About Rod

Rod likes building stuff, particularly steampunk and microscale. He's built for a number of the Dorling Kindersley LEGO books, including LEGO Play and the Awesome Ideas book. When he's not building, he writes, and has published a trilogy of old-fashioned adventure stories. To pay the bills he works in innovation and marketing for one of the world's biggest brewers, inventing new beers and ciders. This is clearly the best job in the world.

Posts by Rod

Modern methods for ancient masonry

Despite LEGO bricks being bricks, sometimes building realistic walls is the hardest thing to do. Isaac Synder‘s latest Castle-themed creation does exactly that, employing a parts-intensive and fiddly technique to create a lovely brick texture with well-defined lines between the stonework. It creates the effect of weathered masonry, and adds real texture and character to the building. I also like the formal square base, and think the angle chosen for the photography coupled with the colour scheme make this look like something from one of the classic isometric realtime strategy games like Age Of Empires or The Settlers. Great stuff.

Even better, the building has an interior — a textile shop complete with rolls of fabric on display…

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Dual cockpits on a jewel of a spaceship

Giant LEGO spaceships are often built in microscale, naturally limiting the level of greebly detailing that can be added. Julien Andries takes the more unusual route of building a huge spaceship at minifigure scale, enabling the model to be packed full of functional-looking touches — from support girders, through grilles, valves, and piping, to laser turrets and access hatches. The twin engine nacelles (at least that’s what I’m assuming they are) look lovely — smooth and shiny in comparison with the more heavily-textured rear section. And the double cockpits are a nice touch, one of the few areas where Julien has departed from the John Wallin Liberto concept art he used as inspiration. Beyond this, the model is remarkably faithful to the original art, although the various gauges and pipes perhaps introduce a little whiff of steampunk — and that works for me.

Julien has also shared a couple of photos of the work-in-progress which give some insight into the formidable building techniques employed in getting those large cylindrical sections to looks so good…

This apothecary will fix what ails you

Fantasy-styled castle creations are a popular subject for LEGO builders, and we love when someone offers a twist in a building genre often dominated for long periods by a particular style. This village apothecary by Mr_Hobbit_Foot has elements of the established “fantasy ramshackle” style (pioneered by Luke Hutchinson amongst others) but adds a cartoony edge. We have the expected rough-and-tumbled brickwork to create detailed walls, and the mixture of tiles and plates for a textured roof, however the shaping of the central building evokes Asterix illustrations or a Celtic feel as much as your regular fantasy setting, and the irregular bases make the whole model pop off the page.

The builder appears to be slowly putting together a full fantasy village in this style. I particularly like the blacksmith’s shop, which comes complete with a pumpkin-headed scarecrow out front…

Our future lies amidst the stars, in a LEGO O’Neill Cylinder

First proposed by the American physicist Gerard O’Neill in the 70s, an O’Neill Cylinder is a large tube, pressurised with an atmosphere, and spinning to create artificial gravity. The hull features alternating strips of “land” and transparent windows, allowing sunlight to be reflected inside from large mirrors. The cylinder has become an iconic design, familiar from a raft of TV, movie, and videogame depictions of mankind’s future. Ralf Langer has built a beautiful LEGO version of an O’Neill-based space colony, using microscale to ensure his space settlement features fields and trees, flowing rivers, and towering cities. The rings supporting the curved land panels have technical-looking greebles, and the entire creation looks much bigger than it really is. This is epic LEGO sci-fi, depicting a future I’d love to see.

Cool spaceship is minty fresh

There’s a special class of LEGO model which always catch the eye — those smaller creations which manage to pack in impressive depth of texture, making them look much bigger than they really are. This smart spaceship by Silmaril_1 looks supercool in its white and green livery, all sleek lines and futuristic curves. But the level of details along the side creates a sense of scale way beyond what you might expect from such a relatively small model. Minifigure hands and textured bricks are used to good effect, and the moulded hollows and ridges on those Technic panels work superbly at this scale as hull detailing. It’s a sharp and clean colour scheme, and the model is presented well — looking crisp and fresh against that black void of a backdrop.

