About David Guedes

David Guedes, aka Lettuce, has been building with LEGO all his life, though he had a “dim age” in his teens, and didn’t buy any new sets for 6 years. He has been active in the fan community since 2014, regularly displaying creations at conventions like BrickCon and BrickCan, as well as interacting with fans of LEGO of all ages. David is a member of the VLC and a founder of DaveLUG. He lives just outside of Vancouver, with his wife, two sons, a dog, and a house full of little plastic bricks. His flickr account can be found here.

Posts by David Guedes

Hunt for pirates on the HMS White Card

When I was a kid, pirate ships (as I called all boats with sails) were one of my favourite things to build with LEGO bricks. While I thought mine were OK, I wish I’d been able to jump forward in time and see some of Gerard Joosten’s ships, especially his HMS White Card.

While childhood me and adult Gerard’s ships are similar in that they start at the bottom with boat hull pieces, that’s where the similarities end. Though we’ve featured his builds before, Gerard pushed himself to take his shipbuilding to another level with this one and it shows. The two aspects that jump out the most to me are the shaping of the hull and the intricate rigging. Those large sails, coupled with small details like the brick built wooden stock on the anchor cement the HMS White Card as quite the stunning ship.

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Objects in picture are larger than they appear

With the recent release of the Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage set, I can imagine that many LEGO fans will want to recreate more of a scene for the legendary dinosaur–the largest LEGO has ever made–to inhabit. At first glance, that would appear to be exactly what Richard Van As has done, but his creation is, in fact, much larger than even that dino! It seems fitting to me, as we learned in Jurassic Park that objects are sometimes larger than they appear.

Building in the larger scale, Richard couldn’t rely on minifigures to represent the characters, or any other specialized molded pieces, but still managed to unmistakably capture likenesses of Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ian Malcolm. The entire display is complete with all the right details from the movie scene, including a full interior for the car and a goat in the tyrannosaur paddock (though I think it was eaten already at this point). Flick through the rest of the album and see what hidden details you can spot!

Beautiful city built in colour

Who built this city? He built this city! He built this city of bricks and plaaaaaaaates! Pardon the parodied lyrics, but Paul Hetherington’s latest masterpiece makes me want to rock out. Like many of Paul’s previous works, this creation is pleasing both when viewed as a whole and when you zoom in to view the details.

Viewed from a distance, it really does look like a city being built by a giant robot. Look closely though, and you’ll see fun scenes playing out, along with Paul’s trademark checkerboard patterns, and a façade inspired by Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red Blue and Yellow. The colour combinations are my favourite aspect here. While many LEGO cities and towns are rife with greys, browns, and tans, Paul ignores those and leans hard into bright colours in complementary shades, creating yet another beautiful work of art.

Classic Castle or Modern Town?

In the last few decades, two of the most popular themes for LEGO creations are Castle and Town. Sandro Damiano has built a scene that could fall into either. Usually, it’s pretty easy to categorize a creation as one or the other, but at what point does a castle creation become a town creation? Is it a town creation simply because it is clearly in the modern day? Couldn’t we have a medieval village and still call categorize it as Town? Is an abundance of grey, brown, or tan required to be called a castle? Or maybe a protective perimeter wall?

The name of this beautiful creation does call it a Bavarian Town, but I’d argue it could fit into either theme. Replace the town minifigures and details with castle characters and details and – ta da – you’d get an amazing medieval Bavarian Town.

London architecture at night

LEGO has produced a few brilliant sets representing London Architecture in its Creator Expert line, such as Big Ben and the Tower Bridge. Hyungmin Park has added to this, with renditions of Nelson’s Column and King’s Cross Station. Laid out smartly with the predesigned sets in the background and fan creation in the front, the spaces between are filled in with details of typical London scenes.

The Hogwarts Express popping out of the train station is an easy one to see, and in my mind is the first thing I think of when I hear “King’s Cross”.

My favourite Easter Eggs though, are the more subtle ones such as the Star Wars Royal Guard mixed in with the British Royal Guards, and the cat with the Mohawk, which has always reminded me of a feline British punk rocker.

Don’t stare into the eye of the basilisk

There are no limits when it comes to the fantastical creations that can be created from the wide range of LEGO elements. A recent favourite of mine is Jayfa’s model of Rygas the Basilisk. The colour palette is visually striking, and the part selection is outstanding. While it might seem obvious to use a 4×7 wing piece on a bird, it’s rather ingenious to use it as the side of the belly rather that actually on the wing! When it comes to plumage being recreated, other techniques include the connection of a dinosaur tail piece to a small horn and the cacophonic positioning of Hero Factory flame elements.

