✨Yet Another Combat Mech !✨

✨Another custom vehicle !✨

It has eyes !

This horrendous prototype is a follow up to this post.

Now here is a video of how it works (using the same remote from the other post, that thing is universal !). I wish I had a way to display the good all-terrain capacities of this vehicle (other than wood and seashells...

Details beneath !

Side view :

There are plenty of things here to discuss. Firstly, the suspensions ! Three spring pistons : one of the 'new' models, two much older ones (System, can you believe it ?). At rest, the two small white discs in the middle don't touch the tread, but as soon as an object pass underneath, they get involved. The advantage of this system is that, with every part mobile, the obstacles can be passed easily. And I added rubber grips too.

These treads are powered by PF XL motors. Very very heavy and big, they have the same speed as other motors but much more torque. We're talking of Mindstrom-level torque; this means that In theory, I can add as much weight as I want and keep it at a more than decent page.

You can also see that I fixed two of the biggest flaws from my previous model : firstly the RC receivers have been turned to get signals from multiple angles. Secondly, to rotate the tower, I used a worm gearbox with a PF M to really slow it down; and the wires have been fixed to have a broader angular range.

The turret ? The turret !

These eyes are the best addition to this MOC.

You might notice that I have a servo and a PF M on the turret. This is because the weapon here is a harpoon with a cable. And it has a winch ! All of that with only four controls : two for treads, one for rotation, and one to fire/retract cable.

How ? Well I'm glad you asked. The firing works just like in the previous vehicle : the servo's arm presses on the spring-powered projectile and it flies, along with the cable connected to the other motor.

As for the retraction, it's slightly more complex : on the remote, I press the firing lever the other way around : this causes the servo's arm to go on the winch and it fits nicely, so that when the PF M rotates, the thread can't escape the winch (a video will be in the reblogs, because Tumblr doesn't want me to upload two videos at once...)

Major problems here are the following :

the PF M often detaches itself from the turret

the harpoon often get stuck on the treads

the thread is too short (yeah...)

A little replica of a wakeboard ski-lift I made as a present for a friend ! (Other views below)

The system is a little sturdy but it does the work, and the different white modules work as more than simply decoration !

(Sorry for the bad quality of that video-)

✨Small spaceships !✨

Assault ship (A-1)

Simple but not too bad in detail for a thing that small. Some light-grey highlights have been under to avoid a completely not textured look. The transparent piece also seems better with peg, when compared to a tile. Not sure of why, but l'm not gonna complain, as long as it works. While it's hard to tell with this scale, this is not just a small thing for 1-2 pilots, it's actually quite large (consider a 2×1 as a container (with the large ship above as a scale) so it's quite large. Not LARGE large, but still enough space to fit a lot of stuff; and since the engines are outside of the main hull, no space wasted !

Personal ship (P-1)

Pretty classic shape, with some obvious Star Wars inspiration. I tried adding a little bit of color (hence the single blue piece but I'd need to get some specialised pieces to add some proper colors. So I took the liberty to add some silver pieces, instead, which looks alright. I'm not entirely sure about the scale of that one, to be honest. It looks like a 1 pilot ship, but it would be a little too big if I consider it in the scale I've set - which I do.

So, l've added numbers to identify them, which should be a good idea in the long run, because there's gonna be so many of these ! And I'm bad at names, too. So this seems like a good idea. Suggestions are obviously welcome if you happen to have any. Please help me-

On a more fun not, I’ve received all the transparent bars I’ll need to make sure these ships are flying all around, and if it’s one bar per ship, I’ll need a whole lot more ships.

✨Christmas tree !✨

…Yes, it’s a very tall picture…So tall, in fact, that you can actually see the top of my shelf studio. I made this last year, and I think it’s about the time to showcase it, along with this year’s project, which I’ll post next week !

