Mech the Draftsman

These flower shapes were made by my Lego Ev3 mecha, equipped with a marker and following a special program written on the Mindstorms software.   Each of the 7 petals of the flowers corresponds to a group of commands in the program: A curved line, a small turn, a similar line back and another small turn. (For a curved line you have to change the speed parameters inside one command: decrease the speed of one caterpillar and increase the speed of the other.) These operations are repeated 7 times, wherefore the flower shape is created. We scanned the drawing and used GraphicConverter to color it in.

Wookie Starfighter

Most parts of this craft originate from a Lego Star Wars Wookie Gunship set that we never built. The ship features 4 inclined wings, configured so that the bottom wing and the upper winglet form a right angle. My design is therefore reminiscent of an x-wing plan.

Mech The Artist

Mech The Artist is a lego Mindstorms Ev3 mecha that used to be a battle robot (it always won against his totally weak and scared twin). We equipped it with custom-made, lego-compatible brushes, an indestructible apron and, most importantly, a specialized program. The program is a series of commands that can be written on the Ev3 software. For example, there are movement, sensory and voice commands. The program is transferred to the mecha through bluetooth connection.  Enjoy the video!

https://vimeo.com/124392044

Paper Mobile

My mobile features 4 paper triangles, the areas of which were determined through geometric calculations. We set the ratio of the triangles' areas to be 4 : 2 : 1 : 1.  The area (therefore weight) of the biggest triangle equals the area of the other triangles combined. We added weights in the form of magnets to each of the triangles, proportional to their respective area.

trandoshan bounty hunter cargo ship

This craft is a Trandoshan cargo vessel that is used to collect tax from around the galaxy. As bounty hunters the Trandoshans prefer payments to be made in gold or silver or even platinum. The ship features a modular design, inasmuch as the command module, the cargo module and the propulsion module can be separated.  The cargo module is built around a large container that holds the collections of precious metals.

Lego kaleidoscope

The centerpiece of my kaleidoscope is a triangular paper tube with holes and a reflecting inside surface. The tube is made to rotate by a motor and there is a camera that looks down the middle.  Although it rotates with the tube, the camera registers shifts in light patterns. That is because the light entering the tube changes its angle and the reflections inside shift accordingly.

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.