Small Racer Mech

[MoralWarfare]

Inspiration:

Red Racer by Ironsniper, on Flickr

I was sifting through pictures on Flickr, just checking out what people have created out of LEGO, and came across that little tablescrap that user Ironweasel had created. I fell in love with it almost immeditely, and figured I'd riff on the design to see if I liked it as much in hand as I did in pictures.

I did.

I obviously can't take credit for much beyond the simple vignette display base, but this was a fun little build to tinker with! It has made me realize that my piddly LEGO collection is comprised mostly of red and black. That'll need to be remedied in the near future..

(And as always, pardon the bad pictures. I haven't quite figured out how to photograph LEGO yet..)

Edited January 28, 2012 by MoralWarfare

[Henchmen4Hire]

Heh, mechanical ostrich racer! Cool vig, especially the baseplate.

I think your pictures are fine, they just need more light to get rid of heavy shadows. Try bouncing more light at it with some white paper on the sides. You could try making a simple lightbox with a cardboard box and white cloth or paper.

[MoralWarfare]

Heh, mechanical ostrich racer! Cool vig, especially the baseplate.

I think your pictures are fine, they just need more light to get rid of heavy shadows. Try bouncing more light at it with some white paper on the sides. You could try making a simple lightbox with a cardboard box and white cloth or paper.

I'm glad you like the vig! I think I'm more fond of it than the racer itself, haha!

Its a two lamp set up, one pointing horizontally from the left, and another pointing down from the top. I'm no photographer, so this is essentially trial and error for me. I'll definitely have to try bouncing around some light with some white poster board. Would adding a third light help at all? Thanks for the pointers, by the way!

[Henchmen4Hire]

Depends on a couple of things, like how strong your lights are, your camera's settings... taking a decent picture is a just a lot of mix and matching of different factors like that.

You could do a few things, it's up to you what you think works best

-Add a third light source

-Add the white cardboard to the right side to bounce the light from the 2 lamps back at the model

-Raise the ISO on our camera (the higher the ISO the more grainy the picture though)

-Change your backdrop to something lighter, a dark background doesn't reflect much light and tends to hide detail

Of course, you may have a nice set up already and you just need to change your camera's settings (ISO, White Balance, etc.) or you may need a better camera

A great camera DOES make a great photographer, modern DSLR cameras take awesome pictures under any conditions. People with older cameras have to work a little harder to get good results.

Edited January 28, 2012 by DrNightmare

[MoralWarfare]

I certainly don't have an amazing camera. I have my cellphone, hahaha! Nor do I have the money to spend on something as nice as a DSLR. I've manage to take great pictures of other toys (ThreeA stuff, mostly). But there is no glossy sheen to those sorts of toys, its the sheen that seems to be messing with my pictures. I'll have to keep tinkering around. Thanks for the help!

EDIT: I tried out using a white background, and some white poster board on the sides to try to reflect the light a bit. Didn't come out too awful. At least I built something new to photograph..

Just some silly maintenance bay vignette I whipped together for the racer, and to photograph.

Edited January 29, 2012 by MoralWarfare

[Henchmen4Hire]

Those are actually really good for cellphone pics, here's one of them fixed, all I did was get rid of the yellow tinge. (I'm guessing you're using incandescent lights, that's what gives them the yellow tinge)

[TenorPenny]

I really like the tinkering you've done (particularly the headlamp), and love the use of your 1x1 round plates, too.

[MoralWarfare]

Those are actually really good for cellphone pics, here's one of them fixed, all I did was get rid of the yellow tinge. (I'm guessing you're using incandescent lights, that's what gives them the yellow tinge)

I really like the tinkering you've done (particularly the headlamp), and love the use of your 1x1 round plates, too.

DrNightmare, that does look better with the yellow tinge edited out. I also happen to know nothing about photo editing! I'll have to pester you via PM for some more pointers

TenorPenny, I'm glad you like some of the stuff! Those new 1x1 rounds are so useful, and make very convincing "caps" to the assorted barrels on both vignettes.

[CptMugwash]

The Racer Mech is cool and cute, the feet look like high heels I really like those displays too, the lamp and machinery are nice. I think being red it should have a Ferrari logo on or something.

Keep on MOCing!