Thread by @NW62

Live tweet a LEGO build? Sure, let’s try it. This might be a weeks-long thread though. Step 1:

PG13 warning: weaponry.

No going back now.

Nicely packaged

The longest journey begins with nothing but the first step.

These window frame pieces have an orientation. Guessing it’s not important but let’s put it in correctly!

Hint: pieces that are black have white outlines in directions. In some kits with other dark colors and not-true-color manuals, this is a big help to know.

Contrast previous photo with the dark piece in this one. That’s a dark brown not black. In some kits this hint really helps out.

Ooops. Already skipped a step. Fixing it.

I like gathering the pieces for each step before starting the step, though I’m not usually as OCD about it as this photo implies.

Bag set #1 down.

There are always extra parts. This is disturbing the first time you build a big kit. LEGO is said to do this on purpose; my inner process nerd wants to know the algorithm LEGO uses to decide what extras to include.

That was 36 instruction steps. Bag set 2 is about 80 more. Keep going or take a break? Keep going!

I am NOT a fan of fully-sorting a bag before starting. Look at this puddle of pieces: your visual processor can instantly spot almost every type of piece especially because of colors. Pre-sorting them wastes your video processor. Don’t do that.

If I were to sort these it would only be to separate parts not easily visually separated by size or color. These brown 1x2 vs 1x1 might have been candidates if the parts pile were bigger.

Good example of black (w/white detailing) vs dark gray (w/black). The camera has amplified the actual difference in color appearance in print. Knowing the lines thing helps me a lot.

In case you didn’t already know, pieces like this (and the building techniques they enable) are called SNOT (by everyone except LEGO of course). Studs Not On Top.

A lot of SNOT

Now time to make some kind of gizmo.

Some kind of cam mechanism.

(Rotates freely)

I’ve written about this before: LEGO makes good use of color in places it won’t show. The red white and blue pieces are all identical (except for color). They could have all been one color. But this method is a check on proper orientation.

Every LEGO model is better with a motor!

Testing time ... put three batteries in. Nothing. WTF??

Ohhhh. SIX batteries.

Thwarted. There’s a sensor and I’m not sure what makes it go. This is all part of a self-playing mechanism. Motor testing will have to wait.

That’s it for this session. Bag sets 1&2 down; eleven more to go. Will start a new thread when resuming.