Posted by
Dan
at
1:14 AM
| Name of Model: EverydayslifeinAthens |
| Created by: 74louloute |
| Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=454370 |
Details:  This slice of life scene from Greece may not be entirely accurate (is that sculpture in the middle The Thinker?), but it is a tasty bit of LEGO-craft. The white minifig pillars look fantastic, and the collectible minifigure "Spartan" character also make a nice appearance. A C-3P0 head on top of a larger pearl gold dome gives it that finial look, meanwhile the 2x2 dome piece you'd expect to be there shows up elsewhere upside-down as a flower pot. The building on the left makes great use of the flesh/nougat color from Prince of Persia sets, along with some pearl gold bits. The small minifigures here are trophies from the collectible minifigure line, and between them we see a pair of tridents that appears to only be held in by a dish. The market building on the opposite side also looks great, not to mention the building in the back with a full interior. |
|
Posted by
Dan
at
1:31 AM
| Name of Model: Antikythera Mechanism |
| Created by: Andrew Carol (also on MOCPages) |
| Found at: http://acarol.woz.org/antikythera_mechanism.html |
Details: You may remember having seen this builder's difference engine some years back, but he now has another viral hit and fantastic mechanical computing model working its way across "teh intarwebs". This time he has taken on reproducing the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient device that predicts eclipses. Discovered off the coast of Antikythera over a hundred years ago, the mechanism appears to have accurately calculated the locations of planets, the moon, and the sun - all based on a date input provided by a hand crank. For more information on the original machine, see the research website and this article in Nature.
Since the original mechanism was rather damaged when it was found, replicating the original gearing exactly wasn't really an option (nevermind the limitations in how many sizes of gears LEGO actually makes...) - so this machine is as close as possible to the original math, but features different actual gearing. More specifically, rather than very precise bronze gears, the exact ratios needed to get the calculations right are handled by differentials. Normally, when you see differentials used in a mechanical computer, they're being used to average two input speeds. That's not the case here. You'll need to look at the original webpage to fully understand exactly what was done here instead, and how that enabled the more advanced gear ratios necessary here. If tomorrow's LMOTD is late, it's probably because I'm still studying the details of this one.
The video featured above is the The Antikythera Mechanism in Lego from Small Mammal on Vimeo. The video's producer has a behind the scenes post up on his blog. For once - a professional video treatment for a worthy model! If only more of us could have our LEGO creations documented in that way...
|
|
Posted by
Dan
at
2:48 PM
| Name of Model: Parthenon | | Created by: torgugick | | Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=296088 | Details:
 Here is a rendering of the Parthenon in LEGO® bricks. Microscale was a wise choice for this one - otherwise it would use up a few thousand parts, easily. Tile plates were used to make the roof and studs-not-on-top parts were used to make sideways tiles serve as part of the artwork. The parts on the top of the sides are from cockpit hinges, and the top of the front uses some Technic bricks and some 1x1 clip-tiles. Although this model doesn't take up the whole 15 inch square baseplate that it sits on, there are no LEGO® studs showing in the model itself. | | This is Wednesday's model of the day |
|
|
|
