How I fixed my not Lego version of Jerac's Tie Bomber - Part Two

Hey there, welcome back to the Bricks and Figs blog, where I post about my not Lego MOCs, Mods, and Minifigs.  Don't forget to check out my other blog called Its-Not-Lego where I give you honest opinions about my latest not Lego set acquisitions.

Today, we will take a look at some modifications I made to the knockoff/bootleg version of Jerac's Tie Bomber.  Check out all of the build pics here.

As I previously mentioned during the building of the non branded Jerac's Tie Bomber, there were a number of issues I found.  Most were related to the poor brick clutch of the off brand bricks, and those are easily rectified.  The one area where I tried to improve the design was the angled corner pieces that make up the tapered engine cowling.  I just want to point out that I have absolutely no issues with the look of the engine cowlings, just the method of implementation.

For reference let's take a closer look at the area in question.  The little T-joints at each of the corners of the fuselage are where you clip the curved bricks for the tapering.  Admittedly, there's not enough clutch for the clips to grab onto the T-joints.

The result is that anytime you accidentally touch the curved corners, they fall off immediately as evidenced in the picture above.

To mitigate the problem, I decided to attach the curved corner directly to the fuselage using the two piece connected plate.  The lower part of the pic shows you how the curved piece was originally connected.

Here is the result of the fix.  The curved brick can still tilt inwards, but it's more sturdy and won't fall off.  Note that this solution works perfectly for all four corners of rear engines.  Unfortunately my brick stash didn't have enough of those two piece joiner plates, so I've had to order the extra parts so I can re-work the bottom corners of the fuselages.

There are two more similar connection points at the front of the ship above the cockpit, but those seem to be sturdy enough so I kept the original setup there.

Since we are looking at the cockpit, as I mentioned in the Tie Bomber build post, the provided windscreen of this knockoff set was just a plain 6x6 circular part with no design. I've temporarily subbed in the 6x6 glass from the Sanctum Santorum roof until I can find a replacement Tie Cockpit windscreen.

Another change I made was at the lower hinge that attaches the windscreen to the fuselage.  I swapped out the single clip for a double clip plate, so now the windscreen doesn't fall off anymore.

Speaking of things falling off, the technic plate that attaches the engine flames to the engine would not stay attached.  I added a single round stud in between the connection and that fixed the problem.

One can barely notice the difference.

More bits that fell off include the circular plates attached to the wing detail.  To rectify this, I first attached the circular piece to a 2x2 plate and then attached that to the wing.

This is what it looks like now.

Finally, the last issue I had was also clutch related. There's four triangular sections on each wing that kept falling off due to poor clutch of the stud brick.

 I replaced each of those bricks, eight in total, with a technic pinned brick.

Problem solved!

With all these fixes in place I can display and swoosh the model without the worry of losing any parts.  I've already ordered replacement blue gray curved pieces to replace the dark gray plates that clad the hull of the Tie Bomber.

Please enjoy the rest of the pics!

Thanks for taking time out from your busy day to check out the pics of this knockoff version of the awesome Tie Bomber originally designed and built by Jerac.  What did you think of the fixes?  Did you have similar issues with your non branded Jerac Tie Bomber?  Please let me know in the comment box below. See you next time!

Building Jerac's Tie Bomber using not Lego bricks.

I converted my Zhe Gao QL0935 Hill Tavern into a modular building

Hey brick fans, welcome back to my blog Bricks and Figs.  Also a very Happy 4th of July to all our American friends to the south.  On my other blog Its-Not-Lego I recently showcased my very first Zhe Gao branded Not Lego building set, called the Hill Tavern.  

This blog post is a part of my Zhe Gao Hill Tavern series, specifically it will look at the conversion to a modular building.   If you just jumped in here randomly, you may want to check out my other blog posts first to get some context.   Here's my list of posts specifically about the Zhe Gao Hill Tavern.

1. A look at the original set

2. Modular conversion         <--- you are here

3. First floor furnished

4. Second floor furnished        

5. Third Floor furnished

6. Bonus Pics (coming soon!)

I was very pleased with the results of the 1367 piece set Hill Tavern and it turned out to be even nicer than I expected for a set that only cost me $50 Cdn on Aliexpress.

For $50, you aren't going to get a full sized modular building.  Those will cost you double the cost.  So I wanted to see if I could make the Tavern a full sized modular using only the brick parts in my stash. I had a navy blue 32x32 stud baseplate laying around and it complements the colouring scheme of the set, so that's what I decided to use for the project at hand.

 After disassembling the building, I started by laying out the outside patio tiles and creating a new sidewalk on the baseplate.  I didn't have enough of the sand blue 2x2 tiles so I just added some extra white ones.  The original building design was 24 studs wide so I replicated the window arch on the new addition.
A lot of dark gray brick were used on the main floor walls.  Since my bricks are from a hodgepodge of different brands, the colour variations are very noticeable, which is unavoidable.  If I had sourced all of my bricks from one vendor, I wouldn't have this problem.

 Here's the preliminary test fit of the second floor onto the first floor to check what plate bricks I need to use to extend the second floor footprint.  Pictured above I put a glass door on the second floor, but later I decided it might look too similar to the front of the Parisian Restaurant, so I changed it to a smaller window instead.

