Sunday, October 25, 2015

making a mark


Noah made a mark this weekend - displaying his custom LEGO Mark 43 Ironman and his iPhone 4 at this year's Bricktober at the Fort Strip. 

But even if he had not gotten a chance to join the exhibit, I still feel that his custom Mark 43 made a mark on its own. 

This is the standard issue LEGO Mark 43 Ironman. 


Noah felt the chest shouldn't be flat so he purchased this armor from Breakthrough Army


He used Sharpies and his thin marker to color the armor. Added some sticker paper too. 


He had wanted to carve a hole and put a light like he started here


But we were afraid the armor would crumble. Plus, we didn't have tools to cut out a hole that small. My ticker puncher could have worked, but it wouldn't fit inside the armor. 

Here's how the back of Mark 43 looks...


Even the leg details are remarkable! Whereas the side-leg of the standard-issue LEGO is plain red, Noah used sticker paper and his Sharpies to make his mark. 


Noah made his mark not only on the front and back but even colored the shoulder and collar parts even though they would mostly be covered anyway by the head and helmet. 


Similarly, he drew on the back of the mask - which really, is never seen. I think it is remarkable how ever so tiny and precise his drawing is!


Remarkably, he changed the rockets on Ironman's feet. He found them too big. So he moved the standard-issue repulsors on his palms to his feet. 


The repulsors, on the other hand, bothered him because they put Ironman's arms in an awkward position (elbows out) when flying. So he cut 2 tiny pieces from a LEGO Star Wars lightsaber and glued them together. 


Now don't you agree with me that Noah already made a mark with his custom Mark 43? 


Of course, he got to make a bigger mark by having the honor of displaying his customs at this year's Bricktober. Thanks Pinoy LUG!

Noah's age when he created this: 10 years, 9 months

Click here to see the awesome construction of his iPhone 4. 

Photos are my own and from Amazon and Breakthrough Army.

Monday, October 19, 2015

my craftsman


Recently, I came across a video at work. It was about The Craftsman. As I listened to the narration, I couldn't help think that it described Noah so perfectly. 

"What is a craftsman?
Is it an obsession with detail?
Or the ability to see the details others cannot?...
... We believe that the difference between something good and something great is attention to detail. 
Every last TINY,
INSIGNIFICANT,
UNIMPORTANT,
UNNOTICED,
CRUCIAL detail."

Yes, Noah is indeed a craftsman. 


The standard issue LEGO bow & arrow is good. But Noah cannot settle for good. And as the video said, "The difference between something good and great is attention to detail. Every last..."



"Tiny detail" - The standard issue LEGO bow & arrow is made completely out of the plastic that most LEGO weapons are made of. This is good. But Noah felt he could make the bow great with a piece of embroidery thread because it would be more realistic than the hard, unpliable plastic.

"Insignificant detail" - The bow is not made to scale. It is quite big in size versus a minifig. So when Noah customized his bow, he cut out the circular & squarish hinges at the bow's corners. Noah says the resulting bow is still too big, but at least, he shaved off a few millimeters.




"Unimportant detail" - The standard issue LEGO bow is just one piece.The arrow is stuck to the bow; they cannot be separated. And while unimportant to most of us, separating the arrow from the bow was important to him. So he snipped off the arrow from the bow and glued the two tiny arrow parts together. 

"Unnoticed detail" - The standard LEGO arrow is just one color. But Noah felt the arrow head needed to be a metallic color.  So silver Sharpie to the rescue!



"Crucial detail" - Because the fletching or feather end of the arrow was thick, the minifig could not hold the arrow. So Noah, added the tiniest rod at the end so his minifig could grip the arrow. 

Indeed, Noah has the ability to see details others (including me) cannot see.  He truly is a Craftsman. 

Noah's age when he created this: 10 years, 9 months