#bfva

[iwillkeepfighting]

Went to Brickfair today and encountered a really fantastic Wayne Manor / Batcave. Created by batbrick39 on Insta!

[modaltmasks]

Mask Monday

Now that Brickfair has concluded it’s time for the Monday mask roundup! Lots of good stuff this year, so I’ll be breaking it into chunks over the next couple days. Today I’ll be covering the (relatively) regular stuff, as there was a lot of 3D printed stuff this year.

This one is actually one of @socketballmasks‘s, real ignikas aren’t quite as easy to get a hold of

This one has to be conceptually one of the most unique masks I’ve painted yet. I’ll leave the puns to you guys though.

Another one of @socketballmasks‘s. Honestly there’s almost 0 difference between these and real ones once they’re painted up.

Tomorrow I’m going to be covering the 3D printed stuff, and giving my thoughts about how 3D printing is going to affect the Bionicle community going forwards (from the perspective of a painter at least).

[burnishboy]

This perfect girl doesn't exis... ...I'm in love. ❤

[modaltmasks]

Mask Monday

Alrighty, enough of this unplanned hiatus, time to get back to work. Brickfair Viriginia is in two days! I’ve been working to get stuff painted up to sell there, so I’ve got a bit of backlog to post today. I’ll be in the Bionicle section taking commissions (and giving the traditional dollar discount to anyone with a brick badge). Also be sure to check out Socketball Masks, who does amazing casts, and Red Star Games, who have tons of great 3D prints.

This Ignika is actually one of Socketball’s cast, you can see here the fidelity is fantastic. He can also do mottling and glow in the dark stuff that I can’t even dream of. Speaking of glow in the dark...

After experimenting for a while with this Lit pigment, I’ve found it really only works for small details, I really wanted to make entire patches that glowed and glowing visors, but it looks like I’ll have to keep looking for a different way to do so. On the upside this pigment is super bright, and only needs a couple seconds of charging to get a good glow

[modaltmasks]

Mask Wednesday

Last Brickfair post for this year! I got to show off an Umurak I was commissioned to paint up last year. There isn’t as much modding to the pieces for this guy like the Gali or Onua, but I think making the skeleton more skeletal works wonders.

[modaltmasks]

Mask Tuesday

Here’s most of the 3D printed stuff I painted over Brickfair. I’m pretty sure nearly all of these were done by either Red Star Games or KhingK.

Since RSG was using resin printing, their masks were very smooth, definitely the highest quality prints I’ve ever painted on. The axles were a little tight, but fit in with a little bit of sanding. Definitely a possibility of them getting stuck if you force them though. The only thing that’s more annoying from resin printing is that there were some bumps and pits on one side of the pieces, I don’t know enough about 3D printing to say what causes them, but they were consistent throughout all the pieces. For the masks it wasn’t really a problem, since the majority of them were on the inside of the mask.

Khing’s masks were done using a lower resolution print, understandable since he was giving them out for free, but the difference in quality is pretty clear. Most of these had a ton of tiny strings of plastic that needed to be cut/sanded off, and didn’t really fit into axle holes. Still good designs though.

This sword was also resin printed, and you can see some of the imperfections I was mentioning earlier. The opposite side is completely smooth though. There was also a nice khopesh that I forgot to take pictures of

So is 3D printing the future of Bionicle parts? I think with a little more improvement to the resin printing technology you might be able to get fairly good quality in terms of appearance, but I’m not sure about how long it’s going to be until connections are reliable. Lego has pretty tight tolerances, and most 3D printed axles are still too tight or too loose. I haven’t even seen balljoints, pins, or axle holes in person, I imagine because the issue is only exacerbated and can’t be as easily solved with sanding. The other option for new parts (and I might be a bit biased on this front) is casting like @socketballmasks does. There are limitations in the range of parts since you have to already have an existing piece, and they take a little more work for each individual mask. The quality is extremely high though, and there are patterns and effects that can’t be achieved through printing of painting as far as I know. 3D printing is still a developing technology though, so it’s only going to gain more relevance as time goes on.

[modaltmasks]

Mask Mtuesday: BVFA 2018

Alrighty, here’s the next set of masks I painted up at Brickfair this year, all non-G1 stuff.

MoUPs, as usual, are a joy to paint. I believe this version was made by Cyber hand.

This was a very fun mask to paint, @toatom did a wonderful job on the model. You guys should check out some of his other stuff too.

Looks like I messed up the focus on this one. You’ll just have to imagine a crisper image of the side.

I was real nervous when painting this one up, as usually when I’m doing stuff with a masked off mask it’s just a blue kaukau that can be easily replaced. Definitely glad I got the opportunity to paint one of these up though!

[modaltmasks]

Alrighty, now that I’ve got a little time, here’s my Brickfair retrospective.

They gave exhibitors a puzzle and a pen this year, which was pretty weird, but the puzzle is pretty nice looking.

Some of the guys in the Bionicle section managed to put together a section for Galidor of all things. They even got the actor that played Nick Bluetooth to come out and do a talk, and I got an autograph from him! 

He’s such a nice person, and his talk was really good, I suggest watching it.

I managed to sell 53 masks this year, down from last year, but only by 5.

I got to see @socketballmasks in action, he made some rad stuff during Brickfair, including glow in the dark stuff with a powder that I’m going to be buying and trying out in the future.

I helped demolish a bohrok.

As usual I got to hang out with a lot of people I normally only see online, which is always fun.

I even remembered to sign up for games this year (though I didn’t remember to go to my first one).

All in all this year’s Brickfair was pretty good. The Bionicle section had a great showing, there was some rad system stuff, I got to talk to some rad people, and I can’t wait to go back in a year!

Also, for those of you interested commissions have been opened again. I am limiting slots for conversions though, so if you want a combo or any sculpting send it in quick!