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

She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts

You drove here in that? You’re braver than I thought. Lino Martins provides a LEGO reimagining of Star Wars as a 70’s buddy movie featuring a likable scoundrel named Stan Solo, his girlfriend Laura, and their big biker friend Chad Bacca. The car is the real star though — a beat-up 1977 Ford Falcon, so heavily patched it’s nicknamed the Aluminium Falcon.

This is a cracking model — it’s inspiration immediately apparent whilst being a decent build of a completely different style of vehicle. There’s an impressive depth of texture crammed into a relatively small footprint, with lots of lovely greebles nestled amongst the bodged repair work. As you’d expect, Lino brings his customary attention to detail to bear on the interior…

And don’t miss the group of miniland-scale reprobates created to go with the vehicle. It’s Stan Solo himself, along with the rest of the gang. I laughed out loud at Lino’s take on Artoo and Threepio…

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Sky-pirate flying fortress floats into view

Take a medieval castle, mash it up with a pirate ship, and then give the whole thing impulse engines, the ability to fly, and advanced weaponry. That’s W.Navarre‘s recipe for a truly original LEGO creation. This could have turned out a hot mess of a build, but there’s enough colour and texture continuity across the model to pull off the ambitious intent. The test of an unusual creative idea is “Does it make sense without having to be explained?” This model accomplishes exactly that — it’s immediately apparent you’re looking at a flying pirate castle ship. What more explanation do you need?

The rear portion is excellent. I love the integration of the engines and missile bay beneath the hull…

Castle’s strength lies in its walls

The Castle theme remains a perennial favourite amongst LEGO building genres. This lovely model by Brick Knight shows why. The diorama has a classic colour scheme, with grey stone walls, a brown and tan wooden structure, and the obligatory red roofing. However, the wonderful details across the walls reveal this as a modern Castle creation rather than something from days of yore. Whilst older techniques like stacked upside-down 1×2 panel pieces contribute to the depth and texture, and decorated shields provide a link to the past, there’s excellent use of the modern “masonry” brick, and a nicely-judged scattering of hinges and 1×1 round plates to offer weathering effects. I particularly like the use of cheese slopes to create the arrow slits, and the lovely work on the stained-glass windows.

The castle sits in a nicely-realised environment, with a stream and enough trees to suggest a larger world worth exploring beyond the diorama’s boundary. The mounted knight is surely setting out on quest to do exactly that…

There are fun details to be found all over the scene. It’s worth zooming in for a closer look. I particularly liked this guard, taking a bath in the stream, his jerkin lying on the bank behind him…

Sky-Pirates ahoy!

Airships are one of the hardest types of aircraft to model accurately in LEGO. As a result, a good steampunk dirigible is a creation to be treasured. This fabulous sky pirates model by Thomas van Urk is a classic — a collection of steampunk staples (chequered envelope, boat-styled gondola, unlikely cannon-based armament) that soars effortlessly, somehow avoiding the risk of being grounded by genre tropes.

Whilst a sepia-tinted image is de rigeur for a steampunk vessel, this baby looks excellent in new-fangled colour. That red and black gas envelope is a stunner — the result of careful shaping using Mixel ball-and-socket joints, according to Thomas. The integration of the boat-hull gondola and domed pilot’s station is really nice too.

Lastly, don’t miss the elaborate rigging which runs all over the model. It’s touches like this which really elevate (!) this creation above its peers…

Piano model is just grand

Who wouldn’t want to sit down at this lovely LEGO piano and pick out a tune? Robert4168/Garmadon has put together a fantastic model — from the spot-on shiny black curves of the shape, through to the instrument’s innards visible beneath the hinged lid. There’s a bunch of nice details which also elevate this creation out of the ordinary — in particular the gold touches on the pedals and the rings used at the feet of both piano and stool. Excellent presentation too — that wooden floor is the perfect setting. It doesn’t distract attention from the main model, but creates a simple surrounding impression of a stage or practice room.

