LEGO MOC: The Hospital

Number five in my TF2 MOC series, the Medic has long been one of my favorite classes. The Victorian operating theater was originally going to be the Medic's hospital lab, but I'd decided to go for a less branded set that backfired--it was still too violent for Lego. 

I kind of regret the diorama style, here. There's a lot of unused space for a playset and it feels kind of flat. Because... it's pretty flat. But I have a lot of fiddly details that I'm pretty proud of some of them. Outside of the operating room is the waiting room we see in "Meet the Medic" Pretty straightforward, although I like the ticket counter.

The medic's fridge is visible  in the front corner, there. The spy's head is visible on the bottom there, and there's the megababoon heart.

On the other side we have the Medic's locker room. Two medipacks and a medigun next to a bench! There's some bones there. Don't... don't ask about those bones. They're nobody's bones.

Nobody's Shhhhhhhh.

Here's the protoype wall-mounted medigun keeping the Heavy alive while the Medic performs surgery. And here's the heart with the uber meter, sitting on a table near the stretcher

LEGO MOC: Meet the Scout

Number four in my Team Fortress 2 / LEGO MOC set, this time featuring the Scout. This set was designed to hit a much lower price point, in the $10-15 range, so it only contains about 200 pieces. I was striving to build some sets that would add some customizing options to other sets.

BLU scout has a bat, RED scout has a pistol. Miss Pauling has a clipboard and pistol. I should probably make a fancier set featuring Scout and Miss Pauling going on a date and fighting a nice monster or some such. I elected to use clasp legs for the Scout to give him a markedly different profile from other LEGO mercs.

These are two shipping containers, which seemed like a rather fitting prop for the Scout. The RED container also contains a small health kit.

To make this kit seem more individualized to the Scout, I included a BONK vending machine. It sells Crit-a-Cola, Bonk! Cherry Fission and Bonk! Blutonium Berry. 

And finally, we have the BLU bomb cart. Given that the Scout pushes the cart at twice the rate twice that of other units, this seemed like a prop well-dedicated to the Scout. 

LEGO MOC: The Demoman's Bomb Lab

The third set in my TF2 Lego Digital Designer series. Much like the Engineer, the Demoman is someone I always felt hinted at having technical expertise that doesn't come out much in the extended universe of TF2, but it must be there! While most people assume the Engineer is responsible for the Bomb Carts, I've always put that squarely on the Demoman, and a bomb artist must have his studio. This set is an expression of that. It's also the place where I decided to explore the more complex mechanical side of LEGO as well: specifically, using TECHNIC blocks to push some more playability. The Demoman seemed the perfect set to do it with, too: his compound is boobytrapped, in case anybody gets any smart ideas about penning him in.

The Demoman set is my first hinged piece. BLU has a great orthogonal building style that's fairly straightforward and industrial. This may be something that deserves a second pass at some point in the future, or perhaps a future BLU building will just be more visually interesting. If you have ideas for sprucing up the appearance, let me know! Don't ask why I decided to go RED soldier/BLU demoman when the War! Update specifically stated the opposite: I don't know man. I'm just an architect.

Here's what it looks like unfolded. The red patches are the removable wall fragments--press the button emerging from the left side and that section of wall will pop out, revealing the dynamite stashed there by our favorite inebriate!

The wall on the lower section, underneath the air conditioner, is held on by two pegs. A simple flick with a finger will remove it with suitable panache for a charging Demoman pounding through. I won't bore you with details of these wall designs. Here, however, is the interior of the compound. Currently there's a table laid over a barrel--perfect for two friendly enemies to play cards by. On the second floor is the Demoman's bomb-making lab. Detonators, some miscellaneous sticky bombs,  and of course, walls with blueprints on them. The one piece that I felt was crucial for the bomb lab that we didn't have? The Scissors, currently available only in 3 sets and not yet added to the LDD; I felt the wiresnips used to cut the various lengths of wires used in the manufacture of explosives would be a nice accessory.

Also visible hanging from the wall is a Charging Targe and Eyelander. The third floor features a target dummy like the one's seen in Degroot's Keep, and of course, a couple bottles. 

Detail of work area

Detail of card table

Another great accessory for the Demoman is not yet available in the LDD, and that is the Super Jumper, a device that allows characters like Superman appear to fly into action. For a class characterized by explosive jumps (like the Soldier and the Scout) this would be a pretty handy device to incorporate.

