The First Wave
The Big Plan.
Thirty Vic Vipers. Spring was just starting, I could still see my breath. Build them up and have them all photographed by October. Do all the editing, then start posting in November.
Easy! Plenty of time!
I put together an assembly line of sorts. About fifteen cockpit frames and assorted old WiPs that could be converted to Vic Vipers. I took a couple of pics and posted them for Peter Morris. I had already told him my intention and wanted to show some early progress.
So I started The Green Vic (Maw-Sit-Sit). And realized the limitation of my green Lego supply almost immediately. That WiP went up on a shelf and three Bricklink orders had to be made to finish it. It would take the better part of three weeks.
On to the Yellow Vic (Kigiku). It was inspired by a smashed toilet paper roll of all things. The most engineering went into this one. At least two weeks was spent building and rebuilding. First there was no colorful striping, then I changed the striping, then i added the detailing. Each time I changed it I had to disassemble and rebuild it. I didn't show it very well on Flickr, but there is a large gun underneath. The gun, the forward "intake" and the rear thruster, as well as the cockpit are all connected by an interior support spine. The spine collapsed on me once, shattering the entire build in my hand and spilling its innards all over the table. That was a rage quit. Done for the day. Next day, rebuild, finish, photoshoot.
The first few Vics were photographed poorly. It had been about eight years since I had done a full photoshoot and needed to relearn the steps. I had a tripod but it was difficult to set it up. So many adjustable points. To save on effort, I simply turned the models to get the profile shots, then adjusted the angle of the camera to get other shots. Unfortunately, more dynamic shots were forgotten. I took about five pics of every angle which was completely unnecessary. Eventually I realized I didn't need the tripod. My camera display has two brackets in the center of the image. They turn red if the camera moves while shooting, green if not. After some experimentation I found the brackets to be very reliable. Red brackets were blurry, green brackets were sharp. Now I could do all my shots without having to setup and adjust the tripod and use far fewer pics.
My first photshoot was an afternoon of five Vics. No names. Just files named with colors for reference. It had taken the better part of six weeks to finish the first five. According to my math, I was going to have to step up the build time if I was going to finish by October for editing.
Thirty Vic Vipers. Spring was just starting, I could still see my breath. Build them up and have them all photographed by October. Do all the editing, then start posting in November.
Easy! Plenty of time!
I put together an assembly line of sorts. About fifteen cockpit frames and assorted old WiPs that could be converted to Vic Vipers. I took a couple of pics and posted them for Peter Morris. I had already told him my intention and wanted to show some early progress.
So I started The Green Vic (Maw-Sit-Sit). And realized the limitation of my green Lego supply almost immediately. That WiP went up on a shelf and three Bricklink orders had to be made to finish it. It would take the better part of three weeks.
On to the Yellow Vic (Kigiku). It was inspired by a smashed toilet paper roll of all things. The most engineering went into this one. At least two weeks was spent building and rebuilding. First there was no colorful striping, then I changed the striping, then i added the detailing. Each time I changed it I had to disassemble and rebuild it. I didn't show it very well on Flickr, but there is a large gun underneath. The gun, the forward "intake" and the rear thruster, as well as the cockpit are all connected by an interior support spine. The spine collapsed on me once, shattering the entire build in my hand and spilling its innards all over the table. That was a rage quit. Done for the day. Next day, rebuild, finish, photoshoot.
The first few Vics were photographed poorly. It had been about eight years since I had done a full photoshoot and needed to relearn the steps. I had a tripod but it was difficult to set it up. So many adjustable points. To save on effort, I simply turned the models to get the profile shots, then adjusted the angle of the camera to get other shots. Unfortunately, more dynamic shots were forgotten. I took about five pics of every angle which was completely unnecessary. Eventually I realized I didn't need the tripod. My camera display has two brackets in the center of the image. They turn red if the camera moves while shooting, green if not. After some experimentation I found the brackets to be very reliable. Red brackets were blurry, green brackets were sharp. Now I could do all my shots without having to setup and adjust the tripod and use far fewer pics.
My first photshoot was an afternoon of five Vics. No names. Just files named with colors for reference. It had taken the better part of six weeks to finish the first five. According to my math, I was going to have to step up the build time if I was going to finish by October for editing.
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