Posts by David Alexander Smith

A lovingly built Italian classic

Formula-1 cars of the 1960s are things of beauty. They represent an earlier age where form and function seemed to balance perfectly. André Pinto’s model of a Ferrari 312 F1-67 is a beauty, glistening in its familiar red livery, bedecked with chrome.

FERRARI 312 F1 67

Despite the vehicle being one of the racing team’s less successful models, primarily remembered for the tragic death of Lorenzo Bandini in Monte Carlo, it still pulls at the racing enthusiast’s heartstrings. André has lavished care throughout his build, from the sculpted bodywork through to the detailed V12 engine; it’s clearly a true labour of love.

FERRARI 312 F1 67

Mixing the Christmas spirit with a dose of the peculiar

When a model blends a host of tropes in the way Delayice does in this Xmas build, it sometimes ends up subverting the original theme. Maybe it’s me, but this snowman dressed as Santa has a weirdly uncanny quality–in fact, it’s almost creepy.

merry xmas

Maybe it’s his double whips, clutched in each hand, or then again it might be his glazed eyes, or even the mechanical looking reindeer pulling his tiny sleigh. There’s a thin line between the cute and the strange, and this unique creation brilliantly drives down that line.

santa "snow"

Building in the two tone style

During the late 70s and early 80s The Specials made some of the most innovative and iconic singles to ever grace the British music charts. Not only did they mix ska, punk and rocksteady beats to raucous effect, they married it with a two tone fashion sense that set them apart from their peers. Red 2 has caught the band at the height of their powers, as they appeared in the music video for their 1979 hit A Message to You Rudy. The LEGO version of the group perfectly capturing their tonic suits, and my favourite part of the build, pork pie hats made form small dishes and domes. It’s no small feat to build all nine members, but it pays off with each posed in mid-swagger, capturing the very essence of their musical style.

A Message To You Rudy : The Specials. c1979

Same house, different times

When you’ve designed something as beautiful as Ayrlego‘s Wainwright house, it seems a shame not to experiment with its presentation. It looks right at home in its medieval situ, with its muddy path, city guards, and period timber frame construction.

Wainwright, Ambarvale

However, why stop here? Relocate the build half way around the globe to Jamestown in Virginia and you have a completely different enviroment to explore. LEGO palm trees and red coat soldiers have surrounded the timber frame residence, giving the model a fresh colonial feel.

Wainwright, Jameston

Presents you must have, my young padawan

The Grinch isn’t the only strange green creature you’ll meet this festive season, Koen Zwanenburg would have us believe that Father Christmas is in fact a Jedi master, Yoda no less! Bizarrely it makes perfect sense — clearly, it would take a high-level Force user to achieve Santa’s intergalactic delivery schedule. There is also a sly nod to the commercial success of the Star Wars franchise: in a clever reversal of roles, Yoda carries a LEGO minifigure Luke on his back, ready to fill someone’s Christmas stocking.

Santa Yoda

If you like Keon’s model, he’s provided LDD instructions for you to make your very own Santa Yoda.

M:Tron – delivering to a galaxy near you soon

The M:Tron range of LEGO Space sets released back in 1990 never made any bones about the utilitarian  nature of its magnet-laden fleet. It was all about finding innovative ways of lifting and moving its precious equipment cases around the galaxy.  Tim Goddard, whose space work has become a regular feature here on TBB, has really run with this idea of transportation.  He asks, how do you deploy your beautifully built M:Tron mech to the planet surface?  With the M:Tron Pod of course.

POD

Having had a close-up look at this build at Bricktastic earlier this year, I was mightily impressed by the lengths Tim had gone to, to make his Pod hexagonal.  Of course it also has a fully functional hatch mechanism. Like so much of his work, it’s a splendidly detailed homage to one the LEGO Group’s most-loved themes.

POD opening

A castle shot through with a bolt of blue

What makes a LEGO model special often comes down to an inspired design choice.  In the case of En Zoo’s Laelariel Hall it’s all about the use of colour.  The build is a solid medieval construction utilising many tried and tested stone wall and roof techniques. What lifts it above the average are the exquisite splashes of blue bricks throughout.  The main walls are veined with light blue and 1×1 round tiled studs.  Layered in sequence, they imbue the building with a sense of magic.  Accents of dark blue in the roof echo the marbling elsewhere. It’s a clever choice that transports the scene into its own fantastical realm.

