About Elspeth De Montes

Elspeth De Montes is Scottish but lives in North Yorkshire with her partner and twins. She is a LEGO Builder not a collector of sets, which in theory should make the hobby less expensive (ahem!) but monochrome collections can be pricey. You can see more of Elspeth's work on her blog or website and Flickr. Elspeth is also a bike lover; mountain bike, fixie, road bike, tri-bike (n+1=number of bikes I need).

Posts by Elspeth De Montes

A haven of sea stacks to call home

Sea stacks are amazing vertical rock formations that stand in the sea, formed entirely by wind and water as the forces of nature break up part of the headland over time. There are some famous stacks around the world, for example, the Twelve Apostles in Australia or the Old Man of Hoy off the coast of Orkney in Scotland. Tirrell Brown has created a beautiful scene with sea stacks, just off the coast of the imaginary land of Mitgardia. The castle is centrally located upon one of the larger stacks, jutting out the sea with it’s small wooden pier. Tirrell’s sea is very striking, with the combination of dark blue and medium blue depths and transparent waves crashing against the craggy rock faces of the sea stacks.

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Yoohoo. I’ll make you rich and famous!

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.

Beautiful shades of orange and brown

With the excitement about The LEGO Ninjago Movie building and new movie tie-in sets being released, it is no surprise to see lots of Ninjago themed fan creations being built. Svend Eric Saksun tells us that he was going for a Ninjago feel with this house and garden creation. There’s a hearty feast going on in the private garden area with what looks like the head of a buffalo on the barbecue. I can’t be certain as the LEGO part used is a chicken body with a couple of horns added for taste.

The aspect of this build I like the most is actually the colour coordination and sense of balance to the overall composition. Svend named his build ‘Nonjago‘ as he felt he failed to capture the Ninjago theme. But theme aside, he has certainly captured something beautiful.

Ladies in tank tops win the war

In December 1941, the National Service Act made the conscription of women legal in the UK, employing those of working age in essential work for the war effort. When production of tanks, planes, boats and munitions were needed, the women of Britain were called on to come into the factories and build the war machines, and without them success would not have been possible. Martin Harris has built a tribute to these women, and his scene is set in a converted railway station, using the track as an assembly line for the British-made Churchill tanks.

Women are the primary workers. However, you can see that there is an older man who has just turned up after work to help with turret placement. I had to try and forgive Martin for having a yellow faced minifigure with flesh hands in the scene …perhaps it is just me that finds that distressing to look at! The overall scene is beautifully tied together as a cohesive whole. I particularly love the old railway station backdrop with its large light fixtures and combination of glass, dark red brick and stone grey pillars.

A skyline view of Flemish architecture

Belgium doesn’t feature in the LEGO Architecture theme yet but Bert Van Raemdonck has corrected this oversight with his own skyline view of the Flemish municipality of Temse. His skyline of Temse creation includes, from left to right, Boelwerf Crane, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Church, Old Town Hall and Temse Bridge. As with a lot of microscale builds we feature, Bert has used some clever parts and techniques to pack texture and detail into a small space. I love the helmet that forms the spire of the church and the lever handle flagpoles on the side of the town hall. You will need to look closely at the church to spot the clever placement of tiles forming the buttresses.

The Old Town Hall is a magnificent piece of neo-Flemish renaissance architecture so my only critique would be the lack of colour as the actual building is a fantastic shade of pinky red and tan.

LEGO DC Superheroes: Build Your Own Adventure [Review]

DC Superheroes marks LEGO’s latest entry in the Build Your Own Adventure (BYOA) book series by publisher DK, featuring Green Lantern and other members of the Justice League. The book is out today, and is available for $15.49 USD from Amazon US or £17.57 from Amazon UK. Rod Gillies, TBB’s very own assistant editor, designed the inspirational models in this book. Rod is something of a veteran of the series, having previously built for the Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure and LEGO City Build Your Own Adventure books.

