Category Archives: Building Techniques

Not sure what SNOT is? Want to learn innovative new ways to create awesome LEGO models of your own? Peruse our posts about LEGO building techniques to pick up tricks & tips from the best.

This spectactular Snoopy is a matter of perspective [Building Techniques]

Good grief, that’s some Nice Parts Usage! In this tiny build, Ian Summers captures the silhouette of beloved Peanuts pooch Snoopy in just 8 elements through the perfect mix of parts and clever use of perspective. Two of those parts are hats – a white baseball cap for the belly and a black cap for an ear – and for Snoopy’s muzzle and nose, I spy a Mixels eye. Pal Woodstock is unmistakable from just two tiny yellow elements. By framing the pieces from just the right angle, Ian gets the most from every piece in matching the shapes of the comic strip inspirations.

Ian’s builds are, as his handle suggests, bricktacular. A member of LEGO Ideas’ 10K club, Ian’s Jumanji board is currently under review to become an official set and probably won’t unleash rhinos in your living room.

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Taking LEGO lights to the next level

With all the talented LEGO builders out there, cool techniques are constantly showing up in our feeds. However, it’s not every day that I’m so intrigued that I bookmark the page. Thanks to Joost van Velzen (MejoliDesign), I have a new trick I have to try! This ship is nice by itself, complete with moving landing gear and ramp, but the real head-turner is the use of 2×3 light bricks and a little bit of centrifugal force. Read on to see how!

Click to see how this awesome technique is achieved!

Celebrate Fabuland with your own Maid of Fabuland microscale steamboat [Instructions]

Are you a Fabuland fan but won’t be able to make the trip to Billund for the official LEGO tribute set? Or perhaps you love steamboats but are scared by the price tag on the upcoming Ideas set? Or maybe you just love cute things and walruses! In any case, Fabuland’s biggest “Fabufan,” and all around nice human Stewart Lamb Cromer has you covered with free instructions for a microscale version of the Maid of Fabuland paddle steamer that he built for display at LEGO House.

Here’s Stewart posing with the full-size version at LEGO House. Stewart talks about the build journey and his challenges with losing sight in one eye in a moving account on his blog.

Building trees with minifig antlers, Pt. 1: Microscale [Feature]

Ever since LEGO released Reindeer Fan with a new head accessory, I’ve been wondering when we’d see element 6440443 antlers used as foliage in a LEGO set considering how closely it resembles oak leaves. The Fountain Garden set released in January contains a single use of the leaf, but in white. Inspired by this lush tree from Ryan McBride, and not seeing many uses of the part in MOCs, I decided to do some experiments myself. But first I needed to source more leaves. Fortunatey I had just the Forestmen for the job…

Read on to learn how to make microscale trees with antlers

Fabulous Final Fantasy Carriage and build your own chocobo [Instructions]

If there’s one thing you can count on with a Final Fantasy game, even more than chocobos, moogles, or a mechanic named Cid, it’s the inevitable remake. In that spirit, Kevin Wanner, the Brick Ninja, revisits an earlier build with an all-new LEGO recreation of a beloved Final Fantasy VII scene. It’s impressive to see how the builder has grown in the intervening years. The chocobo looks fluffier than ever with a rounder aesthetic, and the terrain goes from afterthought to an immersive scene with integrated lighting. The main attraction is the carriage itself, which Kevin redesisgned from the ground up. Expanded to 8 studs wide, the carriage is now proportional and screen accurate and features an interior space for Tifa to make her under-cover trip to Don Corneo’s.

But about that chocobo, if you’re interested in building your own, click on the poster below for Kevin’s free instructions.

Celebrate some NPU with a LEGO creation you can almost hear [Building Techniques]

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are the most satisfying. Take this brilliant use of a white LEGO plant stem to denote champagne spray, for example. All in all, it’s a simple build and a simple composition but Erin Dempsey piece is so effective, you can pretty much hear the champagne cork pop. Sparkles behind the creation adds an unmistakable festive atmosphere. Sometimes, like in the case of this Nice Parts Usage (NPU), you got to find a reason to celebrate in your own way. Cheers!

