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

Droogs, viddy this horrorshow Clockwork Orange sculpture

Meet Alex. Alex is the main character in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange (later immortalized in film by Stanley Kubrick). Alex is depicted as a sociopath who robs, rapes, and assaults innocent people for his own amusement. David Hughes‘ LEGO sculpture of Alex is inspired by the 1972 book cover and I think his decision to stick with simple monotone shades and skin tone works very well.

The sculpture itself uses over 2,700 bricks and is 15″ wide x 12″ deep x 17″ high. And while the eye and eye-liner are certainly eye-catching, I particularly like the shaping of the Bowler hat.

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You have 5 seconds to comply.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..

Grantmasters is back with another scene from that 1980s classic movie, Robocop. This time the action takes place in the boardroom with the infamous line spoken by ED-209: “You have 5 seconds to comply.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. I am now authorized to use physical force“. Although the ED-209 robot is a fantastic little build, the micro Delta City is my favourite part of this scene. Great parts in microscale, and a welcome change from seeing the white life preserver part used as a toilet seat!

If you fancy trying your hand at re-creating a scene using ED-209, Grantmasters kindly shared the parts required for the build and a partial breakdown. Just watch out for any glitches…

Say hello to my little friend

What a line! Al Pacino delivers that famous line in the role of Tony Montana in the movie Scarface. Spanish builder Omar Ovalle has used the line as the title for his creation, preferring to use Technic figures and their bigger scale over the classic minifigure. Technic figures are capable of increased expression due to their articulations and pose-ability when compared to minifigures. This guy has plenty of attitude, holding his minigun (I’m guessing) and rounds. Is that a minigun? It’s pretty big with a few barrels? Do we have a weapons expert out there to help me?

Omar has also made other vignettes using Technic figures. We blogged his Star Wars Technic figures earlier this year, and I have to highlight my own particular favourite, ‘The Angry Groom’…

How to construct the Avalonian Countryside trees [Instructions]

Sometimes it is easy to see how a builder created a particular LEGO build, while at other times a build requires a bit of breakdown and perhaps even a tutorial if there are ‘hidden’ techniques. Last week we blogged this fantastic microscale LEGO countryside diorama from Full Plate, with beautiful fall foliage and crops ready for harvest.

The builder, Emil Lidé, has responded to questions about the creation of his trees with this fantastic tutorial to help you create your own. First, he starts with a layout of the parts required for the green trees.

Next, Emil shows how the trunk is built using a six-pronged flower stem to ‘hang’ the main foliage. The foliage in this example uses a mix of 1×2 plates and 2×2 round plates.

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LEGO Indiana Jones does the temple run

You must remember that famous scene in Indiana Jones: The Raiders of The Lost Ark when Indy is chased by a giant boulder and has to run through the temple as the boulder rolls closer and closer? Well back in 2008, LEGO released 7623 Temple Escape with the rolling boulder as a play feature. Australian builder Forgotten Days has taken that set and expanded it – adding style, accuracy and details along the way – resulting in a much better scene.

The surface terrain is nicely built up with gaps to highlight the underground activities taking place. Using an Indiana Jones minifigure at the start standing with the idol, and another at end of the run, is a nice touch. I love that Indy at the end is in the seated position just like in the movie!

Shiver me timbers! LEGO pirate ship be ready to set sail, me hearty

Arrrrrr, ’tis time to set sail and plunder some lesser vessels with Jerome Kloou and his fantastic LEGO pirate ship, La Saignante. This galleon has three masts, some impressive rigging, and cloth sails. She is displaying the Jolly Roger and has 14 cannons, so not a ship to be taken on lightly. There is no-one in the crow’s nest at the moment so all the pirates must be ashore drinking rum and spending their booty.

Jerome has added some wonderful details, with those 14 cannons and a ‘below deck’ prison cell for naughty pirates who are caught eating extra rations or stealing some of the Captain’s treasure for their own pockets.

The crane is functional and can move up and down, or left and right, to transfer the stolen booty from the ship to the shore. It seems as though the lookout has ‘dropped his pretzel’ from the crows nest earlier …that’s not an official pirate knot.

