BRICK MATH

Upscaling the 2x4

For the audio project I am working on, I thought it would be cool to put the display screen within an upscaled LEGO classic space 2x2 slope with the computer screen print. To understand the scaling I did a simple recreation of a 2x4 I had found online as the basis. Without instructions to took me a few tries to get the same surface emulated. I realized the 2x2 round tiles to emulate the studs are not regular lined up stud connections so I initially tried a 1x2 jumper plate as they can offset connections by half a stud, however this made the “studs” only be next to each other or hug either side. After further inspection of the reference image I noticed that below the 2x2 round tile there was a 2x2 round plate. The most significant thing about that one piece is that the plate can only connect in the regular stud locations while the plate has a special connection in the middle that supports both a stud or a technic axle. This made me realize that I did not need a jumper plate, but rather a common 1x1 plate.

To break down the scale of the larger brick it was easy to think things through sections of threes. A standard sized brick can be broken down in height by 3 plates. Upscaling follows the same scaling of 3 in this case. The slope piece is most similar to a 2x2 brick so I kept the 3 times stud scaling to make a 6x6. With the allotted space left after making the back 1x2 part it took many different attempts with slopes and plates to match the height of 7 plates and depth of 3 studs. Most slopes are commonly 3 plates high or taller. The piece used in the rendering is fairly more recent than other slopes and is 2 plates wide.

I was happy with what I had achieved until as of recently where I noticed the proportions seem a bit flat. I realized that stacking 3 tiles (plate minus stud) is the height of the brick minus the stud. So, proper scaling would just be the equivalent of 3 regular stacked bricks plus the parts to make up the studs. Overall to keep the flat appearance at the top, the general brick design would just need to layers of plates to fix the height issue in the proportion.