LEGO doodling – following unusual parts wherever they lead [Building Techniques]

Some LEGO builds are born from a clear vision of the final model. Others are more like doodles where you improvise as you go, finding joy in the parts you use along the way. Pan Noda provides little context for this latest bizarro creation, “Trioffic Lights,” but I’m guessing it falls in the doodle camp, an extension of the builder’s rescent fascination with DUPLO tubes. Aside from the star elements, DUPLO balls with faces, Pan Noda pulls in a mix of pleasing parts and techniques, like tank treads to wrap the faces, inverted rubber tires for the joints, corner window visors, Aquazone octagonal legs, and Belville perfume bottle fingers. Despite such an ecclectic set of elements, the build keeps coherent by sticking to the three primary colors. The results walk a fine line between nightmare and whimsy, a liminal space Pan Noda is qutie familiar with.

What’s the strangest place your LEGO doodling has taken you?

[Building Techniques] How to vilify a scientist through texture

When working in LEGO, texture is everything! Case in point, check out this evil scientist by Mattia Careddu. Through the clever placement of cherries covering their head, Dr. Voltainsminz comes off as a slimy, alien-like villain bent on world domination!

LEGO enters its oak tree era with 6440443 antlers in green [Building Techniques]

Today marks the roll-out of a little part that promises to have a bit impact on the future of LEGO trees – 6440443 antlers in green. The part first debuted in 2022 as an accessory to the Reindeer costume, but surely the designers at the time recognized the resemblance to a pair of oak leaves? So far the piece has only appeared in green in 2 sets, making the part fairly hard to come by. This is about to change as the part trickles out into Pick a Brick offerings from LEGO (currently available in Europe), making it easy to stock up. Builder Ryan McBryde has managed to amass quite a collection of the part already and demonstrates how effective these leaves can be when used as the primary foliage on a large tree.

It’s not an easy part to work with as the primary connection point is the small peg used for hair accessories, but Ryan found a few effective ways to integrate with branches. The workhorse partner in Ryan’s tree is the 1×1 round plate with shaft which conveniently has a hold in the shaft to match the antlers’ small peg. It looks like Ryan also relies on the tight squeeze between the inner prongs to chain together another pair of antlers.

Maybe it’s because I was such a fan of the Forestmen faction in my early building days, but I’ve always adored brick-built LEGO trees. Options for foliage elements have steadily increased over the years, even ignoring the unconventional parts used as plants in the Botanicals line. This part has me very excited for the creative solutions the community will find for working them into the next wave of trees. The era of oak trees has arrived!

How to make a cozy breakfast nook in LEGO [Building Techniques]

Modern LEGO houses are a great opportunity to decorate with furniture made with unexpected parts to get that sleek and simple style. Sarah Beyer is a connoisseur of creating delightful modern furniture and decor, like this cozy sitting area with a white vase made from a Technic pin, the stools topped with round inverted tiles, and the lamp made by facing two gear elements together with an offset.

Capes and surf boards make a stunning arrangement [Building Techniques]

With Valentine’s Day coming up, have you considered building a LEGO floral arrangement for your sweetie? The official Botanicals collection makes it easy. However, Khang Huynh takes it a step further with some stunning build techniques. At quick glance, this may appear to be “just” a well-appointed, well-photographed floral arrangement; so realistic you can hardly tell it’s LEGO. But upon close inspection, the flowers are comprised of red capes while repetitive use of green surfboards make up the leaves. Put it all together in a classy vase (including what seems to be a light brick, no less) and you have something quite lovely indeed.

The vulture will clean up after you’re gone [Building Techniques]

You can tell someone has fired up the Iron Forge because of so many clever uses for their seed part. This time, we’ve got LEGO flower stems and filbrick pulls it off with style. The large cactus (or succulent) is adorned in your usual green flower stems to create its spines while its smaller prickly friend sports the same part in olive green. There’s even one flower stem in lavender. Finally, a few brown stems creates the unmistakable ruffle around the vulture’s neck. The eye looks as if you can screw that in with a flathead screwdriver but it is a clever use of the wheel bearing part. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a fan of the pouring un-bricked parts as demonstrated here with the desert ground.