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

The Ruins of St Paul’s: glorious rather than ruinous

This impressive creation depicting the Ruins of St Paul’s by Alex Hui was built for the Macau X LEGO Exhibition. The model is deceptively large at nearly four feet tall.

The Ruins of St. Paul’s, located in Macao, refer to the façade of what was originally the Church of Mater Dei built in 1602-1640 and the ruins of St. Paul’s College, which stood adjacent to the Church — both destroyed by fire in 1835. The sculptured motifs of the façade include biblical images, mythological representations, Chinese characters, Japanese chrysanthemums, a Portuguese ship, several nautical motifs, Chinese lions, bronze statues and other elements that integrate influences from Europe, China and other parts of Asia.

Alex chose to build in a sufficiently grand scale to allow the carvings and sculptures to be accurately depicted in LEGO and took 6 months to complete the build. The model is approximately 1.2m high and is constructed solely in light gray and dark grey. The use of dark grey is very effective for highlighting the depth of the central sculpture and really captures so many of the fine details from the original. My own favourite part is the winged ‘Holy Spirit’ in the triangular pediment at the top, which symbolizes the ultimate state of divine ascension as seen in the zoomed image below.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender takes to the sky in LEGO form

Cast your mind back to 2005-08 and you may remember an American animated television series called Avatar: The Last Airbender, on Nickelodeon. Firstly we have John Moffat bringing the main characters from the series to life in LEGO form.

The Avatar animation series was set in a fantasy world in which some people are able to manipulate the basic elements of air, water, fire and earth by use of psychokinetic variants of Chinese martial arts, known as “bending”. Aang, the twelve-year-old, fun-loving, airbending protagonist of the series can be seen in more detail below… The body positioning with martial art poses is fantastic for these small characters.

In addition, Jme Wheeler brings one of the faithful companions, Appa the loyal sky bison of Aang, to life once more in LEGO form.

Jme Wheeler captures the character of Appa with a very accurate colour palette with studs to show “shaggy ” fur, and great use of part 49668 (1×1 plate with tooth). The positioning is a classic bison head down. Look at that nose and those strong legs ready to charge — the only slight difference being…this bison can fly!

The color of magic: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld characters in LEGO

It’s time to travel to Discworld and enjoy this fantastic series of characters from the works of Sir Terry Pratchett, brought to us by Eero Okkonen (Pate-keetongu). Eero started these shortly after the death of Pratchett in March this year. His first build was a large-scale creation of his favourite Discworld character, Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully (back-row, far left in the photo below).

The Ones Who Meddle With The Fabric Of Reality

The Archchancellor, Professor of Unusual and Cruel Geography, Dean, Librarian and The Luggage.

If you’re not familiar with Terry Pratchett, he was the author of a series of 41 comic fantasy books that take place in the Discworld, a flat circular world that rests on the backs of four elephants who are standing on the back of a turtle.

I simply must point out a few of my favourite parts, although it is hard to narrow this down to only my top three. In no particular order: the Archchancellor’s ‘winged’ beard; bananas used to represent the peeled banana skin held by the Librarian; and the dark red windscreen used as the Luggage’s tongue! Well one more… look below, Commander Vimes toes are minifigure legs!

Commander Vimes

Susan Sto Helit, Granddaughter of Death

Now that Finnish builder Eero “Pate-keetongu” Okkonen has completed his LEGO Discworld characters (well, completed them for the moment, he happily admits), TBB asked him a few questions about the experience:

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In search of the perfect beat... I found my own rhythm

German-based Australian builder Arran Hearn is ready to fill the dancefloor and raise the roof with his 1:2 scale DJ setup! This creation started with a brick, namely part 58846 (Brick Round Corner 10 x 10 with Slope 33 Edge). Four of these bricks make up each of the platters on the turntable and, from that simple beginning, the 1:2 scale creation began to take shape. Arran’s DJ setup is complete with two turntables and a mixer, in the brilliantly named ‘battle-mode’ position – definitely beyond my knowledge as a mere easy-listening, sing-a-long chick!

Arran went to great lengths to accurately reflect the details with custom chromed “Barraki eyes” used for the spindles, custom designed transparent stickers for the outside rim of the platters and the custom boat studs used for the detailing on mixer controls. I had to look twice at the initial Flickr photograph to check I was actually looking at LEGO. It is all hooked up and ready to go, look at those cable tidies keeping all the wires in position.

And as if the attention to detail was not enough, power functions are brought via a 9V train controller to light the LEDs on the mixer and spin those platters. Arran also created this video showing off his model next to the real deal:

We will remember them

Guns along the Western Front fell silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Using LEGO as a medium to acknowledge Veterans Day, Armistice Day or Remembrance Day wherever you are, is just our community’s way of remembering all of those who sacrificed for their country.