New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about block music

Are you ready to rock? That’s what David Liu is asking with his latest LEGO creation — a selection of excellent brick-built musical instruments. There’s a classic Flying-V electric guitar and amp, a synth, a full drum kit, and an acoustic guitar. Now the band might be lacking a little in the bass department, but this is still an impressive line-up of gear. The guitars show nice shaping for the scale employed, and the keyboard is packed with details — don’t miss those black keys, raised and correctly spaced!

The full line-up of instruments is great, but the highlight for me is that drum kit. Worthy of a closer look, especially the sweet parts use for the tripods and drum kit legs…

Letters from the Front

Many military-themed LEGO creations depict exciting battle scenes or the machinery of war. However, a select few touch on the quieter moments and prompt reflection on a conflict’s human cost. This WW1 scene by Pixel Fox, called Letters to Loved Ones, does exactly that — showing a French and a German soldier, hunkered down in their respective trenches, taking the opportunity to pen a letter home during a moment of calm. The diorama is well done, the trench setting clear from a relatively simple structure, and there are some nice touches in the scenery, with a rat burrowing a hole, and various pieces of equipment scattered around. The French sniper rifle and German machine gun are particularly good. The soldiers themselves are excellent, the helmets and uniforms immediately recognisable as WW1-era. More importantly, they are built to a scale, and in a Mixel-ey style, more commonly employed for comic effect, enhancing the poignant effect of this model.

A taxi worth hailing

We’ve featured Martin Redfern‘s impressive retro-styled vehicles previously, notably this 50s Police Cruiser, and more recently a cool LEGO dispatch bike. This curvy taxi makes an excellent addition to the fleet — a delicious yellow and black colour scheme complete with checkerboard stripe, beautiful chrome trimmings, and all executed in Martin’s trademark chunky aesthetic.

The model features opening doors and trunk, a detailed interior, and an engine lurking beneath the bonnet. As well as including all this, the builder has gone to the trouble of putting together an appropriately atmospheric poster for his taxi service. I don’t care what price he’s charging, I’m a willing passenger on this ride.

The castle is small, but it’s perfectly formed

There are a bunch of classy LEGO microscale building techniques on display in this island castle put together by Henjin_Quilones. The island’s rockwork and sparse greenery are neatly-done, but don’t miss the sandwiched grille tiles creating tiny windows in the rock face, the Technic “weapon barrel” wheels to give texture to the larger round towers, and the clever use of half-plate gaps to create arrow slit style openings. The highlight for me is the use of angled grille bricks to provide the steps up from the little jetty — it’s a microscale technique we’ve seen before, but placing it front and centre adds a touch of detail at a scale which makes the whole creation feel much bigger than it really is.

Chun Li – Queen of Fighters

Chun Li was the first female character to appear in a beat-em-up, bursting onto arcade and console screens in Street Fighter II in 1991. John Cheng has built a cool chibi-styled LEGO version of the character. The outfit and stance make the model immediately recognisable, with all the signature elements present and correct — the white boots, the split skirt, the gold embroidery on the bodice, and the buns in the hair. Put that attention to detail together with a supercute big-headed anime styling and you’ve got a cracking LEGO creation. Spinning helicopter kick for the win — KO!

I happen to know a song about the ancient hero...

Kass, the Rito minstrel from Zelda: Breath of the Wild is captured perfectly in this neat LEGO bust by Markus Rollbühler. The model makes great use of dark turquoise amongst more regular LEGO colours to capture the character’s bright plumage, and it looks like there’s a complex structure underneath it all to deliver the shaping, with bricks and tiles facing in multiple directions. The printed eye tile is a perfect choice, rotated out of it’s usual “frown” position, to evoke Kass’ cheerful disposition. Surely the challenge now is for Markus to build the rest of the character, accordion and all. Come on Markus, don’t let us down!

The vegetable’s revenge

Angry Carrot is out for vengeance. It looks like Bunny is in a whole heap of trouble in this fun creation by Tyler Clites. The carrot is nicely shaped, and immediately recognisable with its burst of green leaves. Ball and socket Mixel joints give the mutant vegetable’s limbs some good poseability, but it’s the facial expressions which steal the show here. The half-strangled rabbit looks more than a little distressed with its protruding tongue and bulging eyes, and the carrot’s features are perfect — the curve of that eyebrow is the perfect addition to the asymmetrical eyes, creating a tonne of character with just a handful of pieces.

About Rod

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