Fun fact : the top of the tree isn’t connected at all to the rest, it’s only held in place without any stud. I also couldn’t find a neat star for the top of the tree, so I opted for another shiny pointy thing instead-

✨Bionicle crab !✨

It was, originally, meant to be just another arthropod. However, someone reblogged my previous rahi, along with this comment :

Well, guess what ? Yes, absolutely. I’m glad I saw it because it gave me the inspiration for this monstrosity (and it made me laugh more than I would admit, too). Thanks.

I must recognise that if I compare my rahis, there is a clear pipeline. I don’t think it can go much further in this direction.

Anyways, details/closeups/weird illegal technic I just found out, below the cut !

Front (smol Visorak for scale) :

Because it’s really big. It’s also a good excuse to show off my really fancy and glittery Kanohi. No clue where it comes from but it’s beautiful !

I’m really happy with how mean this things looks, overall. It’s most definitely the bad guy for Toas to fight. It has a really good scale to work with my larger customer Toas [here], but it could also act as a really large rahi for my smaller space-based Toas [here]. Why a large crab stealing Kanohis in space, you may ask ? No idea. I’d have to actually think out a lore for that.

I started the conception with the frame (which does make sense, in theory), then the legs, and finally the shell. This was only partially smart, because that meant I did not account for the shell's mass when building the legs. Essentially, this poor thing can't stand on it's own, so I'm using two technic bars underneath to keep it up right (which are hidden in editing, of course).

Top/Hind (shell) :

I think the shell was pretty decent. I tried to use as little pieces as possible to keep it light, but it's still a lot. Among these pieces can be found one Visorak claw and three Mantax feet, which have a nice texture for organic feet. There is also another foot at the front which comes from an Inika set which I can't seem to find. I'm also using some of these large technic panels, which cover a lot of surface without being too much of a pain to set up (still quite a lot, since they're connected to the feet at at an angle, feet which which are also connected to the frame at an odd angle...) Speaking of Mantax, I alsu used the black-pearl shells, because these, too, have a really organic vibe, and it gave a small touch of pearl which was missing on the body.

I tried to keep the back relatively slick, to avoid something similar to an abdomen since it's not a spider. Still I had to extend it a little bit using the rounded cubical cover, to hide some socket joints, but it's okay-ish.

Neath :

Truly a mess, I must admit. As I started with each side separately, I tried to somehow connect them with the large grey technic frame (in the middle). On either sides, I have a whole bunch of axle connectors, both standard and angled, which allow for the thing to appear rounder than it could have been. The two leg sockets peices at the front are used for the eyes, and the pieces abov (barley visible) is a classic Bionicle shoulders piece clipped backward as a base for the pincers arms.

Pincer :

Or mandatory unusual feet usage. These really works well as any kind of claw or armor, in my opinion. The black arm pieces used here (Hordika leg piece) were particularly good for the job as they technic pin holes in there allowed me to add ad additional socket practically at the same level at the original one (even if I would rather have used black technic bars instead of the light grey ones, but i couldn't find any in my supplies... It's likely the Space station's fault.

Legs :

Or equally mandatory foot out of not foot pieces. Here is a cursed homebrew way to make legs : one Bohrok head part (bricklink call these shoulders ?) to display the piston-like element and serve as structure, linked with Toa Metru legs (which slots above nicely. And then comes the magic trick, for the Rahkshi shells (silveragain, because I have many of these) have a small attachment point toward the end, that is meant to hold the back blades in place; but it also perfectly fits right on the small ledge in the middle of the leg piece ! Granted, it's not a very secure connection, but these two pieces don't need anything else but that to hold. I actually loved this one so much, you can notice two additional Rahkshi shells held similarly on the tope of the crab's shell.

In order to connect the legs individually to the frame, I am using Vahki legs for the exterior limbs, and Pihraka arms for the central ones (these arms have the particular property of having the restrictive sockets on either sides, which makes it good to keep the leg's shape.

The middle sections are made using two simple axle-socket pieces connected by old plates, usually found in technic sets predating the Bionicle them.

…And obviously, I had to make another makeshift studio (I actually really like this one). Have a look at all these terribly assembled elements !

