Machu Picchu

Hi, Machu Picchu fans we are rapidly approaching 10,000 supporters. I want to take this opportunity to thank all 10,000 amazing supporters for all your comments, posts, and most importantly for believing in this project.

As a Peruvian my primary goal was to share the legendary city of Machu Picchu with the world and celebrate the wonders of Peru. It’s been almost two years and I loved every moment of this journey.

I want to thank everyone who has helped me reach this goal. First and foremost, my family and friends for their constant cheering and sharing on social media. Second, Walter Vega and Gustavo Veliz, from the LEGO Club Peru, who’s campaigning helped the project get thousands of supporters. Third, all the bloggers, writers, journalists and media who promoted the project. And finally, all 10,000 supporters who love Machu Picchu and LEGO!

Thank you so much and ‘viva el Perú’!

Diego

Keep in touch on Facebook

----

Hola, amigos y amigas de Machu Picchu nos acercamos rápidamente a los 10.000 votos. Quiero aprovechar esta oportunidad para agradecer a todos por sus comentarios, mensajes, y por creer en este proyecto.

Como peruano mi objetivo fue compartir la legendaria ciudad de Machu Picchu con el mundo y celebrar una de las maravillas del Perú. Han pasado casi dos años y me encantó cada momento de esta oportunidad.

Quiero agradecer a todos los que me han ayudado a alcanzar este objetivo. Ante todo, mi familia y amigos que me dieron mucho apoyo y compartieron el proyecto en las redes sociales. Segundo, Walter Vega y Gustavo Veliz, del LEGO Club Perú, ambos me ayudaron muchísimo, ¡gracias muchachos! Tercero, todos los periodistas y medios de comunicación que promocionaron el proyecto. ¡Y finalmente todos los 10.000 LEGO aficionados que votaron por Machu Picchu, se pasaron!

¡Muchísimas gracias y viva el Perú!

Diego

Manténganse en contacto en Facebook

Thank you to brickengraver.com for creating this beautiful printed 2 x 4 tile for Machu Picchu’s alternate base. It looks great and it gives the model that extra Incan look!

Gracias a brickengraver.com por crear esta hermosa pieza impresa para la nueva base de Machu Picchu. ¡Se ve genial y le da un estilo Incaico al modelo!

Tom Alphin author of The LEGO Architect, wrote a review of Machu Picchu and did an interview with me! Check it out! Thanks Tom!

Tom Alphin autor de 'The LEGO Architect', escribió sobre el modelo de Machu Picchu y me entrevistó. ¡Gracias Tom!

https://brickarchitect.com/2019/lego_ideas_machu-picchu-diego-baca/

Puedes leer este articulo en castellano aquí.

First, I want to thank everyone who continues to vote for Machu Picchu, the project just passed the 9,000-vote milestone. I am incredibly humbled and super excited to get closer to the final milestone. To celebrate 9,000 votes, I worked on two updates to the model based on feedback I received on LEGO Ideas and on the project’s Facebook page.

Part I: Alternate Base

One of the questions I often hear is: “Why is this an architecture inspired set? Why not make it something distinct?” The Machu Picchu idea takes queues from the architecture theme because I LOVE the architecture sets, they are elegant, beautiful and educational. One of the comments/suggestions I got was “Instead of architecture, why not focus on archeology or exploration?” That comment got me thinking… one of the iconic traits of most architecture sets are the black tiles around the base of every model. I decided a good way to change the theme association would be to create an alternate base for Machu Picchu.

I had two inspirations for this base. The first was early 1910’s wooden chests and crates – they often remind me of exploration and expeditions. The 1910’s are significant for Machu Picchu because it was during this time period the archeological site got significant international scientific attention. My second inspiration was the Pre-Incan and Incan ceremonial knifes known as ‘tumi’. The most ornate and fancy ceremonial tumis were made of gold and lavishly decorated with semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and turquoise.

Here are some more images of the model with the alternate base:

If you are interested in building this base, I created instructions and the part list can be found here.

Part II: Minifigure

Machu Picchu is believed to have been the royal estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. Although the original submission had a llama, the model was missing its emperor, therefore I added a minifigure to the model. I was inspired by Peruvian artist Diego Lau Toyosato, he created some beautiful Peruvian minifigures, check them out here. To start, I did a bunch of visual research online, looking at illustrations of Inca emperors to get a sense of what parts I would need from existing minifigures.

Here is the result:

I hope you enjoyed this update, here are few more images of Machu Picchu, the alternate base and the Inca minifigure together:

Once again, thank you everyone and onwards to the final milestone!

¡Llegamos a 9000 votos! Solamente faltan 1000 votos más :) ¡Muchas gracias a todos! 

We reached 9000 votes! Only 1000 more to go :) Thank you everyone!

¡Llegamos a 8000 votos! ¡Muchas gracias a todos!

We reached 8000 votes! Thank you everyone!

Puedes leer este articulo en castellano aquí.

It’s been almost two years since I submitted my Machu Picchu model to LEGO Ideas. I have never been fully satisfied with the final color palette. It always felt lacking contrast between the mountain and the rest of the model, unless I made the mountain brown – which was not ideal. In addition, because I decided to only use existing pieces (no re-colors) the model’s colors felt random and messy. That was back in 2017, and since then there has been a few new pieces and a set that inspired me to do a few changes to improve my submission.

The two pieces which were released in 2018 that were critical for the revised 2019 Machu Picchu model were: Slope 75 2 x 2 x 3 in Dark Green and Slope 45 1 x 1 Double in Tan. These two parts were very important because the large slope allowed the mountain to be completely dark green (without drastically changing the design) and the small double slope helped me mimic with better accuracy the architecture of Machu Picchu.

The other major influence on the redesign of the model was the release of the architecture set: 21041 Great Wall of China. I really liked the colors the LEGO designers used on that set (tan for the wall rock and dark green for the landscape). It inspired me to follow a similar color scheme and landscape building techniques.

Without further ado I present Machu Picchu version 2:

Here are a few call outs of improvements I made throughout the model:

1. Huayna Picchu mountain is now completely dark green with a few green color accents like the Great Wall of China model.
2. Main plaza ins now completely green and with objects on the plaza in better positions.
3. House roofs now use the double slope piece.
4. The River Urubamba is now transparent on blue instead of transparent on black which makes it look much nicer – saw this used on the San Francisco architecture model.
5. Better construction and colors for the terraces.
6. I use two colors for the stone buildings: tan and dark tan instead of dark and light gray.
7. Tree follows the same construction style as the one in the Great Wall of China set.
8. Huayna Picchu mountain is taller.

I also made an improved instruction manual using Studio, which can be downloaded here (32 mb).

If you want to build it yourself the parts list can be found here.

Here is a picture of the model in real life, more can be found here.

Lastly, I leave you with two animations:

Thank you everyone who has voted so far it inspires me to keep going and working on the model. Machu Picchu only needs another 2,200 votes, with some luck it should reach 10,000 before time runs out in August. Thank you very much and if you like this post please share it with your friends!

¡Llegamos a 7000 votos! ¡Muchas gracias a todos!

We reached 7000 votes! Thank you everyone!

¡En menos de 24 horas llegamos a 6000! ¡Muchas gracias a todos!

We got to 6000 supporters in less than 24 hours! Thank you everyone who voted!

¡Llegamos a los 5000! ¡Muchas gracias a todos los que han votado! ¡Aún pueden seguir votando y por favor compartan el proyecto en Facebook, muchas gracias!

We reached 5000! Thank you everyone who has voted! There is still time to vote and please share the project with your friends on Facebook, thank you!