Microscale Gamma Centuari

There hasn't been much Blacktron building lately (And the little there has been, I have been to busy/forgetful to blog....) So I decided I ought to take some pictures of a creation I have had for a couple of months.

This is my first microscale Blacktron ship, and it is actually a 1/6th model of a SHIP I plan to build someday. It may look familiar.

More pictures can be found on Flickr.

MFP Lt. Cmdr. Pamella Watson

Been awhile since I have done a MFP (Minifig Profile), and since I was struck with inspiration during the later stages of work today, here you go!

NAME: Lieutenant-Commander Pamella Watson 
NICKNAME: N/A 
AGE: 29 
CURRENT ASSIGNMENT: Epsilon Elnath
BACKGROUND: After doing the 2 years of Mandatory Military Training, Pamella decided to stay on, following the footsteps of her brother. sadly, when she had only been an ensign for two months, her brother was in a terrible accident, and he was drummed out of the Military. Determined to keep her brothers dream alive, she continued her training, dedicating her career to her brother. Her great ability as a pilot, as well as her great leadership skills has seen her rise through the ranks very rapidly. Generally a quite person, she mostly keeps to herself.
BEHIND THE SCENES: One of the few minifigs who I have actually promoted throughout the course of having the fig. She is definitely one of my top 3 female Blacktrons (Out of 11, as of when I type this). She was also from my first batch of Blacktron minifigs, though she didn't get her face right away.
ACQUIRED: Bricklink, 2004.

FEZ is activated

My new webcomic, F.E.Z. is now live! Updates will be on Fridays only.

The not-so-epic journey of the 13 ...."Being' team of not-elite-at-all Blacktron Special Forces Fleebnork Extermination, Zeta Team are here to save ruin your day!

New look Blacktron 3

So when the latest Collectible Minifig series came out, the only one I was truly interested in was the Blacktron Robot. but, since all that lovely printing didn't fit with the lovely chest piece, I decided to put them to good use.

The printing goes very well with the Rench torso (Alien from Space Police III) Added with the helmets from the Paintballer from Series10, and I presto! Blacktron 3. I do wish those helmets sat a little lower on a minifig's head

Infinity Class Satellite.

This is my first ever large Blacktron 1 creation. I don't often build Blacktron 1, but sometimes I just get hit with an urge. I also have 3 Blacktron 1 sets now, and having more Blacktron 1 has made me want to build more.

 

Clocking in at 128 studs wide, it is my widest ship ever. It also qualifies it as a ship (As can be seen here, in the BIG SHIPtember poster) I built it for SHIPtember, but totally forgot to post it here.

 

I am not happy with how the center section turned out, but right now my Lego is packed up, for I am moving at the end of the week. Still don't know how long it will take me to actually redo it. The ship has been built for over a month now....

 

More pictures here!

Have no fear, F.E.Z. is here!

Well, you only need to fear if you are a fleebnork. And even then.....

The Fleebnork Exterminators, Zeta Team are ready for action!

About a month and a half ago, I built a Blacktron Technic figure. It wasn't long before I thought, "Why stop at Technic? there are loads of figures I could do!" I was also reading up on fleebnorks around the same time, and as I was driving to my dad's one day, FEZ was born. Full bios will be forthcoming, though we all know how well the biography project is coming along. Hmm, I think it is time for another post.

Post con disorder

It is a well known fact that people get sick after Lego Conventions. This was the first year I have actually agreed with that. that, plus work and Thanksgiving (Up here in Canada, at any rate) I have neglected my blog here.

But taking a quick look, I haven't really missed much. It has been a slow time for Blacktron creations. there were a couple at Brickcon, and I shall show them.

First off, there was this nifty little ship that was parked on Hub 14. I don't know who built it, so and help would be great!

My full scale Dalek also made an appearance:

I brought the most Blacktron to Brickcon, for I also had my Epsilon Elnath, and a Micro ship along with me.

Looking forward to next year, and I hope to see more Blacktron creations!

Proudlove does it again!

Once again, Nathan Proudlove demonstrates his ability to make gigantic Blacktron ships using many 1x2s.

The Arrested Development, as Nathan calls it, is like his Blacktron II, but set on it's side, and Blacktron 1 coloured. This was also his entry in SHIPtember, so he built it in less than a month! Seriously impressive!

So I am off to Brickcon in a couple days, so don't expect any posts in the next week or so. (I also am led to believe that Nathan is bring this bad boy to Brickcon. I cannot wait!)