Kaneda’s motorcycle was smaller than you thought

We’ve seen many LEGO versions of Kaneda’s red motorcycle from Akira, but they’re often larger-scale models like the beauty we saw last year. At the other end of the size spectrum, Grantmasters‘ latest creation is a tiny microscale version of the iconic bike. Grant has used the perfect combination of red pieces for this little masterpiece, although purists may quibble that most of them seem to be balanced atop each other rather than attached. Nice work on the figure too. Overall this passes the “microscale test” — ie. is it immediately recognisable? There’s no doubting that. All together now… “Kaaaannnedaaaa!”

Prescribe yourself some meditation

I’m hoping the LEGO Ninjago Movie prompts a swathe of Ninja-flavoured creations. Rollon Smith certainly seems to be getting into the spirit of things with this sweet little vignette of Lloyd meditating before a shrine. The calm pool makes a pleasant change from typical Ninja settings, and the haphazard planks are nicely laid-out. The shrine itself is simply done, but detailed enough to look interesting, and the surrounding greenery offers a strong colour contrast to the blue and grey of the base. Overall, this is a great little scene.

Creepy LEGO figure will haunt your toybox

It’s not often a little LEGO model gives me the full-on creeps, but this Bionicle creation from PaleoBricks is giving me a bad dose of the heebie-jeebies. The ghastly face, the tattered cape, the chains — all come together to create a haunting sense of despair. But it’s the stance that does it for me — the hunched shoulders and the sense of a lurching gait. This is great posing, lending the model genuine character. I can’t help but imagine this thing shuffling through the night towards my house. Shudder.

Smile if you wanna go faster

Sometimes a LEGO model shows up which just makes you smile. Tuts Panga‘s Classic Space speeder might not be the most complex creation we’ve ever seen, but if this doesn’t cheer your soul then there’s surely something wrong with you. The vehicle is delightfully chubby and the retro colour scheme is spot-on. I’m also a fan of the minimalist scenery, it provides a bit of context but doesn’t distract from the main focus — the grinning minifigure who’s clearly having a whale of a time in his new ride.

Don’t shatter the peace of this pool

Inspired by some of the submerged ruins found in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Joseph Z. has made imaginative use of a pane of glass to create an excellent LEGO scene — a wandering traveller taking a moment’s rest by a tranquil pool. The ruined stonework is nicely put-together, with a depth of texture suggesting both weathering and antiquity, but it’s the use of dark grey below the waterline vs the lighter grey above which caught my eye. I also like the way the grass stalks placed under the water-lilies suggest the plants’ continuation beneath the surface — it ties the above and below-water elements together, making this more than simply two different models separated by the glass. Perhaps a fish or two wouldn’t have gone amiss, but that’s nitpicking at an otherwise lovely piece of work.

Exactly three inches high — a very good height indeed

We’ve seen Alice In Wonderland LEGO creations before, but Martin Redfern proves himself a master of quirky character once again with this version of Alice encountering the Caterpillar. Alice herself is fun, and the caterpillar curling over to peer down at her is nicely put-together. However, it’s the little touches which elevate this model out of the ordinary — the funghi-flavoured foliage at Alice’s feet, the shaping of the big mushroom, and that hookah pipe. Don’t miss the white snake used as a curl of smoke — we’ve seen it before, but it’s perfectly placed here.

Out on patrol

The stripped-back colour scheme used in this model could easily have seen it turn out as a big lump of grey bricks — a common problem in LEGO creations depicting modern maritime vessels. However, this offshore patrol ship by Luis Peña has a really pleasing level of detail. The depth of texture around the bridge is excellent, and the microfigures on the forward deck create a sense of the appropriate scale in which to consider the model. The isolated splashes of colour offered by the helicopter and the flags manage to break things up a bit, and the use of Technic bricks for portholes down the hull may be obvious, but it’s also effective.

It’s a cool model, however the white backdrop for the photography is a little stark. Might have been nice to set the scene with a “sea” of loose trans blue 1×1 plates or something?