TThorse: brickbuilt horse

[Tanotrooper]

Hi everyone,

after almost two years of studying (and even once riding) horses and a year of designing, I finally succeeded in creating a brickbuilt horse and mount for my TTfigs called a... TThorse (original, I know ):

I had several things in mind while designing the TThorse:

-It had to look like a horse

-It needed to be able to have a lot of articulation for recreating the natural poses of a horse

-It had to be able to being used as a mount for my TTfigs in a natural way. (So that the rider's legs are around the horse and not in it like the official LEGO horse.)

-It had to be able to look good even without a mount.

Initially starting with a technic liftarm, the build is quite symmetrical and was built studs inward. This enabled the use of the boat studs for the shoulder- und thigh muscles and the use of modified bricks for the chest/belly.

I was inspired by several MOCs, especially these two:

brickbuilt horse

This horse inspired me to use the 'tooth' pieces in order to shape the horse's head and neck.

minotaur

The use of cheese slopes as hoofs was incooperated into the TThorse.

I feared that the legs (and the cheese slopes in particular) wouldn't be able to carry the weight of the body and rider. The horse was able to do all of that and even more, as it's even able to prance. When the horses first premiered at the BeLUG Brickmania at Wetteren a few months ago, I was amazed to discover that the hind legs were able to carry a lot of weight and that they didn't even need the support of the tail to let the horse prance. Furthermore, when I used the horses in a Waterloo MOC for Classic-Pirates, the horse could even support the rider with a very heavy brickbuilt flag.

As the horse consists of a lot of pieces, a lot of colour combinations are possible, not only full colours. As you'll see with the horse of Sgt. Ewart, a mix of grey and white is possible without any problem. (Saddly, the most crucial pieces aren't avaible in brown...) I want to add though that the tail used in these first horses is a standard type and that many different designs are of course possible.

With only a few minor changes, the TThorse can be changed from a normal horse into a mount by exchanging the chest pieces and adding saddlebags and reins.

Up to the pictures! Besides several shots of the horse I'll show you how it's used as a mount:

Napoléon I

For recreating the natural pose of the rider, the legs are attached to the horse and no longer to the body of the figure itself. This does enable to add a sabre, sabrebag, sword or rifle to the legs.

Cuirassier à cheval

Chevaux leger lancier

Sgt. Ewart of the Scots Greys

Cowboy

Yeeeehaaaw!

On request, I'll add the instructions aswell:

And yeah, that black thing is probaply with you think it is. (What? Just being too accurate

anatomy of the horse )

Onto the head

Brickshelf with instructions and more examples

I hope you like the design and more cavalry MOCs will be coming soon. (Probaply in the Pirates forum for the Napoleonic figures)

Thanks for looking

Gaetano

Edited June 25, 2011 by Rufus
Indexed

[Infomaniac]

Absolutely beautiful!

I really like the Cuirassier combo.

well done

[Zepher]

My oh my. This ought to get frontpaged. It is wonderfully done, it looks like a horse a hell of a lot, and what's more, it can be posed like a horse. This is really outstanding. Sadly I have nothing to critque. I'm saddened by one thing, and that is that I always act very excitied whenever I see a MOC, so all my responses seem almost equally impressed, but this one is particularly outstanding. Good job!

[General Redwater]

Great job, it looks perfectly accurate! The different poses look nice, and the instructions are very useful. Do you mind if I try do build one?

[BrickClick]

Wow!

This is amazing!

It is so accurate that it just amazes me!

By far the best LEGO horse ever!

[lightningtiger]

Very clever 'Tanotrooper' - interesting to see how everything seems to give it true horse shape including the legs.

The cowboy one is my favorite, but they are all very good indeed.

I'm a conformist! !

[Tanotrooper]

Great job, it looks perfectly accurate! The different poses look nice, and the instructions are very useful. Do you mind if I try do build one?

Thanks for the great comments everyone!

Sure, go ahead and build one

If you need any help on how to make the horseman, just reply here and I'll try to get some pictures for it.

Gaetano

[General Redwater]

Sure, go ahead and build one

Thanks, I'll try build one using you'r instructions.

Thank you for letting me.

-

General Redwater

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Fantastic brick built horse. The photos of the parts and steps is a very cool thing.

[Legostein]

Hello!

You really managed to breathe life into the bricks! It looks formidable and can assume any pose of a real horse. You almost can hear it neighing.

Cheers,

~ Chris

[XimenaPaulina]

Magnificent creations Tanotrooper! Those horses are amazingly beautiful.. You got the overall look, shape, and proportions of the horses right-on-the-bullseye - you definitely know your horses. And you even have them in grey, black, and white 'breeds'. Excellent job Sir!

[prateek]

Wow! Those poses are just amazing!

[Darth Yogi]

that is amazing and looks so smooth i still think the guy could use a little work but the horse is perfect'

i unfortunately dont have the parts

amazing job

[SlyOwl]

A magnificent horse!

The aesthetic certainly fits well with the TT figs, and looks great in conjunction with them.

Certainly an innovative design; the join between the head and the neck (the gap) looks like it could be smoothed out with a bit of jiggling around, but it's only really noticable in the last photo.

Having tried my hand at brickbuilt horses (centaurs), I appreciate how frustrating the lack of brown tools and clips is - I resorted to painting myself, but I think the way you've used black in areas where tackle (? - reins, saddle etc) should be works well.

[Fires-storm]

Wow, a truly amazing job, I may have to try and build at least one of these