, with the Japan Brickfest in 2019 being a recent highlight.

An expeditionary modular autonomous vehicle (EMAV).

What’s your favorite theme?

Looking around the room where my collection is on display (I keep most of my builds intact), there’s no point denying that I seem to exclusively build sci-fi themed MOCs. Most of them could be categorized as “semi-plausible nearfuture”, with some outlandish SHIPs in between. One attractive aspect of the sci-fi theme is that anything goes. It’s fun to dream up things that don’t exist while also challenging in trying to build something that feels real and plausible without having a real-world reference.

What inspired you to build something besides a set?

Personally I’ve always regarded LEGO sets as 3-D puzzles with instructions.

The challenge for me is to create something in real life that I can think up with my mind. LEGO is currently my favorite tool for accomplishing that task.

What are the inspirations behind your builds?

The CFX-7 Peregrine unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).

As with most builders, my inspiration can come from anywhere. I could get inspired by something a fellow builder created, or something random I saw on TV. The most difficult thing for me is to start building without a clear vision of the project. For instance, if I’ve set the goal for myself to just build an airplane, without being inspired by something first, then I will really struggle. Whereas when I happen to see a cool airplane and then start designing my own, the process will go much more smoothly.

How long can it take to build a model?

I’m a very slow builder because I keep reworking and finetuning the model until I’m completely satisfied with the result. This can become somewhat frustrating at times because of the slow progress, but I just know I won’t be happy with a rushed creation. So at a minimum I’ll spend a few months on a MOC. Depending on the size of the build this time can grow to up to about six months before I feel comfortable posting it on the internet.

The USS Spirit, a near-future assault craft.

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Building

Damian’s Tyrannosaurs Rex skull.

Damian Thomas:

Building Dinosaur Bones!

Article and Photography by Damian Thomas

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The idea of building something new in LEGO is one that drives many a builder, yet is actually very challenging. For Damian Thomas, a technical illustrator in the aerospace sector, it was a matter of building bones: dinosaur bones.

His models are also unique in that he uses Technic elements to build his creations. To do this, he had to build on a lifetime of building experience. For him, it started when his family inherited a basic LEGO collection from a neighbor when he was a boy. Damian remembers playing with it for hours at a young age.

Now 49, Damian recalls when he came back to building as an adult: “The wife was getting rid of a desk that was in the kids’ room and I thought the top would be the ideal place to build a Hoth MOC on, and it all started from that.” From there, he realized he had many favorite themes: Star Wars, Ninjago, Batman—anything that looks good, really. For Damian, the problem is that LEGO is coming out with so many sets, it’s become hard to choose which one to buy.

Building his own models was the next step for him. Damian reflects: “I think as a child I was limited to what I had and what I could build and as an adult the doors just opened up to the LEGO candy shop… and then with social media there were so many examples of great creations… and I thought, I

want to do that.”

Finding the new thing to build was a matter of searching online for something that Damian hadn’t seen anyone else build with LEGO before. He saw that dinosaurs had been built using standard bricks, but nobody had tackled building them using Technic parts. For him, it seemed like a good challenge… and the rest is history.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex was the first dinosaur that he tackled, and with it came a big learning curve. It took around 70 hours to build the skull. He originally wanted to build the full skeleton, but figured it would cost too much to build in standard bricks, so he turned to Technic parts because their panel parts were bigger and he could get better coverage. Once he started building with the panels and pins, he realized that he could make great shapes, and his building went forward from there.

Dilophosaurus skull.

From there, he went on to build a Triceratops skull, where the challenge was its support frame, which took just as long to build as shaping the skull. The total time on that project was, like the T-Rex skull, around 70 hours. After that, he built a Dilophosaurus skull that took only 40 hours to complete.

Triceratops skull in progress.

A look at the support structure of the Triceratops model.

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Building

John Randall:

Displaying like a Master!

Article and Photography by John Randall 34

John Randall’s train display.

Many LEGO builders build their creations to display at events, taking the time to package and store their models and layouts for transport, then setting up at displays or conventions. It’s a cycle that is repeated constantly, and for some, it’s a routine. But what if you are not able go to events? If you’re John Randall, you build your own display.

Since 2007 (when the first LEGO Modular building was released), he has been building LEGO sets and placing them in a home display in his garage.

