2018 in LEGO

Another year has come to a close…
Highlights of 2018:
– 30 LEGO builds!  That’s a lot less than previous years… hopefully in 2019 I’ll be able to pick up the pace again!
– Self-publishing my first LEGO-illustrated book, God’s Covenants: Retold in LEGO Bricks.
– Collaborating with Garmadon on Shinmizu Village.
– More progress on my Tiny Trailblazers series.
– Brickworld Chicago 2018 was a huge highlight for me, including winning the last round of the Simon Games, playing Ultimate Frisbee and Soccer with InnovaLUG, participating in the Isles of Aura collaboration, and some great games of foosball!
– My largest build to date, Arctic Display, a project for The Brick Blogger.
– Joining Skaforhire and LittleJohn as co-leader of Kaliphlin.
– Collab with fellow MCTC members Capt Wolf and Elostirion to build up the settlement of Saldia Este.
– Helping to organize Kaliphlin at Work, a collaboration with 5 other GoH players.
– Working on instructions for multiple builds (see my new Youtube channel for an early look at a couple of those).
– Crossed a few things off my bucket list this year… going kayaking and canoeing, flying a plane, earning green tip belt in Taekwondo, reading Human Action, flying 10000 miles twice (NOT as co-pilot in this case…), to name a few!

Left to right:
Forest Tree House
Carriage
Swordsmanship
Tiny Trailblazers: Farmer
Tiny Trailblazers: Pilot (A)
A Home for the Holidays
Tiny Trailblazers: Captain
Shinmizu Village
Arctic Display
Tiny Trailblazers: Garmadon
Cleanup
Peddler
F5 Tiger II
Qarkyr Box Gardens

Thanks to everyone who reads, likes, or comments on my posts!  I hope you’ll continue to enjoy what’s coming in 2019!

LEGO collages from previous years:
2012 – my first six months of MOCing
2013 – progress!
2014 – a year I was away from the bulk of my collection
2015 – mad quantity of builds this year
2016 – Brethren of the Brick Seas heavy
2017 – maybe my best year to date

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Home for the Holidays

With a bit of inspiration from French and Dutch colonial building styles, a new group of minifigures gets a home!

LEGO F5 Tiger II

On the 11th of August, 1972, the F5 took off for its first flight… and about 45 years later, here it is in LEGO bricks!

The F5 Tiger II has some subtle curves that are hard to capture in bricks, and the plane was much more complicated than my F15 from last year!

Behind the Scenes: Cleanup

The middle ages weren’t just knights in shining armor and princesses stuck in winding towers… there were plenty of odd jobs needing to be done.

Behind the Scenes: Qarkyr Box Gardens

What you’re supposed to see…

…and what there is to see…

…means all the difference is in a good angle and a good crop.

Peach Blossoms

 

Tiny Trailblazers – Vol. II

The LEGO baby returns to sail the seven seas in style!

He also takes time for a day on the farm.

More pictures after the break!

Winter

Wings Over the Horizon

The Bridge Back

When the immediate descendants of those who had survived the world-wide flood of Noah’s day found their bearings again in the course of time, one of their earliest recorded endeavors began with these words: “Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven” (Genesis 11:4).  It was a lofty ambition – in some sense, a noble one – to reach heaven!  Man, though he had failed the test in Adam, would build again the bridge he had broken, the bridge of communication with God.  That the attempt failed, we know: that it, and all attempts like it, are doomed to failure from the start, may seem more surprising.

Adam’s sin and its consequences brought misery and ruin upon the human race; even those who do not admit the cause, tacitly recognize the result.  Something is wrong with the world.  And so men have set out to fix it.  In Noah’s age, the fix was to build a tower; in the days of Jeremiah, to propitiate the false gods; in the time of Jesus, to keep punctiliously the Pharisaical law (see Genesis 11:4, Jeremiah 44:15-18, and Mark 7:3-4).  But always the key has been: believe in yourself!  Strive!  Press onward!  Never give up, and you will earn paradise at last!

The world could be better, as we all admit: let us, then, make it better!  Or, if we are not so ambitious, still we recognize that our own lives could be better.  Then let us make our own lives better; at least, let us assure ourselves of a better life hereafter.