Roses

Are these bins of sets you've previously owned / do you know what disassembled sets are in the bin? If so, I always use Bricklink to search for the specific piece I need and see if it is in any set that I have built on display or disassembled in a bin somewhere. I think the website Rebrickable has an option to keep track of all the sets you own, which in turn keeps track of the pieces you own (I think? I don't have much experience with Rebrickable. It might just keep track of the sets / mocs you can build with the pieces from the sets you own). Otherwise to get a comprehensive idea of all the pieces one owns, plain ol' sorting is the best option. Bricks, plates, slopes, jumpers, bars, clips, beams, etc, etc, etc.

Thanks! It was a pretty fun way of learning a bit about Photoshop Thank you! That looks quite good, I appreciate the added mobility and stability from the Technic ratchet joints. My version is a pain and a half to pose, balance and display Sorry, I don't have any plans on making instructions for this model.

Thank you! Thank you - I almost always start off with looking for seed parts that'll make for nice piece usage on a character build. I have a bit of a limited parts selection, but there are a few sets from the early 2000s that use highly specialized pieces that sometimes strike a chord to build a certain kind of character, for example. It sometimes sucks to have to ditch a preconceived character concept because the pieces one has in hand don't work for it, but I think it's worth it if it's in favor of using pieces in a different, weird and interesting way. If I had stuck to this character's original idea, it would have been wearing much simpler, sleeker clothes!

Thank you! First thing I did was rebuild the model on Bricklink Studio, which was a very quick process. The program has an instructions mode that allows you to modify and rearrange steps. It wasn't until after finishing building the model that I noticed that the instructions mode isn't automatic like Lego Digital Designer, which was the only other digital building software I had a tiny bit of experience with. In Bricklink Studio, while you are building the model, each brick placement you make counts as a "step", which are kept on record in a small window on the bottom right of the screen. If you build your whole model without paying attention to the steps (that is, without creating any new steps), when you go to the instructions mode, your instructions will have one single step, asking you to place all the pieces in the model at the same time. You need to create new steps in the steps window as you are building your model, so that when you go to the instructions mode, you have as many steps as you created while building. I'd recommend watching a short tutorial on Youtube, I skimmed a few and got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Free instructions + Studio file for the DF.9 are now available on Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-111749/RosesMustBuild/hoth-df9-turret/ I'd love to listen to any feedback for future instructions, since this is the first time I'm making any for a MOC. I'm planning on making some for the dish turret next.

Thank you - it was a bit trickier than I thought lining up all the roller skates, since they leave a noticeable gap when placed at half-stud widths apart. They're connected to 1x1 clips, which are then spaced out freely on a 4L bar. Thank you! Good eye , I was noticing some possibly weird proportions at the legs while taking pictures of the character. I see the boots as being knee-high, so the calves never really worried me, but I'm not 100% happy with the way the hips turned out - since I see those as being a couple studs too tall. I tried for a while to have the crotch end two studs higher than it is now, but that left a very noticeable gap just above it that was particularly tricky to cover up, so I left the 2x4 wedge in and added the two 2x2 curved slopes to make it seem like the thighs are taller, elongating the legs a bit. I was also thinking about the who's-leaning-on-whom aspect while taking pics! I have the character displayed on a shelf with the stud at the butt-end of the bat connected to the 2x2 plate with holes on the elbows, giving it increased stability and a more realistic leaning pose. The bat is posed like it is to be able to give the forearm a downward angle in the pictures, otherwise the arm would bend into itself and mess around with the silhouette. In hindsight, it could be fixed by making the bat one worm-gear shorter - I'd rather shorten the grip than the barrel to avoid a stubby look. It should be an easy fix... mmmmh... be right back

Thank you - Yes! I had to resort to an illegal technique with a drill to be able to tighten the bracelet enough to properly fit the character's waist size.

Thank you! It's the same technique I used for the Fly Samurai. It makes for pretty solid, posable & easy-to-build hands, and there's the possibility of customization like with the ring on the left hand.