Some of the modular buildings in John’s layout.

As a result, his garage has been transformed. John has his woodshop, a treadmill, and his LEGO displays in place of the usual garage items. His cabinets and shelves and display cases are all built by him for his sets, and his wife does all the painting. The result is a professional-level permanent display that looks more like a museum display than anything else.

John started building sets with the Racers series of cars and from there began collecting and building vehicles. Retiring from the Marine Corps Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2006, he continued to build, but when he was diagnosed with melanoma and was restricted from outdoor activities, he decided to build bigger.

From a layout that started on a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of plywood and the first LEGO Modular Building (the Cafe Corner), he has expanded from shelves full of cars and trucks to a multilevel train layout to show his collection.

The Cafe Corner began a tradition of building a LEGO Modular set, with fifteen sets built so far. His wife buys the sets when they are released in January, with John receiving them in December either for his birthday or for Christmas.

A look at part of the lower level.

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Building

A butterfly nears a flower.

Dario Minisini:

Building Butterflies and More!

Article and Photography by Dario Minisini

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Dario Minisini is a 48-year-old tattoo artist that wishes he was ten years younger. He started building as an adult when his son was a baby—18 years ago. When he was a child, Dario enjoyed LEGO building very much. He came from a modest family; he only got LEGO on Christmas Day and his birthday. As a result, he guarded them jealously.

As an adult, he became a trains and Happy Potter enthusiast. He is often inspired to build—working in an artistic world, it is almost natural for Dario. Once he decides on an idea, he immediately builds multicolor with the colors he has, and then orders what he needs to finish the MOC. Because building comes naturally to him, Dario doesn’t always design on paper beforehand. When he starts building, he never stops because he can’t wait to finish it.

He makes different kinds of MOCs, sometimes a unique piece or a series. He ultimately wants to make creations that are different from the usual MOCs. Through the LEGO he

Building

Dario Del Frate:

Building a Fairy Tale Castle!

Article and Photography by Dario Del Frate

Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Recognize this castle? If you are a Disney fan you probably know it as the castle that is at Disneyland Paris, named Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (French for “The Castle of the Beauty in the Sleeping Wood”), but known in English as Sleeping Beauty Castle. Called by many Disney fans as the most beautiful Disney castle of any park, this model was built by Dario Del Frate, who was in the last issue showing his crystal 44 models. BrickJournal talked to him about the castle.

BrickJournal: What inspired you to build the Castle, and what made you choose microscale?

Dario del Frate: Paris is the first Disney park we visited— ten years ago now—and when I stepped in and saw the castle, soft pink in the raising sun at the end of Main Street... I was in awe! I didn’t expect it to feel so real and so enchanted at the same time. It blew me away! From that moment I wanted to build it with LEGO!

You Can Build It MINI Build

Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)

Qty Color

Part

Description

1 White

2431.dat

Tile 1 x 4 with Groove

1 White

3070b.dat

Tile 1 x 1 with Groove

1 White

3623.dat

3 White 1 White

1 White

3710.dat

1 White

32028.dat

The X-29 was an experiment plane that was tested by NASA in the mid- and late-‘80s. There were only two built, but their futuristic appearance made them a favorite for aviation buffs.

While the real plane was made of metal and composites, this one is made of plastic plates and slopes. I was inspired to build this microscale model by Ralph Savelsburg’s minifigure scale X-29, which was featured in BrickJournal #58. The scale was selected by using the scale defined by Brickmania’s Micro Brick Battles, which is 1/120.

Building the model was a matter of finding some blueprints, which were online, then scaling the drawings to the right size. After that, I started building. Amazingly enough, it wasn’t that hard to come up with a model that had the right lines. There were two problems I ran into.

One was the nose. I was able to use a cone, but I wanted a point. I was stumped until I saw a Ninjago set with the pointed piece I was looking for—I took a quick look online at Bricklink to see if the part came in white (it was pearl gold in the Ninjago set), and since it did, I ordered a few.

While waiting for the parts to come in, I had to figure out the second problem.

