afol

TartanLUG Engagement Officer

I’ve been pretty quiet here recently, but I have good news to share:

I’ve been elected as the Engagement Officer for TartanLUG, the Scottish Lego User Group! I take over the role previously held by Stewart Lamb Cromar, who of course left me incredibly big shoes to fill.

I’ve been a part of the LUG for a few years now, and it’s had a huge positive effect on me as a builder- it’s been inspirational meeting so many other creative, passionate, AFOLs. I’ve written about that joy, and many of the events I attended, previously.

As Engagement Officer, i’ll be looking to do likewise for others, highlighting some of the excellent shows and builds that the LUG produces, as well as sharing news in and outwith the group. It’s all very exciting- you can help me out by following some of the TartanLUG social media channels to help me out!

I’ve never had a minifig sigfig- enjoy my new hastily constructed avatar until something better appears!

Oban Winter Bricks 2022

Last month I attended Oban Winter Bricks for the first time, a dedicated Lego Event in the West of Scotland, and hosted by, once again, Tartan LUG.

After Brickmania in Peterhead and the Aberdeen Scale Model Show previously this year, this was the biggest Lego show i’ve attended and displayed in yet, with bigger displays, more builders, and seemingly endless waves of eager fans coming in through the doors. I displayed my reoccuring 2022 Castle MOC again -that I’ve yet to actually showcase here!- and a brand new Lego Pirates display; a big oceanscape complete with desert island, shipwreck, and mermaids.

I’ll post more of my own displays here eventually, but in the meantime, here’s some excellent builds and displays from other builders at the show. As always, plenty of inspiration to be found!

Aberdeen Scale Model Show 2022

Summer has been and gone, and the Aberdeen Scale Model Show took place in August, earlier this year. I attended with a band of fellow TartanLUG builders, and meant to write a post about it, but I feel far too much time has now passed.

That said, it would be entirely remiss of me not to post this one photo.

Lego animals from my display invading the carefully built flowerbeds of another builder’s MOC, definitely NOT making ice cream

Tartan LUG Members Day August 2022

Following my attendance at Brickmania 2022 earlier this summer, this weekend I attended a Members Day for my Lego Users Group in Perth, Scotland. I had previously missed one in November last year due to a weather storm, and one earlier this year due to Covid. Third time’s the charm!

The day was more of a catch-up and meeting rather than a full show and display of MOCs, but I and plenty of others still brought lots to share. Alongside built MOCs there were a number of vintage and rare sets that i’d never seen in person before, and this was surprisingly rewarding. A raffle was also hosted, along with a quiz, food, and numerous fans were there looking to sell or swap pieces. I met lots of great people, and left full of inspiration, ideas, and again, even more bought Lego than what I’ll ever really need. Once again, the whole day was just incredibly validating to know that other people got just as excited about Lego!

I have one more event scheduled for this summer, and then i’m off to Oban in November. Next year -between weddings, birthdays, and life- i’ll looking to attend and buld plenty more.

Brickmania 2022

After several years of being an AFOL followed by, oh yeah, a global pandemic, last month I finally got to attend and display at my first Lego show!

Brickmania 2022 was organised and hosted by my dear TartanLUG, and was a great weekend of Lego builds, shops, and fans situated in the Buchan Braes hotel just outside of Peterhead, Scotland. This was an incredibly cathartic two days for me- after building and sharing Lego creations alone for years uploading them online, it was great displaying for real fans, and definitely provided some validation to a hobby that I hold so dear to my heart. THIS IS A THING THAT OTHER PEOPLE DO AS WELL!

Very emotional, honestly. I’ve got lots more words -and potentially video- to share, but for now, some photo highlights from the weekend. I’ve left off my own MOCs- what I displayed will be revealed later. I’ll be looking to attend next year -as well as all the other Lego shows inbetween!- but what I saw that weekend was really inspiring. I’ll be going back even better!