As with all the LEGO BYOA books, the pack includes a hardback book and a separate cardboard box that fit neatly together. One side of the cardboard box is a laminated scene to use as a setting for imaginative play with your creations. The 80-page hardcover volume includes a Green Lantern minifigure and small selection of bricks to create a model vehicle. It features building tips and more than 50 small models to use as inspiration for building with your own bricks.

Continue reading →

Hong Kong skyline in a island

While architecture skyline builds are a popular way to capture some of the landmark structures of a city, city son has created this fantastic mountainous sculpture of Hong Kong’s landmarks. At the base we have the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with its glass façade, surrounded by Golden Bauhinia Square. Dominating the scene is the Big Buddha with the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and Peak Tram exiting the mountainside, all of which are located on Lantau Island, Hong Kong’s largest outlying island.

What a great way to capture some of the highs of Hong Kong, although Big Buddha doesn’t look impressed with the cable car exiting his head!

Companion droid is a man’s best friend

Today we bring you not just one, but two companion droids built by GolPlaysWithLego. I like to think that a man’s best friend is WLY on the left, although the look on his owner’s face suggests he is not altogether happy with the ride. The shaping of both droids is very cool with the new curved mudguards ideal to frame the ‘face’ areas. SPD is definitely giving out arachnoid vibes with those spindly legs and seems to be the ‘protector’, being both armed and unmanned.

I love WLY’s legs — ingenious use of helmets, plus a rather unusual part, namely the small armour plates from the Baze Malbus SW “constraction” figure. And did you spot the 1980’s phone speaker printed tile as the droid’s mouthpiece?

Traditional Japanese machiya is beautifully simple

Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. This LEGO version of a machiya by Dan Blom is a great example of a seemingly simple build that really looks the part. The key architectural details like the barred window, known as mushiko mado [literal translation is ‘insect cage window’] and the wooden lattice façade are accurately represented. These days most roofs are covered with clay tiles called kawara, and Dan has left the LEGO studs exposed to give the impression of neatly arranged, rough tiles.

The addition of some extra little details such as the cart, the various items outside the front of the house and the ancient-looking tree complete the scene perfectly.

Step inside a typical Malaysian heritage house

Heritage houses are wonderful older styled buildings with a typical façade that can be found dotted around many locations in Malaysia. Vincent Kiew has created a beautiful LEGO heritage house complete with detailed interior. I love the façade with its wooden louvre shutters and architectural decorations above the arched windows. The use of a mix of white and older yellowed white bricks really adds to the ‘antiquated’ appearance. The same slightly worn down appearance is provided by the mix of colours in the main left hand side of the house with light grey, white and the odd sand green brick as an aesthetic colour scheme.

Vincent has created a detailed interior for the house, complete with kitchen, living room, bedroom, study, toilet and more. The build is an accurate representation of a typical house and is structurally sound despite being made of LEGO.

It’s worthwhile taking a closer look at all the fantastic interior details that have been added. Most of the interior decorations and furniture are made of wood or stone with some lovely artistic details.

If you liked Vincent’s heritage house, you may also enjoy his LEGO recreation of Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown that we featured last month.

Eco-friendly living in the green house

They say a house is not a home without a cat, but despite being a cat-lover I would say that a house is not a home without an awesome home gym and fully equipped kitchen. I would be very happy to move into this eco-friendly sustainable Green House by Swedish builder Sarah. Extending from the rock-face, this house makes full use of the sun’s power with solar panels and lots of windows for light. The central column has a nice colour combination to tone in with the surrounding natural environment.

See more of this green house after the jump

LEGO Slammington can never go rusty

One of the most famous rat rods is Rusty Slammington, the Supra-powered, rust coated, slammed BMW street rod. Unlike a hot rod, a rat rod will have a tarnished, unfinished look and is made to be driven rather than simply to be a pristine reproduction. This LEGO version of Rusty Slammington by Calin Bors is not adorned with decals and decoration, but instead manages to capture the unique shape and style of Rusty. The mixed palate of browns, black and dark orange is a perfect combination to represent the destroyed look.

There’s no need to be careful going over a speed hump with Rusty; just go for speed and let the frame rails produce the some street fireworks.