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Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 1

Plate 3 x 2 with Hole Plate 1 x 3

Plate 1 x 4

2 White 15573.dat

1 White 15672.dat 1 White 24299.dat 1 White 24307.dat 1 White 24482.dat

Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Center Stud, without Understud Slope Plate 45 2 x 1 Wing 2 x 2 Left Wing 2 x 2 Right Spike 2.4L with 4 Fins with Bar 0.4L

1 White

Tile 2 x 2 with Studs on Edge

33909.dat 36840.dat

Plate 1 x 2 with Door Rail Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up

1 White

43722.dat

Wing 2 x 3 Right

2 White

51739.dat

Wing 2 x 4

1 White

Design and Instructions

by Joe Meno

3176.dat

1 White

1 White

NASA X-29 Forward Swept Wing Plane

3023.dat 3024.dat

43723.dat

Wing 2 x 3 Left

1 White

59900.dat

Cone 1 x 1 with Stop

1 Red

3024.dat

Plate 1 x 1

1 White 99206.dat

1 Trans Black 3069b.dat 1 Trans Black 54200.dat 1 Light Bluish Grey 85861.dat

1 Dark Blue 3024.dat 1 Dark Blue 3623.dat 7 Dark Blue 15573.dat

Plate 2 x 2 x 0.667 with Two Studs On Side and Two Raised Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 3 Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Center Stud, without Understud

LEGO is a system that is mostly right angles, so angled wings are a challenge. A forward swept wing is a problem.

I was able to figure a way to forward sweep a wing plate, but it was only held in place on one stud. How would I keep the wing angled correctly? The answer turned out to be a simple elegant solution. You’ll see it when you build the plane.

All in all this was a model that was a fun design to work on, and one that results with a small swooshable plane.

Have fun building!

You Can Build It MINI Build

Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)

Main Body

Qty Color Part 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 36841.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 36840.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 49307.dat 3 1 2 2

Razor Crest Design and Instructions

by Christopher Deck Hello everybody and welcome to an exciting building session in this issue of BrickJournal! Today we want to step into the world of the Star Wars live-action series The Mandalorian. The main ship of the series is the Mandalorian’s personal starship, named “Razor Crest.”

With its round truncated nose and sloped cockpit and the huge wing-mounted cylindrical engines, it looks like a hybrid of Republic Gunship and the bounty hunter gunship “Halo” from the animated Clone Wars series.

With almost 70 pieces, the model is very compact for being quite small. It features some quite enjoyable building techniques, and is very detailed for its size. Many newer date pieces like 1x1 brackets (36840, 36841), shortened 1x1 cones (85975), 1x1 rounded slopes (49307), and curved wedge slopes (29119, 29120) made this possible.

Some remarkable details are the angled cockpit, a retractable cargo hatch at the ship’s rear, and additional landing gear that can be attached on the underside.

Therefore you simply need three 1x1 round plates (4073), and three minifigure ice skates (93555). You can see the landing gear detail on the second image showing the ship in landing position.

With that I am done for this issue’s building session and hope you will be having fun and excitement during building this little model. Have a good time and see you next time!

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1 2 2 3 1 1 9 2 2 1 1 2

Top

Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Down Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Brick 1 x 1 x 0.667 with Curved Top Light-Bluish-Gray 52107.dat Brick 1 x 2 with Studs on Sides Light-Bluish-Gray 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 32828.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Bar Dark-Bluish-Gray 61252.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Thick C-Clip) Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 60478.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handle on End Dark-Bluish-Gray 11458.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Offset Peghole Light-Bluish-Gray 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 Light-Bluish-Gray 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 61409.dat Slope Brick 18 2 x 1 x 0.667 Grille Light-Bluish-Gray 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Trans-Clear 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Light-Bluish-Gray 29120.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left Light-Bluish-Gray 29119.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right Light-Bluish-Gray 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove

Qty Color Part 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 36840.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 34103.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3022.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 26601.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 29120.dat 1 2 2 1 1 1

Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 3 with 2 Studs Offset Plate 2 x 2 Plate 2 x 2 without Corner Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left Light-Bluish-Gray 29119.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right Dark-Bluish-Gray 2412b.dat Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove Light-Bluish-Gray 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Light-Bluish-Gray 87079.dat Tile 2 x 4 with Groove Light-Bluish-Gray 41770.dat Wing 2 x 4 Left Light-Bluish-Gray 41769.dat Wing 2 x 4 Right

Engines

Qty Color Part 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 98100.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 17485.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 85975.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 4274.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 32187.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 15535.dat

Description Brick 2 x 2 Round Sloped Brick 2 x 2 Round with Pin Holes Minifig Hat Fez Technic Pin 1/2 Technic Transmission Driving Ring Extension Tile 2 x 2 Round with Hole

Spider-Man and all related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Building

Minifigure Customization 101:

One Original Thought is Worth 1000 Meaningless Quotes!

