Kaleidoscope photos

These photos were made with a Lego kaleidoscope that we built today.

I will be describing the mechanism in a later post.

Imperial Reconnaissance Ship

In order to listen to rebel broadcasts, this ship is equipped with 6 fin-like antennas, mounted on the inclined wings. The principle parts of the cockpit come from “Emperor Palpatine's shuttle”, one of my first Lego sets. The antennas are taken from a Lego Technic helicopter set.

Energy Saving House

Several weeks ago I built a Lego house for a school project that was called "Sharing the Planet". It is supposed to be a model, not to the scale of minifigures, but demonstrating the concept of an Energy Saving House. The solar panels on the roof of my model collect energy from the sun, which compared to fossil fuels, isn't harming the environment. The panels can actually swivel, to maximize their energy yield by following the sun around the sky.

Millennium mini flyer

A while ago I blogged about a Lego vessel we called the Millennium Ship. This mini flyer, designed just by me, can attach to the bottom of the mother ship. This little ship is pretty complex for its size, a number of hinges accommodate the inclined wings. The pink thingy on the top was an extra piece from General Grievous' wheel bike....

LIGHT CONTRAPTION

My dad and I built a rotating Lego sculpture mostly made up of translucent elements. Its axis is inclined and it is driven by an electric motor. We made photos of our sculpture while it was stationary and rotating. The colours of translucent elements become especially vivid and intense when light passes through them.

The movement of the sculpture created very interesting effects.

MILLENNIUM SHIP

My dad and I designed a lego star ship using pieces from an unbuilt Star Wars Millennium Falcon set.

The ship is 56 cm long. Based on the size of a lego minifigure (4cm), we calculated that the length of the real ship would be about 25 meters.  Our ship has all kinds of opening panels that reveal cargo holds, a command center and a minifigure compartment.

    

Since the ship is so aerodynamic we figured it could be a stealth vehicle.
The ship comes with a detachable mini-flyer that I will describe in a separate post.

Games with paper tetrahedrons

We downloaded a template of a tetrahedron from the internet. A tetrahedron is a symmetrical 3D shape made up of 4 identical triangles.  We produced 11 of them.  Our tetrahedrons attract each other by having magnets glued inside them.  They will therefore also stick to a steel base.  We made use of that when we went outdoors and played a fun game: throwing the tetrahedrons onto a steel target plate.  They didn't always stick! 

When we got home we combined our tetrahedrons into a mobile.

Speeding race car

This is a race car that I built all by myself. It rolls extremely fast and smooth. It is even faster than my previous fastest car, REX'S X1 SPEED ATACK, built in May 2013. The speed can be attributed to the way the axles connect with the car.

drawing shapes

Today I practiced drawing 3-dimensional shapes like cubes and cylinders. We made a LEGO donkey lay figure with lots of 3-dimensional parts.  Drawing a figure can be much harder than building one. When you draw an oval it's important to observe the lines ruling the drawing.

Light spinner

IMG 7272 https://vimeo.com/88134440

My new lego creation has a type of rotating structure on top that connects to its motor.  The motor also connects to the front wheels driving the vehicle.  This is accomplished by a long driveshaft. There are 3 LEDs at the tips of the rotating structure.  If the LEDs had been connected to the main battery cell (that powers the motor), then the cables would've been entangled, stopping the vehicle. Therefore the rotating structure has its own battery cell, supplying electricity to the lights.

 
                                         

Darth Malgus' meditation cube

When he wants to focus his mind Darth Malgus retreats to his meditation cube orbiting Korriban.  Because there is no gravity inside his cube, Darth Malgus is able to float while meditating!  

The construction of the cube involved six 16 x 16 square elements that are 

connected by a set of hinges.

phantasy planet

Yesterday we constructed a model planet that is also a night lamp.

The axis of my planet is tilted approximately by 40 degrees. 

Materials used:

- wooden block and stick,

- clear plastic sheets… folded into segments,

- translucent vellum paper… folded into similar segments,

- metal beads,

- red polyester thread,

- lego power functions battery cell and LEDs,

- coloured markers and window paint

T-7 Shuttle

On the 2nd of January 2014, my dad and I built a shuttle that I called the T-7 shuttle. Although it is named after the LEGO Star Wars T-6 Shuttle the design is quite different. My ship has a hatch that you can open, and so peek inside through the back. If you want to compare my design with the T-6 shuttle, the crucial thing is the amount of space inside: the T-7 can transport loads of people or cargo.