Subject:
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Re: Of Snakes, Massacres, and Talking Donkeys
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build.ancient
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Date:
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Sat, 10 May 2003 00:56:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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1087 times
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In lugnet.build.ancient, Bruce Hietbrink writes:
> Great work, as always.
Hey, Bruce. I never tire of hearing that. @8^)
> Some thoughts:
> Snakes: I really like the picture of god pouring out the snakes,
> also the one where you've tilted the snake up so it looks like
> it's biting the guy's leg.
Yeah, balancing the snakes on their sides makes them look a little more
aggressive. They kept falling over, though.
> I like the bronze snake design, but I think it's historically
> inaccurate--I think the real snake was supposed to be life-sized.
Is there some Biblical support for the snake being life-sized? I'll readily
admit that my bronze serpent is ridiculously large -- but I love the idea of
Moses hammering out this enormous bronze sculpture for hours (days?) on end
as the poisonous snakes continue to bite and kill countless Israelites.
I had a back-up, much smaller bronze snake ready to go if the big one proved
too unweildy to have up on a pole. But that one just wasn't very impressive.
In support of the snake being significantly larger than life-size, much
later in 2 Kings 18, we learn that the bronze seprent Moses had built is
still around, and has a name: Nehushtan. King Hezekiah of Judah who "did
what was right in the eyes of the Yahweh" smashes Moses's serpent into
pieces because up until then, the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it.
To me, it just doesn't seem all that dramatic to "smash to pieces" a little
life-sized bronze serpent.
> Aradites: I really like the gate to Arad, and also the way you're continuing
> to use color schemes for the different nations. Arad seems like such a happy
> place.
Certainly they were happier before the invading Israelites killed them all.
> Nice bit on continuity to include Moses' wife Shaq in that one photo.
@8^)
> BTW, how many of those Indian shield do you actually have? Is there more
> photo-shoppery in those pictures of the Arad army?
Actually, there's no photoshop tricks in the Aradite photos. I just have a
bunch of those shields. The only "trick" is that some of the Aradite
soldiers in the background are not wearing regulation uniforms.
> Amorites: I don't really like the red and white color scheme here, but I
> reallize you're going to have to utilize every possible color scheme by the
> time you conquer all of the Promised Land. Also striped shirts seem a little
> anachronistic. Another nice gateway in that town scene.
Yeah, every color-scheme will probably get used. @8^) I don't know if
stripes are all that anachronistic or not. Whenever I look at other
illustrated Bibles, they seem to always have the ancients wearing much more
colorful garbs than I tend to give them. And there's a fair amount of
striped tunics and headdresses. Of course, it's hard to make minifigs look
like they're wearing tunics, so if you think of them as fitted striped
shirts, it does seem a little odd.
> What is the source of the torso of the guy in the middle of the
> scene in the first Deut 2:34?
Hmmm... I don't know for sure offhand, but I think that's from the Ninja
line. I seem to have a few of them.
> Bashanites: I like the microfig town in the first photo, but I think
> there is too great a contrast between the buildings in the center built
> of bricks and the ones on the outskirts made of just 1x1 plates.
Perhaps, although they really give the city a spread-out look. The idea is
that those would be very small dwellings, and the main city buildings would
look very large in comparison. Microfig building is a fun challenge.
Hopefully I'm getting better at it, as it's really the only plausible way to
show whole cities and such.
> Here the striped shirts don't bug me, so maybe it was more the color
> scheme of the Amorites that I disliked. Og has a great face. What set
> is that from?
Og. He has such a great name, I wanted his visage to live up to it. That
face is the flip-side of the mad professor guy in the LEGO Studio sets. The
face on the other side is great too, but he's wearing glasses, so it's
unlikely he'll turn up in The Brick Testament.
> Great town, btw. That gives me hope for when I finally build Minas
> Tirith that I can get away with simpler designs.
I don't know what Minas Tirith is, but best of luck with it. @8^) I wanted
to finally do a scene where you see both sides of a city street. Kind of a
lot of work for one shot, and a lot of detail didn't end up getting seen,
but I think it came out decent.
> Donkey: Okay, here's my favorite detail for this set of stories--Balak,
> surveying the damage, and the arrangement of the skeletons is roughly the same
> as in the Deut 2:34 photo. Great attention to detail, there.
Thanks. @8^) Here's the comparison for anyone who wants to see what Bruce
is talking about:
http://bricktestament.com/the_wilderness/massacre_of_the_amorites/dt02_34b.html
http://bricktestament.com/the_wilderness/balaams_talking_donkey/nm22_04p02-03.html
I wanted the second image to look more burned-to-the-ground since there's
fire raging in that scene in the first story, but I was afraid it might
loose it's recognizeability as the same scene as the first photo. Guess the
ancient Amorites knew the secret of asbestos.
> I love the variety of green torsos you've used (including the Green
> Goblin!) and the tires as hats. Balaam's house is great, too. In
> Num 22:16-17, what is the round orange piece in the upper background?
Those are relatively new elements from the Star Wars EpII line. They are
burnt orange colored bowl-shaped objects that fit into the new ball sockets.
I like to just use them as bowls, but here I have them ornamentally hanging
on the walls.
> Also, where did that wavy white hair come from? Is that clay?
I'm not sure what set that's from. I got it at a yardsale. Seems to be
genuine LEGO, though.
> The road in Num 22:22 is good--often you take a more simplistic approach
> to scenery (e.g. just using flat baseplates) but here you give more depth
> by stacking plates on your baseplates and having an uneven road.
Well, the desert doesn't give a lot of opportunity for scenery, but Balaam
is coming from up by the Euphrates, so I imagine he was travelling through
some nicer lands.
> I like the donkey's poseability.
Yeah, he's my improvement on the rams I built for an earlier story. He's
got some character. I really like the almost-domestic dispute he has with
Balaam who seems totally unfazed by the fact that his donkey starts talking
out of the blue.
> Curse: I like the dark gray slope mountains in the background. God
> putting his message in Balaam's mouth is funny.
There's some funny outtake photos that make it look like God is really
ramming that message down his throat.
> Great work as always. You make me feel a little ashamed that I haven't made
> similar progress on my Tolkien project.
I was starting to feel bad for going nearly two months without a Brick
Testament update. Hopefully I'll start work on the last four Wilderness
stories tonight. Best of luck with your Tolkein work!
-Rev. Smith
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Of Snakes, Massacres, and Talking Donkeys
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| (...) I had this notion that it was placed in the Ark, but can't find any reference to such (maybe I was mixing Aaron's staff with the staff with the snake?). Maybe I'm getting my impression from some classical painting? (...) Actually that would (...) (21 years ago, 12-May-03, to lugnet.build.ancient)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Of Snakes, Massacres, and Talking Donkeys
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| Hey Brendan, Great work, as always. Some thoughts: Snakes: I really like the picture of god pouring out the snakes, also the one where you've tilted the snake up so it looks like it's biting the guy's leg. I like the bronze snake design, but I think (...) (21 years ago, 8-May-03, to lugnet.build.ancient)
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