Voyaging begins when one burns one’s boats, adventures begin with a shipwreck

If your LEGO pirate ship crashes on the rocks, what do you do? Easy, rebuild! Travis Brickle has embraced this idea, skilfully repurposing the recognisable aspects of his vessel into a makeshift cottage on its own remote island. It’s a ramshackle affair with the hull doubling as roof replete with dormers; I love the turtle shell fix to one of these. The mast stands tall as a look out post, I assume to scour the horizon for rescue. A ship’s wheel hangs above the door, a reminder of past maritime glory. Yet, even when a pirate’s shipwrecked, you can’t take the buccaneer out of the man: there are sailors still to walk the plank, treasure to plunder, and rum aplenty to be swilled.

shipwreck

Lamborghini Centanario: a car with killer curves

Anyone who has ever fallen in love with the romance of the Lamborghini knows the seductive power of its lines. The Centanario, designed in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Ferruccio Lamborghini, exemplifies everything brilliant about the alluring shape of its cars. Builder Lachlan Cameron has pulled out all the stops to replicate the sweeping form of the Centanario in LEGO Technic form.

Lamborghini Centanario

Sliding carefully selected Technic beams over flexi tube, he has captured the unique flow from bonnet to mudguards that defines the car. Add in a host of features such as superbly modelled doors, bucket seats and functioning lighting and you have a fitting tribute to one of today’s most recognisable supercars.

Lamborghini Centanario

Come with me and you’ll be in a rainbow world of pure imagination

Advice suggests avoiding eating heavy meals before bed. Nick Sweetman, the builder of this crazy rainbow nightmare, appears to have thrown caution to the wind. His bedroom scene is littered with treats and snacks galore. That Wonka bar hinting at the seriously psychedelic side effects of consuming too much sugar before sleep. It’s a premise that has allowed Nick to unleash every colour in the LEGO palette – in fact there is an artist’s brush and palette suggestively tucked away on one of the shelves – in aide of creating the most marvellous, hallucinatory, maelstrom. It’s a vibrant, queasy, spectacle of a build that celebrates colour and chaos with little regard for sensible modelling conventions… and I love it!

Dreams

Sweeping LEGO diorama tells the story of Welsh privateer Henry Morgan [Interview]

Collective Brick to the Past are a team of expert builders who have been wowing crowds at LEGO shows and conventions in the U.K. with their vast historically researched dioramas. They’ve built massive LEGO displays about the Battle of Hastings, Viking raids on Anglo-Saxon Britain, and the Jacobite Rising. Their latest monumental project is the work of Dan Harris, James Pegrum, Colin Parry and Simon Pickard, and depicts Henry Morgan: Welsh Raider of the Spanish Main. It is their first project to be set outside the U.K. and is based on the buccaneer or pirate – that’s for you to decide – Henry Morgan’s raid on Lake Maracaibo.

Henry Morgan: Welsh Raider of the Spanish Main

The layout features some amazing 17th Century Colonial buildings, a sea fort based on Carlos de la Barra and an array of beautiful period-perfect ships. As always, the diorama has been meticulously researched and filled with all manner of details and surprises.

Henry Morgan: Welsh Raider of the Spanish Main

Dan Harris from the Brick to the Past team kindly agreed to tell us a bit more about the history that inspired the model, the research and building challenges faced in its construction and highlights some of his favourite parts of the layout.

See more photos and read our interview about this huge LEGO diorama

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Going back to the original book description of Hogwart’s headmaster, Eero Okkonen has created a fantastically faithful portrait. With a beard down to his belt, a nose broken in at least two places – built from a modified plate with tooth brick – and flowing purple robes, this Dumbledore is true in every way to J. K. Rowling’s beautiful prose. The build also utilises some seriously clever piece selections, from the LEGO parrot that forms Fawkes the phoenix’s beak to the wing elements that double for sideburns. Peering over his half-moon spectacles, this model is LEGO illustration at its best.

Professor Dumbledore

You can read more about the build on Eero’s Cycloptic Bricks blog.