Article by Jared Burks

An example of halftones mixing colors.

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One of my favorite films is Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse; the art in this film reminds me so much of old comic book art and calls me back to my youth when I learned to create commercial art in my father’s print company. We created halftone images to generate more colors using fewer inks. This trick of the eye has always amazed me, and is likely why the film speaks to me beyond its great story.

Halftone is the reprographic technique simulating a continuous-tone imagery using dots, varying either in size or in spacing, thus generating a gradient-like effect. Where continuous-tone imagery contains an infinite range of colors or greys, the halftone process reduces visual reproductions to an image that is printed with only one color of ink, in dots of differing size or spacing or both. This reproduction relies on a basic optical illusion: when the halftone dots are small, the human eye interprets the patterned areas as if they were smooth tones. “Halftone” can be used to refer specifically to the image that is produced by this process. Just as color photography evolved with the addition of filters and film layers, color printing is made possible by repeating the halftone process for each subtractive color—most commonly using what is called the “CMYK color model.” The semi-opaque property of ink allows halftone dots of different colors to create another optical effect, full-color imagery.

[–summarized from Wikipedia] You may recall, I created the figures from the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for a previous article, and since then I have wanted to create a unique display for these figures. Like many figures, we find what

accessories are missing when we attempt to place them into their environment. That was never truer than with these figures. In this article, I am going to focus on the simple, the accessory.

It has been said, “A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to.” I am telling you now, create accessories, and do not merely rely on LEGO or the LEGO aftermarket to create the accessories your figures need. Creation of these accessories has never been easier than it is today with 3-D printing. It is 3-D printing that actually helps make the accessories I am focusing on possible, as I am not sure how I would sculpt or scratch build them at this scale given their repetition, and the need for several copies of the same element—strengths of the 3-D printer.

An example of halftone used for shading.

Making a Mural The “No Expectations” graffiti mural really stood out to me, as it has too many others, in the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse film. What also stood out at the end of the film was Miles’ paper entitled “Great Expectations” with the same prototype art on the cover that he used to create his “No Expectations” graffiti mural. My thought for the custom minifigure display is to have all of the Spider-People from the film show up to help Miles repaint the mural. They will convert it from “No Expectations” to “Great Expectations.” My version of this art isn’t film accurate even though I started with the original art for the piece from the film. By chance, I happen to follow the artists Patrick O’Keefe @okeefe_artist and Bob Persichetti @bob_persichetti who created the art for the film and shared it on Instagram. I used this original art to create my display wall film for this scene (https://twitter.com/okeefe_artist/ status/1077991710024761346) and while mine is not movie-accurate, it is fairly close to the artist’s original file. I chose to make mine on a wall of a singular color instead of including the arch and making the room an octagon as it is in the film. I have tried to include some of these details elsewhere, but as this is a display, a larger flat surface makes it easier to highlight the figures in front of a flat wall.

With all the above said, I need to set the scene and highlight the characters in the scene. If you watch the film, Miles and his Uncle Aaron leave spray cans and other items behind. These would still be around as this is a deserted subway access tunnel. Miles carries most of his paint in his backpack, and there are also barrels, a concrete bench, and a few other miscellaneous items, but the two items that stand out the most are the cans of spray paint and the milk crate(s) he stands on while painting. There are ways to create something that resembles a spray paint can in LEGO form, but I was not taken with them; and there are crates, but their scale seems off compared to a LEGO minifigure. Therefore, I set out to create these two accessories. I hope that they will inspire you to create many more simple accessories.

The “No Expectations” art as graphitti.

The extracted art.

Miles’ paper with the art.

The graphitti placed on a brick built wall for a display.

