Continuing with his circle motif, Sergeant Chipmunk has brought us another slice of LEGO adventure. This time, we’re given a glimpse into the old wild west. While the covered wagon, rockwork, and dusty landscape are beautiful, it’s the little details that truly bring this scene to life, like the horses’ reins and bedrolls. Not to mention, the sleeping cowboy on the ridge, with his hat cocked down to block the sun.
Following up on a previous excellent wild west-themed creation, Brick Surgeon brings a very different, less action-packed view of life on the frontier, while keeping the building and composition style very similar. This latest vignette has a very morbid feel to it, with muted colours, dead trees and a freshly dug grave.
There are many details to appreciate here — the trees are excellently built of course, as they seem to be the focal point of the build. Other parts of the creation are not lagging behind much, with the cleanly built tent, very interesting rocks, and a brick-built vulture on one of the trees. An apropriate choice for the background colour connects all this into a very cohesive whole.
Animals are one of the hardest things to build in LEGO, due to their natural shapes and smooth surfaces. Unless you’re opting for robotic versions, you can’t just cover tricky parts up with any old light gray part and call it mechanical greebles! Brick Surgeon has done a wonderful job building a perfectly natural, realistic, and non-robotic LEGO bison. Here it’s being ridden by a warrior named Megedagik, whom we can only assume is too cool for horses.
Don’t miss the excellent use of minifigure hair pieces for the bison’s shaggy head, and assorted plants around the scene. The builder has used olive green minifigure heads as cacti — effective part use, further enhanced with some pretty lavender buds.
It may not be high noon yet, but it seems as thought there are already a few transactions going on at the bank in this Western scene by Paul Trach. The Brick Bank is a handsome building with its clock above the entrance complete with ‘saloon-style’ swing doors. The roof has a water barrel, brick-built signs, and some lovely detailing on the railings. It’s clear that this ain’t no drinking establishment as there are some finely dressed gentlemen exiting with their pocketwatches and bowler hats in place.
My favourite part of the build is best seen in this close-up view of the ground floor. The beautiful glass windows have some fancy metal-work to prevent any outlaws from breaking in and stealing from the bank. These windows are really a stand-out detail for me, but I have to mention the fun use of light bluish grey ingots as brickwork.
No Western scene is complete without a cactus, but since this is a fine banking establishment, Paul has chosen a lovely flowering cactus as decorative flora.
Some classic LEGO themes are wildly popular, but somehow feel underrepresented by custom LEGO models, such as LEGO Pirates and Wild West. At least for the latter we have a new build to enjoy in this frontier train station by Marcel V. With its unique roof and prominent clock, the build looks almost steampunk, but there are no fictional elements to be found.
There are a lot of interesting bits to see here. The semi-circular section’s construction is quite impressive, as is the roof itself. The railroad tracks look very good, done with a technique I am seeing more and more in fan creations. And as a cherry on top, Marcel has sprinkled the creation with all sorts of clutter, from sacks and guns to the local wildlife — all of which breathes life into the scene.
After a few months of a hiatus, Brick Surgeon returns with a bang. His newest creation is a western nomad’s cart, packed full of character. From the wonky wheels to the traveler’s belongings piled up on the top of the cart, everywhere you look there is something to love. The best part is undoubtedly the technique used for the roof: tan bars are connected with official LEGO stickers from the inside. One word: genius! Additionally, the base should not be ignored; the plant life is excellently done, with multitudes of angles to keep a natural and flowing appearance.
It’s not often we get to feature the Western theme around these parts! I was quite excited to stumble upon Karen Metz‘s South Seas Scallywag. I see new details every time I look at it.
It’s such a great wild-west building facade. I love the planking on the walls, and the details on the upper floor.
But wait, there’s more! Take a peak inside and you’ll see a vibrant saloon filled with all sorts of characters and gorgeous detail.
If you enjoyed this creation, you might want to check out these that we’ve featured in the past!
High Noon City
The Colorful West
There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills
Christopher Hoffman brings us an excellent Tech West stagecoach robbery scene. I’m a big fan of the Tech West idea — the mix of steampunk, dieselpunk, space, and cowboys ticks all of my boxes at once. And this creation is a great example of what’s good about the theme — the model is immediately recognisable as a stagecoach, with figures that totally look the part, yet it’s got beefy podracer-style engines which somehow don’t look out of place. Great work y’all.
Monostrophic has built a real Western themed treat for LEGO fans with this large scale diorama called High Noon City. There are many fantastic details to be found in this huge creation from water towers, Indian lookouts, covered wagons, gold-diggers working in the gold-mine, a water mill and a busy railway platform. Of course, everything takes place around the railway line that encircles the entire build complete with steam train chugging along.
The water tower and railway platform are particular favourites of mine with the typical high roofed station building that also houses the sheriff. To the left, it seems that some naughty boys are being brought to the sheriff for some Wild West style justice. Don’t worry about too many wild activities though, the cavalry are just around the next corner.
You can see all the details in close-up views on Flickr in the builder’s High Noon City album.
Yee-haw!
I’m not really sure if this ruined town of Sandwood has anything valuable in the bank, but Deadeye Bill and his gang wants to give it a “shot” anyway. General Magma masterfully creates this action scene with smoking guns and also includes a little story on the side. Facial expressions of the figures are very carefully selected and body movements are just perfectly arranged. Blood splatter on the sheriff and the collapsed wall on the left building turn out to be nice finishing touches.
“Deadeye Bill and his gang were at it again. The most notorious gang known to Sandwood Town came to snatch up a couple of sacks o’ gold at the local bank, as usual. ‘Not if I got somethin’ to say bout that’, Sheriff Dave must’ve said, before gettin’ shot down by Leroy “the Gambler”, one of Bill’s fellow outlaws. Cold as a wagon tire. And the other one, Dynamite Juan “the Mexican”, was just shootin’ away at it. This robbery committed by three dodgasted chuckleheads soon became one of the bloodiest shootouts ever seen by this rottin’ little town…”
Paddy Bricksplitter asserts, “Many historians state that the continued expansion of the western frontier was driven by two main factors . The Acquisition of land and the widespread domestication and utilization of Dinosaurs.” Who am I to question history? These gentlemen have tamed themselves a pair of velociraptors, hitched one to their buckboard, and are headed across the vast deserts for greener lands.
The minifigs look to be amusing fellows, the buckboard itself is quite well-built, but it’s the placement of the whole scene on a brick-built base that sets apart this pseudo-historical vignette.
In 1869, the Ingalls family left Wisconsin and went west, eventually settling in Kansas near what is now Independence, Missouri. Like many families moving west, the journey and new settlement was full of adventure and danger. Eventually the family went back to Wisconsin, then west again.
Laura Ingalls Wilder turned her experiences into the Little House on the Prairie, cementing herself into literary history.
SeigneurFett brings us this gorgeous diorama depicting Plum Creek from the books and TV series, which captured the hearts and minds of viewers of all ages.
I encourage you to explore the diorama and get lost again in the story!