Blacktron Dalek

Yup. It is finished. Well, it has been finished for awhile, but I just finally got around to taking some proper pictures.
So without further ado, I present my life-sized Blacktron 2005 series Dalek.

More pictures in the Photostream

Epsilon Elnath

I am proud to present my latest SHIP, the Epsilon Elnath.

When I discovered there was a contest/building challenge on Flickr for building a SHIP in September, I could not resist the challenge. Even though there was a whole month to build it, It took me only 3 days to build the Epsilon Elnath.

Clocking in at 120 studs in length, it isn't my longest SHIP but it might be my favorite. It certinitly is different from all my others. I plan on bringing it to Brickcon, so if you are coming you will be able to see the Epsilon Elnath in the brick!

You can check out more picture in my photstream here.

Old MOC Review #1

Well, since there hasn't been much Blacktron lately, I thought I'd go and dig up some old MOCs of mine (and maybe I'll do more than just mine) and review them.

Since this is my first OMR (Old MOC Review) I may as well start from the very beginning, and review my very first Blacktron ship, the Talana. I built this way back in 2006 (well, I uploaded it to Brickshelf in March of 2006. I may have easily built it late 2005.

 

First thing whenever I look at this now, I think "Where are the guns?" The description on Brickshelf calls it "The Blacktron's most powerful ship". Umm. sure. Mind you, when I built it, it WAS my largest, coolest,  best ship ever. Not so much. Also, I am fairly sure I used antennae's as guns back then.

At the time, what made this ship the coolest one ever, was the sloped front. I remember building it, and I was going to build it with a flat front (Imagine how ugly THAT would look!), and during the build, one of my older brothers walked in and suggested I used slopes for the front. That moment of decision feels like a very important point in my ship building 'career'. It was that point when I realized that spaceships can look COOL, and not BOXY. It also resulted in a (in my opinion) very distinct looking ship.

 

The rear of the Talana isn't up to snuff of what I build these days, but it still isn't too bad. I am not too sure if those trans neon green parts near the edge on the main body were supposed to be engines, or just decoration. I suspect the former. You can also not the Moonbase module attachment at the rear. (Kudos to you if you still know what that is!) An interesting fact: This isone of my few Blacktron ships that the point of access to get in wasn't an afterthought. I tend to forget about hatches when I am planning ships.

 

The interior is awfully roomy, and also lacking in a few necessities. Like sleeping quarters. And a lavatory. But things like that weren't important back in the day. Things were still heavily inspired by Star Trek, like the bridge layout, and the whole transporters. My Blacktrons don't have those anymore. And that warp core looks very unsafe. And it bugs me that it isn't in the middle.

One last thought is of the crew. Looking at it, I can say that only one (Third from the right) no longer exists, though that's just because the reverse side of his head looks much more Blacktron.

Final thoughts. The landing gear was one thing that also was ahead of it's time. As fragile as it tended to be, it was my only ship at the time that had 'retractable' landing gear. I was also still using baseplates! I though it was awesome at the time that I could use white baseplates for a ship. I didn't care about the underside, evidently. Now to rate it:

Exterior: 7.5/10 The design was revolutionary at the time, and it is fairly clean, though the use of baseplates mean that the bottom was pure white and flat.
Interior: 6.5/10 Quite roomy, but lacking certain essentials. Engineering is especially ugly.
Nostalgia: 9.5/10 I had so much fun with this ship. I was only 14 at the time, and I was a bit late in maturing, so I was still playing with my stuff at the time.
Colour it Blacktron: 8/10 (Colour scheme) It is actually quite well balanced. Lost a point for not having enough trans neon green, and another for the underside.
Swooshablity: 9/10 Bit hard to recall how well it swooshed, but I seem to recall it was pretty good, though the landing gear had a tendency to fall off a lot.

Final say: 8.1 Nostalgia had a lot to do with it.

Ispiration calls

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I have been on a building frenzy, working, as well as doing lots of non-Lego related stuff.

Flickr user markus19840420 was inspired by some older creations, and I think I recognize the original source, but the end result is nothing short of fabulous. Very sleek design. Gotta love those quarter domes used like that.

Neo Allied Avenger

I present yet another rendition of  6887 Allied Avenger.

This one is built by yours truly, and actually was built quite a while ago, but I needed to cannibalise it for parts (namely the 1x2x3 slopes) for my Dalek.

I am very pleased with it visually, but it wasn't the best ship to swoosh. Was quite fragile, and tended to fly apart with vigorous swooshing.

More pics here!

