Iron Builder: Jaap Bijl's hummingbird techniques

One of the contestants in Iron Builders preliminary rounds, The Iron Forge, is Jaap Bijl (jaapxaap, found on Flickr and Instagram) from the Netherlands and he is a member of Lowlug and Innovalug. He took part in our 2019 Parts Festival and has now progressed from the Top 20 to the Top 8 in the Forge. We asked him to explain a couple of the techniques involved in one of his Forge builds from last week.

Hey everyone, it’s Jaap here! I’ve been participating into the Iron Forge contest, and made it to the final 20. In that round we had to build using the hammer and/or the wrench minifig accessory pieces. At some point when I was playing around with the wrench piece I found a wrench combination that looked a lot like a bird’s beak to me. So there I started building this hummingbird.

(Yes, for those New Elementary readers who remember it, I also used those big yellow stars from the 2019 parts festival in the flowers!)

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jaap Bijl - week 2

Time for another update of what's been going through Jaap Bijl's (jaapxaap, found on Flickr and Instagram) head as he is faced with the various LEGO® parts in our Parts Festival.

There was one piece in the parts selection that was just weird to me. It's a white piece with some strange holes and details that didn't feel like LEGO to me. I was wondering why it even existed and why they would make such a part. But hey, if I think a piece doesn't deserve the name LEGO, I feel like that's enough reason to use it.

While looking at the piece, it suddenly came to me that it looked exactly like a security camera. So I took some bricks together and made a little scene to prove that even this piece is useful.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jaap Bijl - week 1

The next LEGO® builder to introduce you to is Jaap Bijl (jaapxaap, found on Flickr and Instagram) from the Netherlands and he is a member of Lowlug and Innovalug. His building motto is “Never ask whether something is possible with LEGO or not. Only ask how.” Sounds like an ideal candidate for our challenging Parts Festival! Jaap has taken the unique approach of sending us weekly updates on his progress; an insight into his creative process.

A week ago I got my hands on the parts New Elementary sent me and that made me excited as I had no idea what pieces I would receive. I took the package straight to my room, got a pair of scissors and immediately opened it. Since then they have been sitting on the coffee table in my room! I had a lot of work to finish first but by having them in sight I still saw them a few times a day, to get inspired.

I started experimenting with the pieces that immediately triggered my creativity, such as the purple gear (Gear Wheel 2X2, Z6 in Medium Lilac/ Purple  – 6238330 | 35442). That was not because of the shape but the colour. If you follow me, you might know that I have done a lot of fantasy builds with purple, so getting new purple pieces was a fun surprise! It just looked like a flower to me. This was the same thought I had with the yellow star pieces from The LEGO Movie 2 sets (Design Plate, 4X4X2/3, No. 1 in Bright Yellow/ Yellow – 6248804|39611) which were a lot bigger than I expected, which means a harder (and more fun!) challenge to incorporate them into a build.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jaap Bijl - week 3

Jaap Bijl (jaapxaap) reveals his final LEGO® model for our Parts Festival using a collection of seed parts chosen by us.

So here it is. My third and final update for the Parts Fest. I wrote last time that this update would be all about my final build that shows uses of some of the seed parts. I showed a little work in progress of a mushroom house with a purple door en an arch of stars above it. Over the last week I have spent quite some time on it and here it is. I present to you my Mushroom Mansion!

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: Batman bits

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

To finish our selection of workshop builds we look at Mini Accessory, No. 10 (40598 | 6266155) and Mini Accessory, No. 11 both in Silver Metallic/ Flat Silver (50018 | 6266977); two accessory packs from Batman sets that contain amazing pieces and proved so popular, you get an extra-long post!

Edward Eggens “Light tank”

Torbjörn Kristiansson “Dark Pearl Palace”

2019 Parts Fest #1: Duncan Lindbo bugs out

After a break let's get back the last few contributions to our Parts Festival, where LEGO® builders use some of the newest parts to create inspiring ideas. Duncan Lindbo is back today, finding a place for the first creation he made for us.

Today we get to see where the TRT13 dropship was in such a rush to get to…

(Click image to enlarge)

The colony on planet LG-624 had gone silent, so a platoon of marines was dispatched to investigate. They start their search at the colony’s power plant complex. The massive reactor tower appears intact, but the shattered windows and flickering fires in the admin towers suggest some kind of struggle. More ominous still, the entire complex seems deserted: no sign of the colonists anywhere.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Sarah Beyer's Technic experiments

Swedish LEGO® builder Sarah Beyer (betweenbrickwalls on Flickr) usually builds modern house interiors and microscale buildings, and her initial contributions to our Parts Festival are no exception!

I received a whole bunch of various new parts from New Elementary, and some of them belong to the Technic category. I rarely build Technic MOCs but I find those parts very useful, especially when it comes to microscale builds. The Round Plate 2x2 Thin with Rotation Stem (Design ID 40145), and Liftarm 1 x 3 with Connections for Hose and Rubber Bladder (41817) first caught my attention.

The circular shapes make great microscale watch towers like in this fort somewhere in the desert.

The round plate can also be used in minifigure scale builds. It´s a perfect alternative to using Support 2 x 2 x 2 Stand (3940/19798) or a Telescope (64644) when building a stool. You need a Round Tile 1x1 with Bar and Pin holder (20482) to connect it to a stud.

In the room below I´ve used the round plate to create a side table. It fits well in a Swedish home from the early 20th Century.

As you may notice I´ve also used Brick, Modified 1 x 1 x 2/3 No Studs, Curved Top (49307) to create arm rests for the sofa.

READ MORE: Jaap Bijl shares his initial Parts Fest experiments 

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How the LEGO® element team designed the new gear wheels

We’ve really enjoyed this latest Parts Festival, which now draws to a close, and we are so grateful to the talented artists who gave us their time and creative talents for everyone’s pleasure; in no particular order – Jessica Farrell, Inthert, Jaap Bijl, Duncan Lindbo, Samuel Pister, Sarah Beyer and Jaroslaw Walter.

To complete the festival we will take another look at what are arguably the most noticeable parts in the selection; the new gear wheel plates that we affectionately named ‘splat gears’. You may recall back in March, Elspeth wrote a fantastic post listing the different kinds of LEGO gears through history, including an examination of the new splat gear family.

It seems LEGO enjoyed her post too! – we later received this fascinating email from Marinus Jasperse on behalf of the Element Design Platform Team at the LEGO Group about the development of the new gear family...

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: lots of bits!

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

Rather than highlighting particular elements, today's creations use various seed parts from the array in ingenious ways.

Erik Smit “Deer”

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jessica Farrell's microscale

Another quick post for our Parts Festival, from Jessica Farrell today. Following her animals last week, we have a couple of microscale creations using some of the LEGO® parts we sent her. This is a good moment to explain that we don't send all the chosen builders exactly the same parts; for example Jessica received some of the new 3x3 Technic frames. 

BAVARIAN ICE CREAM CONE CASTLE

Invert the inverted printed cone piece (Cone 2X2X2, Inverted, No. 1 in Medium Nougat – 6261728|52116) and you get something that resembles the turrets of a fairytale castle. At least, it would if it was in microscale!