✨41st Recon Squad Camp Site ! ✨

Closeups and other stuffs under the cut !

Backside :

Right scene closeup :

Campfire scene closeup :

Tomb scene closeup :

And finally, my personal favourite :

New lights, new camera settings, and a larger space…because this one didn’t fit the other one…Indeed, using shelves as a photo studio is not my brightest idea, but in my defence, it works.

This MOC has entirely been made because of the camouflage cloak I found in the bottom of a box. I don’t know where it’s from, but it looked very cool with that particular trooper, and thus I needed to show it off.

It was also helped because the large amount of olive green plants I received recently (those that are all over the place).

I tried something new, which is that I have not a rectangular base, but rather, three trapezoidal ones linked together to play with the shapes a little. Some parts were a pain to link together, but some tricks can help with that. The crates, for instance, are on top of a hole I couldn’t fill because of the odd shape.

The tombstone was actually the best idea I could get because I’m missing a trooper torso ! I can’t find it, and a pair of legs and a helmet are all I have left, and I might have watched Tales of the Jedi again recently, so that ended up being here.

The tent itself is made thanks to a fun discovery of mine, combining nets and my recent shipment of plants. I put a plant every three holes, in one line, and continue the pattern diagonally. In the back, to hold them in place, I used 1/2 technic bushes, which are quite convenient. And of course, this part is not connected to the poles at all, I case I want to add something in the tent.

Finally, some will notice the main incoherence of the thing : all the smaller wooden poles (tent and fire pit) are not birch-coloured. That’s mainly because finding the good pieces would have been a terrible hassle, and also because the campfire would really look weird in white.

Also, I might have spent an entire night on these trees to find what the colour balance and shape would look the more natural, I hope these are good.

✨Space ships (and hangars, too !) !✨

(Or, last post for the space station)

<Previous< [4/4]

Under the cut are closeups of (practically) all ships and hangar from the station !

Before anything, the third post is somehow completely gone, even if I do have proofs that I did do it. Well, it was already posted late, and I don’t have the courage to do it again — and it’s not like people would care much anyway, so how this station is holding up will remain a mystery~

Anyway, closeups.

Hangars (groupes by similarities)

This first batch here contains the 'empty' hangars. Left is meant to be a closing/opening hangar, which I usually keep in the back because it's not the most interesting one; while the right one is the bare hangar. There are two of these across the ring, in which I sometimes pluck a ship, though it's hard to keep them in place because of the station's inclination.

Next is a batch of random boxes and other scifi-y grates and boxes. To keep the boxes in place, I use modified 1*1 bricks (because the floor is is made of horizontal pieces, aligned with the outer tiles). Minor variation are present in the middle hangar, where a third of the floor is composed of 1*2 modified bricks to add a tiny bit of texturing. While these might a tad repetitive displayed like above, they actually are separated by three other different hangars, so the repetition is barely visible.

A bit similar to the previous ones, these have (in my opinion) more interesting details. Left is two racks of large barrels, supposedly fuel. Middle had another barrel (made with flowers pieces) and a yellow cable, which was surprisingly hard to add because it pushed the back plate (which holds a lot of the hangar together). The last one is a stack of long crates, and an observation deck (I'm guessing the original sticker comes from a small star destroyer).

Last batch, and probably the best of all, the containers (scaling from not too crowded to very crowded). These are the same size as the big ship's. There are very few attachment points to the ground, as most of them are held by other containers above or bellow, although the middle hangar had two modified 1*4 bricks in the floor. The original plan was to get them all aligned, but it looked terrible, so I went for this more haphazard placement, which works better.

Ships

These first two are the smallest of my little fleet. The top one is two 2*1 plates held by black 1*1 mod plates. It's small, it's smooth, and it works quite well with the station. I'm probably gonna make other of these in different colours someday.

The next is one of the first I made, using some shiny pieces. The two chromatic studs on the reactors are differently shades of chroma silver on purpose because this is meant to be a much older ship (compared to other most of the other, smoother ships).

