Custom Decorations for Minifigures

Hello Fans,

Thank you for visiting this blog. I know it has been a very long while since I last posted, but school has bogged me down. Thank you again for your patience and your understanding.

School has taken my time from building with LEGO, but it has not taken my time away from LEGO related activities. So today's post will be about designing your own decorations for your own bricks, minifigures, etc.

There are already companies who make decorations for you, but they cost money. I will show you how to do this by yourself.

I will guide you through the steps I took to achieve a nice decoration for a LEGO minifigure.

1. Scan a LEGO element.
If you have a scanner, use it to scan a side of a LEGO piece that you want to add a sticker onto.

2. Upload and Edit
Upload the scanned image into your computer. I will use Microsoft PowerPoint to make decorations. Please use any program that lets you import images and at the very least draw shapes, lines, etc. In this image, I wanted to make a custom tuxedo for my minifigure, and I used a blank torso as a guide to how big the image should be.

3. Begin Editing.
Use the tools provided in your program to edit or add to your sticker. In Microsoft PowerPoint, I used shapes and colors to make a suit. You can see the image that I scanned, and the shapes I made to make a suit.

4. Test fit
If your decoration has color on it, I recommend you first print it out gray scale just to make sure that the sticker fits. Once it fits, print it out in full color.

5. Cut and paste
Cut out the image to fit your brick, and stick it on with any adhesive. I just use tape so that I can easily remove the sticker if I needed to.

6. Done
After the sticker is pasted on, you are done and you can continue playing with your LEGO, or make more stickers.

You can see in this image, my minifigure has a white tuxedo on. The female minifigure's dress was also edited to five plates high instead of 6 plates high (2 bricks).

If there is anything you feel is missing from this tutorial, please comment. The comments I get are sent to my email, and I can check what you commented.

Thank you again for your patience.

Jesus On the Cross

I know it has been a while, and I'm sorry this post came very late. But school has been tough, and even though I got two weeks of winter break, all of the days were busy with school work.

Anyways, I was able to finish the homework and had some time to make something that was supposed to be for the Christmas season.

I know the image quality on my camera is terrible, but the camera was my iPod Touch camera, and the quality on that camera is usually not very good.

For those who do not know the life of Jesus, here is a quick overview.

Joseph and Mary lived in the Israel. God gave Mary a baby.  She gave birth in a shed in a manger, and the new baby was named Jesus. Jesus saw sinless and he performed wonderful miracles, taught valuable lessons, and healed others from their illnesses. Jesus was executed at around thirty years old even though he has not done anything wrong.

In the bible, It says that Jesus died for our sins, then he rose again and came back to life three days later.  

We celebrate Christmas to celebrate the life that Jesus lived that no one on Earth could live: a sinless life. The bible also says "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believed in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life." -John, Chapter 3, verse 16. This means that God loves everyone on earth. He also gave us an opportunity to believe in the story of Jesus' Life before we die on earth. Then, those who believed in him would have their souls lasting forever.

The Bible also says that all people fell short of the glory of God, and all have sinned. In Romans, Chapter 10, Verse 9, It says "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

If you know you have sinned and know your life is out of control, you can be saved today by praying this prayer:

"Dear God, I know I have sinned, and I know I have fallen short. I know your son Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and I ask for your forgiveness. Amen. "

If you prayed this prayer, I congratulate you and hope your new life with God is the most amazing, never-ending relationship you ever experienced.

Team Fortress 2- Sentries and dispensers

Here is another video game developed by Valve called Team Fortress 2.

Team Fortress 2 is a First Person Shooter developed by Valve (The same company that developed Portal 1 and 2). It doesn't really have a story line, but requires an internet server to play multi-player with others around the world. There are nine playable characters with different and unique personalities, traits, and characteristics that may or may not help you in the game. The characters are called, Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, and Sniper. Each character has it's own set of weapons to shoot. Players can choose to be in two different teams (red and blue). Their costume and weapons will be in their team colors while they play the game.

I have never played Team Fortress 2, but I find lots of interest in both Team Fortress 2 and Portal, which are great games by Valve. I basically looked at game footage, screenshots, and images online as reference to make these sentries.

In this specific post, the Engineer may build sentries, automatic defense systems which shoot on their own, and stay in one place. There are three stages or levels that a sentry can have. The dispenser is like a vending machine that allows any player to regain health or ammo (I think).

Stage 1 Sentry

Stage 2 Sentry

Stage 3 Sentry (Same as Stage 2 with the middle part)

Dispensers

Blue and Red teams' sentries against each other. 

Some people say Mac vs PC. How about Turret vs. Sentry.
(Turret from Portal 2)

Sentries focus their shots on Turret in the center

Portal 2: Updates, News, and More

I know I haven't been posting a while but school is my top priority. I have been building models of cool things, but I didn't have the time to post them. Thanks for your patience.

