J. Fred MocLegoman
For the past two months, I have been working on creating a Lego mini figure ("minifig") of myself for the purpose of... well... there really is no purpose. I wanted to. That's why I did it. I named him J. Fred MocLegoman. (MOC, in Lego fan lingo, stands for My Own Creation).
I started out by ordering a custom head and torso from www.minifigs.me. I designed the face by photoshopping two Lego heads that I found on the internet (one with glasses that looked like mine and one with a beard that closely resembled mine). I sent the photoshopped picture along with a picture of my plaid shirt to minifigs.me and, a few weeks later, received this:
The face and plaid shirt are perfect. Of course, in order to make the minifig a perfect miniature of myself, I needed hats. Lego makes a few different hats that are almost, but not quite, perfect. I tried out a few options and the biggest problem was that the brims on all of the hats were huge. I tend to wear fedoras with smaller ("stingy") brims. Also, the color options weren't going to work. So, I bought an x-acto knife and some toy paint.
(and a guitar, of course!)
I started out by cutting down the brims on the fedoras with the x-acto knife and then smoothing the brims out with sand paper.
Besides the fedoras, I also bought a cab driver's cap (I don't know the technical name for this style of hat, but I think you know what I mean).
I did a lot of research on how to paint toys and discovered that there's a lot of conflicting information out there. For example:"Always use acrylic paints." "Never use acrylic paints." "Sealer is basically primer, so put it on first." "Sealer goes on last."
It seems that anything that you do is right in the eyes of some and wrong in the eyes of others. But, I digress.
I ran some sand paper over the hats to "rough up" the surface to help the paint adhere better. Then, I primed each of the hats using acrylic sealer. After that, I painted them with acrylic paints.
Painting was a whole lot of trial and error. The grays were initially too dark and I had a lot of trouble getting the color of the cab driver's hat just right.
First, it was too green. Then, it was too yellow.
I ended up buying a khaki color, because my attempts at getting the right color by mixing were pretty bad.
Painting the black band and the black trim around the edge of the brim was a real challenge. The hats are so tiny and the brushes so dainty. One small tremor of the hand and there is a black streak across the entire hat. It took days just to put one coat on the band, because I could only work on it for about ten minutes at a time before my hand would get shaky
But, I was determined to get it right because I wanted it to match my hat perfectly.
And I think I succeeded.
I finished up the hats with a few coats of matte varnish.
The light tan fedora became my straw hat. To get the impression of a straw hat, I used the x-acto knife to gouge and slice it up. I think it came out really well.
The dark tan fedora became my favorite, even though, I don't own a dark tan fedora. Perhaps, I shall -- one day -- own one.
I took my minifig out one day to play around with some iPhone photography (iPhontography?). I downloaded the Camera+ app for the macro feature, which is great for taking pictures of small things and for getting a lot of detail. It's also what makes the landscape in the distance blurry while the subject up close is very clear. (*NOTE: I'm just a beginner when it comes to photography and I'm learning through trial and error, so if I sound as if I don't know what I'm talking about, that's because I really don't know very much about what I'm talking about.)
I found a fishing lure organizer to use as a way to protect my minifig and accessories when I'm going places with them. Because of the detail paint job, I didn't want to just carry this guy around in my pocket where the paint could rub off or otherwise be damaged. I glued some foam to the lure organizer to further protect my minifig.
I still have some work to do on the cab driver's cap. The one I wear is old and torn up in a couple places. I'm going to try and replicate that on the Lego version. I also have to make some modifications on the way it sits on the minifig's head to better match the way I wear mine.
J. Fred MocLegoman has been posting some pictures on instagram. He (and I) went to Daytona Beach for a week and had a relaxing time on the beach and by the pool. I took some great pictures and will be blogging about the whole trip sometime soon.
I started out by ordering a custom head and torso from www.minifigs.me. I designed the face by photoshopping two Lego heads that I found on the internet (one with glasses that looked like mine and one with a beard that closely resembled mine). I sent the photoshopped picture along with a picture of my plaid shirt to minifigs.me and, a few weeks later, received this:
The face and plaid shirt are perfect. Of course, in order to make the minifig a perfect miniature of myself, I needed hats. Lego makes a few different hats that are almost, but not quite, perfect. I tried out a few options and the biggest problem was that the brims on all of the hats were huge. I tend to wear fedoras with smaller ("stingy") brims. Also, the color options weren't going to work. So, I bought an x-acto knife and some toy paint.
Besides the fedoras, I also bought a cab driver's cap (I don't know the technical name for this style of hat, but I think you know what I mean).
I did a lot of research on how to paint toys and discovered that there's a lot of conflicting information out there. For example:"Always use acrylic paints." "Never use acrylic paints." "Sealer is basically primer, so put it on first." "Sealer goes on last."
I ran some sand paper over the hats to "rough up" the surface to help the paint adhere better. Then, I primed each of the hats using acrylic sealer. After that, I painted them with acrylic paints.
Painting was a whole lot of trial and error. The grays were initially too dark and I had a lot of trouble getting the color of the cab driver's hat just right.
First, it was too green. Then, it was too yellow.
I ended up buying a khaki color, because my attempts at getting the right color by mixing were pretty bad.
But, I was determined to get it right because I wanted it to match my hat perfectly.
And I think I succeeded.
I finished up the hats with a few coats of matte varnish.
The dark tan fedora became my favorite, even though, I don't own a dark tan fedora. Perhaps, I shall -- one day -- own one.
I still have some work to do on the cab driver's cap. The one I wear is old and torn up in a couple places. I'm going to try and replicate that on the Lego version. I also have to make some modifications on the way it sits on the minifig's head to better match the way I wear mine.
J. Fred MocLegoman has been posting some pictures on instagram. He (and I) went to Daytona Beach for a week and had a relaxing time on the beach and by the pool. I took some great pictures and will be blogging about the whole trip sometime soon.