However, my absolute favourite aspect of this creation is its posture, especially the feet. Not satisfied to duplicate a single design of a foot, Jayfa has designed two separate positions for the feet in a way that really brings the beast to life. It’s not just standing there, but what is it doing? Is it dancing or ready to pounce? Couple that with the look on its face, and I think anyone challenging this monster is in for a bad time.

Old overgrown mansion covered in detail

I’ve really been digging buildings built with plate instead of bricks lately. When a builder uses that idea as a starting point, and then adds in other cool details and techniques the way Jellyeater1 has, then we’re usually in store for a pretty cool LEGO creation.

The overall layout of the old mansion is fantastic and the varied brickwork achieved by using plates of six different colours (not to mention the mixed in masonry bricks and round plates) adds an extra level of detail on what might have otherwise been flat walls. Other details abound to solidify the realism of the house: the ornate entryway, the numerous chimneys, and appropriately positioned drainpipes. My personal favourite details are those that give off the look of being abandoned: the boarded-up rose window, drapes flying out of the open windows, the ivy taking over the back wall, or the tree poking through the roof.

Brick-built ode to Notre-Dame de Paris

Since the disastrous fire on April 15th, many LEGO fans have built their own renditions of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. It comes as no surprise that the best rendition I’ve seen was built by Rocco Buttliere. Rocco, who has a penchant for recreating famed architectural landmarks of the world, got to work on this one immediately following the fire.

Not only did he build the cathedral itself, but he accurately reproduced the landscape around it: remove the building and this creation would still be a masterpiece. The curves of the river and roadways, the textured ground and gardens. I’m especially fond of the little details, like the old hinge tile used as bollards – magnifique! While the surroundings are definitely beautiful, we can’t ignore the church itself. While I might be satisfied to just recreate the shape of the building, Rocco has carefully detailed the structure’s ornate detail. Everything is here, from Gothic arches and rose windows to buttresses and even gargoyles. This is achieved through skillful use of the LEGO parts palette, using a wide variety of old and new pieces of all different types: Technic elements, textured bricks, and minifigure accessories. With this creation, Rocco has built a fitting tribute this wonderful landmark truly deserves.

If you enjoyed this, check out Rocco’s other amazing creations we’ve highlighted, such as the entire Thames waterfront of London.

A Mon Calamari Cruiser crewed by Mon Calamari

LEGO Star Wars sets do a good job of supplying fans with minifigures of the main characters. But what if you want more to really fill out a scene’s background? If you’re like simon-wild, you build more from other characters’ parts, like he did for his Mon Calamari Cruiser Bridge. The scene on display wouldn’t be half of what it is without some custom characters – they really give it the busy and bustling look of a working command ship. I especially like the high proportion of non-human characters. Oftentimes, it seems that there are so many more humans than beings of other species in the galaxy, but not here: the Mon Calamari cruiser is appropriately crewed by Mon Calamari. The bridge itself is beautiful too. There are enough well-detailed instruments to keep everyone present busy, as well as displays and warning lights to let them know what’s happening.

This fan’s quest to build the perfect LEGO X-wing results in an amazingly accurate model [Feature]

A LEGO Star Wars fan since before Star Wars was a LEGO theme, Mark Chan has spent the last 40 years trying to create the perfect LEGO model of an X-wing fighter. We at The Brothers Brick think he’s done a pretty good job, so we caught up with Mark to get the story of his journey.

Click here to learn about the journey to create this X-wing

Spider-Ham, Spider-Ham, does whatever a spider does

You may know him from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse or from the comics but, regardless of how you were introduced, Spider-Ham is one of the more creative characters in the Marvel Universe. Alanboar Cheung has captured that creativity in LEGO-form, and this build is fun! Not just in the playful pose, but in the use of parts too. I personally love the hammer built out of turret walls and the chairs used as the ends of his ears. What other creative parts usage can you see? Overall, I think this model is great – a real ham, if you will!

An overgrown temple on Yavin 4

Many LEGO Star Wars fans have long hoped for a set depicting the Rebel base on Yavin 4. Some fans have taken matters into their own hands and built their own rendition, like this scene by Legomania. Though only a small chunk of the Great Temple that housed the Rebel Alliance, this diorama accurately portrays the spirit of the activity we see in A New Hope and Rogue One. Pilots are milling about while Rebel Troopers run off to their assignments.

Remove the Star Wars characters and accessories, and this could very well represent an ancient jungle temple here on Earth. I’m particularly drawn to the use of largely solid colours for different aspects of the diorama. And rather than use colour to break up the monotony of a pathway, brick wall, or stone steps, everything looks gritty through the use of different shapes, sizes and textures of LEGO pieces.