Part of the old Adventurers Dino Island range, this was a great little set as it included a dinosaur, and face it, we all like the big lizards.

A very small 15 part set for the rest, it was worth getting on the cheap when possible.

Apart from the Pterodactyl, you also get an Adventurer minifigure in the set.


The hydrofoil itself is started with a 4x6 tan plate.

Underneath, we add red bricks and slopes for it`s "skies".

The top side is then dressed up a bit to resemble a small boat like vehicle.


We then add a steering wheel and a propellor to finish the boat.

And the full set stands completed

Okay, let`s face it, both the dino and the figure are great and the reason you should pick this up.  The Hydrofoil isn`t though, being a small heap of parts for your collection that you even tend to get `for free` with the beast and the fig is you buy this little set.

It has been a while, but it`s time to show some of the best finds of recent weeks from over the net, and let you be amazed at the level of skill people out there are building with our favorite little toy.

For this edition, I ain`t going to take things out of a particular setting, but just some of the truly amazing, guffawked things I saw on sources like Eurobricks, MOCPages and Facebook, about my main three sources to feet my Brickdiction in eye-candy.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are GO!

Who doesn`t remember (of the older generation) this marionation show, of International Rescue and their highly specialised vessels racing out to save the world from all kinds of natural and unnatural disasters.  The great thing of the show, centered around the Tracy family, is that violence was quite minimal actually in a series from the 60s.

I personally always was a fan of Thunderbird 2 btw...

Message in a Bottle

One can only be amazed at the people that make small wooden ships inside a glass bottle.  This has even amazed me further, as the builder made one consisting of Lego in the bottle...

Snow Fighters

Slowly, the Star Wars craze will be recommencing and be picked up, as the new movie is only a year away now and the first trailer has been released the past week.  So expect more and more Star Wars vessels and builds to be appearing all over the net as we ever draw closer to that mark.

The Mouse Guard

As you might all know, I`m one of the 543 people that succesfully have funded Guy Himber`s Mouse Guard project over on Kickstarter.  To get an idea what it is all about, how lovely is this build, as the story literally comes to life!

Red Coat Army




Army building, it`s something a lot of Lego enthousiasts are doing, and something I`ll be putting down a word or two on this virtual paper one of the coming weeks.  This is a great example of a red coat force from the Pirates line.

Chinese Dragon

Who said you can`t do anything with most of the Bionicle parts?

Prince of Persia

While the Lego range was created around the accompanying Disney movie, this build is based on the original 8 bit video game.

Castlevania

Talking old video games, here is one based on Castlevania, including a fully photoshopped box set lay out (so no, that is not a set for sale - sadly).


Well, that`s it for this series of Inspirational Lego, hope you can feast your eyes a bit on the marvelous creations found out there again, and until next time - keep bricking!

Okay, with my C-drive W7 OR even my whole computer in it`s last dying breaths, I`m having to force myself to work away my full backlog of blogposts in the coming days.

And considering I`ll be out all weekend, including a trip to Brick Mania in Limburg which will yield hopefully a lot of pictures, that means typing, typing typing (and grabbing pics from a USB after I managed to force entry myself into the Library maps last night).

One of the recent pop ups on the internet, call it a hype of the moment, is building Star Wars models in Steampunk style.  Partly this has to do I think by the Lego Steampunk book that came out not so long ago (and I still need to grab a copy from), and partly due to the build up to Star Wars episode VII.

On one forum, there even was a contest of building those models, and here are some of those great entries.  Though I am nurturing a growing feeling of building a franchise MoC vessel next year, this is something I`m personally steering clear off, I doubt I have the skills to make a credible model for this niche, better known as `Steam Wars`.

X-Wing

AT-TE
Pod Racer
Jetbikes (you know, those from Endor)

Imperial Shuttle
A-Wing
General Grievous`s Wheelcycle
Jabba`s Sailing Barge





I really love how all those models are easily recognisable for people with only a limited Star Wars knowledge (aka, only seen the movies or so), though I didn`t manage to find a steampunk styled Millenium Falcon though...

Capitano Morbidello is the field officer in charge of the military troops joining the SAC expeditions in the wonderful world. A former drill officer and career military, he is the equivalent of people like John J. Keeshan (bonus points for who gets that reference), doing a Rurik (and more bonus points when you get that) whenever the opponent is spotted.

He lost his left hand in a fierce battle at Wakanada Beach, but doesn`t mind that to hard as he can still hold his semi automatic, and the replacement hook is great for gouging out the enemies eyes...



The model is the limited edition Crisis entry model from 2008, so just one more to paint (and the only one not to become a SAC team member) before I finished them all. This model, `Popski`, was sculpted by Paul Hicks.

Yes, I confess, I`m the new Ebenezer Scrooge. But I swear, if the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future appear, they`re going to regret it.

They will be known then on as the Ghosts of Priming, Basing and Varnishing!

So the X-mas weekend is past, and the calm serenity has been abused on painting models. Let others go out and sing chrismas carols (hmm, a choir sweat shop production line... bad thoughts Tomsche, bad thoughts there matey) I`m doing what i swore to do: paint, paint and then paint some more.

The yield of this set was the last 6 chariots of my Irish army (see earlier), the limited edition Crisis model of Leopold 2, a Behemoth mech for the Diamond Shark clan, 2 EuroFed infantry stands, Nocturne and yet another house... a drop on hot plate for the amount `to do` but we`re going steady and strong at the moment.



