Andras Bolvary
Skull Island phase 1 - Islanders
Background: I always thought there is a real, logical reason behind the skull-like part of the original set, a deeper story than that we've got from Lego.
The main point is that the skull-shape of 6279 is just too regular and perfect to be formed alone by nature's forces, and the pirates by no mean would took time to create such rock-motif between sinking ships and ravaging coastal colonial settlements to collect gold and stuff, it just made no sense to me.
My idea is, that the creators and hence the original native population were Islanders, whom I always considered as having a combination of natural religion, voodoo (without the negative dissonances and common misconceptions) and some kind of totemism as their religion, and they shaped - and in my version painted as well - the rock into the well-known skull-form as a part of it, to get closer to their gods/ancestors. Also, I considered that this island shouldn't be their central settlement, but an individual and nearby located smaller island, which would mostly serve as a place to practice and perform their rituals, sacrifice their enemies to the gods, and so on.
Hence the first phase is showing the island when it was populated and ruled by the Islanders.
Technical: the challange to build this MOC was complex.
1) size. It lays on a 112x128 base (plus the small extra 8x46 joint in the front); of course, it's nothing special for veteran/dedicated builders, but for me it was way bigger than any of my previous creation. The original plan was actually 128x144, which I had to reduce on the run as I exhausted and used every last piece of my bricks, not only rocks, water or vegetation, but mostly everything else that can or can't be seen on the MOC.
2) planning the surface/terrain to serve as a base for both phases. Reducing the necessary relocations and reconstructions, to make it look like that the background of all changes were 'natural' reasons and done by mother nature and/or the pirates once they took over the island. Also it was a totally new experience and a big issue for me to have each baseplate to be moveable inside the flat, and hence individual. Due to this I had to rethink and rebuild again and again some parts (especially the entrance of the cave - the premade skull itself is 'floating' over the baulk of 3 independent baseplates, and it must got built to not fall and crash anytime I remove any of the 3 bases).
3) ratio. No matter of the size, or being more punctual: because of the size, as the relation is actually reversed in this case, the ratio between each important part (minifigs vs buildings vs trees vs mountain) had to get continously checked and maintained. I had to make some simplification and size reducements, which might give the feeling of laziness or rough construction, but was a necessary sacrifice to ensure the integrity of the big picture.
4) size again(: I considered several times to leave the whole project, just because of getting tired of all the similar details on and on again. I prefer smaller things to build, to make each and every little part to be really something special, which I didn't fully feel to have in this case, no matter of my endeavour. Of course, beside the pain here or there, overall it was a really great feeling all across and a brilliant moment once I finished the final touches and just sit down and get merged into its very own atmosphere(:
Skull Island phase 1 - Islanders
Background: I always thought there is a real, logical reason behind the skull-like part of the original set, a deeper story than that we've got from Lego.
The main point is that the skull-shape of 6279 is just too regular and perfect to be formed alone by nature's forces, and the pirates by no mean would took time to create such rock-motif between sinking ships and ravaging coastal colonial settlements to collect gold and stuff, it just made no sense to me.
My idea is, that the creators and hence the original native population were Islanders, whom I always considered as having a combination of natural religion, voodoo (without the negative dissonances and common misconceptions) and some kind of totemism as their religion, and they shaped - and in my version painted as well - the rock into the well-known skull-form as a part of it, to get closer to their gods/ancestors. Also, I considered that this island shouldn't be their central settlement, but an individual and nearby located smaller island, which would mostly serve as a place to practice and perform their rituals, sacrifice their enemies to the gods, and so on.
Hence the first phase is showing the island when it was populated and ruled by the Islanders.
Technical: the challange to build this MOC was complex.
1) size. It lays on a 112x128 base (plus the small extra 8x46 joint in the front); of course, it's nothing special for veteran/dedicated builders, but for me it was way bigger than any of my previous creation. The original plan was actually 128x144, which I had to reduce on the run as I exhausted and used every last piece of my bricks, not only rocks, water or vegetation, but mostly everything else that can or can't be seen on the MOC.
2) planning the surface/terrain to serve as a base for both phases. Reducing the necessary relocations and reconstructions, to make it look like that the background of all changes were 'natural' reasons and done by mother nature and/or the pirates once they took over the island. Also it was a totally new experience and a big issue for me to have each baseplate to be moveable inside the flat, and hence individual. Due to this I had to rethink and rebuild again and again some parts (especially the entrance of the cave - the premade skull itself is 'floating' over the baulk of 3 independent baseplates, and it must got built to not fall and crash anytime I remove any of the 3 bases).
3) ratio. No matter of the size, or being more punctual: because of the size, as the relation is actually reversed in this case, the ratio between each important part (minifigs vs buildings vs trees vs mountain) had to get continously checked and maintained. I had to make some simplification and size reducements, which might give the feeling of laziness or rough construction, but was a necessary sacrifice to ensure the integrity of the big picture.
4) size again(: I considered several times to leave the whole project, just because of getting tired of all the similar details on and on again. I prefer smaller things to build, to make each and every little part to be really something special, which I didn't fully feel to have in this case, no matter of my endeavour. Of course, beside the pain here or there, overall it was a really great feeling all across and a brilliant moment once I finished the final touches and just sit down and get merged into its very own atmosphere(: