Tag: bricks

Skarabaeus HJF-43

Cole

Back to space-ics

You know, sometimes you build something to a certain extent and that you cannot finish it somehow. Then it lays around for some time, you look at it several times and eventually the final direction comes to shape so you manage to finish it off – this is exactly one of those creations! If there is an existing design or a synopsis of a few designs there is a clear path to follow, but creating a new original design is just different.

BTW there are a whole load of this kind of projects spread across my creative lab.

 

Building notes

I fiddled around with the large flat curvy panels and my limited parts available in dark tan. It happened that this insect-shell like design came out. My love for the small flags urged me to look how I could add them and the overall design was born.

The build is based upon the traditional Vic Viper wing-layout – two prongs, two rear-sided wings and a tailfin.

It has space for a small minifigure, being positioned up side down – as this matters in space LOL

Therefore the the underside become also a legit upperside.

A friend pointed out the view from the top and bottom being nice stand alone images, so the masks had a spin-off.

 

Long talk, here’s the full show, enjoy!

Gallery

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Metatrain

Cole

Meta is one of the rare Street Artists in my city who’s work is absolutely original. He inittiated a spontaneous project, after finding a book with pictures of trains in a pile of rubbish on the streets. He forwarded all of the countless fantastic images of real and model trains to many of his Graffiti and Street Art colleagues. I was lucky to be able to pick a train from the book and the SNCF Jouef BB 26000 locomotive immediately caught my attention with the vision of a brick-ified version. The project sat on my desk for about two years before recently I managed to make my version.

I concentrated on the basic shape, the color scheme and some distinct details. As just copying something in existence does not attract me, I decided to implement two twists. First of all I wanted to break the train while keeping the shape. Secondary I included my alias into the sides of the trains, referring to Graffiti and the expression bombing a train.

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The blueprint (Original image courtesy to Bernard Canet / Jouef)

And a WIP shot of the sketch and the forged side wall.

Shobrick meets Cole Blaq – Neo Tokyo

Cole

 Occasionally things take time…

…so now we can finally kick off the results of our collaboration work.

Some time ago Shobrick and I collaborated for this project. Shobrick is a great photographer and director. After an introduction by Nicolas Forsans, Shobrick got in touch with me. He sent me a few images and asked if I can make a mech for a scene he had in mind. Somewhere between Shirow and Kojima. He told me about the setting and stuff, so I could get the vibe and the direction he was heading to.

 

After a few versions this 6-legged walker tank | Hexapod was finally designed. You can find the stand-alone images of the tank and building notes further down >>>. After attaching some decals to it, the Hexapod was sent to Shobrick.

Shobrick then did his magic. He gathered his crew of set designers (Paul de Laroche, Frédéric Mercier and his son Anton) and other great people help designing, creating and staging the setting. This was great to follow along while the ruins started developing with other details such as the neon signs and billboards. Once the setting was developed Shobrick took the photos at at an impressible high end performance.

And the result is breath-taking!

For more information on the production process make sure to check out Shobrick – Flickr | Insta | Homepage

For Shobrick this was his last project with the bricks for now as he wants to further follow his path of being a film director. I am proud to have been able to work with him.

Enough foreword, without further ado here comes the show:

NEO TOKYO: The Story

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

 

– image credits and copyright by Shobrick –

And the making-of videos: 1|2|3|4

– Gallery (stand alone mech) –

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-Building Notes-

The model needed dynamic posing alongside articulation combined with a plausible and aesthetic pleasing design. Getting the right balance between form and function was the leading light for this build.

The first inspiration led to a direction with a dog or animal like mech. Taking a different direction, the former body was replaced by the Hexapod design later on. Only the head and the color scheme were adopted from the prior version. One reason was that there to be some kind of heavy artillery as it should be a designated war machine, staged in combat scenes. This and a plausible, functional design with ‘play’ features directed the frame to be highly articulated and moveable. The special play feature is the rotating weapons platform which in reverse direction can snug together with the head, giving it a compact and heavy armored feeling. Once rotated the cannon moves into action. Two weapon slots on the front legs allow close range combat, 8 launchers attached to the sides of the platform allow additional performance.

 

The final image series have been published in the Geek magazine S09E03

Exclusive online coverage by The Brothers Brick

John Deere Forwarder 1910 G (re-design)

Cole 1 Comment

A redesign of a creation from 2010.

Now with more accuracy, details and functions:

  • dual wheel suspension
  • rotating and leveling cabin
  • retractable front blade/stabilizer
  • balljoint axle connection between the engine and the trailer
  • boom arm
  • replaceable boom heads, this version features a timber milling machine
  • versatile load space

– Gallery –

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John Deere Forwarder

Cole

You might already know that I have a soft spot for state of the art land machines. The first machine I saw when I was about 10 years old was a Mercedes Benz tractor MB 1000. I really liked the unconventional and stylish design.
When doing the brick thing I came across the John Deere Forwarder back in 2010 and made a brick version. Now I managed to make some better photos alongside an interactive digital 360° view for anyone interested.

 

– Photo Gallery –

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Disclaimer: The Forwarder is my interpretation. Copyright of the original source material of course owned by John Deere.

Star Wars microscale models

Cole

These Star Wars models from the Freemaker Adventures and Rogue One were commissioned exclusively by Blocks magazine and have been showcased in issue 22 & 27 in 2016. The Freemaker ships have also been featured at The Brothers Brick.

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There are digital versions of the Eclipse [micro] and the Scavenger [micro] available.

 

-Cole

 

Disclaimer: The Star Wars models are my interpretations. Copyright of the original source material of course owned by Disney and Lukas Films.

Bricks Culture 7 – Street Art & Lego pt. II

Cole

The actual issue of Bricks Culture contains the second part of the article series which examines the connection between Street Art, Graffiti and Lego bricks. This time the spotlight is on the ongoings in France. Alongside mentioning Graffiti writer Drop, Street Artist Lenz has a full length feature reviewing his extensive work. By coincidence Samsofy, a french Lego photographer, has an individual feature in the magazine. This is relevant as his work is sometimes also connected to Street Art, so naturally he is subject to a short observation from my side.

Later, when the article was in the final phase, I became aware of another french Street Artist named Terez TRZ who is also working with Lego bricks. Unfortunately due to the deadline I could not include him, but at least I’d like to mention him here.

So if you have an interest in this field, I’d strongly recommend you to grab yourself a copy. Besides, all the other articles are also definitely worth reading if you have an interest in what is beyond the bricks…

– Cole

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