Missed out on my first Portal 2 project? Click here: http://4bricktime.blogspot.com/2012/05/portal-1-2.html

If you are not familiar with LEGO CUUSOO, it is a place where you can submit a model, recieve 10,000 votes from all around the world, and depending on how good and appropriate your idea is, the LEGO Company may make a model of your idea. You can check out more by clicking here: http://lego.cuusoo.com/

Before you get confused, I am NOT the creator of the idea "Thinking with Portals" on LEGO CUUSOO. My models may look the same, but that was because I was very inspired by the project so much, I wanted my own model. I continued my own Portal theme even though on LEGO CUUSOO, the LEGO Portal project recieved its 10,000 votes because if the LEGO company doesn't make the Portal sets, I have my own version.

Now... Let's get to my custom models...

The entire Portal line-up: Wheatley, Turret, Atlas, Potato version of GLaDOS, Chell, GLaDOS as a robot (Inside orange portal), P-Body, and Companion Cube.

The only differences were on the Co-op bots Atlas and P-Body. the legs are new to allow them to stand, and the arms are now using more detailed pieces. Atlas has his shoulders raised just like in the video game. 

GLaDOS as a robot on the stand. 

Back side has details. There is supposed to be a ring of white panels around the top of the robot, however I ran out of white and smooth 2x4 pieces to make the ring. 

Chell and her new portal gun with GLaDOS Potato on the operating end. 

Wheatley head can be interchanged with the GLaDOS head. Notice the stalemate button behind him. 

Tree House

With some time on the weekend, I was able to build something even with school in the way.

Here is a tree house. It uses a tree inspired by the LEGO Medieval Market Village with a small building on top. There is many details inside and outside the tree house.

Here is the tree house, a tan building with red roof and red outlines.

A string ladder can get you to the top.

A red sandbox with a sand castle, water moat, and water around.

There is a tire swing to have fun. It was built in a different way that the way you would use your tires.

The interior has a ladder, a table, and a treasure map to find treasure.

You can look closely at buildings and sights far away with the advanced telescope.

Use the winch to bring water up into the tree house easily.

The roof can easily be removed to allow playability inside the tree house.

Bring your girlfriend to the tree house...

♥ And gaze at the stars together. ♥

Big Spy Plane

Sorry for not posting for awhile. I will be going back to school soon. I know I will be very busy that year, and I'm afraid I won't be posting for a while. I will post something when I have time. I apologize for any long break that there is to come for the rest of this year, and next year.

Anyways, lets get to a model which is very much inspired by The Avengers, and based on a LEGO set that has already been out for a while: The Quinjet Aerial Battle Set.

I wanted to get one, but I had the pieces to make my own, and I wanted it to be a MOC (Popular LEGO term for My Own Creation). 

Here is the plane which is similar to the version in Avengers. Only the color scheme, and the design of the wings and engines are different.

The cockpits and middle section can be opened to allow easy access. The version sold by LEGO lacks this feature.

The wings have tiled details, and cannons.

The rear has an opening door for figures to get in or out.

This guy is proud to serve this nation!

An attachable string ladder can easily be attached on, making resuce missions easier.

Holding on for dear life!

This is a 6 second video about a pop up minigun. This feature was seen in The Avengers.

Helicopter with 4 sets of propellers

Here is a model which I don't know if it exists or not, but my imagination came up with the design.

You can see the shape of the helicopter is kind of like the LEGO Police Heavy Duty Helicopter, only this design  heavy duty in weapons.

The rear

All the propellers spin together by a simple gearing system beneath the  model.

The interior is split into 2 sections: Monitor room, and skydiving launch room. 

A closer look at the control panels.

I wanted to use strings in the model, but in LEGO Digital Designer, strings weren't available in the mode I was using. The chains will make do.

Mansion

Since I didn't post anything for quite a while, I decided to build something big. A lot of the details and style of the house is inspiration from Jaystepher; who can be seen on YouTube and Facebook.

This house contains 3 floors, 4 separate parts, and 4212 pieces (The biggest model in terms of number of pieces).

Here is a mansion. From far away it doesn't even look like it's made of LEGO bricks. Since it was made in LEGO Digital Designer, all the same colors of bricks are stuck together. The exterior has detailed corners, textured chimney, tucked in windows, and roof in the shape of an arch.

The interior of the first floor has a family room, corridor, kitchen, spiral staircase, tiled floors, and restroom.

Living room details include armchair, sofa, bookcase, TV, glass table, and piano.

corridor and kitchen details have a spiral staircase, drawers, stove,cupboards, and island in the middle of kitchen

The restroom has a toilet, and drawers.

Second floor details include balcony, angled walls, master bed and bathrooms, hallway, and guest bed and bathrooms.

Master rooms feature 6x6 bed, drawers cupboards, mirror (Hard to see), Dresser (Hard to see) and Chimney (Behind gray stonework).

Hallway includes rails, and small balcony to first floor.

Guest room has a bunk bed, and TV

Guest Bathroom has a toilet, sink, and bathtub.

The rear of the mansion has an angled wall. the roof follows the angle of the wall. 

Inside the very top floor is a bowling alley. with lots of fun to roll bowling balls into pins.