It's been a long road

Looks like it has an infestation or something.

But the end is now within sight. Heck, I'm only a few feet away from the finish line. I am talking about my Dalek, of course. My largest project ever. And will probably stay that way for a long time. all that stands between me and completion, is one Bricklink order consisting of 53 1x2 grill bricks, 6 1x1 tiles, and 4 6x6 quarter domes, all in black. most the missing pieces can be seen in the following picture:

Yeah, that bit of blue and yellow has to go.

Yup. with the exception of those 73 parts, the Dalek is done. 13 months, and much money spent, but it was well worth it. Now, if only I could get some sleep. Hard to do when you are afraid your creation is going to exterminate you....

Hello? Anyone there?

Now that the CiBtC III is done, I can finally start blogging creations again. Well, assuming I have time and energy. Most of my spare time now is being used for building for Brickcon, which is fast approaching.

Enough ramble, let's see what the Flickr telephone game has brought us:

Maedhros1980 has started off a round or whatever with this modular fighter. Fleebnorking awesomness is what I call modular starfighters. Can't wait to see how this progresses.

And the winner is...



You people sure stepped it up this year.  Lets have some stats before we get to the winners:

 

38 entries (24 in category 1, 14 in category 2) that is pretty much 3 times the amount of the other two years combined!

 

13 different builders, so almost 3 entries per builder. (6 people had one entry, 1 person had 2, 3 people had 3, 1 person had 8, and one person had 12!)

 

Blacktron I had a slight edge in entries with 20, with Blacktron II having 17. (One entry was equal, so it didn't fit either one.)

 

Okay, enough talking, here are your winners of the Colour it Blacktron III contest of 2013!!!

 

CATEGORY ONE

 

First place goes to Optimal Control with his Blacktron Knight's Castle:

I once wanted to make a Blacktron castle a long time ago, and seeing this rekindled that crazy dream. Also, I love the way he made the triangles on the gate. pure awesome.

 

Second place goes to Admiral Redey with his Blacktron Daleks.

Those are probably the best minifig scale Daleks out there, though mine is still bigger, even if it is not complete.

Honorable Mentions:

The Blacktron Pearl Combining two of my loves, sailing ships and Blacktron. Bonus points for the name.
Shanghai Chase Even though half of this is SP1, it is much better because of it.
Dolphin Point I just find the whole idea of doing a Paridisa set to be awesome in it's own right. Though it should have been called Stingray Point.
Twinfire One of my more favorite classic Space sets. also a rather unique one. Also one that lends itself well to the Blacktron colours.


CATEGORY TWO.

 

First place goes to Spaceruner with his Carp Class Scoutship.

I really like how he was able to incorporate those 10x10 quarter domes. Not an easy thing to do, and he did it well.

 

Second place goes to zwitl and his Blacktron Vindicator

It's wider than it's long, which isn't to common, and it's armed to the teeth. Also very greeblied.

 

Honorable mentions:

 

Neo-Blacktron Mover Very sleek, though could use some weapons.

Orbital Intruder Having actually seen this one in the brick, it kind of helped.

Blacktron Raiders Speeder bikes  These remind me of sharks. Sharks and Blacktron go together well.

 

 

To all those who won a prize, please send me an email to claim your booty! My email is blacktron4 (AT) hotmail.com (Switch the (AT) with @)

 

Thanks to all who entered, and hope to see you in 2015 for the CiBt 4!

Closing time

Okay, the Colour it Blacktron Contest is now officially over. With 38 entries, this has been the most successful year yet! But it also means judging is going to be that much harder. Hopefully I will get to it sooner rather than later.

My collection grows

Some people are builders. Some are collectors.

 

Me?

 

I am both.

Above is a picture of my current collection of Blacktron 2 boxes As it sits right now, I am only likely to acquire one more box, and that is of 6832 Super Nova II. Some of these are more than just boxes, though. Some have Lego in them. the Aerial Intruder box is a recent acquisition, but the actual set that is inside is my first Blacktron set, acquired back in 2005ish. The Spectral Starguider immediately below it is in near mint condition, and that set resides in the box permanently. Don't want to wreck it, after all.

Now, the lower copy of the Spectral Starguider is MISB. And so is the Galactic Scout right next to it. I have a goal in life. To acquire two or three copies of each Blacktron 2 set; 1 for display, 1 for parts (depending of the set, I might forgo this one) and one MISB. As it stands, I have 2 MISB sets, all but Alpha Centauri Outpost built, and various others that are parted out. The most important, and difficult/expensive, part, the having a MISB of each set, I am only 2/11 of the way there. And that is not including the sets such as the Landing pads, or the Super Model.