 Here's the completed first floor of the modified Hill Tavern.  I replaced the non standard minifigures from the Zhe Gao set with my own.  I added a barkeeper, a random lady, a janitor and a street musician.  I don't normally use the stickers that come with the set, but this time I did.  Height of the main floor was increased by 2 bricks and that allowed me to add some extra cornice detailing.

Poor guy is not making any money today, he must not sound very good.

 I added a door around back for deliveries.  Empty bottles and trash are picked up here.  I think I need to add an awning over the door in future.

Right now the interior is completely empty.  Furnishing this modular will be another project in itself.  I want to make it like a sports bar with big TVs hanging from the walls with bar counters and stools.

The original tavern set came with stairs to the upper floors so I will need to add those back in also.

 Here's the Tavern's new second floor.  The big white nothingness in the center of the original design has been replaced by this small window.  The patio was moved to the second floor from the third floor.

I guess the second floor could function as a restaurant, if I added a few tables and chairs.  I used the dark orange bricks for the sides of the building but for the back wall I just used light gray bricks.

I like that this side is really detailed with the columns and picture window.  Oops, I forgot to finish off the top of the railing.  I added two extra minifigs to the patio.  One a patron of the tavern, the other could be the server.

First and second floor completed.

There is a lot more useable space on the newly constructed third floor.  Before it was just a patio with a narrow room.

 I'll probably make the third floor an apartment for the barkeeper.  There weren't a lot of sand blue bricks in the set, so I had to use my own here.  I used light gray on the back wall.  To give the third floor a bit more height, I moved the navy blue groove bricks from the rooftop to the third floor.

 I had to use black plates from my stash to make a rooftop big enough to cover the enhanced third floor.

Here's the back of the modified Hill Tavern.  I might add a french balcony to the third floor later because the small windows don't provide enough light.  I completely rebuilt the main floor walls so that the dark gray bricks weren't as blotchy as before.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the fully modularised Zhe Gao Hill Tavern.

And finally, this the how the new Hill Tavern looks placed into a row of buildings.   You can find the Zhe Gao QL0935 Hill Tavern set on Aliexpress by following the link below.

Thanks for visiting Bricks and Figs, and hope you can come back soon!  Bye!

Modified Enlighten 1120 Happy Camper Truck (not Lego)

Hello and welcome back to another post at Bricks and Figs!  It's mid April 2020 and we are still practising social distancing, which means we shouldn't go outside unless it's completely necessary.  That means we have lots of time to build some brick sets or in this case, we can modify an existing set that we already have.

Let's time travel back to April 2017, four years ago.  That's when I first blogged about the Enlighten 1120 Camper Truck.  In that post I complained that the truck was too wide at 8 studs, instead of my preferred width of 6 studs.  Yup, that's the camper truck above, in all it's 8 stud wide glory.  Ok, now let's return to present day and here is the modified Enlighten camper truck.

I decided that we wouldn't compromise the utility and play value of the set by making the living quarters smaller.  In fact, within pretty much the same footprint, I've managed to add a bed to the interior, but I'm getting ahead of my self. Let's take a look at the exterior before moving to the inside of the truck.

Here's the newly modified front cab of the truck.  I've decreased the width to 6 studs and it kinda has a retro ford econoline look to it.  The eight stud windshield has been replaced by the six stud equivalent, maintaining the transparent blue tint of the original.  I didn't have a 6 stud wide slope brick in lime green, so I opted to use the original roof blocks as part of the hood.  I'd much prefer the cab roof to be match the rest of the truck colour, but white is all I have in my brick stash.

Moving around to the side of the cab, you can see how the profile has changed.  There was a toss up about how big I should make the cab portion. I opted to go for the longer cab and use the side window pillar there.  The other option is to shorten the cab by one stud, which will necessitate a different roof over the cab.

Behind the cab, everything else is pretty much the same.  The axe is still there and so is the window.  I added some amber lights where the cab roof meet the rear box.

I got rid of the roof mounted shovel and antenna and moved the solar panel array from mid roof to as far forward as I could.  This gave me enough room to carry two bicycles.  I did manage to retain the roof racks, however.

The bikes are held in place by a clamp, so they don't go flying off during highway driving.  The solar array also helps to deflect the the wind up and over the bikes.

Here's the right side of the truck with retained window and fire extinguisher.

The back of the camper truck sees some significant improvements.  There's a license plate and extra marker and brake lights for safety.  The space that used to be occupied by the bike now has a gas can and spare tire.  The ladder to the roof has not changed.

Enlighten's original concept for the back of the camper was that it was split down the middle and both sides could swing away to access the interior.  In my design I opted to go with the complete removal of the box instead for structural support.

Seating has been reduced from 4 seats to 3, but I did manage to keep the freezer and stove/grill.  Since there's no passenger seat in the cab, I removed the computer screen that came in the original design.  There's now enough room for a decent sized bed and if necessary I could extend the bed width by another stud to comfortably sleep 2 minifigures side by side.

I tossed the minfigures that came with the set into a large box, so I just grabbed some random ones for this photo shoot.

Here's how the camper looks with shell removed looking forward.

As in real life, storage space is at a premium, so I added under the bed storage, accessible by two doors in the back of the camper.

Here's a few extra pictures I took of the modified Enlighten Camper.

Hope you enjoyed the pics!  Thanks for looking!   The original set is available on Aliexpress if you search for Enlighten 1120.