Ever since LEGO released Reindeer Fan with a new head accessory, I’ve been wondering when we’d see element 6440443 antlers used as foliage in a LEGO set considering how closely it resembles oak leaves. The Fountain Garden set released in January contains a single use of the leaf, but in white. Inspired by this lush tree from Ryan McBride, and not seeing many uses of the part in MOCs, I decided to do some experiments myself. But first I needed to source more leaves. Fortunatey I had just the Forestmen for the job…
They did not disappoint. 100 antlers in green were procured. Looking at the pile though, this would hardly be enough leaves for a minifig scale forest. But a microscale forest? For that, we had plenty to work with.
Before we build any trees, let’s explore the range of connections that are possible with the antler element. The only legal connection point is the small pin used to attach to hairpieces. Fortunately there’s a good mix of elements with holes that fit these pins, which will prove useful in building trees. Here are some of those “legal” connections.
The unique shape of the antlers also opens up some “illegal” connections that rely on friction rather than official connection points. The triangular gap between the two “leaf” prongs does most of the work here. It’s just large enough to slide over a wand. 3-4 antlers can fit on a wand with enough friction that they won’t slide off. Similarly, the antlers can slide over any variety of stem. However, there’s not much friction here so they fall off easily when not upright. Finally, if you’re feeling spicy, you can squeeze antlers over a wand sprue. The antlers will wiggle but there’s no way they’ll fall off as they are trapped by the top of the sprue.
The gap in the prongs is also convenient for chaining multiple antlers together. It fits snugly over the tip of each prong. The connection holds pretty well with three pairs of antlers, but while you can extend the chain, it gets quite fragile. These configurations of three are quite useful.
Finally, you can squeeze two pairs of antlers together so that their gaps form a chain link. While the elements will wiggle a little, the connection is quite strong and won’t separate unless you manually pull apart. These little clusters are quite handy for adding heft to the small parts.
Now that we’ve seen the various connections afforded by these tiny parts, let’s see what sorts of trees we can make from these combinations! First up, here are three of the smallest possible tree configurations. The one on the let is the strongest build, provided you have a SNOT base to hide the espresso paddle’s stud connection. The wand tree is a favorite of mine becuase it gets the most tree detail at the smallest possible scale.
Next, here are a pair of trees utilizing sprues. As the sprue itself has no legal connection points, you have to get creative. In the first angled tree, the antler around the sprue provides a connection, while the little tree on the right uses an antenna base.
Building with stems, the antlers form a sort of leafy cup. If you’re okay with gravity as your only connection, you can fill these cups with leaf clusters to give the trees added volume.
Using these variations, I assembled a microscale forest of tiny antler trees. Believe it or not, this uses up almost all of my 100 pairs of antlers!
As a first experiment, I’m very excited by the possibilities here and I look forward to trying more configurations alongside more complext terrain and architecture. What I love about these tiny trees is how much texture they bring, evoking scale models made from less geometrical parts. As the trees get bigger, they remind me of some of LEGO’s early experiments with granulated trees back in the early 70s (before my time!). These trees glued tiny plastic lots against a solid frame such that each tree is actually made up of a few hundred elements!
That brings Part 1 of my exploration of using antlers for trees. In part 2, I’ll experiment with trees at minifig scale and see if we can make a suitable hideout for my Forestmen friends. But first I’m going to need a lot more leaves!
The post Building trees with minifig antlers, Pt. 1: Microscale [Feature] appeared first on The Brothers Brick.
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