LEGO chestburster from Alien is horrifyingly awesome

Back in 2007 we blogged an awesome LEGO creation by the Arvo Brothers which featured a chestburster emerging from some unlucky person, in a recreation of a scene from the classic Sci-Fi horror film Alien. Well not only have the Arvo Brothers now updated their build with a base and some new parts to improve the design, but they have also finally published instructions!

The updated version has a white base similar to the base created for their recent Alien Project and changes to the teeth and nose area. The blood pool also has some fantastic sinewy arterial red parts that add to the horror and seem more anatomically realistic.

The seeping blood spilling from the larger pool, through the base and onto the floor, is undoubtedly my favourite part. I hope this doesn’t reflect any morbid tendencies I may have! Building instructions are available by contacting the Arvo Brothers via email arvo@arvobrothers.com and should be on their website soon.

The Sword is mightier than the other spaceships

Michał Kaźmierczak is one of many LEGO builders taking part in this year’s SHIPtember, a contest where the rules are simple: one month; one SHIP; one hundred or more studs in size. The term S.H.I.P. stands for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts, and Michał’s creation is an impressive 202 stud long ship named Sword. In addition to some stickers, Sword features windows added using ultraviolet paint to help create the beautiful lighting effect in the image below:

The detailed underside of Sword is full of delicious greebles that contrast with the smooth lines of the main hull:

A side view allows for a greater appreciation of this 170cm long LEGO creation. The blue stern area really stands out and makes for some eye-catching contrast to the grey hull. As with all ships, regardless of size, one key aspect is the SWOOSH factor. And I think this one has more of a SCHWING!

Issue 16 of Bricks Magazine now available [News]

Bricks magazine issue 16 is now available, and this month the main theme is LEGO Castles, with some added Steampunk for flavour, and a little VW Beetle action for variety.

The 124-page magazine has a range of exclusive articles and fan built creations, including a delve inside the magical walls of LEGO’s new 71040 The Disney Castle, and a dangerous encounter for the LEGO Elves as they try to save the baby Princess dragon egg in 41180 Ragana’s Magic Shadow Castle. The magazine explores Michael Kalkwarf’s modular castle system, while James Pegrum illustrates how to build circular towers in his builder’s masterclass. Whilst not medieval but definitely within the realm of fantasy, Rod Gillies explains the Victorian-inspired alternate universe of Steampunk with steampunk-style Ultra Agents MOCs and a look at LEGO’s own take on this genre.

Bricks is available in both digital and print format at a cost of £4.99 or US$6.60 (approx. due to variable exchange rates). Shipping and packaging costs for the print version are £1.50 for the UK, £4.25 for the rest of the world.

Click here for the full press release and sample pages

We are LEGO, we are Overwatch

Overwatch has spurred builders into a frenzy of creativity, and Tim Schwalfenberg has spent the last couple of weeks building a series of characters from the game to display at his local comic convention. Tim’s character builds include Mercy, Pharah, Reaper, Roadhog, Soldier 76, Tracer and Winston. I’ll start with my favourites: Mercy, a healer and staunch advocate for peace; and Reaper, an extremely volatile mercenary who is a ruthless and remorseless killer. Reaper’s face shaping is spot on and captures this intimidating, cold blooded faceless character to perfection.

Click here to see more heroes

REBRICK contest winner: build your dream Porsche [NEWS]

The LEGO REBRICK website has just announced the grand prize winner and runners-up in their Build the Porsche of your Dreams competition that ended on 07 Sept. The Grand Prize winner was Tamás Juhász with his Porsche 962 C.

Tamás’ model was very detailed, including the engine, exhausts, turbos, racing seat, seat belt, radiators, detailed cockpit, mirrors all made using LEGO.

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Transcend normal LEGO building techniques with Zenyatta from Overwatch

If you somehow haven’t heard of Overwatch, it’s a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released in May of this year by Blizzard Entertainment. More importantly for LEGO fans, a host of brilliant depictions of the characters from the game has swiftly followed its release. Simon Lui takes the building-baton and has recreated 20-year-old monk and wanderer Zenyatta, in his typical meditative pose.

I particularly love his torso area made from taps, and the waistband of his orange pants made from mechanical arms. Those shoulders look fab but perhaps not the most robust, so it’s just as well that Zenyatta can attain a transcendent state of immunity to damage!