Building Orthanc, Part 2

[ysabetwordsmith]

my_partner_doug and I are building the Tower of Orthanc.

Begin with Part 1. Skip to Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8.


Below are the parts for our third session.  You can see a lot of ceiling/floor tiles and some specialized parts.



These are the parts for the orc.  He has a red head.  You can see the white hand of Saruman on his equipment, along with the distinctive hooked sword.



The dungeon decorations include bones, skulls, chain, and a rat.  Look at the size of that rat compared to the humanoid skulls.  While not quite a Rodent of Unusual Size, that is a damn big rat.



These are the stickers for the set.  They are quite excellent.  The designs are full-color and printed on a clear backing.  They peel off reasonably well and aren't inclined to tear.  My only quibble is that when trying to position them, the sticker bends toward the plastic plate once it comes within a couple millimeters of the surface.  This makes it challenging to position the sticker precisely in the middle.  But the stickers usually go on nicely with few if any bubbles or wrinkles.

This is sooooo much easier than trying to float water-released decals onto the fins of a rocket.



Now you can see the walls of the dungeon going up.  The skulls and bones are in place.  We forgot the rat at this stage.

See the orange brick?  That's an example of the infrastructure.  It will be hidden by other pieces later.  These brightly colored infrastructure pieces make it easier to position certain elements of the kit.  It looks garish and incomprehensible until you realize what it does and how it will get covered up later.  Then it's just clever.



From the front you can see the big stickers decorating the dungeon.



The floor/ceiling tiles are in place.  That blue patch marks a trap door.  ("Why do we even HAVE that lever?")  Also the rat and the ball-and-chain are now in place.



This is the finished Session 3 work with the trap door closed.



Here it is with the trap door open.  ("Aaaaaaah!"  *splash*  "Why do we even HAVE that lever?")  Yes.  I keep saying that.



The orc has also been assembled.



In our fourth session, we put the walls around the second floor.



Now the corner doors have been added, along with some other decorations.



This front view shows off the white hand tapestries and polearms.



This is the outside view.  You can see some more of the infrastructure pieces.




[To be continued in Part 3 ...]

Comments

[peoriapeoria.livejournal.com]

LEGO frogs are onesies, a bit taller than a 'cheese' (it's a slope tile) and shorter than the parrots. Do I see headlights?

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't think there are headlights, although the translucent jars later are the same kind of pieces that used to be used as headlights when I was little.

Re: Hmm...

[peoriapeoria.livejournal.com]

headlights are part of Studs Not On Top, they have a hollow stud on the side (the better to allow light to convey with or without translucent pieces). It was a question re the grey beams that seem to have studs facing out.

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh! I've been calling those "lantern pegs" in the 1x1 configuration. Yes, there are a lot of those. They hold on the outer decorative slats on the walls.

Re: Hmm...

[peoriapeoria.livejournal.com]

That's not a bad name for them, they look like lanterns. But with a round translucent flat, they make a headlight assembly.

Yeah, I think I recall models that used round 'posts' as headlights.

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> That's not a bad name for them, they look like lanterns. But with a round translucent flat, they make a headlight assembly. <<

I haven't seen those headlights, but they sound excellent.

[peoriapeoria.livejournal.com]

Is the red piece that the stairs connect to from the small cache towards the top of the first picture? I can't quite make out what sort of part it is from the various images.

I just realized that the long bones are clipped in red modified plates. LEGO could SOO make people's days by making some nice 50-90 piece sets with column pieces Athena MoC (http://www.saber-scorpion.com/lego/classical_temple_athena.php), railings, couple of skeleton minifigs, spiderwebs, curved panelwalls.

(actually, I sorta like the multicolor columns, porous stone varies in color.)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> Is the red piece that the stairs connect to from the small cache towards the top of the first picture? I can't quite make out what sort of part it is from the various images. <<

I think that's it, yes. The red attachment is a pair of tubes, into which cross-shaped struts go later. It is not the sturdiest possible attachment, but it's a decent workaround for the fact that Lego does better at right angles than other angles.

>> I just realized that the long bones are clipped in red modified plates. <<

Brown plates, but it's hard to the see the color differences in this set.

>> LEGO could SOO make people's days by making some nice 50-90 piece sets with column pieces Athena MoC, railings, couple of skeleton minifigs, spiderwebs, curved panelwalls. <<

Agreed!

>> (actually, I sorta like the multicolor columns, porous stone varies in color.) <<

They are interesting.