This is a much larger one. More of a military design, I mostly played with angles on that one (and added big reactors for fun purposes). The transparent light blue used here is the same as the fuel barrels of the station, and are the most used on the ships I have. Lore would say it's because it's the most common fuel used in the universe; pragmatism would say it's because it's the most common transparent colour in my boxes.

More blue reactors ! The top one is my one of my favorite. Only 7 pieces, including an old aquaraiders piece which I had to use as a ship the moment I found it. It's simply ship-shapes ! Given the colours, you could imagine it's an old model (not as old as the small one). The bottom one is a very thin one, with a Y piece which can allow for many cool shapes (like this one) !

Weird alien ships ! The first one is curvy~~ It's a nice concept which is quite common, but I really like the idea, and thus made one. Notice the green reactor this time, because alien fuel. Next one is more organic (or at least trying to), using mostly car pieces (and an orange reactor, wew !). It's also quite compact, with a single mod 1*1 brick as the core. The final one is by far my favorite (and not only because it has a purple trail). While hard to because of my lighting, the three main parts of the ship are separated by clear studs. I originally made it without the in-between studs, but then it fell the the floor, broke, and separated, and it looked much more futuristic. Consider this a very advanced ship of a peaceful species, or something like that.

✨Custom clones !✨

I really like messing around with minifigs, and I had recently got my hand on a 501st battle pack, which meant I had some spare accessories !

Of course, custom weapons, else it would be no fun, and of course of of them use illegal technic, because it's kind of my signature at that point. I really like how they all turned out - including the Dimension plates which are a really nice display base.

The most interesting piece it the small cloak piece I used on the sword one (Nexo Knight sword obviously !), because, first of all, it's blue, and it comes from some Marvel sets, which isn't a theme I manipulate often - which is a shame, there are some really cool pieces in there.

Also, these need names, but I did not find any yet...

Hey I don't know if you saw my repost on your post but I would appreciate and would definitely built a brickheadz version of the boba fett prototype minifig that I have as my profile picture. Your post says feel free to request any more and I thought it was worth a shot even though I doubt he'd appeal to more people than me.

✨Boba Fett Prototype ! ✨

Hi ! This has been in my inbox for ages, I know. Finally had time to give it a try ! Had a lot of fun, actually, mandos have some really interesting shapes.

And, because it took me so long, I figured, I'd also give instructions, too. Some colours might not be available, though, but white should be pretty easy to find for the outside pieces.

Instructions can be found here !

✨Custom water Toa !✨

Another one ! (Slightly less giant)

Details below the cut !

Front/back views

That one, too, is experimental, albeit in another style. I tried to remain closer to actual Bionicle size this time. Many fun details and technics here, so we’ll go from the feet all the way toward the head.

So, starting with the feet ! I have a complex of normal feet and Visorak legs held by a single connector. They have a wide angular range, but given that the connector connecting the socket to the feet is alone, a foot can also have a 360 rotation angle horizontally (not natural-)

The legs don’t have much special traits, except the upper legs using two socket with axle holes on top and a silver foot as armor on the side.

The body is where things get interesting. The Rahkshi silver shell is held by the silver claw above it at a chest plate, while part of the back is hidden behind a Rahkshi foot. The body is very triangular because it’s framed by these sockets with a silver piece in the middle, which gives it a nice aesthetic. The arms are an equivalent, with some tubes directly in the shoulders to offer a flexible piece which also limits the movements.

Finally, the head is not a head. I’ve made it like that because of the translucent Kanohi, that way it looks brighter, the inconvenient being that the backside of the head is quite literally an empty shell.

Now for the lower part of the arms : no socketed hand because who needs hands when you have a trident (bident ?) ! The main piece obviously comes from a Rahkshi, and the magic is wishing the silver connector. It used to be a lightsaber hilt from the larger Star Wars figs, but it looks good practically everywhere, including here !

Also, here below is a picture of the angle range of the arms (not much, oops).