Category: Brickpile

Administrivia about Bill Ward’s Brickpile

Advent 2022 Day 18

Power outage at my home means I’ll have to post it tomorrow, sorry!

If you really need your Advent calendar fix, check out The Brothers Brick or Jay’s Brick Blog. Jay’s not doing City, but both of them are also doing Star Wars and Harry Potter, which I decided to skip this year.

Power’s been off since 4:30am on Sunday morning, and I missed the chance to watch the World Cup Final unspoilered and have been juggling a generator and batteries ever since. It’s 2:30am Monday morning as I write this update, and they say it should be back on by 4am. We’ll see. Originally they said 6pm, but all night long whenever they reached their promised time, they push it back by 2-3 more hours…

And now I feel a migraine coming on, and my fingers smell like gasoline. Not having a great time here. But I am very grateful for the friend who loaned me the generator and who also brought their waffle iron and made waffles on my back steps!! Thank you Xander!

I’m still here

What do you say when you haven’t been doing anything to talk about? I haven’t built any new LEGO models in a while … somehow over the course of the pandemic my work area where I built stuff has become a collection pile for junk! But I’m really excited about the new season of LEGO Masters coming up next month, and hoping to watch the Australian show which just started this month as well.

I’m hoping that I feel safe and brave enough to start attending conventions again this year. Bricks by the Bay is coming up in June, and I’ve been wanting to build stuff for our BayLUG collaborative displays on Jungle and Dia de los Muertos. In the meantime, BayLUG is having an in-person parking lot meeting (members only) this weekend, so hopefully that will also help get me inspired.

I’m in the middle of getting my storage locker moved to a new location that’s larger and close to my home, which will make it easier to dig out my work area and maybe get those creative juices flowing.

Watch this space.

Why I’m only doing the City Advent Calendar this year

Over the past few years I have followed a tradition of blogging each of the LEGO Advent calendars every day from December 1st through 24th. I’d buy the 2, 3, or 4 calendars produced by LEGO that year, and each day during the lead-up to Christmas, I’d open that day’s models, and build, photograph, and blog about them. But this year I’ve decided to only do the City Advent Calendar 60268. (CW: Harry Potter)

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Follow me on Social Media / Micropolis Houses

I’ve recently been trying to up my social media game, and want to post an update and reminder. I’ve started being a bit more active on Instagram and Twitter, and I’ve been posting on my Facebook page for a while now, but if you’re not following those then now’s a good time to start.

Instagram: @billwardsbrickpile
Twitter: @bwbrickpile
Facebook Page: Bill Ward’s Brickpile

And here’s my latest model, a pair of Micropolis houses, which I also just posted to Instagram. Micropolis Twin Houses

Thanks to Little Brick Root’s Four Months of Houses project for the inspiration. For more information or to build your own Micropolis, check out the Micropolis standard from TwinLUG, and info about the arches for wiring that BayLUG members use in our Micropolis modules.

Short C-23 Sherpa

This Short C-23 Sherpa is an Army surplus cargo plane that has been converted for use by the US Forest Service as a “smokejumper” plane – firefighters jump out of a perfectly good airplane into a burning forest! I built this model as a commissioned kit for one of the USFS pilots, including instructions.

Sherpa LEGO Model @ BBTB

Continue reading “Short C-23 Sherpa”

Talks at Bricks by the Bay 2018

For the first time in a few years I gave my Brick Geometry and Studs On All Sides talks at the Bricks by the Bay LEGO convention in Santa Clara, CA. I updated both presentations for this event by adding a few new pages in each one. Here are the updated versions of the files if you’d like to look at them:

Let me know if you’d like to see me deliver one of these talks at an event near you! Enjoy the information, and happy building!

BBTB 2018 Brick Geometry 1