My submission to Brickset’s Instagram competition to commemorate 60 Years of the LEGO brick, here’s my microscale replica of the LEGO Space Futuron massive model “Monorail Transport System!”
I actually owned this set when I was very young, and I’ve always considered it my favorite LEGO set of all time. Despite growing up in poverty, I managed to get hold of this gargantuan model at age 6: after my parents divorced in 1989, my father moved away and sent me this huge set for my birthday. With my lack of dexterity at the time, I was unable to assemble most of this huge model according its instructions, and instead used the parts to make random space stations and ships. Then at age 7, I used components of the monorail to build a space station MOC as an entry to a LEGO-building contest at our local KMart in Lancaster, PA. I won a t-shirt for my efforts.
When my family moved around a lot in my childhood, I lost many key components of the monorail, and to this very day, only some of the grey tracks and black stanchions survive in my collection. Eventually some day I plan on installing this monorail to travel around the perimeter of the interior my house. Unfortunately the grey tracks are incredible rare, so hopefully a 3-D printing techniques can fill in the gaps.
As for this particular microscale model/photo: I built this in just a few days, with the major obstacle being the wait for the curved tiles to arrive in the mail. Otherwise, the overall project was rather streamlined. Subsequent challenges involved the photo shoot: the big challenge was shooting it in low light with proper fill light, in order to keep the backgrounds dark and the subject exposed enough. I placed the model on top of a black folding table, then achieved the red glowing background by placing a red spotlight up against a black backdrop. Then I pointed a bright white softbox over the scene, and diffused it with a reflector disc.
To compare my images with the actual model itself, please refer to the photo below of the original package artwork (courtesy of peeron.com):
