Tag Archives: Castle

Dragons! Knights in shining armor! Trebuchets & ballistas! From enormous LEGO castles buttoned up for battle to peaceful village market scenes, we’ve got your LEGO Castle needs covered right here.

This seemingly tranquil scene hints at a much larger story about to unfold

With so many things to look at in this wonderful build by Kit Nugent, it might be easy to miss the drama unfolding on the steps of this pastoral scene in the forest. While the somewhat blocky trees are stars of this build, I like the little details, like using the underside of plates as roof tiles, and the dappled light filtering through the trees to land on the face of a mysterious woman. Showing the scene at an angle, and filling in the base with black really draws your eyes to the center of the scene.

The Face Which Launched a Thousand Ships

In my tower of solitude

Just look at this lovely new LEGO creation by Thomas van Urk. The shapes and textures here; I’m almost lost for words. The slopes and tiles along that very interesting red roof are masterfully sculpted. A lesser builder would have just spired the roof and called it good but Thomas taunts us with first a spire, then an onion dome, and back into a spire. I frankly can’t even fathom how he did that! The Tudor-style detailing is not entirely uncommon in LEGO. The medium most certainly works well in that style but there are parts of the Tudor detailing that, like the red spire I can’t fathom. Thomas calls this The Princess Tower and I’d happily be a princess for a day if it means hanging out in this fantastic world for a while.

The Princess Tower

Even the gray stone part of the tower utilizes both new gray and some sun-faded old gray. I recall in 2004 when LEGO changed their gray bricks there were starchy, rigid LEGO fans who vowed to leave the hobby forever. I imagine either they eventually warmed up to the new color shades or indeed remained in 2004 with their flip-phones and AOL email addresses.

A tremendous LEGO castle fresh from Canada’s BRICKSPO

The Saskatchewan LEGO Users Group (or SLUG) enjoyed their annual BRICKSPO this past weekend, and builder Taylor whipped up quite the fortified creation for the show. The Emerald Keep is a citadel of epic proportions, sporting light gray walls and sand green roofs. The builder doesn’t shy away from angled walls either, creating interesting and unique angles throughout the construction. I also like the wooden door to the left side of the structure, no doubt concealing a boat launch of some kind. It’s a great feature, and one that doesn’t make it into every castle creation. But I’m sure you’d like to see some more details, right? Well read on, my friend!

Emerald Keep

Like I said, read on!

Is a LEGO builder’s work – or a church – ever truly finished?

I used to live down the road from a cathedral, and the one thing I have noticed about them and churches is that more often than not, they seem to always have scaffolding up somewhere for restoration work. This is based purely on anecdotal evidence of course, but I will use Margrabia Mokotowski‘s beautiful LEGO church as another datapoint to support this dubious claim! Inspired by a real church in Margrabia’s native Poland, it wouldn’t look out of place as the centerpiece of a medieval township, even with the heavy weathering in evidence with some nice texturing. The ever-present scaffolding, though, belies its true setting in a modern-day LEGO city. It’s funny how a few minifigures and safety barriers can change the context of a whole build by a few hundred years!

Church_2

This medieval-themed skyrock is made of over 22 pounds of LEGO

I wouldn’t have said that you could fit all the fixings LEGO Castle onto a single floating rock, but here Joe (jnj_bricks) has done just that! Clad in dark bluish gray brick, the multi-layer marvel begins at the bottom with a darling windmill. The use of balloon flaps as sails on the mill is a great touch, with its scooped form catching the wind from more complex angles than your standard land-based model. The fortification at the apex of the rocky mass is beautiful, utilizing some great techniques to form the walls of its towers. While impressive, the castle fits in well with the rest of the build, and doesn’t take attention away from the rest of the structure. This allows us to enjoy all the great minifigure scenes hidden throughout. Just check out the fella free soloing up the rock above the mill!

