Post by saabfan on Jan 13, 2016 18:12:02 GMT
How to Build Replicas
This tutorial will focus on the process of building replicas out of Lego. You will find out how to get started, how to proceed as well as some general tips and tricks.
How to get started:
First of all, it is important to know what do you want to build. Is it a vehicle, a building or maybe even an organic build? Once you determined your subject it is time to think about the details. Naturally it is not possible to include every single detail of the real thing in your creation. Thus it is important to determine what you definitely want to include and which details you are willing to sacrifice. Drawing a sketch or taking some notes will help a lot in this situation. Usually only the essential characteristics or even just the colour scheme are enough to make your replica recognizable.
Now it is time to find good reference pictures of the thing you want to replicate. Make sure to use crisp images with good lighting so you can make out as many details as possible. When replicating a technical thing like a vehicle or a building, blueprints and especially profile views will be a great help as you will be able to easily compare your model to the image. If you already have a physical model like a plastic/metal toy or a replica of the thing you want to recreate then make sure to keep it at your side at all times.
The building process:
Finally, you are ready to start building. Have a close look at your reference material and decide what is the most difficult part to recreate with Lego. Then browse your brick collection (no matter if digital or real) and build that difficult feature as well and as efficiently as you can. Bear in mind that bigger is not always better. It might be easier to include more details in bigger builds but I found that it is much more fun and challenging to build at reasonable scale. As soon as you are happy with your result you can start building the rest of your replica around that difficult section. Typical examples for such difficult parts of a model are car wheels, plane propeller/s, a face of a sculpture etc.
If you find yourself stuck with a particular section go back to the point where the difficulties began. However, make sure to document your progress - either by creating a backup version if building digitally or taking an image if building with real bricks. That way you can go back to your previous solution in case your new attempt does not have any good results. If that still does not work taking a break and coming back later might help. My most important tip however, is to think outside the box. Even though certain parts might not be intended to be used in some ways there is still nothing that prevents you from doing so. In the end Lego is all about creativity!
General tips and tricks:
Doing the math:
Most of the time visual judgement will be sufficient to find out the proportions of a model but if you want it to be really accurate you can do the math. For the following example I will be using my Fiat 500 model. A collaboration between me and gabriele.zannotti which can be supported on Lego Ideas here. The key element I want to base the overal proportions on is this tire no. 56989. As you can see on the following picture, it has a diameter of 43 mm. The tire diameter of a real Fiat 500 is 510 mm. The proportion of these two dimensions will help me to find appropriate lengths for all the other dimensions. For example, let us figure out the length of the model. I know that the lenght of a real car is 2970 mm. I could now simply multiply this by the obtained ratio and have the ideal lenght of the model in milimeters. For even better convenience, I can divide this number by 7.8 mm, which is the length of one lego stud, and then, my result is in studs.
(2970*43) / (510*7.8) ≈ 32.1 studs
The calculation shows us that our model needs to be roughly 32 studs long if we want to use these tires. The calculation can be put to a single general formula which works for any dimension of any model, provided that we know the dimensions of our refference object and the key part which determines the scale.
Once you finished your calculations you will see that the Fiat needs to be roughly 32 studs long, 14 studs wide and 14 studs high.
Building “measuring tapes” according to your calculations helps a lot during the building process.
The Lego ruler is also a useful tool in these situations.
Doing overlays:
Overlaying semi-transparent images of your creation on a blueprint of the real thing is also a great way to check if the proportions are correct. Of course it will not be a perfect match but try to get it as close as possible. Doing these overlays requires a bit of knowledge with graphic programs but it is not that difficult to do.
As you can see building replicas is not as straight forward as you might have thought. However, do not forget that the main goal of building with Lego is to have fun. I hope I could provide some interesting tips and tricks.
Make sure to tell us whether you found this tutorial useful or not by doing the poll on top.
Happy building!
How to get started:
First of all, it is important to know what do you want to build. Is it a vehicle, a building or maybe even an organic build? Once you determined your subject it is time to think about the details. Naturally it is not possible to include every single detail of the real thing in your creation. Thus it is important to determine what you definitely want to include and which details you are willing to sacrifice. Drawing a sketch or taking some notes will help a lot in this situation. Usually only the essential characteristics or even just the colour scheme are enough to make your replica recognizable.
Now it is time to find good reference pictures of the thing you want to replicate. Make sure to use crisp images with good lighting so you can make out as many details as possible. When replicating a technical thing like a vehicle or a building, blueprints and especially profile views will be a great help as you will be able to easily compare your model to the image. If you already have a physical model like a plastic/metal toy or a replica of the thing you want to recreate then make sure to keep it at your side at all times.
The building process:
Finally, you are ready to start building. Have a close look at your reference material and decide what is the most difficult part to recreate with Lego. Then browse your brick collection (no matter if digital or real) and build that difficult feature as well and as efficiently as you can. Bear in mind that bigger is not always better. It might be easier to include more details in bigger builds but I found that it is much more fun and challenging to build at reasonable scale. As soon as you are happy with your result you can start building the rest of your replica around that difficult section. Typical examples for such difficult parts of a model are car wheels, plane propeller/s, a face of a sculpture etc.
If you find yourself stuck with a particular section go back to the point where the difficulties began. However, make sure to document your progress - either by creating a backup version if building digitally or taking an image if building with real bricks. That way you can go back to your previous solution in case your new attempt does not have any good results. If that still does not work taking a break and coming back later might help. My most important tip however, is to think outside the box. Even though certain parts might not be intended to be used in some ways there is still nothing that prevents you from doing so. In the end Lego is all about creativity!
General tips and tricks:
Doing the math:
Most of the time visual judgement will be sufficient to find out the proportions of a model but if you want it to be really accurate you can do the math. For the following example I will be using my Fiat 500 model. A collaboration between me and gabriele.zannotti which can be supported on Lego Ideas here. The key element I want to base the overal proportions on is this tire no. 56989. As you can see on the following picture, it has a diameter of 43 mm. The tire diameter of a real Fiat 500 is 510 mm. The proportion of these two dimensions will help me to find appropriate lengths for all the other dimensions. For example, let us figure out the length of the model. I know that the lenght of a real car is 2970 mm. I could now simply multiply this by the obtained ratio and have the ideal lenght of the model in milimeters. For even better convenience, I can divide this number by 7.8 mm, which is the length of one lego stud, and then, my result is in studs.
(2970*43) / (510*7.8) ≈ 32.1 studs
The calculation shows us that our model needs to be roughly 32 studs long if we want to use these tires. The calculation can be put to a single general formula which works for any dimension of any model, provided that we know the dimensions of our refference object and the key part which determines the scale.
Once you finished your calculations you will see that the Fiat needs to be roughly 32 studs long, 14 studs wide and 14 studs high.
Building “measuring tapes” according to your calculations helps a lot during the building process.
The Lego ruler is also a useful tool in these situations.
Doing overlays:
Overlaying semi-transparent images of your creation on a blueprint of the real thing is also a great way to check if the proportions are correct. Of course it will not be a perfect match but try to get it as close as possible. Doing these overlays requires a bit of knowledge with graphic programs but it is not that difficult to do.
As you can see building replicas is not as straight forward as you might have thought. However, do not forget that the main goal of building with Lego is to have fun. I hope I could provide some interesting tips and tricks.
Make sure to tell us whether you found this tutorial useful or not by doing the poll on top.
Happy building!