Marzan Empire
Classification: Mid Range
Armaments:
(1) GA-5BA003C
(1) SW-MACHETE
(2) MS-SHMB2M
The Consul was designed to replace the Envoy as the standard issue unit of Marzan reFrame forces. This highly dependable machine boasts of excellent offensive capabilities with its new 5-barrel GA-5BA003C gatling gun and MS-SHMB2M missile system, coupled with the SH-RIOTM1 shield for extra defense.
BUILD NOTES
The Consul is an upgraded model of the Mediator, the very first mecha build I made for my Mech Wars fictional setting. It was originally designed as a grunt mecha unit with hints of Gouf / Gouf Custom hence the shield and the gatling gun.
I finally got to upgrade this nostalgic build thanks to the recent remodeled V3 aesthetic to the Marzan units as seen with the Executor and Herald.
I wanted to take the original concept of this build a bit further by giving it a few more weapons and decided on making some shoulder mounted missiles. It would also have improved mobility with more back boosters and a similar wheeled-heel design as the Executor.
WIP Process
I. Head and Chest Build
I actually had a head design build from my head building tutorial that was meant to be the upgrade head for the Envoy so I used that here. All I had to do was recreate it using mostly DBG (Dark Blue Gray) pieces and made sure it fit the reFrame V3 body frame right.
The body was also mostly taken from the previous Marzan builds, Herald and Executor, so I just had to figure out what other detail it would have compared to the other 2 models. I decided to go with a small circular chest detail in the middle under the middle triangular roof piece with some pistols to add to the greebling.
II. INITIAL SCULPT (ARMS, LEGS, WEAPONS)
Again, since this was based of the already established Marzan aesthetic from the other V3 Marzan builds, all I had to do was streamline the look for the leg design. The Envoy and original version of the Executor (Emissary) had almost identical legs so I wanted to keep it that way for the Consul. The major difference would be the parts around the knee but everything else is almost the same.
The shoulders however was an entirely new design. They started out as these rounded shoulders using the 5×5 Scala Dish in DBG capped off with the inverted 2×2 round tile. While this was a really good look, I felt that there needed to be a shoulder weapon to this design as an upgrade from its predecessor so I rebuilt it to design with embedded missiles (see below).
The arms are internally roughly the same as the Herald and Executor but is plated with more stability using the 1×4 curved slope piece. The wheel piece here is a nice detail that I was really happy with.
III. MAIN Weapon (GATLING GUN)
The original Envoy had this chunky 4 barrel gatling gun that I always wanted to improve on. I started making the upgraded version with a 3-barrel version with bars that were connected via thin 1×2 liftarms and the ends made with LBG Technic half pins with stud, wrapped with a rubber wheel to give it a more solid assembly look.
While I did love the look of this 3-barrel gatling, I felt that it looked too flimsy compared to the entire build. I eventually swap it out with a 5-barrel version that I had lying around using 5 bars slotted into a Speed Champions 5 point star wheel spoke (illegal connection :P)
IV. REVISED SHOULDERS
The revised shoulders were built to have 2 hidden missiles per shoulder, hidden behind missile doors you could open for more play options.
I actually spent quite some time working on these with the initial version shown in the picture above. One goal I had for these shoulder missiles was to have a realistic looking missile inside of it and the initial version just had holes via a 1×2 technic brick with 2 holes and was lacking.
I rebuilt the shoulders to have a realistic looking orange missile head while still keeping almost the same dimensions for the shoulders. You can find the detailed write up and breakdown for that below.
V. REAR DETAILS
The last part of the build was designing the rear boosters and details. I decided to build a brand new back design instead of repeating the design from the Herald and Executor as the boosters from those two were a built unstable, especially during transit for exhibitions.
I went with making small upper back boosters that could angle vertically and swivel slightly sideways. The two bigger back boosters could be angled slightly, just enough to look like actual feasible thrusters.
SHOULDER ASSEMBLY AND BREAKDOWN
The hard part about getting the shoulder missiles just right was getting the missile doors alignment perfectly. Initial versions of the doors would tend to be aligned left or right, depending on the hinge assembly that I used. While these worked in terms of function, the OC inside of me wanted these doors to be center aligned along with the missiles.
The way I achieved that was by using these “nippled” round 1×1 tile with bar pieces. The idea was that this piece is exactly 2 plates high and a plate on top of this would form a height equivalent to a brick. If you attach a clip with bar piece to the “nipple” then it would be aligned to the middle and that’s where I aligned both the missiles and the missile doors.
These were enclosed with wedge plates and tiles to create an extra bit of detail and not look too boxy.
VII. Finishing Touches
Finished the build with a few modifications after a bit of articulation testing. I had to reinforce a bit of the feet to make it more stable when the model would do an action pose. Also added a turntable piece to the gatling gun to allow the barrel to rotate.
I actually built this to be part of a diorama I was building using a new hangar setup. You can see here my old hangar getting stripped apart and the scissor lift I built to be used for said hangar.
Extra Build Report
Shortly after I finished the Consul, I actually flew out to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year and met up with HK locals and fellow AFOLs Evirob Zeta (BricktheWall), Sam Cheng (S2), and Benjamin Fong and brought this guy with me. After a shopping trip to Ins Point, we all had a nice chat about LEGO, MOCing, the Asian MOC scene, seeing each other at JBF (hopefully), and a few other things. You can see Sam brought over his Chibi Optimus Prime and Benjamin gave us these brick-built CNY windmills to usher in the New Year.
It’s a lovely thing to be able to go to another country and visit fellow LEGO hobbyists and talk about your passions. 😀
reFRAME v3 Instruction Manual
The reFrame System is a modular brick skeleton aimed to help both new and veternan brick mech builders create their own designs in a consistent size with modular capabilities. It was originally designed to be a basis for all my mechs in the Mech Wars universe. Having gone through a number of upgrades, the V3 reFrame can now house a minifigure pilot in the chest without sacrificing aesthetic or articulation.
If you liked this article then you can help me out create more LEGO mech content by clicking the PayPal donate button below. Your monetary contribution, no matter how big or small, will definitely help me a lot in sustaining this passion 
I would love for this particular model to have instructions provided one day.