MOC: Widmore in Fall

Earlier this year, I built a Lego Castle, with the plan of displaying it at Lego shows. That never happened, but I kept it built nonetheless, just in case. Last month, and with my Lego User Group’s meet-up scheduled for the end of November, I gave it a Fall/Autumnal refresh. Storm Arwen coincided that very same weekend, and with snow showers, sheet lightning, and plenty of fallen trees on the road during that drive down, the event was rescheduled, with display, again, postponed. Nonethless, the MOC got a new lick of paint, and it’s all set once again for showing online!

Structurally it’s the exact same model as before. The landscaping is a little bit different -hundreds of leaf pieces!- and there’s a little bit of time progression and new character detail, but other than that it’s a seasonal reskin. I’m already planning the Winter version, which will, I expect, look a *lot* different.

“Widmore in Fall. As Autumn lands in the great forests, the despicable Lion Knight stronghold lies empty of prisoners. With their comrades free, the Forestmen now strike for greater riches.”

A small lighthouse in a big sea

For the most recent TartanLUG Zoom build challenge, the brief was to build something using 20 Lego parts or less. I was sadly unable to attent the Zoom Meeting on the night, but the end-result of building on and off for the week prior was the microscale lighthouse below. As an AFOL i’ve spent most of my Lego life amassing more pieces to build bigger and better things, so having to be thrifty with piececount was definitely not something I was used to!

I struggled quite a bit with this challenge- I didn’t like my entry initially but I’m reasonably happy with how it turned out. With some experimentation, nineteen pieces were used in total, but I would love to add more and make something even bigger with more detail. Conceptually, I think the photos do a lot of heavy lifting. After I entered (and won!?) the contest, fellow builder Stewart Lamb Cromar created this excellent animated gif of the model, and this definitely sells the build further.

smalllighthouse.gif

The build challenge was fun, and definitely something I’m interested in pursuing again. I might continue in a microscale format or try something else. I just need to tidy the desk and organise the collection a bit more first!

MOC: Medieval Blacksmith 21325 Barn

Earlier in March I built and streamed Lego 21325 Medieval Blacksmith on Twitch. The set is great; it’s incredibly detailed, tall, and looks fantastic on display. It’s been on my desk since, with a rotating cast of knights and peasants minifigs next to it every so often. Since then, I’ve wanted to build something to sit next to and accompany it, so this month I decided to build a barn, as much in the same style as I could.

When the set was announced late 2020/early 2021 one of the most common requests and ‘complaints’ from AFOLs (in my circles at least) were the absence of goats from the set. The goat element in question had only appeared in one set previously, 7189 Mill Village Raid, and now goes for astronomical prices on the aftermarket: anywhere between £40-£100. Fan anticipation was hoping the Blacksmith set would bring the piece out of retirement or reissue it, but the original mold for the goat has since been lost. The set designers confirmed this. So my barn MOC is a means to continue the civilian castle theme, remedy the original set, and mostly just flex that I own goats. Yes, really.

The MOC was built independently from the set but continues the same colour patterns, and for the most part building techniques, with plenty of SNOT bricks and tiling on the sides. I’m not very good at building roofs so I designed a flat log roof instead using log pieces; no where near as complex or advanced as that of the host Blacksmith building, but as a simple barn for livestock, why would it be? I wanted to introduce a bit more colour so there’s more crops and some flowers too at the base. The barn doesn’t physically connect to the Blacksmith set in any way currently, but the curved plates both structures share allow for some nice pasture land in between for the goats and apple picking.

The MOC did really well on social-media channels and I even had a message from someone asking for instructions. As far as AFOL inside-memes go, I guess I’ve officially made it! Along with Widmore Keep previously I’d really love to display the MOC in public, and that’s my hope, maybe even with more goats. The Barn will probably stay built and on the desk for a while in case that opportunity ever presents itself.

MOC: Farmer Red vs the Green Knight Army

In place of Lego displays and exhibitions, for the last year my ‘local’ Lego Users Group TartanLUG have been having regular Zoom video calls. I’ve attended a few and it’s been great seeing what others have been building, buying, or collecting Lego wise; everyone sharing stories and ideas. Each meeting has a Build Challenge to inspire others to build something- a virtual show and tell!- with the theme for the meeting this past weekend “Monochrome”. I wasn’t able to attend the call, but I still built something for it all the same.