You should be so happy. You should be so glad. I was inspired by Electric Light Orchestra's Time album to make a humanoid character with a computer monitor in place of a head. I wanted to make the character fully-clothed, even if the first idea was to give it a sleek, cyberpunk bodysuit. After making the boots, though, and adding a pair of jeans, I stuck to the idea of just contemporary-looking clothes. I got the idea of a semi-open leather jacket from combining minifigure roller- and ice-skates to make a zipper. I'm really happy with the final look and I'm glad that the character displays different layers of clothing - I think it gives it a realistic amount of depth. I knew I wanted the character to be leaning against something for the main pose - to take advantage of the slight knee articulation, for increased stability, and just to have him look cool in a more playful way than my Dragon Hunter character, which is just mean and sassy. I would have loved to make the baseball bat in metallic silver with the Hubble Telescope's 2x2 curved slopes, but attempts with those pieces ended up looking too bulky and sloppy. The 2x2-round-bricks solution is super simple, but for this scale I think it's perfect. I spent a good couple hours posing the guy and taking pictures. There are more poses and close-ups on my Flickr and on Instagram! This one also has a backside! I'm learning to keep inner structures very compact to make characters displayable from any angle. It was fun imitating present-day clothes. I wish tires came in different colours, though, even if there aren't really any official sets for them to justifiably be any other colour than black. They're just so versatile for characters!

I did consider various legal solutions to the cockpit turret, but I ended up going with the small tooth to give it a veeery slight upward angle, so that it points forward instead of downwards like the rest of the cockpit. I think tooth pieces are made with a different kind of plastic than normal bricks, making them slightly more rubbery and malleable. The tooth is just jammed into the Technic piece and the connection is quite secure.

Thank you! It's pretty quiet in this corner of the forum, but it's always a treat when the occasional new topic pops in I interpret the hands and feet as being bones themselves - as if the character had worn down the skin and muscle of those regions to the bone. Then again, I think of the head and shoulders as a helmet and shoulder pads, so it's partly wearing bone armor and partly being the character's bones themselves!

Another heavy-set character following the Lizard Wizard, the idea for this one came from wanting to use the Mosasaurus jaw piece as a helmet. The shape of the jaw piece and the concept of a skull helmet immediately reminded me of the Pokemon Cubone and its stout shape. Thankfully I had many 2x6 curved slope wedges lying around from the Geonosian fighter + cannon from 2012, which I have found to be incredibly useful for character building recently. It seemed obvious to give the character a bone-like weapon, like Cubone's, but a simple club seemed a tad too boring. Instead, he's wielding a donkey's jawbone. I'm particularly happy with the hilt, which uses 12-tooth gears for a furry kind of wrap. I thought about integrating the hand with the hilt for increased stability, like with the Dragon Hunter, but the hand always turned out too bulky and the hilt too hidden. It's a logistical nightmare trying to get a character to hold up a weapon as large as them! I think the final pose is menacing enough, though. The character can also be seen from any angle! While building the body I forced myself to think ahead and make the inner structure as compact as possible to be able to accommodate a backside. I'm trying to get a hold of a motorized display turntable for a 360-degree view, but in the meantime I've got all pictures on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosesmustbuild/albums/72177720298614608) or on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/CdD9O0drNZf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) A lot of the dark orange was also sourced from 10295 Porsche 911's & 70618 Destiny's Bounty's interiors. It's a lovely color paired with tan!

Thank you, that snake was the very last thing I added to the character before taking pictures! It's hooked onto the belt with a black droid arm, and an elastic band wrapped around its tail for extra ropy detail. The flasks were pretty relaxing to build, I built way more than I ended up using. There was once even a love potion using these two pieces and some 1x1 round plates with hole: (in pink) and

This build is absolutely insane. What I admire most is the variety in piece types and building techniques used that still create a very aesthetically cohesive character. The little bits of Bionicle on the shins, the tracks on the elbows, the animal tails on the shoulder pads, the Monkey King cape on the sword and even the extra bits of plastic from Ninjago shurikens! It's chock-full of beautiful textures from top to bottom.

Thank you both! I'm really happy with these character builds because they're so open to the use of weird pieces like the KK2 torso, which I would never know how to use in another context. The little details are also a great opportunity to put strange parts to good use!