Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A small side project

In my previous blog, I mentioned that I used the LDD software from Lego to create the necessary mechanical piece to be able to move the arms of the ship. Using the LDD was a lot of fun and over the last 2 weeks, I decided to do a small side project.
The biggest hassle in using the LDD is that you always need to find the brick that you want. All brick are categorised but the categorisation does not always make sense (my point of view). While searching for all the brick I needed, I stumble on the lego people section and just decided to have a bit of fun... At one point I had a skeleton horse chasing  a droid army chasing just a wide variety other characters...
Then, I decided I was going to give a try at creating the Firbolg fighter; decided it was too hard I tried the Cyclops fighter bomber; decided it was too hard I tried the Einherji fighter. This last one was easy as it contains only flat surfaces. Then about 2 weeks ago while surfing the cuusoo website, I notice the Rifter done by Czar and thought it was really cool. Upon reading more, if a design gets 10 000 votes there is a chance in making it a real kit.
I later decided that I would post the Einherji I made to try to support Czar so that we get lego made Eve online toy.
I can see myself playing the T3 cruiser and moving different hulls together... I would definitely buy them for (me) my brother's kid.
Hence this ship is now available on the cuusoo website to get voted on. Hope you all vote for this ship and Czar Rifter.
This is the address to vote for it: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/13056
and Czar rifter: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/11619

Below is my attempts at making all the ships I mentioned above. The upper right corner is the Firbolg helm, the middle is the Cyclop helms, at the bottom is the Einherji and the lower right is the start of the Ammarian Templar. I still plan on finishing the first models...

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Lego; going back to our inner child

From the beginning I've been wondering how to make the pieces move and how to activate them. I went through multiple scenarios, but all of them required complex electronic and gear systems that I needed to buy from hobby shops or online. About 1 month ago for some reason, I though about the Technic Lego line of toys. I then search the Lego web site for a way to buy individual pieces and arrived on the LDD or Lego Digital Designer. The LDD is a free piece of software that allows the user to design Lego models and it is pretty awesome. An example of it's awesomeness is the Rifter made by czar. I also found on the site the Pick A Brick service.
After about 3 weeks and multiple different designs, I am finally finish. Now using the LDD manager tool, I am able to get a list of all the parts and order them from Lego.
The upper left image contains the mechanical part of the ship within the LDD software. The left image contains an overlay of the mechanical apparatus on the ship. I can't wait to order and assemble it to see if it works.