Subject:
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Re: Allan Bedford "Unofficial LEGO builder's guide"
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.books
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Date:
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Thu, 25 Aug 2005 12:02:55 GMT
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Viewed:
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10628 times
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Hi there,
In lugnet.announce, Didier Enjary wrote:
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The “Unofficial LEGO builder’s guide” by Allan is announce to be available in
September.
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I thought I would respond to Didier’s kind posting, and offer a few more details
about the book.
Yes, I’m happy to be able to finally say that The
Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide will soon be available!
Some of you may have already heard about this project, but for those who
haven’t, this book is something I’ve been working on for quite a while now. The
idea was hatched in the fall of 2003 and I began working on it steadily in
December of that same year. It is being published by No
Starch Press who are the same great folks who put out Jake McKee’s
Getting Started with LEGO Trains and also
Virtual LEGO by Steve Bliss, Tim Courtney, and Ahui Herrera.
Where both of those books took a deep look at one specific part of the LEGO
hobby I took a somewhat different approach. A couple of years ago, I looked
around at what was available in print about LEGO building in general and
found there was really very little. There were lots of Mindstorms books,
some kids activity books, and of course
The Ultimate LEGO Book. But what I really wanted, and what I felt was missing,
was a book about basic building principles, simple design techniques and even
something as fundamental as how to sort LEGO pieces. Since I couldn’t find a
book like that... I decided to write one. :)
The result has become “The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide”. In case you’re
curious, here’s the cover art:
And if you’re even more curious, here’s the Table of Contents, to give you
an idea what’s inside:
Chapter 1: The LEGO System: Endless Possibilities
Chapter 2: Back to Basics: Tips and Techniques
Chapter 3: Minifig Scale: Oh, What a Wonderful Minifig World It Is!
Chapter 4: Miniland Scale: The Whole World in Miniature
Chapter 5: Jumbo Elements: Building Bigger Bricks
Chapter 6: Microscale Building: More Than Meets the Eye
Chapter 7: Sculptures: The Shape of Things to Build
Chapter 8: Mosaics: Patterns and Pictures in Bricks
Chapter 9: Technic: Not as Technical as It May Seem
Chapter 10: Putting It All Together: Where Ideas Meet Bricks
Chapter 11: Beyond Just Bricks: Other Things to Do Besides Building
Chapter 12: Sorting, Storage, and Sitting Down to Build Something
Chapter 13: Making and Using Tools for LEGO Projects
Appendix A: Brickopedia
Appendix B: Design Grids: Building Better by Planning Ahead
The book is geared toward young builders who might be ready to make that
move from official LEGO instructions to creating models of their own design.
It may also be interesting to adults who are just returning to LEGO as a
hobby or are parents/mentors of the above noted kids. The idea was not
necessarily a book that would turn the reader into a Master Builder, but rather
a text that would provide a ‘field guide’ approach to the entire LEGO system and
its possibilities. I start at the very beginning by defining terms as simple as
stud and tube, then move onto some core building techniques (brick bond
patterns, building walls etc.) and by Chapter 10 I have the reader participating
in the design of a complete original model (a space shuttle) from concept to
final built version.
If you’d like to take a peek inside the book, you can download a
sample chapter from the No Starch
Press site.
You can also read more about the book at my website or
get some behind-the-scenes info from my blog.
Before I forget, I want to take a moment to thank all of the members of the
LEGO building community who played a part, no matter how big or small, in
the creation of this book. That includes people who answered a question or
two via email right through to the people who reviewed the entire book
before publication. Also, a special thanks needs to go to the software and
parts authors in the CAD community for the great tools they have created
that allowed me to produce many of the images in the book.
Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear what you think. Post a note here
or drop me an email.
Best regards,
Allan B.
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Message has 5 Replies:
 | | Re: Allan Bedford "Unofficial LEGO builder's guide"
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| (...) (snip) (...) I'm really looking forward to this book. I was given the privilege of being one of the advance reviewers and I am VERY impressed with it - this will be one of those books that will become well-worn quickly as it sits by my work (...) (19 years ago, 25-Aug-05, to lugnet.books, FTX)
| | | Re: Allan Bedford "Unofficial LEGO builder's guide"
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| Wow, I'm really impressed by that sample chapter. It might just be the thing to help me teach modeling concepts to non-AFOL in my CAD class! I'll definitely put it on my reference book list, at least.. I see lots of other educational applications of (...) (19 years ago, 25-Aug-05, to lugnet.books, FTX)
| | | Re: Allan Bedford "Unofficial LEGO builder's guide"
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| Great, Just great.. First Gerhard R Istok's CD, and now this.... I'm going to be a broke broke man in the near future :) Looks fantastic , If the rest of the book is as good as the micro chapter, I can see this being popular. I real like how clearly (...) (19 years ago, 26-Aug-05, to lugnet.books, FTX)
| | | Re: Allan Bedford "Unofficial LEGO builder's guide"
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| In lugnet.books, Allan Bedford wrote: [...] (...) [...] (...) Allan - Congrats on your accomplishment! So glad to hear it's coming out soon. I'm positive this is to become a classic among LEGO books. I'm also fortunate to have received my copy a (...) (19 years ago, 6-Dec-05, to lugnet.books, FTX)
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