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

The roof, the roof, the roof is afire...

Following on from Jennifer’s recent post on waterfalls, here are some more creations with brick-built “special effects”. This ramshackle Laketown house by David Hensel features a convincing fireball rolling up from the roof…

It’s difficult to depict fire with bricks without it looking like a pixellated explosion from the 8-bit era of gaming. I think David has pulled it off here, with the outer layer of transparent bricks and the darker colors at the edges simulating an expanding ball of flame.

I recently spotted another brick-built explosion which used very different techniques but created a similar sense of energy and motion. This fantastic tower explosion was part of Marc Gelaberto‘s pirate display at a show in Barcelona…

It’s like a still from an action movie – the fireball blossoming, shattering the tower’s masonry as soldiers are flung into the air. Check out the priceless expression on this unfortunate soldier’s face!

I’ve always shied away from building scenes like these, worried they wouldn’t live up to the image in my head. Seeing these great examples of fiery disaster, I feel some explosive action coming on in my building!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

3 years to create huge LEGO version of Halo’s Infinity

I’ve been playing a LOT of Halo 5 recently – it’s a welcome return to form for the series after the slight let-down of Halo 4. As a result, I’m embarrassed I missed this stunning build until now. Cody Fowler took 3 years to put together this excellent recreation of UNSC Infinity, the spaceship star of the Halo franchise…

Cody has managed to perfectly capture the ship’s lines — no small feat when it’s such a collection of angles. I’m sure he was pleased, but also slightly nervous, when the latest game featured the Infinity so prominently on its loading screen. If you’re building a model from a source with such a rabid fan-base, you’re going to have to get the details right!

Beyond the shaping and the impressive scale (134 studs long), the blue LED lights within the vessel really add to the feel of a working starship. But for me, the little touch that sets this model apart is the attention Cody paid to the base. Often big spaceship builds like this are supported on ugly stacks – a functional afterthought detracting from the appearance of the model as a whole. Here, Cody has gone the extra mile, lavishing the same attention to detail on this element as the main ship itself. Great stuff.

Microscale spacecraft explores white space

The latest creation from Tim Goddard (aka roguebantha) is a beautiful microscale space exploration vehicle. It’s a great model with a real sense of heft – you can just imagine it pushing its bulk out into the cosmos, the crew peering out from the stubby bridge.

The build features a load of Tim’s signature greebles, the fiddly grey machinery details which do so much to suggest the model is much bigger than it is. Alongside those, the azure striping is an obvious treat against the relatively blank canvas of the white hull. The way the stripe continues back around the domes and the little disc at the rear is just clean and classy building. Tim says this model was an exploration in broadening his use of color. It’s a success as far as I’m concerned.

But away from the colors, what I’m enjoying most is the little gaps in the main body, offering glimpses of machinery within. All too often spaceship models can look as if they’re just tombstones of bricks strapped sideways onto a hollow shell. The gaps here suggest there’s actual stuff going on inside that pretty hull – a really nice little touch.

Tiny tanks advance to victory!

I’ve been following the recent builds of Thomas of Tortuga with interest and expressing little yelps of delight whenever a new creation pops up. He’s embroiled in a Flickr-based LEGO wargame called Divide And Conquer which I’m not even going to pretend to understand. However, the creations he’s putting together to represent his fictional nation’s military are fantastic. I particularly liked these armored tractor tank things…

I must admit to a certain ambivalence about rendered LEGO creations – I generally like to see builders put bits of plastic together in the real world. And I’m a firm believer that restrictions on quantity and color drive creativity, pushing builders to develop new techniques. However, these vehicles are absolute class, and I figured I’d let the handful of “impossibly colored” parts slide this time. (Those are pieces which LEGO has never produced in that particular color. But digital parts, of course, can be any color.)

The rest of Thomas’ photostream is stuffed with similarly cool and slightly steampunk military creations – well worth checking out. I’m loving his series of naval vessels (especially this dreadnought), although again some of the “impossible part” use does make me twitchy.

I know some people say rendering isn’t “LEGO building” at all. I’m not sure I’d go that far, and builders like Thomas are making me pay more attention to rendered works. I reckon LEGO creativity shines through, regardless of medium. What do you think?

Starfighter really earns its stripes

Novvember, the annual month of starfighter building, continues apace. And here’s a belter of a build from Flavio. The golden cockpit is a nice touch, and the striping brings a 90s-era gaming glow to my heart – it’s very F-Zero or Wipeout. But it’s the level of detailing, particularly around the engines, which really makes this model for me.

Textured bricks break up the surfaces and add depth and intricacy, and along with the use of minifig accessories, like claws and ice skates, these touches make the model look much bigger than it really is. I’d like to swoosh this around the room making rocket thruster and pew-pew blaster noises.

Flavio’s Flickr photostream is a treasure trove of spaceships and cute little mechs. I might have found a new favourite builder…

Beautiful Blade Runner Spinner

Syd Mead, the designer of Blade Runner, is one of my heroes. Chances are, if you’re into sci-fi and LEGO then you’ll have tried to recreate one of his famous designs – The Sulaco from Aliens, the light-cycles from Tron, or this, the Police Spinner from Blade Runner.

Tyler (aka Legohaulic) has posted a fantastic image of his updated version of this iconic vehicle. The model is pure class, with just the right level of detail and sticker use, and some custom elements working nicely on the Deckard figure. Importantly, the car looks the right scale to sit two minifigs, something other LEGO versions of this often miss.

Aside from the build itself, this was worth blogging for the photography and editing. It’s such a sharp, crisp image I had to double-check it wasn’t a render, and the glow off the lights and the puddle reflection are lovely touches.

This is a welcome return from Tyler who’s been quiet on the building front recently. Good to have him back.

Starship bridge shows all the right controls

Neo-Classic Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of a very nice-looking starship…

This control room scene is the latest creation from Pete Reid, one of my favourite builders. He’s famous for his Exo Suit, but for me, it’s his depictions of everyday life in space which define his style – it’s rarely blasters and aliens, usually just regular space folks at work.

The model has some lovely touches, such as the consoles, the ceiling details, and the use of ingots as chair cushions. But what I really like is the way the stripped-back use of a single color allows lighting to create the mood, and makes the bright shades of the crew uniforms pop against the backdrop. This is a great example of a nice model, elevated to another level through smart composition and a restrained use of color.

Now I want to see the rest of the ship…

Fantasy town is ratty but not too tatty

When Luke Hutchinson burst on the scene, he seemed to single-handedly reinvent how LEGO Castle should look. His creations introduced a level of detail, weathering effects, and off-the-grid angling unlike anyone else’s builds. I was lucky enough to see some of Luke’s stuff “in the brick” at the Great Western Brick Show in the UK a couple of years ago — it’s even better in real life than in pictures.

The style has rapidly become something of a standard for Castle, and for me, it now takes something special to catch my eye. This lovely build by Jacob Nion did exactly that. Jacob brings us a furrier’s yard – the latest in a great model series of Skaventown, a fantasy town with a mixed population of humans and the Skaven, Warhammer gaming’s rat people.

Aside from the obvious fun usage of hair, hats and capes as furs, what I like here is the feel of actual work being underway. All too often Castle scenes look over-posed and artificial, the figures little more than dressing for the buildings. As for Jacob’s buildings, the roofing and woodwork are excellent, and are set atop walls which actually look like weathered stone, rather than an emptying out of the builder’s brick bins.

Too often a desire for texture and detail can end in a messy creation, the eye pulled this way and that by unnecessary clutter. It’s a tricky balance, but I reckon Jacob has nailed it. What do you think?

About Rod

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!

Like this article? Tell all your friends!