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 Building / Mecha / 8504
8503  |  8505
Subject: 
Another delurk, another debut MOC
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.build.mecha
Date: 
Tue, 25 Feb 2003 09:08:11 GMT
Highlighted: 
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Hey all,

After a long period of lurking around and secretly envying your
talents, I too have decided to take the plunge and build a mecha
myself. I believe my exact thoughts were, "how hard can it be?". Well,
suffice to say that my admiration for the designers in this group has
doubled overnight.

Introducing the VM01-MU "Pygmy" Defense Mecha:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=34735

Constructed from a mix of very old and very new parts (I've only
recently rediscovered the joy of LEGO), the microfig-scale Pygmy firmly
adheres to simple 80's mecha design aesthetics. At first I wanted to
emulate the dynamics of more recent popular mecha designs, but I
quickly gave up on that idea due to a lack of appropriate parts.

For the arms and legs, I took inspiration from Tony Knaak's ingenious
Gauntlet lever/bush technique. I figured this would give a nice
tradeoff between size and poseability. To reinforce the limbs, I
threaded strips of rubber band through them. One might argue this is
"cheating", but I actually used a spare rubber band from one of my
Bionicle sets, so I figure it's okay.

One of the biggest problems turned out to be photographing the Pygmy -
I only have a low-res webcam at my disposal, and it can't handle the
darker parts very well. So, I ended up rebuilding the whole mecha in
MLCad, and then rendering it in POV-Ray. To spruce things up a little I
added the VG01 Heavy Laser Cannon to the first picture - it's not
really a microfig-scale weapon, but it underscores the Pygmy's small
size nicely.

What do you think? If you have any ideas or comments that I can use for
my next creation, I would love to hear them. Be gentle, though - it's
my first time. :-)

--
Victor J. Zuylen
I really should come up with a sig



Message has 5 Replies:
  Re: Another delurk, another debut MOC
 
(...) Hi Victor, welcome. Great to have a new mech-head. (...) would think that they would be out of a job if the VM01-MU proves itself. (...) In my opinion TK's joint tech is the best so far for the size, specially for arms. It works really well (...) (22 years ago, 25-Feb-03, to lugnet.build.mecha)
  Re: Another delurk, another debut MOC
 
Due, I saw this when it was first moderated on bshelf 'cause I keep a pretty close eye on the mecha sector. Anyway I was looking at the pics and I said to myself...damn that looks like the joints I used on th Gaunlet! Cool! Then I wondered if you (...) (22 years ago, 25-Feb-03, to lugnet.build.mecha)
  Re: Another delurk, another debut MOC
 
(...) Really Victor, do you think you can post stuff like this and get away with it? ...Wow! This is pretty cool! You could build a whole army of these suckers! I'm thinking diorama. The render looks very nice. I like the graphic quality. Great for (...) (22 years ago, 26-Feb-03, to lugnet.build.mecha)
  Re: Another delurk, another debut MOC
 
Welcome! Hey neat, I like the way you presented the creation. Let's call these kinds of creations "Micro Mecha" or has that term already been invented? Fun, what else do you plan on making? e (URL) (22 years ago, 26-Feb-03, to lugnet.build.mecha)
  Re: Another delurk, another debut MOC
 
(...) I know exactly how you feel. Welcome to .mecha. (...) Hey, I'm down with that. (...) I agree. (...) I'm not really qualified to critique, and I can't really find anything wrong with your design. If you ever produced this as a kit you could (...) (22 years ago, 26-Feb-03, to lugnet.build.mecha)

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