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.

I want candy

What else is there to say? These candy machines by Armothe are perfect.

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.

Welcome to the machine

Box guy meet Fedde (Karf Oolhu), Fedde meet box guy.

Building decay

For those builders of post-apoc, military, or realist city, here’s a technique shown on a creation by Marin Stipkovic that shows a nice effect of building decay. The multi-shades of plates mimics the exposed bricks while the gray simulates broken concrete. Looks useful!

Pop-up LEGO Kinkaku-ji opens to reveal golden pavilion

The Buddhist temple of Kinkaku-ji was originally built in 1397. In 2009, talapz built a Kinkaku-ji in a box. Okay, words fail me here. They really do.

The builder notes in the video that he used 4,500 LEGO pieces to build his pop-up Kinkaku-ji, and it weighs 4 kg. Be sure to watch the whole video — talapz shows how this amazing creation pops up out of the box.

And don’t miss Jumpei Mitsui’s Kinkaku-ji from 2007.

LEGO Star Wars Slave Leia as a CubeDude – CubeBabe? CubeGirl? She’s CubeLicious!

Beyond the originals by Angus MacLane, my favorite CubeDude so far is this lovely Princess Leia as Jabba’s slave girl by Larry Lars.

I love the fact that Larry’s Leia is less, uh, cubical than most other CubeDudes. Beyond juvenile references to CubeDude anatomy, Larry has incorporated some really interesting techniques, including LEGO coins as earrings. Larry explains:

The coins are squeezed in between the head and the 1×1 round plates connected to the underside of headlight bricks. Since there is an edge on the coins they stay there.

Dalí + Halsman + Balakov

Mike Stimpson (Balakov) takes us into the strange world of Salvador Dalí with his latest photo, a reenactment of Philippe Halsman’s Dalí Atomicus.

As always, the setup shot is nearly as amazing. Mike writes:

This was rather difficult, and wet. It took two and a half hours to set up, and 15 seconds before the set was destroyed by the chaos that ensues when you turn a hosepipe on a carefully balanced Lego scene.

That is so unbelievably cool.

Can I have instructions?

For once the answer is yes.

Ronald Vallenduuk (Duq) has recently added a couple of sets of instructions to Flickr and kindly showed me how to get LPub working again. I actually reverse engineered the seat gondola many years back after seeing a picture of it and coveting it so it’s great to see Ronald making it available to all and sundry.

I used to make more instructions but had to stop for a while due to a problem I had with LPub. With Ronald’s fix I’m back and running so did some instructions for my latest.

CubeDudes Invade!

Angus Maclane has been building like crazy lately. The craziness has manifested itself as CubeDudes, which appear to be famous characters with cubes for heads. They are adorable! He just posted oodles of these awesome little dudes. Click on the pictures to go to a gallery of related figures.

Which is your favorite?

Sky Victorian by Orlando

L. G. Orlando has built a rather ornate little Victorian house. I’m loving the details on this.

The crazy wild west

SlyOwl‘s latest scene uses slanted bricks and slopes to create a realistic texture on the cliff. It’s hard to tell at a glance which bricks are true slopes versus slanted bricks and vice versa, which makes this creation even more interesting.

The technique by itself is enough to warrant a mention on the blog, but the builder has included an action packed interior full of comical hilarity.

Perched on top of a spiny rock

I just want to point out the brilliant bird’s nest technique in this landscape vignette by JD Luse. Here’s the piece that was used.

“This won’t hurt a bit...”

This droid repair ship by Ernesto Carrillo is packed with detail, but the lighting is what really stands out. While the overhead light bars have been photo-shopped, that welding “spark” is an actual light. Nicely done, Ernesto, nicely done!

Pointed out to me by Joe.