Star Wars Moc Lovers, New shiny Bricks or Bricks with Character?

[LDigital]

I know it’s pretty subjective but I am interested in people’s thoughts on this.

 

I have been building a lot of Mocs lately and find that sometimes blocks of different ages and condition can add a bit of character and a lived in quality to Star Wars ships and models which also display that character in the movies and shows, Jerac’s Razor crest being a great example. 
That being said I do love the shiny new Lego look too.

what is the general consensus on this? I notice in some brickvault videos they show some models with discolouration some rough looking bricks here and there so it seems they are not too bothered.

do people generally aim for the pristine lego look or are happy to shoot a littler Lower to get the costs reasonable?

my big no-no’s on used pieces are teeth marks (Please don’t sell me this on bl/bo as good condition, awful)

and discoloured tan whites, apart from that, bricks with a Small amount bit of surface scratching/playwear can look ok.

 

 

 

[Tom_Brick]

Personally, I usually buy used bricks, not for the character, but for the price. I don't mind the small scratches and discolourations, so I go with it. One case where I was deliberately looking for some colour variation was when I built my Nevarro diorama (see below). I had so much grey wall that I felt it needed some character. I didn't want to introduce greeble or somehow broken surfaces because in the Madalorian, it was indeed smooth walls. Then I tried to use some other colours...small spots of tan, dark tan or dark orange. That didn't work for me at all though. So I added light grey pieces next to the light bluish grey and in general looked for as much variations in the grey colour as possible...in the end you can barely notice, so it was a bit of a wasted effort. 

 

Since then I have experienced some annoyance with yellowing though. Usually not a problem with the stuff I buy for my Star Wars Mocs, but something I have experienced when purchasing the old pieces needed to restore my childhood Classic Space sets. But at least with light grey and white bricks you can actually get good results by bleaching them.

 

[Cjd223]

Me personally, I don't look for one condition or the other unless pieces are in white. I always set white pieces to new condition to avoid getting yellowed bricks, but aside from that I just go with whatever is easiest to acquire, sometimes new condition is only a few extra cents per piece for smaller parts.

[AIex]

I try to get pieces in new or very lightly used condition whenever I can, but when I build rebel vehicles I'll loosen up and use old grays and scratched parts 

[LDigital]

Some great replies, thanks

The reason I asked is that I am close to completing my K-Project K2SO and as we all know, that droid is far from new. 

Mirko confirmed that he cant provide additional sticker sheets as they are 1 sheet per published book with no spares, which is fair enough.  So I am not sure whether to use my 1 shot stickers on something that has a bit of weathering which is more in keeping with the real droid or just pop it on some shiny brand new ones.   normally I wouldnt worry about this one bit but this is the first MOC where I have had to apply stickers and knowing I cant get another set makes me want to get this dead right.

[Cylo]

I generally always go for used parts to save cost, but only if they are in good condition - no visible big scratches, marks, yellowing etc

as Cjd said though, it's a good idea to get your white parts new to avoid yellowing. 

13 hours ago, LDigital said:

Some great replies, thanks

The reason I asked is that I am close to completing my K-Project K2SO and as we all know, that droid is far from new. 

Mirko confirmed that he cant provide additional sticker sheets as they are 1 sheet per published book with no spares, which is fair enough.  So I am not sure whether to use my 1 shot stickers on something that has a bit of weathering which is more in keeping with the real droid or just pop it on some shiny brand new ones.   normally I wouldnt worry about this one bit but this is the first MOC where I have had to apply stickers and knowing I cant get another set makes me want to get this dead right.

If there are stickers, I'd probably recommend new parts, or even just new parts for the bits with stickers.

[Stuartn]

For me it depends on the build, for fighters and vehicles shiny new pieces are better, but for buildings and terrain used parts have advantages.

19 hours ago, Tom_Brick said:

Personally, I usually buy used bricks

 

Nice Nevarro layout, even though you said the lbg/lg colour combinations didn’t work the textures in the walls are still nice, as are the greebles such as the pipes, which work well too. Do the 1x1 bricks with 1 stud represent blaster shots in the wall, if so they work well, otherwise they are also great ways of adding texture.

[Tom_Brick]

3 hours ago, Stuartn said:

For me it depends on the build, for fighters and vehicles shiny new pieces are better, but for buildings and terrain used parts have advantages.

Nice Nevarro layout, even though you said the lbg/lg colour combinations didn’t work the textures in the walls are still nice, as are the greebles such as the pipes, which work well too. Do the 1x1 bricks with 1 stud represent blaster shots in the wall, if so they work well, otherwise they are also great ways of adding texture.

Yes, those modified bricks are supposed to represent blaster shots. The scene is currently disassembled (I need more space ) but I've taken another detailed picture where you can actually make out the light grey pieces next to the light bluish grey bricks. But if you look at it from a regular distance, you can barely see a difference, if at all.

[Bandit778]

22 hours ago, LDigital said:

Some great replies, thanks

The reason I asked is that I am close to completing my K-Project K2SO and as we all know, that droid is far from new. 

Mirko confirmed that he cant provide additional sticker sheets as they are 1 sheet per published book with no spares, which is fair enough.  So I am not sure whether to use my 1 shot stickers on something that has a bit of weathering which is more in keeping with the real droid or just pop it on some shiny brand new ones.   normally I wouldnt worry about this one bit but this is the first MOC where I have had to apply stickers and knowing I cant get another set makes me want to get this dead right.

I'm a bit wary of buying used as some people's interpretation of condition differs greatly from mine. White parts are always new and even then you can get variances. The only time I don't worry about it (too much) are for internal technic frames that can't be seen or if it's a rare part that's nigh on impossible to get hold of new.

For K-2S0, I brought virtually all the parts new (the only exception was for part 41680 which I couldn't get new from the UK).

The droid looks great, despite being all shiny, as there's enough colour texture built into the body to show the worn aspect of K2.

From my point of view, the stickered bits definitely needed new parts, especially the 2x2 slopes round the arm sockets and part x224 used for the shoulder plates (the slopes already have a rough surface and the shoulder plate stickers have to be wrapped around the 3 sections of the windscreen).

[sovietxrobot]

When the original movie was being made, George Lucas stressed that the universe should look used, in sharp contrast to most of sci-fi at the time. I think of it as a defining feature. Imperial ships are supposed to look sleek and brand new, but rebel and unaffiliated ships are supposed to look beat up and cobbled together. Part of the fun of making these MOCs is working in those features. I lean towards old and used bricks, and I like to mix gray/dark gray along with LBG and DBG. Even white with some yellowing looks proper on a beat up old X-wing.