Fortalice of Ireinim

This build’s a grind

Castles are nice, but there’s something I love about a tranquil domestic scene of medieval life, and what encapsulates that better than a stone mill and miller’s cottage? This lovely little diorama is the work of ZCerberus, and although the stonework is nice, and the round mill is great, some of favorite techniques here are more subtle. First, there’s the mixing of brown and dark red for the roof tiles, a subtle swap that helps give a lived-in nature. Similarly, the mixed olive green and dark tan for the ground makes a wonderfully earthy tone. And secondly is something so foundational it took me a minute to even realize it: this diorama has two bases, thanks to a black slab beneath the sculpted landscape. Usually, LEGO dioramas have one or the other, but I really love the presentation here.

MilgrathsMill

I see a little silhouette-o of a minifigure

The LEGO castle building contest, Summer Joust, got underway recently. And one of my favourite categories this year is that of Silhouettes. The brief is simple: make whatever you want, but at no more than 6 studs depth. Considering LEGO’s inherently three-dimensional nature, it’s quite the challenge – but one that’s no match for Ids de Jong. He’s built this atmospheric castle scene that really leans into the theme of the contest. The mostly monochrome scenery is offset by the sunset in the distance, which emphasises the forced perspective at work. You could also see a deeper meaning here. The dark colours and creepy-crawlies in the foreground, coupled with the knight walking away from them towards the sunset and brighter pastures, indicate to me this soldier has overcome a great challenge. Perhaps that’s how Ids feels about this build!

Dragon Valley

Winter is summoned

In this imaginative LEGO scene by Malin Kylinger, a group of mages have summoned a portal to the winter realm. The whole diorama is loaded with great builds, from the trees with their densely packed foliage, to the picnic of magical equipment beside the house. The whole build rewards closer scrutiny with lots of great details lurking.

The Enchanters of the Portal Have Answerd the Queens Summons

But the real standout is the magic circle at the center, a fantastic use of cheese-slope mosaic-making to craft a pattern that’s almost quilt-like, and at the center is a perfect use for the rare Belville crown element.

The Enchanters of the Portal Have Answerd the Queens Summons

Everyone needs a hobby – even orcs

Do you think orcs ever get tired of warmongering? More often than not, they’re depicted as grumpy, aggressive beings hungry for conquest, but Versteinert posits that they might also be partial to a more peaceful life. This particular one has taken to the forest for its downtime. Which makes sense – if you’ve got all those nice heavy battleaxes, there’s no point leaving them gathering dust between pillages. Might as well put them to good use making some wood. A bit of woodworking is probably a nice way to decompress after terrorising the realms of man, in the absence of LEGO sets. Making a wardrobe or coffee table, perhaps. Rest and recuperation is important, folks! 

The Orc Lumberjack

A castle chained to the sky

I’m not familiar with the Deepgate Codex fantasy series, but after seeing this captivating floating castle built of LEGO by I think I might have to check it out, because this microscale structure has my imagination running. It’s a simple build but no less effective at evoking the feeling of precarious city perched atop a magic rock and chained in place. A few carefully placed studs make for great windows on the buildings, while the rock-texture slope gets put to good use giving added dimension to the chunk of earth without looking forced.

Deepgate

Storming the gates

So often in LEGO castle creations, the focus is on the large keep in the middle. But in a refreshing change of pace, has–literally, as well as figuratively–shifted the focus away from the big structures and to an often overlooked one by centering their build on the gate, with the rest of the castle in the background. It’s not immediately obvious, but Oshi has also employed forced perspective, as the back buildings are not quite minifigure scale.

War Footing

This tower is held together by the power of hopes and dreams

Most of the time I can figure out how a LEGO creation has been put together. Sometimes it is just a big riddle. This lovely build by Kit Nugent is one of those builds that I just can’t wrap my head around. What makes this creation really fun is the number of weird pieces hidden in it to add texture to the build. If you look closely, and I truly recommend that you do, you can spot all sorts of unique bricks. There is a pump bottle, a couple of hairbrushes and a rubber duckling hidden in the build to add texture to the landscaping. Last but definitely not least is the use of the Minecreaft pickaxe and the wand box blend in perfectly with the Tudor style of the home.

A Dear Visitor