Bantha Bricks Files 66

Bantha Bricks Files: Eloi Parizeau’s

Nebulon-B Escort/ Medical Frigate and GR-75 Medium Transport Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Eloi Parizeau

Galactic greetings! I’m Steven Smyth from Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. Since the community’s founding in 2016, on an almost daily basis, I have witnessed amazing and creative Star Wars builds in the best Star Wars themed building brick group on Facebook. Eloi Parizeau is one such creative builder and recently shared this Nebulon-B Escort/ Medical Frigate and GR-75 Medium Transport combo.

Steven Smyth: How’s it going Eloi?

I’ve known you for years now through the Facebook group, first as a member and then as a moderator of the all-volunteer Admin Team that helps monitor the group content to maintain a family-friendly atmosphere. Everyone in Bantha Bricks has been wowed by your many awesome Star Wars brick builds, but

few years, but I am now working in microscale and detailed spaceships. I love being a moderator in Bantha Bricks, I believe we have an awesome team; it has allowed me to meet some amazing builders and have friendships with some fabulous people.

Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a surprise theme for us?

Back in 1999, I saw a LEGO X-Wing on a shelf at Wal-Mart and couldn’t help myself, it just fell into my cart and I bought it. nowENJOYED have overTHIS 300 PREVIEW, different IF IYOU Star Wars sets in my collection and I also loveCLICK collecting Star Wars minifigs.

THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! Lately, I discovered the Hidden Side theme and IN I have to say it is really cool!

Sadly, LEGO pulled the plug on this theme by the end of 2020 so it will stay on shelves for less than two years. I love to see what the Ideas theme brings to us every year, but TLG seems to only release big costly sets lately. I end up passing on them most of the time. I keep my money for parts!

Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself?

Three years ago, two friends asked me to enter their LUG and attend some events to show my builds. I have done four events since then and really appreciate the interaction with the public, so it convinced me to work on better MOCs, and I have really improved my skills at this point. LEGO lets me show my love for Star Wars by creating some great models with awesome techniques.

I have learned a lot by talking with people in my LUG and other exhibitors at events. I have also learned tons of nice building techniques in the Bantha Bricks BRICKJOURNAL #67 Facebook group. It’s in that group that I have how to use Bricklink, and Get anlearned introduction to TOM GERARDIN’s LEGO best friends Billy and Charlie, tour Disneyland Paris’ Sleeping Beauty Casit’s now a cool part of my life! tle in bricks with DARIO DEL FRATES, and visit more theme parks LEGO-style with BILL VOLLBRECHT! Plus: “AFOLs” by

In regards to your latest build, of the Nebulon-B Escort/Medical Frigate cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build and It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization GR-75 Medium Transport combo, what inspired you to build those particular

by JARED K. BURKS, and more!! ships?

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

A group shot.

for the uninitiated please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do.

Eloi Parizeau: Hi Steven, I’m doing fine, thanks for asking! I have been in the LEGO world all my life, got my first set at the age of 4 years old. My father is an architect, so I have some related skills in my blood for building MOCs. Speaking about architecture, I am an architectural technician, a career that really stepped up my taste for great builds. I grew up trying to explore different styles of builds. Offroad trucks, spaceships, space bases, medieval castles, race cars, anything offered by LEGO at that time. I really loved the Castle and Blacktron themes during my childhood. I still have some of my castles and all of my Blacktron in my collection. Now I focus on Star Wars builds. I have built many lightsaber hilts in the last

Since 1999, I really hoped LEGO could releasehttps://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=133&products_id=1609 a set of the Nebulon-B. I remember having spent so many hours trying to build it when I was a kid but at that time, the variety of bricks was not good enough to build such a complex ship. When I first joined Bantha Bricks almost four years ago, I saw the Mortesv model and I was stunned by the accuracy of it. It stayed in my head all the way until the beginning of the pandemic back in March of 2020. Being confined at home gave me some free time to play with my bricks, so I started the dream project.

Surprisingly, it took me only twenty hours to create it. I then realized how I could think about a model and it appears in my mind so clearly that I can build it in one try. The only modifications I have done since are greebling upgrades. As for the GR-75, it was an automatic; when you have a Nebulon-B you need a GR-75 Transport! So I did the same thing, worked on a way to do the shell with curved slopes, used modified plates with handle and with clips to add to the curved

Another group shot.

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