3x3PO Fest: Ben Davies' Lion Statue

Continuing our exploration of what can be done with the golden elements found in LEGO® Star Wars™75398 C-3PO™, I take a brief foray into the world of big cats and classical Greco-Roman sculpture.

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

75398 C-3PO

• Release date: 1 August 2024
• Pieces: 1138

Price: 

• US$ 139.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 179.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 124.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 229.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 249.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 139,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 139,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ 139,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLN 619.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 1899,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 1249.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

As this set was released over 4 months ago, most of its new parts have been added to Pick a Brick. There are individual links throughout the article so you can check if the piece you want is available there, or just use this link to see all parts from the C-3PO LEGO set available there (both new and previously existing elements):

Buy individual pieces from 75398 on LEGO® Pick a Brick

 

Lion Statue

Although it has been in production since 2004, pearl gold's traditional use as an accent color in sets has resulted in a relatively limited palette of elements for builders to use. Thankfully, this situation has improved significantly over the past few years, most recently with the release of 75398 C-3PO which features a veritable smorgasbord of pearl gold. In light of this, I was curious to see whether it would be possible to create a cohesive MOC using almost exclusively pearl gold elements.

While I knew from the start that I wanted to build something sculptural, it took some experimentation before I ultimately settled on a seated lion statue in the classical Greco-Roman style. Rather surprisingly, the breakthrough came when I realized that the Claw with Clip (6426622 | 3171) element from 2023 looked quite similar to locks of hair when partially obscured. Group several together, and voilà, I was halfway to creating the mane of a lion.

The lion statue also afforded an opportunity to highlight the numerous curved slopes and brackets introduced in pearl gold in 75398 C-3PO. These elements helped enormously to capture the rippling musculature of the lion's back and haunches. 

Along the way, I found that pairing the 2x2 boomerang plate (6473751 | 79491) with the curved slope wedges (6498743 & 6498742 | 29119 & 29120) proved a very effective method for implying surface-level folds and wrinkles.

To complement the statue, I added a simple stone plinth for it to sit upon. The purpose of this pedestal extends beyond aesthetics; it also helps to hide the use of two Bar, Angled with Stud on End (6501270 | 65578) to anchor the tucked forepaws in place and achieve the angled front legs.

Come back on Sunday for our final instalment of the 3x3PO Fest, with Eero Okkonen.

READ MORE: See Caz Mockett's creations using parts from C-3PO

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