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

Minnie’s Haberdashery from The Hateful Eight in LEGO

As the last place to buy a few essentials or enjoy a good nights sleep before continuing on your journey, Minnie’s Haberdashery is a key location in Quentin Tarantino’s movie,  The Hateful Eight. Marion has built a replica view of the haberdashery in LEGO and it really is an amazing likeness. There are hanging dried herbs and vegetable swaying from the ceiling, a huge assortment of jugs, boxes, barrels, lamps and mugs scattered across tables, shelves and chests of drawers. I love the placement of certain key features; the large beam frames our view to the left and the stool and table are in the forefront with a chest of drawers and open wooden shutters on the right.

The Hateful Eight - Minnie's Haberdashery

Comparison with the actual set from the movie is a must, although Marion has added a few blood spots as we would expect in a Tarantino film.

Photo: Andrew Cooper, SMPSP © 2015 The Weinstein

The Supreme Commander of the Imperial Forces is heading this way

Darth Vader is probably one of the most iconic fictional villains. Constantinos and Petros Nicolaou have built their own life-sized LEGO version of Darth Vader’s head. The brothers used 2712 bricks to construct the head of Darth Vader, complete with his instantly recognisable helmet with its triangular breathing apparatus.  Building mainly in black is usually a trademark for Batman, but the brothers used curved and straight edge slopes to sculpt a great many details, despite the limited colour scheme.

I think this would be an ideal sculpture to be displayed in the hallway of your home, if you enjoy frightening visitors.

Bugatti Chiron revealed as Technic supercar for 2018 [News]

LEGO has just released a teaser video revealing that the second set in the LEGO Technic Ultimate Series will be the Bugatti Chiron. The model follows in the tracks of 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and will be 1:8 scale with 3,599 parts. The Technic Bugatti Chiron will be released on August 1st.

A teaser image was also revealed simply showing four Bugatti Chiron LEGO wheels and a handful of Technic parts – including a Bugatti branded steering wheel.

The video teases a suitably blurred, semi-constructed LEGO set that should get those supercar Technic fans into an anticipatory frenzy.

Click here to see the Bugatti Chiron teaser video

If these castle walls could talk

Nothing says foreboding fortress like a castle’s huge main gate and portcullis.  Construction of this particular LEGO castle by Benjamin Calvetti began in July 2016 and, after utilising around 10,000 bricks, it is finally completed. Benjamin’s castle is around 20” inches (50cm) wide and seems to be emerging straight from the rock.  The best part of this castle is that despite being freshly built, it has all the hallmarks of an aging building — some moss is growing in places, damage to the stonework and the odd slightly alarming large crack.

Click to see close-up views of the castle

New issue of HispaBrick Magazine available for free download [News]

It’s time for a new edition of HispaBrick Magazine®, a free magazine for fan of all things LEGO. In this edition you can read articles on LEGO® Architecture, MINDSTORMS, a tutorial on taking photographs of your LEGO creations, hints for programming LEGO® Boost and much more.

You can download HispaBrick Magazine® free of charge in English, Spanish and Croatian, so get your copy now. HispaBrick Magazine 029 (English)

If you have missed out on reading previous issues of HispaBrick, all the past issues are available to download.

Click to read the full press release

Synthesize your own LEGO Moog Sub Phatty [Instructions]

We recently highlighted a selection of LEGO audio gear, including a Moog Sub Phatty. Quy’s LEGO version of this synthesizer is a really fantastic creation and proved very popular. Quy Chau has kindly shared breakdown instructions for his build, should you wish to build and play your own LEGO Moog Sub Phatty.

Moog Sub Phatty Click here for breakdown instructions

Leg it to the nearest temple in times of need

LEGO creations often begin with the completed appearance in mind, but sometimes a particular part can stimulate the creative process. In the case of this microscale scene by David Zambito, it was the dark tan leg parts (either from the luggabeast  in 75148  Encounter on Jakku or from Rhino in 76099 Rhino Face-Off by the Mine) that were the starting point for his build.  The desert temple has a futuristic, ‘other world’ feel.  The use of the legs to give shape to the terrain and temple structure is inspired, but I love the entrance made with a minifigure open backpack part.

Point and shoot camera from the days of film

Some of our younger readers will not remember the experience of scrolling the camera film forward after taking a photograph. Indeed,  before the automatic whirring that signalled the end of the film, cameras had little turning levers to manually winding the film back into its protective housing. This LEGO version of an old camera in 1:1 scale was built by Andreas Lenander as a gift for his dad.  While it is not a specific model, I did think it was reminiscent of the old Leica cameras with their black and silver bodies,  and a selection of turning knobs and switches on top.

Old camera

The king of awesome little LEGO camera’s must be Chris McVeigh, who also generously shares instructions for his builds on his own website. If you like the camera we highlighted above, you will definitely enjoy Chris’ LEGO Polaroid camera.

LEGO Ideas second 2017 review results may disappoint [News]

Over the past several months, the LEGO Review Board has been reviewing the 6 projects that reached 10,000 supporters between May and September 2017, the second review qualification period of 2017.

The second 2017  review included six builds : Luke’s Diner from the television series Gilmour Girls, The Wonders of Peru, NASA Saturn-V Launch Umbilical Tower, NASA Space Shuttle, NF-15B Research aircraft and Star Wars I am Your Father scene.

Unfortunately, LEGO Ideas have just announced that none of the 6 projects in review have been selected as the next LEGO Ideas set.

Click here to read more about the next review where at least one set will be announced

Truckin’ can be lonesome in a minifigure scale truck

Building vehicles in minifigure scale is not always an easy task. Minifigures themselves are an odd shape – short and wide. In the LEGO world, adaptations have to be made, especially when it comes to vehicles that need minifigures to side side-by-side. This truck by Calin solves the problem by giving the impression of the correct height but only fitting one minifigure in the front seat. Frank seems content to drive his old tan truck on his own, he prefers it that way.

The Old Truck

Calin says he was inspired in some ways by de-marco’s collection of vehicles. We highlighted a few, and their instructions if you take a peek on our free instructions for custom models area, just select de-marco under the builder tab.

UCS-scale LEGO Cylon Raider from Battlestar Galactica

In the 2003 re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, the Cylon Raider is the main attack fighter used by the Cylons. One of the most striking differences between the original model from the 1998 series and the newer model is the crescent shape with forward leading wings and the large eye slit with a red light going across in the cockpit position. David Duperron has built his second UCS-scale ship from Battlestar Galactica with this hugely impressive Cyclon Raider  based on the newer version and captured in LEGO form.  The model is made of 3253 LEGO pieces, with a total length of 66,5cm (~83 studs) and a width of 45,0cm (~56 studs).

Cylon Raider UCS

Click here to see more views of this amazing model

What do you call an octopus floating on a bed of roses?

The Tournament of Roses Parade is a fun event held annually in Pasadena, California on New Years Day. Bill Vollbrecht  has built a LEGO model representing the typical parade float that can be seen during the parade. This particular float has an underwater theme with a shapely red and yellow octopus taking centre stage with tentacles reaching across the rest of the build. There’s a lot going on down on the sea bed,  with divers finding buried treasure and a couple of mer-folk waving to their adoring crowd and Poseidon sitting on his golden throne. My favourite aspect of this build, other than the octopus itself, is the use of colour – I imagine the real parade floats are just as eye-catching.

Octopus Parade Float

Octopus Parade Float

It’s no wonder that “darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter” in such a colourful, fun-filled environment.