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Hello LUGgers! (Is that a real term or did I just make it up?). I’m Kevin. That’s my son, Cooper, in my profile pic. He’s 7 and is a much better builder than I was at his age. I have been lurking for a while and would love to become more involved, both on here and in-person. I have been building for almost 40 years and recently started creating mosaics. It’s great to be here!
Welcome, Kevin! So mosaics are your thing, or are there other areas of interest? What about Cooper – what does he like to build?
Cooper can be buddies with @tfdesigns’s son Jonah! Jonah is a better builder than I was at his age (or am now, tbh.)
LOL @philmatt24. Welcome Kevin!
Thanks, Matt & Tom! We build pretty much anything. The Star Wars line is my #1 and we have built a couple of the UCS-scaled MOCs I have found on ReBrickable and BrickLink. I finally put together the “Plus-Sized AT-AT” after a year or so of gathering pieces. The finished build is amazing, but it was a whole lot of staring at gray.
Coop and I are both into trains, both model trains and Lego trains. We have done a lot of customizing on the Hogwarts Express and the City Passenger Train.
Cooper is really into Ninjago and Spider-Man right now. He likes building ships and mechs for Spidey and Jay, his favorite ninja. I set up an Instagram account for him to post his builds (@CoopBuilds). I think that’s as far as he’s going to be allowed to dabble in social media for the foreseeable future.
Another father-son team. This is what’s great about LEGO: there are no age limits for creativity, and I for one love talking about technique with everybody, as every builder that I have ever met has something unique to offer.
We do have dedicated Star Wars builders and trainheads in this LUG, so, if you create a thread specifically about Star Wars or trains, I’m pretty sure they’ll jump in.
Feel free to start a thread about anything LEGO. And welcome, LUGger! LUGnut! Just don’t call it SCLUG. 😀
This is a mosaic of Cooper when he was about 18 months old. He was dressed up for a trip to the old Pittsburgh Comic Con (RIP). This is hanging in my living room.
Your mosaics are awesome! I love that you hung the one of your son. I’m working on one myself at the moment. How did you make yours?
Thanks, Krista! I have 8 or 9 more of different Star Wars and Clone Wars characters in varying states of completion as well. I’ve had Studio 2.0 for a while, but never played with it much. After seeing your post in another thread about it, I’m trying it out now. I like that it links to BrickLink, but I’m not sold on it otherwise.
I use Photobricks as a starting point. Their color palette is a little outdated, but I have learned to work around it. I will make a starting mosaic image in there, then import it into Photoshop. On PS, I make any changes with colors and start putting together the puzzle. I learned pretty quickly that Photobricks does not use the most efficient algorithm for filling in spaces so I made my own template on Photoshop for choosing the different plates. I end up with a map or diagram that looks like the attached pic. I use the PS version when physically putting everything together. Each plate is its own layer in Photoshop so I can find where each piece goes pretty easily.
I spoke with Sam from Lego Masters a lot when I was working on my first mosaics, especially about hanging them when I was finished. He just uses a printed photo with a grid drawn on it and chooses his colors based on that. When it comes to this kind of thing, he’s definitely more of an artist and I’m more of a copier.
@mrmain18 I’d someday like to try to make one using Photoshop. I had spoken with EJ Bocan (http://artontheblock.com/new-work/) who does a lot of mosaics and he pretty much echoed the same process that you use.
I’d consider myself a copier more than an artist as well. They just brought back the mosaic feature in Studio, which is where I’m starting for now.
I’m working on this one that I had created with mosaic (before they discontinued supporting it and before TLG bought BrickLink), but did some color adjustment in Studio. Did Sam have any hanging suggestions? This one’s pretty big, but I’d love to hang it.
Sam suggested gluing it to a piece of thin plywood that leaves a quarter- to half-inch space between the edge of the baseplates and the wood. Super Baby is 30″ x 30″ and the wood is 29.5″ x 29.5″. Per his suggestion, I used a Locktite adhesive that’s typically used for outdoor construction projects to glue the baseplates to the wood. Once you get it mounted, you have lots of different options. I didn’t want to put a border around it or anything so I just added some small boards to go between the plywood and the wall to give it some depth. My finished “frame” is below.
That’s really helpful! I appreciate the insight. Does it seem heavy on the wall at all with the plywood?
It’s heavy, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to fall. I used two 30 or 50 lb hangers just to be safe. It’s probably around 20 lb with everything. I figure it’s not any heavier than a good-sized shadowbox full of stuff.
I never looked into getting a frame made around it at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. I just didn’t like the look.
For my smaller mosaics, I just glued a cheap wood frame to the back of the baseplate using the same adhesive. It worked extremely well.
Thanks, Josh! I’m getting close to finishing a few more. I started waaaaaay too many at once. I think I will start a new “what the boy and I are building”-type thread elsewhere on the forums.
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