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

Majestic LEGO rover rolls across Mars

Jeremy Williams brings us a stunning LEGO rendition of a Martian rover, inspired by Mark Watney’s vehicle in the film The Martian. The levels of realistic greebly detail on this model is amazing, adding immensely to the sense of realism. Couple that with some excellent photography and you’ve got a cracking piece of work.

The model has a detailed interior and features twin-axle steering, independent suspension, and 2 (count ’em) Power Functions motors.

Click through for more photos of this LEGO mars rover

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Cool cubism

Here’s a wonderful geometric creation from Wami Delthorn. LEGO lends itself perfectly to these sort of repeating-pattern artistic constructions — it’s a shame we don’t see more of them.

If you look at the center of this image for long enough it starts to flip back and forth in a good example of the Necker Cube illusion. I could stare at this thing all day!

LEGO street scene inspired by Edinburgh’s Royal Mile

This street scene by Maarten W was inspired by the architecture of the Old Town in Scotland’s capital city. The Royal Mile runs from Edinburgh Castle on its plug of volcanic rock, down the ridge, to Holyrood Palace. It’s one of the most famous streets in the world and Maarten has brilliantly captured its picturesque architecture.

There are some lovely LEGO techniques on show here. Check out the blend of bricks used on the left-hand and central buildings, creating an excellent sense of texture without looking scruffy. And the details in the arch above the church door are a fantastic little touch.

I’m an Edinburgh native myself, and I used to run a pub right behind the Tron Kirk (the inspiration for Maarten’s church here). As a result, I really appreciate how well this model captures the spirit and character of my home town. Great stuff.

Wonderful Chris Foss-style LEGO spaceship

We’d only just covered one fabulous LEGO spaceship which reminded us of the work of Chris Foss when up pops another. This cool Military Shuttle craft from Gamabomb is clearly inspired by the influential illustrator. It’s got all the signature Foss elements — bold color schemes, chunky striping, chequered patterns, and a wonderful greebly realism in its surface texture. Great stuff.

If IKEA was Danish, and made of LEGO

Norwegian builder birgburg creates fantastic scenes of brick-built domesticity and then takes excellent photos of them. The resulting images remind me of IKEA catalogs. I loved this kitchen viewed from outside, although the title — “Sneaking around in the garden at night” — suggests more sinister goings-on than you might expect.

A scroll through birgburg’s photos will be rewarded with further gems, like this sun-dappled porch scene. I want to be slouched in that seat, soaking up the rays, and sipping an ice-cold Cuervopolitan from that glass…

Burly LEGO mech is all set to ruin your day

Fateheart knocks it out of the park with this chunky and menacing LEGO mech. Often this kind of model can look too shiny and neat, but the mixed use of old and new gray here really adds to the sense of scale and creates a feeling that this bad boy has seen some real action.

LEGO mechs aren’t usually my thing, but I like the beefiness of this one, and its simple stark color scheme. Topping it all off is THAT gun. Lovely stuff.

Flying boats make a forest stop-off

Check out this fantastical scene from Brother Steven. We’ve got medieval-style treehouses, a brawl in a bustling marketplace, and a tethering tree for magical flying boats! Excellent work all round.

This model pulls of a difficult trick — creating a scene with fantasy elements which still manages to feel realistic. It’s well worth clicking through to the original image and zooming in to see all the lovely detail on display in the marketplace around the base of the trees.

Beautiful Taiwanese temple is a masterful model

Big LEGO spaceships tend to capture a lot of online attention, but this is the sort of model which people should spend ages drooling over. This Taiwanese temple from delayice is simply stunning.

The roof grabs the eye with its lovely pointed corner ridges and the smattering of studs for texture. But don’t miss the lovely landscaping around the temple itself — an attractive mix of round tiles for stones and green plates for grass. And then zoom in on the original photo to see how the builder has cleverly mixed shades of brown to create a realistic feeling of aged and worn woodwork. This is a fabulous model.

Block-rocking LEGO Fender Telecaster

Anton Sundström has built a cracking model of an American classic. His Fender Elite American Telecaster Thinline is a great recreation of this guitar — there’s even a convincing version of the signature resonance hole in the body. This rocks my world.

Thunder... Thunder... ThunderCats... HO!

Not content with wowing us with his fantastic LEGO recreations of record company labels, Chris van Vliet has knocked it out of the park with this brick mural celebrating the heroes and villains of ThunderCats.

Here’s a close-up of Lion-O…

But what is a hero without his nemesis? Cue the arrival of Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living…

Stunning LEGO spaceship is a new classic

Michał Kaźmierczak has built a stunning spaceship — the Spectre. Whilst the model is decked out in Classic Space blue and gray, it’s anything but a retro throwback, making use of new parts and modern building techniques to deliver a creation so packed full of detail it’s a delight to zoom in on the photo and look around. Kudos for the opening hatches and the packed interior — excellent stuff.

And if the model itself isn’t cool enough for you, Michał has used his photo-editing skills to fantastic effect on this hero-shot of the Spectre touching down on an asteroid. Cracking photography and editing show off the ship in all its glory. I’m getting a total Chris Foss vibe off this picture, and that’s about the highest praise I can offer on a creation like this. Beautiful.

Absolutely super Piper Super Cub

Check out this fantastic Piper Super Cub by Norweasel. The overall shaping is lovely, and there’s some smart parts usage going on—particularly the use of “useless” rubber spike pieces for the tail of the floats. I’m not 100% convinced by the swords as props, but that’s a small grumble at an otherwise excellent model.

And to top it all, the builder has posted a detailed breakdown of how the model is built so you can have a go yourself.