The rest of the boxes are empty.

Yeah, I am nerdy. Oh, and I have a Blacktron shirt now!

Time is running out!

There is now less than a month to go in the Colour it Blacktron contest 3! Entries have already surpassed previous years (2 Category 1, 4 Category 2 on Classic Space, and 5 category 1, 1 category 2 on Flickr), but let's see some more! You all want to win prizes!

Speaking of prizes, I finally have a list of the prizes:


Category 1:

1st Place: A used 6876 Alienator

2nd place: A MISB CMF Series 3 Space Villain (Blacktron 3) and a Blacktron 2 Minifig.



Category 2:

1st Place: A used 6878 Sub Orbital Guardian

2nd Place: A MISB CMF series 3 Space Villain (Blacktron 3) and a Blacktron 1 Minifig.



So all three Blacktrons are represented in this year's prize pool, buy being the CiBT 3, what else would you expect?

Third time's the charm

Okay, so my first attempt at making the gun for my Dalek was this:

Ummm, no. Definitely not. I remember when I saws those trans neon green 2x2 round on the PaB wall, I was all "Awesome! That will work perfectly for my Dalek's gun!" After having much time to look at it (fall apart), I decided that it just wasn't going to cut it. So I then played around with a bunch of 1x1s and I resulted in this:

Well, it was definitely getting better, but there were definitely a few problems. I didn't end up taking a picture, but it looked almost as bad as the first one. The big problem I had, was that of getting all 8 of the outer pillars to line up nicely at the top. I was obviously having brain issues, for I never figured out (Until now) to use this piece. It has resulted in my third, and most likely final, gun:

Now I just need TLG to make those clips in Trans Neon Green. and cheese slopes. Number 1 on my list of parts TLG needs to make is Trans Neon Green cheese slopes. TLG, are you listening? I need those!

Blacktron Returns

Abeinspace has recently been posting on Flickr some updated Blactron stuff, like this powersuit. He makes excellent use of the large spacesuit that came with some of the Blacktron sets. I like to call them 'Big Boy' suits.

Dr. Winks

NAME:Commander Wilfred Vinks 
NICKNAME: Dr. Winks 
AGE: 42 
CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:R&D
BACKGROUND: Wilfred's past is a most guarded secret. No one outside of the High Command knows anything about his past life. Most people don't even know his name. All records of him know him only as 'Dr. Vinks', though everyone calls him Dr. Winks, for he has a tendency to wink at people. A lot. He proudly calls himself a mad scientist, and the stories that come out of his laboratory don't do anything to discourage the claim. 
BEHIND THE SCENES: Dr. Winks isn't actually one of my minifigs. He belongs to my younger brother, but I feel that I contributed enough of his personality that he deserved a spot here. And I like him. He is evil. Since I like him so much, I decided to build one myself. But you can't have two Doctors, right? (I know what you are thinking...) Wrong! I simply made my copy, well, a copy. A clone. He IS a mad scientist, after all.
ACQUIRED: Bricklink, 2013.

And now you know

Well, it is about time I posted about my massive WIP here.

I mean, it is my biggest, longest, most epic creation ever. And it's BLACKTRON! (Though really, if it wasn't, you would never have seen this post.)

If you have been following my Flickr page, you would know that I have been working on a project, a project I have called 'Project D'. You probably also know that Project D is, in fact, a Dalek. A life sized Dalek.

EX-TER-MIN-ATE

And if you haven't been following my progress on Flickr, you now have the chance to follow my progress here, on CiBt. Well, if all goes according to plan.

Anyways, more than just the the head (Which is complete, even with 1/3 of the neck!) is built. I have also completed the fender, and have a framework for the skirt, and 4 of 11 panels of the skirt done, though a couple are going to need some reworking.

There is only two panels shown here, but a couple more are built. In addition to the above, I also have the plunger arm (complete) and the gun (still WIP) and enough of the round white parts on the panels for the rest of the skirt.

An on going project (I started construction last July) the build is slow. Especially considering how much of the parts I actually am having to purchase. AKA, most of it.

That is all for tonight, but I shall leave you with one last picture. At the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, I had brought my head. and Sylvester Mycoy (The Seventh Doctor) was one of the guests. and he came down to the SALUG booth to see my Dalek head. That was the highlight of that weekend, and so far, the highlight of this year.

DOC-TOR!

Back for more!

