It involves attaching 1 x 1 bricks with studs on 2 adjacent sides to 1 x 1 Technic bricks with holes. I came up with a pretty elegant solution (if I can say so myself). There was simply no way to attach these 1 x 1 bricks to the main structure without resorting to techniques that are at least borderline illegal. This would make the corners of the building very weak since the stacks of so many 1 x 1 bricks would not be anchored anywhere besides the bottom and top. When I started working on my model of the Empire State Building, I realized that I would need tall stacks of tan 1 x 1 bricks at the corners. But apparently, LEGO has condoned the use of this technique when it is done for decorative purposes (which would minimize the stress on the elements-I would like to think that my usage of the technique falls into this category). As I understand it, this is illegal because of the slight differences in the location of the Technic hole in comparison to the system stud. Yes, I am talking about attaching Technic bricks with holes to studs (on the sides of regular SNOT bricks as it turns out). You can read more about some barely legal building techniques in this other fantastic BrickNerd article. However, a few Technic bricks may have been inconvenienced and subjected to stress (in a manner that Jamie Berard likely wouldn’t approve of). They allow bricks to be offset by half a stud in one or both dimensions. These are plates that have studs located halfway between where the studs would normally be if they were on a regular plate. So, is there a way to set your bricks back by just half a stud instead of a full stud?įortunately, there is and the way is using jumper plates. Depending on the scale you are using for the tower, a full stud setback at each step may not give you as smooth of a taper as you would like. The smallest amount you can normally set back a layer of bricks relative to the layer below it is a single stud. Say you are stacking bricks to build a tower that is supposed to taper as it rises. For instance, if your first layer is a 32 x 32 baseplate, the bricks in your second layer have to be placed such that their studs line up vertically with one or more of the 32 x 32 studs in the baseplate. All the locations on this grid are separated by increments of a stud (which is the width of the basic LEGO unit-a 1 x 1 brick). For each layer of bricks you place, this grid is determined by the layer immediately below it. When you are building with LEGO, you are always working with a grid of possible locations where you can place your bricks. Here are examples of some SNOT elements that I have found to be very useful. As the LEGO system has evolved over the years, more and more elements have been added to the parts catalog to facilitate SNOT-especially brackets, bricks and plates with studs on their sides. So what is wrong with just stacking LEGO bricks and plates the normal way (one on top of the other), you may ask? Nothing really, but using SNOT techniques allows us to add details and create shapes that would otherwise not be possible from just stacking. Little did he know that SNOT (Studs Not On Top) is what we AFOLs call a technique where we turn LEGO bricks and plates on their sides and attach them to the faces of other bricks. “Oh, I just used SNOT.” I started saying without thinking twice, and before I had a chance to explain what I meant, the guy had moved away with a puzzled (and slightly disgusted) look on his face. Someone from the general public came up to me and asked how I had built the green roof in my model of 40 Wall Street. Isn’t that stud supposed to be on top? No, it’s SNOT!Ī funny thing happened at the first LEGO convention where I displayed my skyscraper models.
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