Archive for the 'Building Techniques' Category

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Dalí + Halsman + Balakov

Mike Stimpson (Balakov) takes us into the strange world of Salvador Dalí with his latest photo, a reenactment of Philippe Halsman’s Dalí Atomicus.

As always, the setup shot is nearly as amazing. Mike writes:
This was rather difficult, and wet. It took two and a half hours to set up, and 15 seconds before the set was [...]

Can I have instructions?

For once the answer is yes.

Ronald Vallenduuk (Duq) has recently added a couple of sets of instructions to Flickr and kindly showed me how to get LPub working again. I actually reverse engineered the seat gondola many years back after seeing a picture of it and coveting it so it’s great to see Ronald making [...]

CubeDudes Invade!

Angus Maclane has been building like crazy lately. The craziness has manifested itself as CubeDudes, which appear to be famous characters with cubes for heads. They are adorable! He just posted oodles of these awesome little dudes. Click on the pictures to go to a gallery of related figures.
Which [...]

Sky Victorian by Orlando

L. G. Orlando has built a rather ornate little Victorian house. I’m loving the details on this.

The crazy wild west

SlyOwl’s latest scene uses slanted bricks and slopes to create a realistic texture on the cliff. It’s hard to tell at a glance which bricks are true slopes versus slanted bricks and vice versa, which makes this creation even more interesting.

The technique by itself is enough to warrant a mention on the blog, but the [...]

Perched on top of a spiny rock

I just want to point out the brilliant bird’s nest technique in this landscape vignette by JD Luse. Here’s the piece that was used.

“This won’t hurt a bit…”

This droid repair ship by Ernesto Carrillo is packed with detail, but the lighting is what really stands out. While the overhead light bars have been photo-shopped, that welding “spark” is an actual light. Nicely done, Ernesto, nicely done!

Pointed out to me by Joe.

RAILBRICKS Issue 6 now available for download [News]

Jeramy Spurgeon and the team have just released a double issue edition of RAILBRICKS magazine covering all things LEGO trains. It has in-depth articles on a few models we’ve featured here on TBB.

This 100 page issue was a long time coming, but features an interview with UK
builder Carl Greatrix, more Steam tips & Tricks, the [...]

Inside the Mind of a Builder: Bryan (aka Gumby) [Interview]

Although he actually completed it last year, Bryan recently announced the completion of a project that he had been working on for quite some time, namely his Classic Crusader Giant Fig and Horse. I thought this would be a good opportunity to pick his brain and share with our readers some of the “behind-the-scenes” [...]

Anatomy of a warehouse

With my latest model I went public with what I usually keep private: my building stages. Since the photos and comments were up I thought it might be interesting to share this process with TBB as an example of how I (and I imagine many other people) build something.

In this case I wanted to build [...]

It looks like a star to me

This is something you probably don’t see on LEGO spaceships: vines. Check out the Shooting Star by Space2310.

In your face

Karf Oolhu weirded me out. I think it was on purpose.

Landing of the Swans

Yes, I know this picture, by Jason Railton is rather old, but I just found it. It has the best wave technique I’ve ever seen, bar none. Incredible!

LEGO Technic pin remover

If you’re a builder, you most likely have run into situations when you got one of these Technic pins stuck. Luckily, barman has a solution that may save you a broken fingernail or two. In this simple little device, the exposed end of the pin is inserted into a Technic brick and held in place [...]

Music on the run – LEGO Walkmans for all

Thank you Alex Schranz (Orion Pax). Superb LEGO walkman, tape and headphone set.

Propping up the bar

I don’t think I’ve ever blogged a technique before but since this one is fast becoming one of my most ‘favorite’d pictures on flickr I thought I might share it more broadly. I came up with the idea after seeing Peter Norman (swoofty) post these incredible (and complicated) stripes. As I am lazy I wanted [...]

Ben lights one up!

Ben Ellermann brought some fire to the Pirate layout at BrickWorld this year. This light-up volcano is one of my favorite recent LEGO creations. I may have to figure out a way to incorporate this technique myself. After all imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Sydney Opera House in miniature

Stefan has recreated the iconic Sydney Opera House with a quite ingenious use of parts. Well done!

LEGO tank with full interior by mad_a0

Flickr newcomer mad_a0 recently exploded onto the scene with this awesomely detailed minifig-scale tank.

Very cool, certainly, but what sets this tank apart is that mad_a0 has built a fully detailed interior. Most LEGO tanks are lucky to fit a minifig driver, much less components like a removable engine.

The exploded view itself is a study in [...]

Ready for another vacation

I returned from from a 2-week vacation to Italy (including Venice) a few months ago and I’m feeling ready for another one. So this creation by crises_crs triggered my wanderlust.

If you look closely at this and other pictures you see that it holds water, so the gondola can float along through the little canal between [...]

Fire Skull

This burning skull by Billy McGill is quite striking! I’ve seen a lot of interesting shapes made out of the flame pieces, but this is something special.

Meet the Blockheads

Shannon Young introduces us to this dysfunctional family in his latest creation. I love ‘em!

He’s got legs!

74louloute is quite the poser, at least with this figure. The combination of unusual joint connections enables this knight, dubbed Sir Hruodland, to strike a rather heroic pose.

I think he’s coming after us, don’t you?

One-Stud takes Castle by storm

Do you need a new bandwagon? I thought so. The Castle community isn’t known for fads. They just don’t happen very often, but this one has taken off and it cracks me up.
The idea is to build a scene with a footprint of one stud. It has to balance…that’s the key. [...]

Smug red-shirted LEGO Star Trek minifig won’t survive the away mission

You know it’s true.

legomocs combines LEGO elements in a fairly simple way to achieve perfect brick-built phasers and a tricorder. Combined with the red and yellow torsos, these minifigs are instantly recognizable.
Jamie said it best: “Normally they look too plain, but it’s amazing how nice black pants and a few accessories can make blank [...]