LEGO Monkey SketchUp model #1 finished

So the first Sketchup model for the LEGO Monkey 🐒 is done; I say first because usually, I make some changes after a first test build (I say first because usually I have to test it again after changing... 😆)

Papercraft LEGO Monkey WIP 2

The monkey has a tail!

Well, so far my SketchUp LEGO monkey has a tail. As you can see, it's pretty simplified. To really get all the smooth curves in paper form exactly as they are on the real LEGO monkey, would require very different techniques and I like to stick with the (relatively... 😆) simple techniques of my other LEGO papercrafts.

Some papercraft plans & announcements

Well, I already paperfied one of them, so it shouldn't be too hard to guess which one I'll be making next... 😉

Future plans

After my Tomb Raider Home Sweet Home release after that long hiatus, I'm not planning on taking such a long break from papercrafting again! 😠

In fact, while making that one, I already came up with some ideas for future Tomb Raider vignettes that I already want to make! 😃

One will have a scene that I think will look pretty cool as a vignette, and the other one will be minimalistic but will showcase a cute 3D Lara that I'm not sure all Tomb Raider fans even know existed...? (because it was made for just one very specific instance 😇)

But to make three Tomb Raider vignettes in a row might be a bit boring, and of course I don't want to neglect my other "regular" series (Zelda, Final Fantasy, Advance Wars, etc.)

And there will also be a 2019 Halloween model! (because I'm not missing another year of making one of those again!! 😆)

I should have plenty of time for it though (three months, yeah *should* be enough 😉) so I'll just be working on that one off and on.

Current plans

But obviously, first I'm picking up another LEGO papercraft: Spinoza the monkey! 🐒

(How I know he's named Spinoza? Well it's in the official LEGO Pirates comic 6255, "The Golden Medallion" 😊)

Like many of my papercrafts, I actually started this one *a long* time ago already (then other stuff came in between... then at one point I thought it might make a nice release for the Chinese Zodiac's Year of the Monkey - which was in 2016... and I'm not waiting another 9 years to release this! 😋)

I already had the arms of course (they're the same as from the regular minifigs, you just need four of them). And I finished modelling the body, but of course that's the easy part. The head will probably be the trickiest piece and will probably be a little bit simplified (I'll need to make sure the end result will be humanly possible to build in paper form later on...) but we'll see how it goes. 😇

(oh and before you ask, I'm not sure if I'll make a banana, because the LEGO Pirates didn't have bananas back then. Maybe as a separate model later on? 🍌🤔)

Stay tuned!

Papercraft "LIINO" ("LEGO Indy In Name Only") WIP 2

Like I said last time, my original LEGO "Indiana Jones" minifig was not exactly like the real one. For one thing, instead of a satchel, he had a backpack.

Papercraft LEGO Star Wars Luke Skywalker minifig WIP6!

And so the famous red Rebel Alliance logo goes on Luke helmet! ;o)

papercraft LEGO Black Knight WIP9

Ta-daa! The full LEGO set 6009 Black Knight in SketchUp! ;o)

papercraft LEGO Black Knight WIP6

The Black Knight minifig is coming along very nicely!

New papercraft project: LEGO M:Tron minifig!

Here it is, the new papercraft project I'll be working on!

It's a LEGO minifig again so for some parts like the arms and legs, I'll only have to change the colours. ;o)

Some parts like the head and the torso require new textures, which I already made as you can see: if you have a lot of nineties LEGO, you'll recognize the LEGO Space M:Tron logo! ;o)

So there are only a few new parts that I'll need to make anew in SketchUp first, namely the space helmet (with (re)movable, transparant visor of course! ;o) and the airtanks.

I'll also start a new papercraft Advance Wars unit as a side project, but more on that later. ;o)

Stay tuned!

LEGO minifigs put their pants on two legs at a time

The basic shape of a LEGO minifig's torso is very simple, with 4 "ribs" inside which fit around the pins of the hips, a hole on each side to connect the arms, and a simple cylinder on top as the neck.

Now that I've come this far, I think before I start working on the rest, I will make the texture for Knoest's shirt first; it'll be a nice break from SketchUp. ;o)

Stay tuned!

Knoest's other leg (yes, the wooden one)

For pretty much any other LEGO minifig, I could have just mirrored one leg in Photoshop when making the final templates, but not for Kapitein Knoest: he also has a wooden leg. ;o)

The wooden leg has a lot of round parts, and normally, if you were just making a 3D model, you could just trace half the outline and then instead of extruding it, rotate it along the vertical axle (SketchUp has the "Follow me" tool for this) and you would have a perfect round, wooden leg.

But this way, it would just be a hollow shell, and if you look closely at the wooden leg, I think you can see how it makes much more sense to break it up in seperate parts, that are stacked on top of each other.

So even at this early stage, you already have to imagine how you will build the final paper model, because the 3D parts can't be changed anymore of course after unfolding them in a much later stage...! ;o)

Stay tuned!