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Hey Brendan,
Great to see the new installment:
Bezek: In 1:1, I like how you are making the different tribes by changing the
arm colors. Simple but effective. In 1:4, I’m not really a fan of the helmet
idea (though I completely understand the problem of coming up with different
looks for different factions). And all those poor katana! :( It’s a good
idea, I just have so few that I hate to see any get chopped up. Now, if you
want to chop up those huge scimitars from the Orient Expedition/Pirate 4+ sets,
be my guest. 1:4 - I like the detail of rotating 1x1 plates and bricks by 45
degrees. 1:5 - I like the custom kilt thing. You’re really hopping on the
customizing wagon in this chapter, aren’t you? And in 1:6. You can no longer
say “no minifigs were harmed in the building of this chapter”.
Jerusalem: I always love microscale towns. Also in 1:8 the woman in the
tile-pool is my favorite detail.
Four massacres: Cute title. More good microscalery. I actually rather dislike
Calebs custom hair. The wedding scene is very nice, especially the flowers. In
the next couple of scenes the BURP wall with the plant pieces is very effective.
Iron Chariots: I’ve previously praised (and stolen) your chariot design. Argh!
More katana chopping. My favorite thing in this chapter, though, is the use of
the flat-top hair to make sort of Russian-looking headgear. Very cool. I’ve
seen tires used effectively to do something similar (I forget by who. It was in
an ISCC entry a couple of years ago--some adventurers story that included a
temple with a giant statue.)
Bruce
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In lugnet.build.ancient, Bruce Hietbrink wrote:
Hey, Bruce!
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Great to see the new installment:
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Thanks, good to be back in the swing of things.
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Bezek: In 1:1, I like how you are making the different tribes by changing
the arm colors. Simple but effective.
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The Israelites got a little bit of a makeover for Judges, with the arm colors
distinguishing the twelve tribes and uniform tan pants instead of the old brown
and sometimes tan-with-brown-cod-piece. Having conquered so many cities and
towns by now, I figured they could afford to dress up a little--and finally
afford some helmets and shields for the soldiers.
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In 1:4, I’m not really a fan of the helmet idea (though I completely
understand the problem of coming up with different looks for different
factions). And all those poor katana! :(
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I had been looking at different portrayls of ancient Israelite weaponry on the
web and in a few books, ones based on ancient archeology. While it still can’t
be known exactly what types of weapons were being used by the ancient Israelites
and their adversaries (except where specified in the bible), the general
concensus is that the shields of the time were small and round, and the swords
were short. Spears were also used (and I’ve shown plenty of that so far) as
well as slings and bows and arrows (which I will likely show more of later).
I hesitated a while before going ahead with the decision to make short swords
out of the long-bladed katanas, but I’m happy with how they tuned out. And I
really like the look of the backward gray aviator caps as ancient helmets,
especially combined with the short swords and small shields of matching gray.
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It’s a good idea, I just have so few that I hate to see any get chopped up.
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Yeah, they’re not super-cheap on Bricklink, so it was sort of a tough decision
to take the hobby knife to them. But I think I’ll get much more use out of them
in their shortened state.
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Now, if you want to chop up those huge scimitars from the Orient
Expedition/Pirate 4+ sets, be my guest.
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Heh. The katanas were a very easy mod. I don’t know if I’m skilled enough to
make something decent-looking out of the oversized scimitars. I keep almost
wanting to use those for one of the many factions in the greater Canaan area,
but every time I try putting them into the hands of minifig soldiers, they
really just look comically too large. Still, I’m sure I’ll press them into
service sooner or later.
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You’re really hopping on the customizing wagon in this chapter, aren’t you?
And in 1:6. You can no longer say “no minifigs were harmed in the building
of this chapter”.
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Owch, yeah.
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Jerusalem: I always love microscale towns. Also in 1:8 the woman in the
tile-pool is my favorite detail.
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:) This is the first shot where I thought to have the Israelites attacking from
multiple angles--otherwise it looks as though the fleeing people might
actually escape.
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Four massacres: Cute title. More good microscalery.
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I actually had to recreate
microscale Debir for this shot. The Israelites had
already attacked it under Joshua’s command and killed everyone who lived there.
I guess they lost control of it in the meantime? And had to go back and kill
everyone again and burn it to the ground?
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I actually rather dislike Calebs custom hair.
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Yeah, it’s a little weird, but Caleb had Harry Potter-style black hair when he
was younger, and didn’t look right at all to give him the standard smooth gray
hairpiece.
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Argh! More katana chopping. My favorite thing in this chapter, though, is
the use of the flat-top hair to make sort of Russian-looking headgear. Very
cool. I’ve seen tires used effectively to do something similar (I forget
by who. It was in an ISCC entry a couple of years ago--some adventurers
story that included a temple with a giant statue.)
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Ah yes, Gary Thomas’s excellent
Temple of Catur
Muka.
This is actually our first look at the Philistines! And again, I was inspired
by the way the Philistines have been depicted by others--it all seems to be
based on an ancient Egyptian wall carving depicting their battles against the
so-called Sea Peoples (a group which included the Philistines, so it is
generally believed). The soldiers of the Sea People are shown with short
swords, small shields, and most distictively, big (perhaps feather?) headdress.
So the flattop hairpiece was my own take on
that
look.
Thanks for the comments.
-Brendan
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In lugnet.build.ancient, Hao-yang Wang wrote:
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Dispite the warning, I am shocked by the following scenes. How can you do
this to the poor ABS?
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For Brendan so loved illustrating the bible in LEGO, that he gave his own LEGO
collection, that whosoever readeth The Brick Testament should not be
disappointed, but have everlasting amusement.
Or something like that.
-Brendan
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In lugnet.announce.moc, Brendan Powell Smith wrote:
well Brendan heres some ideas for new factions
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=42946 but alas these are old
pics and i’ll be going up to a meeting in Sac on the 5th.(Sat.)to get involved
in some Brickwars i’ll be bringing some of my armies and other creations hope
you get time off and show for a BrickWar of biblical(or Trojan) proportions.
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