Lest We Forget by Simon Liu

Remembrance 2015 by Luc Byard

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Deborah Higdon

Poppy by Fujiia

Lest We Forget by JK Brickworks

We Will Remember Them by Nick Sweetman

Delicious Designs from the Speeder Custom Body Shop

The Speeder Custom ~~Body Shop~~ Kitchen is getting busy as our Pimp Rey’s Speeder Contest picks up speed. We welcome all interpretations, but these two delicious builds got our taste buds watering.

First, straight from the freezer, is Koen’s ‘Ice Pop Speeder’. Koen was clearly concerned about Rey coping with the hot deserts of Jakku and pimped her a chilled ice pop complete with Ice Cream vendor… not sure how she will feel about him taking a quick bite first!

Next comes the ‘Hot Dog Speeder’ dished up by Jabberwokka. Hot dogs are always a tasty fast food, and this Hot Dog Speeder is served in a neat napkin with some condiments. Let’s see if he can mustard up the speed to ketchup with the other pimped Speeders!

Micro Rivendell... small but perfectly formed

It’s ironic that Mar Vei built Rivendell as an entry into the Colossal Castle Contest as the whole of his creation fits into a 16×16 stud footprint. It’s an entry for the “micro castle” category and, as many of you will know, building in microscale is often more tricky than having a full range of parts and building techniques at your disposal.

Rivendell is an Elven retreat within a hidden valley in Middle-earth, a fictional world created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was seen as a place of beauty, tranquillity and a place of refuge for the weary. Mar Vei captures so much, despite the limits of microscale, with inspired use of parts.

The Elven architecture is represented by minifigure legs, headgear and hands to give detail and structure. My favourite part usage is a minifigure hard hat, normally worn by a construction worker, that forms the White Council Chambers’ domed roof. Cheese slope and 1×1 plate trees grow on the sloped rocky wall of the gorge with trans-clear waterfalls cascading into a river. This creation is instantly recognisable as Rivendell.

This car belongs to Bond... James Bond

The Aston Martin DB5 is famous for being the most recognised cinematic James Bond car, and builder Peter Blackert has released his latest creation, the DB5 Volante, from the garage just in time for the new Bond film.

The Aston Martin DB5 is a luxury grand tourer released in 1963, made by Aston Martin and designed by the Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. The DB5 was first used as Bond’s car in Goldfinger in 1964 and was destroyed in Skyfall in 2012. I haven’t seen the new Bond film Spectre yet so I don’t know if Bond’s DB5 has recovered to make an appearance, though it is confirmed that Bond will drive a brand-new DB10 which was designed specifically for Agent 007 by Aston Martin.

At first sight Peter’s DB5 appears luxurious with chrome detailing, a soft tan leather interior and maroon bodywork. Look closely and you will see ingenious use of minifigure accessories such as ice-skates used as door handles and registration plate holder, or binoculars for the exhaust.

Launching in...5...4...3...2...1...

It is 1965, and we have been transported to Leba launch site in Poland where Karwick has a Meteor 1 research rocket ready to launch.

Meteor-1A was a one stage ‘sounding rocket’ that would supply valuable meteorological and rocket technical data during its sub-orbital flight. The launch site for the Meteor series of rockets was Leba, Poland between 1963 and 1974.

The details on this yellow launching gantry are fantastic, especially the use of yellow minifig hands and pirate hooks to hold the guide wires in place! The coloured hose details on the detonator box are perfect and the silver rocket is adorable (if rockets can be adorable).

Not satisfied with a sub-orbital launch, in 1970, the Meteor 2 was launched from Leba and touched the boundary of the Earth’s atmosphere into space at an altitude of 100km. Karwik’s Meteor 2 is bigger, better, chromed and has a fantastic gantry that includes a loading buggy on rails.

A series of photographs providing a 360º view of the launch site of Karwick’s can be seen on Flickr.

Let’s go fly a kite!

This delightful harbour scene by Simply Bricking It is the perfect antidote to some of the more ghoulish and macabre Halloween builds we’ve been showcasing.

There are awesome little details in this scene with the buoy, the railing around the base of the lighthouse and the harbour paraphernalia. I particularly love the textured walls of the lighthouse itself and the curved harbour wall.

Of course, leaving the best until last, we have the kite which brings the scene to life. It’s worth taking a closer look at this build to see the details…

The Ring ...just don’t answer it

Our Halloween-themed Week of Wonders continues and takes a sinister turn as Paddy Bricksplitter shares his build based on the psychological thriller The Ring.

The movie tells the story of an urban legend where a videotape filled with nightmarish images leads to a phone call foretelling the viewer’s death in exactly seven days. Paddy has managed to capture the eerie atmosphere with his intricate static television screen and blue tinted LED lighting. While his antagonist is called ‘Brickmara’ rather than Samara, her bony fingers and dishevelled hair are perfectly creepy.

Just remember not to answer the phone if it rings now you have seen this build…