Next up: a bunch of Eldritch Caste troops, probably some Lizard Riders and then some things I might fancy, like another Gundam from Endless Waltz for example.

Till soonish (I hope)

Another infamous adventurer joins the SAC, as I continue to work through the limited edition Crisis entry models.

Leopolde

General Leopolde Due is the military commander of the armed forces frequently supporting the society in it`s adventures, but also the lover of a good glass of vino.
A capable and distinguished warrior, he fought in the first weird world war as commander of an Alpini regiment on the French / Italian / Swiss border regions, and personally led the raid on the secret lab of `Duke Droolalot of Zombiestan` in the high alps.
Now detached full time to the society, he makes sure the brave fucilieri and askari have enough weapons and ammo to carry the glory of Italy forward and to return the heirlooms of the past to the museum.



The model is a limited edition Crisis entry model, the second one we ever had, and represents belgium`s (in)famous Leopold II. It was sculpted by the very talented hands of the Perry`s and is for me still the most gorgeous one we ever handed out.

Two new additions to the Società di archeologia e cimeli teams, as I painted up some limited edition models to integrate into games of WHD! in the future

Silvio `Il Foppio`

Silvio is one of the more extravagant members in a team made up of extravagant people... and that is saying something. Middle aged and flashing, he is one of those people that seem stuck in a wrong time frame state of mind. Dashing over the battlefields as a gallant renaisance lord, wielding a rustic pistol and a dirk while his satin jacket breezes in the wind.
He is brave, perhaps to brave, as he rushes towards the opponent, a trait which has caused him some serious injuries, though miraculously he did survive them all to be said, it also allows the rest of the team to get a good idea where the enemy is shooting from...



The model is the Crisis 2010 free give away model `De Bokkenrijder` (the buck rider), sculpted by Paul Hicks.


Mara

Paleskinned Mara is a simple till clerc from the SAC and not heroic in any way. One day she was working late in an exhibition in the Cairo museum, when she heard rumblings down the main hallway.
She hid in one of the side rooms, but when the noises kept getting louder and louder she had a bout of heroics and donned medieval armour and an old sword that where on exhibition there and rushed out in the corridor, not wanting to die as a cowardly scream queen.
She gave the night cleaning crew the scare of their lives right there and then!



The model is the 2009 Crisis free entry model, De Dulle Griet from the painting in 1562 by Pieter Breughel the Old. Still to be seen in Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, and sculpted by Paul Hicks

For the second part of the scenario, we decided to try something different. Using the old Legion of Steel cardboard corridor system, the vault was an erea to be explored in the old `Eye of the Master` rpg style, in that you can only see layouts that one of your models actually could see. Each square as such represented 1 inch of distance...

The forces started in three seperate rooms, with the canadians and italians combined in a single (very crowdy) room, especcially since the italian player (aka, moi) insisted to haul the liberated Professor`s Daughter from last week along. The goal was to work together to reach the objective, and then only ONE player could win it by standing on the objective marker and pass an easy Dare test.

There was a seperate homemade event table, and each door openend triggered an event that could bring in minions of the evil Necron lord...





The game started with a huge hilarity factor as the Germans opened up a door, encountered a few Scarab Swarms and due to being build for maximum shooting power and having lost their only cc character last week, are almost completely wiped out leaving only the companion with 1 wound and a single german trooper standing...




Under the wacthful gaze of both evil overlords, front to back Tomb Spyder and Necron Lord, the brave heroes advanced forward, front to back Team Canada, the Germans and the Spyrers... while the Italians of the SAC investigated their private stash.





As the teams advanced forward through the dungeons, more and more enemies where encountered, but apart from companions the losses where minimal.






The SAC then discovered the map showing the central room and where the touch stone to open it was located, and unlocked it immediatly. Now the race was on to secure the relic for the further benefit of the glorious Italian nation.
In the meantime, Hans finally managed to get near a Dare encounter himself. What followed isn`t caught on the security tapes, but we all had a great laugh (well, except the german perhaps...) as the Necromunda sniper dashed by and snatched it away under his nose... before blowing the last german`s brains all across the floor with his custom made sniper rifle.






The Necron Lord appeared in the room, and with a might roar Sasquatch bum rushed him, ready to tear him apart... and the Lord swiftly felled the Canadian superhero. Next up was the Syrer Leader, the Orrus. But only halfway across the room, the disruption rifle of the Lord ended the youngsters ambition of a glorious totem. Then... a shot sounded from an italian Caraco 1896 rifle from one of the Fucilieri and the Necron lord dropped stone dead to the floor. How`s that for an anti climatic battle..






Then, Tomb Spyder entered the fray... and failed to drag an Askari towards her and his doom, and was swiflty gunned down by the Canadians. The overlords didn`t make much of an impression here...




What happened next was a true bloodbath. Having two almost full strength firing lines in the room, the SAC held back and executed one after the other of the heroes to try and grab the objective or approach them, cleaning out the whole room and claiming the objective and the two part story victory for their own. It has to be said that both the Canadian companion and the Spyrer Malcadon managed to botch their easy Dare tests, and actually had the chance for glory...







The end result of two games was as we hoped, no matter how you gear up characters and give unlimited numbers allowed, the silly rifle armed companion, average statted guy is one of the best weapons in the game...

Avanti Savoia and glory to the SAC!