LEGO MOC: Engineer's Hideout

Another Lego Digital Designer piece. The Engineer's Hideout is an idea I had way back in 2011 when I started this blog. I've tried to build it in several different pieces of design games, from the very complicated Source Development Kit, which is free level design software from Valve, to the lacking-in-relevant detail Minecraft. The LDD is the first piece of software that has combined the ease of development that allows me to just express my ideas with the design complexity I was looking for to express my designs. I incorporated some LEGO design considerations, with plans to incorporate more on any subsequent redesigns. With 540 bricks it's perfect for the $29-40 price range. Plans for future updates include a hinge that will allow for accessibility to the upstairs work area, and a level 3 sentry with firing rockets.

The entire playset consists of the 2-story hideout, 2 sentry guns, a truck (loaded with stolen intel) and one Engineer minifigure. I tried to stay true to TF2's visual aesthetic while also creating a LEGO set that would be fun to build and play with. The exterior has a vaguely industrial-punk chimney with gears and transformers to give it that special "Engineer" flair. 

Detail of gas tank/dispenser

The first level is a 2-car garage containing a Dispenser, a gas can, an extension cord and a key. Redesigns will include a narrower separator between the two levels in order to allow the intel truck to fit more comfortably into the garage.

		The second level contains a workshop for the engineer, with a worktable with a lathe, toolchest, and a tank of gas underneath. There are tools on the wall and a shelf with some more oil cans, spare parts, and (of course) a Saxxy trophy.

I included an intel truck (like the one seen in Meet the Engineer) that contains 6 blue intel briefcases. There are 2 level 1 sentries, each capable of rotating 180 degress. Currently the roof contains a hook to allow a sentry to be placed there. A redesign may be used to reduce the piececount (the roof uses a LOT of of it) and to allow for more viable sentry locations on the roof.

Heavy Weapons Guy

Foreshortening? I have literally no idea what that means, for a certain liberal definition of "literally".
Anyway, he's shooting a gun, god knows who at.

Late night warmup. If you're wondering where his bandolier is, it's in the "fidgety crap Amin hates drawing" pile, next to individual bricks, wood planks, and leaves.

Teufort Civilians: Middle Management

Job satisfaction, the respect of his staff, and a junior varsity football jersey unstained by tears. The Middle Manager has none of these. What he does have is a slavish obsession for three-ring binders, timetables, and any of the structure surrounding work, without all the tiresome work everyone else gets bogged down. His delusions of authority are dwarfed only the magnitude of his wasted dreams.

Thunderstick, AKA "French Tickler"

This is a design I've been working on for a while: a Pyro flamethrower that shoots lightning. Mostly because I just fell in love with that fork-in-toaster look. It's called the "French Tickler" because in Pyroland it would appear to be a feather-duster-like apparatus that shoots feather and tickles enemies. Also because the Pyro's favorite victim is French, and the convulsions caused by electric shock look like tickling.

I realize I'm only a week into this and already I'm two days worth of drawings behind, but getting a spare minute to draw something at my computer every day is proving to be more complicated than I originally imagined, especially as I get more self-conscious and start coloring this stuff.

The Intern

So, the mercenaries are part of a broader company apparently,  one that relies as heavily on pencil pushers, bean counters, and paper shufflers to function. I've always wondered what these guys are doing. There's supposedly this vast army of support staff that you never ever see, and I thought that was a tragedy.

Actually, I just want to see more people rendered in the TF2 style. TF2 maps are littered with high walkways, inaccessible rooms, and other places where there could conceivably be people doing their jobs, or even watching the fights. So I started designing them.

The first is the Intern.

Pyro House

It's the Pyro's house. This is a little thought I've had kicking around for a while. Like, two years, I guess. Mostly I just liked the image of a stump with an axe in it, and the house evolved from there. I just want this to be sitting on a map somewhere, even if it's a facade. Postal pummeler out front, stump with an axe in it. Maybe some other melee weapons scattered around, along with gas cans, propane tanks, a wood pile... just stuff to indicate that the Pyro probably lives here. Clip through the house and you'll see... I don't know. A house decorated with pastel rainbows? A shower that alternatively plays a high pitched and low pitched humming?