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

Stunning 6 foot tall LEGO Scarif tower from Rogue One

The finale of Rogue One involved the heist of the Death Star plans from the vault in the Scarif Citadel Tower. The building is an impressive spire of Imperial tech — recreated here in LEGO bricks by Paul Trach. This huge model is no less than 1.8m tall, and took six months to complete. What could have been some big slabs of dark grey is enlivened by excellent texturing and details, and Paul has lavished as much attention on the base as the towering structure itself — the central circular plaza and its asymmetric bridges are beautifully done.

I like the way Paul has placed plenty of minifigures around the model, creating the impression of a bustling Imperial outpost. Do I spy a lonely Director Krennic all the way up at the top there? I think I do. And this view of a trooper squad shows the nice variety of figures employed, and gives a closer look at the excellent brickwork involved in creating Scarif’s signature tropical beaches…

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A slice of fantasy life

Here’s a great example of how effective composition can turn a LEGO scene into something special. This slice of landscaping from Sergeant Chipmunk is a nice model of two warriors meeting on a smartly-constructed bridge. The surrounding scenery is nicely-done — the layers creating the gradients around the small stream are fantastic, and I like the amount of detail going on with the campsite and animal life. However, what really catches the eye is the way the bridge cuts across the diorama in a dramatic diagonal, and how the framing walls follow the contours making it feel like a slice of terrain cut from a genuine fantasy world. Wonderful stuff.

Burn baby burn, LEGO inferno

Hot on the heels of their last isometric LEGO scene, simply bricking it is at it again. Here’s a hot little number — an erupting volcano spilling lava down the side of a hill, with the deadly streams of boiling rock somehow avoiding all the tiny dwellings. The colour scheme here is wonderful — this feels like a retro 70s-era eruption with all that brown and orange — and the lava flows have a genuine sense of downhill movement. All this volcanic action might be superhot, but this model is supercool.

Tiny Cinderella lives here

Can’t afford the enormous LEGO Disney Castle set? That’s okay, why not use an entirely smaller selection of bricks to create your own tiny version like minimal-brick has done? This is a lovely microscale model, featuring some excellent detailing, particularly around the gatehouse and turret-tops. Check out the use of cog pieces around the model — adding texture to the turrets and as the clock above the entranceway. The relatively large base is nice and the trees and coloured paving break it up nicely. Disney geeks might quibble about the lack of a couple of the taller towers which sprout from the real castle’s rear, but that’s nitpicking at an otherwise great creation.

Little nipper

Watch your toes when you take a paddle on ForlornEmpire‘s brick-built beach — there are crabs about! The little red beastie looks great as he emerges from the water. Mixel-eye tiles mounted on minifigure buckets make effective eye stalks and add a heap of character — something that can be tough to achieve in single-colour models. The surrounding shoreline is perfect — simple and clean, with just enough detail to create a clear context without distracting attention from the crab itself.

What lurks within?

Back in the 80s, it wasn’t a proper thriller or horror movie without someone, or something, hiding in a louvred door closet. Heikki Matilla perfectly captures the peculiarly sinister aspect of this kind of cupboard in this excellent LEGO scene. Heikki is a master of LEGO interior design, but it’s nice to see an interiors scene which evokes something beyond an appreciation of brick-built furniture. What makes these doors so creepy? I think it’s the thought that whoever, or whatever, can see you through the slats, but you can’t see in until you’re foolish enough to open the door…

Out-of-this-world LEGO Space hangar

We’ve featured some of Jon Blackford‘s Neo-Classic LEGO Space creations before, but his latest model — a huge maintenace hangar — takes things to a whole new level. The stellar work on the hangar walls manages to avoid this being a “big grey box” — they’re a triumph of sci-fi flavoured texture, with every corner and surface decorated with delicious greebly bits or cool-looking structural elements. The brick-built floor is excellent too — check out those floor markings…

Click to see more of this amazing LEGO Space scene

Stylish jungle living

Tropical living has never looked more appealing than in Sarah Beyer‘s stylish LEGO creation — Cocoa Jungle Cottage. This house manages to look completely at home amongst the surrounding foliage with a colour scheme of natural tones — simple enough to let the striking striped wall stand out as a signature design feature.

Don’t miss the smart-looking rooftop terrace with its awning made from tan garage-door sections. Looks like I good spot to wile away the hours with a Mai-Tai or two…

Click to see more images of this stylish jungle house, including its full interior

A lineup of rebel scum is assembled

I’ve always loved LEGO microscale building. It’s all about challenging yourself as a builder to find the simplest and smallest expression of something that remains immediately recognisable. Whilst not exactly regular “microscale building”, I set myself the same challenge with these creations, trying to depict iconic characters in a “minimalist domino” style, using as few pieces and colours as possible. I thought the heroes of the Rebellion would make for an appropriate line-up and I’m pleased with how they turned out…

Once I started building in this style I just couldn’t stop — it’s fun, but surprisingly challenging to capture the essence of well-known characters in so few pieces.
Click to see more minimalist characters

Forest hovel is not too shabby

Not every fantasy character lives in a big grey castle or Tudor-styled town. However, those are the typical LEGO models we tend to see in Castle-themed building. Tirrell Brown‘s forest hovel makes a pleasant change of scene. The central building is nicely put-together, with a depth of texture creating a somewhat dilapidated feel. But it’s the overall colour scheme which catches the eye and elevates this composition. The colour gradient on the shaped base is particularly good, and the background trees fit perfectly. Those rocks and the small pond are nice touches of detail too.

Blown away by this LEGO blower

January in the Northern Hemisphere — the fun of Christmas has passed and the weather is miserable. About the only thing that makes it bearable is if there’s decent snow. And what better way to have fun in the snow than with a cool LEGO snowblower? This model by Andreas Lenander is great — a nicely-built snowblowing machine with clever parts-usage. That’s an upside-down red motorcycle piece in there! Complement the central model with a simple-yet-smart base, white ice-cream scoop parts as loose snow, and you’ve got an excellent scene. I would have expected that minifigure to have wrapped-up warmer though. No hood? Careful little guy, you’ll catch a cold.

Hazardous river crossing ahead

The Oregon Trail is a classic videogame, originally released way back in 1974, and designed as an educational tool to teach American kids about the hazards faced by the pioneer settlers of the 1840s. It is notoriously tough to complete, featuring many unpleasant ways for your brave settlers to meet their end. Brickwebster has built a great little LEGO version of the wagon approaching a river — one of the obstacles faced in the game. The brick-built canopy on the wagon is nicely-done, but the river water spilling over the side of the base which caught my eye. It injects a real sense of dynamism and movement into the scene. Here’s hoping these cute minifigure settlers make it across safely. I’m just glad the builder didn’t attempt to depict the infamous “You have died of dysentery” ending…

About Rod

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