 

The contest that you all have been waiting for is back! Well, the contest that has everything and anything to do with Blacktron is back.

Right, onto the important stuff. The whole purpose of this contest is to recolour something old, and make it Blacktron colours!

But, there are going to be two categories this year!

Category 1: Remake an old MOC or any set in Blacktron (1, 2 or even 3) colours.

In this category, you can take an old MOC, and rebuild it in Blacktron colours. A good example would be this, one of last years winners. A good example for the set part, would be this X-wing, a MOC that I got from an older brother  as a Christmas present a couple years ago. Another great example would be last years winner. On another note, it has never been stated that it has to be a space MOC. No, you can Blacktronify a Castle, or your airport, or even your sailing ship. Heck, I think it would be awesome to see a Blacktron coloured sailing ship. Also, remember that the remake doesn't have to be an EXACT copy of the original material. Just make it close enough that it should be obviously based on the original

Category 2: Make an original Blacktron (1, 2 or 3) MOC.

New for this year, there is a second category, where you don't have to rebuild an old MOC in Blacktron colours, but you can just build a brand new Blacktron MOC.

Rules
1- No Megablocks or any clone brands.
2- No limits on how many times you can enter.
3- LDD and other such stuff ARE ALLOWED.
4- Third party stuff (Such as Brickarms, Brickforge, ect) IS ALLOWED.
5- Concerning Category 1, the old MOC must be yours, and not someone elses.
6- Also for Catagory 1. You must have a picture of the original MOC.

PRIZES!

TBA. Since I am not currently with my Lego as I type this and because I have reorganized the layout since I bought the prizes, some shuffling will have to be in order. Suffice to say, there will be a first and second prize for both categories.

Contest ends on June 30th, in whatever time zone you are living in. Entries can be posted either in the Flickr group, or at Classic Space.

It would fit right in

This little speeder by Triple Negative would fit right in with the Space Police III villians, or the Blacktron 1. It is that awesome The use of those big gun parts is especially nice. Not a part used all that often.

Aerial Impeder

What happens when you mix a new Trans-neon green panel, a classic Blacktron 2 set, and a Rebel ?Blockade Runner?

This:

 

I had acquired that 10x10x12 Quarter dome and immediately wanted to use it in the way that I did. I was very happy with how the front turned out, though irony would strike, in that I wasn't fond of the rear. Oh well, live and learn.

 

More pics!

Ensign Jerry Traine

Already I am making changes to my continuity. Instead of having to wait for a certain age to join the BtMA, it is a mandatory thing, like many country's military.

 

NAME:Ensign Jerry Traine 
NICKNAME: N/A
AGE:24
CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:Sub Orbital Guardian
BACKGROUND: Not sure what to do with his life, Jerry Traine decided that since there was a mandatory Military stint, he decided to just continue on with it. An only child and an orphan with no close relatives, there was no one to argue, so he went with it. Security was a perfect fit, for Jerry loved weapons. He is starting his young career, but shows a promising future.
BEHIND THE SCENES: Not much to say about this guy, other than he is a good example of how multiples of Collectible Minifigures can be put to use. In this guys case, it was an extra Football player from Series 8. 
ACQUIRED: Sub Orbital Guardian (2nd copy), Brickcon 2012

Spectral Shipper

I finally have another creation of mine to post, and it is a revamp of 6933 Spectral Starguider. I have attempted to revamp 6933 before, but to no avail. This creation was brought to Brickcon 2012, so you might have seen it there!

I had built this to be modular, so it comes apart into many smaller pieces, and can be rearanged in various ways.

 

More pictures on Flickr

No, it's not a sandwhich...

But this BLT(Blacktron Light Tank) by Peter de Yeule sure is tasty. Only nitpick I have is that TLC doesn't make that canopy in trans-yellow.

If spaceships can have their own month...

Then I guess so can rovers. February is Febrovery, and already there are a few Blacktron Rovers.

Grid Trekkor 2.0 by onosendai

 

Blacktron Survey Rover by Moctagon Jones

BT2 US Exploder by granada turnier

I love them all, especially the third, for it has a big gun!

That's a first

Whitsidewjw is doing a project where he updates all the Blacktron 1 sets. I was really happy to see the Renagade, as this is not a common ship that people choose to rebuild. This is the first one I can recall seeing. You can check out the rest of them here.

BT Brutus

The only way I can properly describe this awesome vehicle, is that it is the Invader, but with wheels! This picture will really help the image along. Of course, the builder did say he dedicated this build to the designer of 6894 Invader. Well done!