Farmer Red vs the Green Knight Army came together pretty quickly- from the outset a monochrome minifig was something I wanted to do, but this still proved pretty challenging with my Lego collection. Minifig head and torsos generally have printed designs so this ensured only certain colours were possible. When I started equipping the minifigs again, I was limited by what pieces I could use, but the whole build ultimately allowed me to show off with some rare and uncommong Lego pieces. One minifig as an entry didn’t feel substantial enough so I cheated the theme (somewhat) and built two to place them in a duel.

  • The Cowboy Hat in Red (3629) only came in two Lego sets from the 1970s, 372: Texas Rangers in 1977 and 365: Wild West in 1975 respectively. Im too young to have ever owned either set, but interestingly, they’re sets that never had printed minifigs, much like the finished MOC.

  • Utensil Pitchfork Type 2 in Red (95345) is a new recolour (and a new mold) of the older brown element that appeared in five fantastic Lego Castle sets 1984 onwards. The new red variant debuted recently in the 2020 Monkie Kid sets, notably 80010, 80013, and 80009. These sets are from a terrible new theme clearly not aimed at me, but the piece recolour is very nice!

  • The Castle Helmet with Neck Protector (3844/15606) in Green is an exciting one! Helmets in this colour were never formally released in a set, though did accompany a minifig called Rascus, again, unreleased. This might have been a promo item or a catalogue/retailer error, though Bricklink numbers the minifigure/set as 5996. So mysterious! I managed to snag three of these back in 2005ish through a Classic Castle fan jambalaya trade but only have two now. Sale prices for this piece range from £5-£13, with only 11 of them currently for sale. Rare!

  • Modified 2 x 4 with 2 Studs and Curved Sides (88000/17514) appeared in two sets in Green, 30071 and 7595 in 2010, and one set in Trans-Clear, 70809. The piece is very uncommon for set appearances but doesn’t actually carry much value on the aftermarket, with lots of people currently selling. I’ve used these pieces a few times before in builds mostly as landscaping, as I have here.

This is my first MOC since Widmore Keep. This is nowhere near as big or clever, or even as immediately striking, but with any Lego build it’s always about the pieces and colours used. I had lots of fun putting this together- I’ll be trying something similar again in the future!

MOC: Widmore Keep

After two lockdowns, several weekend builds, and a great supply of Light Bluish Grey bricks from my Lego User Group, Widmore Keep is finally finished! The MOC is a remake of a Castle I built 11 years ago, but expanded, bigger, and with a few new bricks and building techniques from the subsequent years. This was something I was building with intentions to display at a number of Lego fairs and exhibitions last year, and while that’s still the plan, it’s entirely dependent on the world (and it’s governments) sorting itself out again. The castle and scene are inspired by many of the Lego catalogue dioramas from the late 80s with armies of minifigs battling and trying to attack castles. Impossible for me to ever fully recreate as a kid, but fortunately the images and ideas were brought forward with me to where we are now: an Adult Fan of Lego! I’m very happy with how it turned out, so there are plenty of photos and some narrative text below while some making-of pics can be found here. There will be a video at some point- it’s taking a bit longer to sort out. Enjoy!

“Widmore Keep- a small holding fortress recognised across the country and on the borders of the greater forests. The High Sherriff William Thomas holds court here, a keeper of key and shrewd to the core, he wants to outlaw and punish many of the forest bandits, rogues, and families for apparent crimes against the crown. Assisted by Quartermaster Wulfstan Reede, Master Bowman Edeline Mille, and a small infantry, the walls are thick and defences are kept secure. Master Dolfair the appointed leader of the Forestpeople has been wrongly captured and sat in a cell for months now, long forgotten, his imprisonment is a cruel ongoing message. Enough is enough- his protégé, Rowan the Cunning, a folk legend hero of break ins, breaks outs, and brimming with deviousness, plots to break him out…”