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.

Exclusive interview with Jason Allemann, creator of LEGO Ideas 21305 Maze [News]

LEGO’s newest Ideas set, 21305 Maze, is available starting today. Jason Allemann, the Maze’s creator, has long been known known for helping out fellow fans by providing instructions to many of his models, and this time around, Jason has put together a special Maze website which hosts instructions several alternate maze layouts, and inspiration for even more. Jason has even created a motorized miniature golf-inspired maze (video below).

We got our hands on the Maze last month and had fun reviewing it, but we wanted to know what its creator had to say. Jason was kind enough to speak with us about the Maze, his design process, and how to create a successful LEGO Ideas project.

Click to read the full interview with Jason

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The Brothers Brick’s finest: Contributor Showcase

We here at The Brothers Brick pride ourselves on not only running a world-class LEGO blog highlighting the best models and news from the LEGO fan community, but also being pretty accomplished builders ourselves. At a recent team strategy event, we asked our staff of expert builders to bring their best models, so that we could highlight our unique talents.

Click to see our Contributor Showcase

27 amazing LEGO vignettes bring Harry Potter to life

The amazing world of Harry Potter is only made more fantastic when portrayed through tiny LEGO vignettes. When we first spotted Marcel V.‘s series of astounding little Harry Potter scenes, he’d only created 5. He’s created them as a personal project to challenge himself throughout the month of March, producing almost one every day, and he’s now reached 27. Marcel tells us he worked 3-4 hours daily to create the scenes, and relied on inspiration from the books, movies, and even some Harry Potter games.

Come with me on a magical journey through the life of The Boy Who Lived.

Click to look through Harry Potter’s life in LEGO

Things are looking Up for Carl Fredricksen

Carl Fredricksen charmed his way into our hearts as the lovable yet grumpy old man in Pixar’s Up. Kosbrick masterfully captures his character in this rendition, and uses some terrific forced perspective to set the South American plateau scene.

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured a LEGO model of Carl or his house. Check out these other Up-inspired creations:

Minifig-scale Up House
Microscale Up House
Carl Fredricksen Cube Dude

Let fury rule over you

Marco has always been an interesting mecha builder, and his builds are not your typical gundam style. He usually experiments with new shapes, sizes and unique building techniques, and even this build — Fury II Gen — is not his most experimental mech. I think it is the perfect mixture of traditional and inventive.

The shapes are incredible, the building techniques are spot on, the part usage is great, and the weapon is awesome. But I think that what sells me with this build is the pose. You can see it is combat ready and waiting for a target.

LEGO Vianen City Hall is steeped in history

The City Hall of Vianen sits within the small historical city of Vianen in the province Utrecht in the Netherlands. Sebastian Arts has managed to capture so many details of this beautiful old building that we simply had to share it. The ancient stonework is very well done and the whole design is accurate to the actual building in Vianen, right down to the position of the bench.

The turret at the rear of the hall is equally impressive, the builder’s use of different bricks and earthy tones has really brought the old stonework to life in LEGO. The windows are cleverly crafted from fences rotated 90°. The rear view also show a nice contrast between the old and new buildings side by side.

Dragonfly future-cycle

Don’t let the wings fool you, this isn’t a flying mech. It’s a three-wheeled cycle from the mind of Vince Toulouse. It’s not often I see a vehicle that looks truly unique, but this one definitely fits the bill, making great use of those Hailfire Droid wheels and Ant-man insect wings while somehow achieving a great retro-futuristic panache. Look closely and you’ll spot a rare Belleville crown as a decorative detail, and even notice that this isn’t minifig scale; instead it seats a Technic figure.

When one world is not enough, you just need an escape route

Sometimes life can become routine and monotonous, giving no rest or calm. But Angelo_S. reminds us that when everything around is dull and cold and gray, there’s always an escape.

This work is a beautiful metaphor combining two opposed worlds in one shot. A skillfully executed microscale vignette seen through the gateway looks twice as alluring due to the forced perspective effect.

Get abs like bricks

Looks like someone is still trying to fulfil their new year’s resolution. Kosbrick has created a perfect brick-built gym scene for his current Iron Builder contest, and the use of the paint roller handle is genius.

On his blog, Kos explains the build was a reminder of official modular builds, and I’ve got to say it does. It also reminds me that I do have to hit the gym really soon!

Builder spotlight: Aaron Newman and his alternate LEGO Castle universe

Set 64044 Ardun Observatory is part of the new wave called Mythic Machines in the Dragon Lands theme, and features a semi-circle three-tiered castle with astronomical equipment in the tower. Arrayed around it are the forces of evil, orc-like creatures with a battering ram, small catapult, and a fearsome red dragon. Play features include hidden passageways, spring-loaded catapults, a working drawbridge and portcullis, and breakaway walls.

Not familiar with LEGO set 64044? That’s because you can’t buy this set from the LEGO company, or anywhere else — it comes from the mind of Aaron Newman.

64044 Ardun Observatory by Aaron Newman

Aaron Newman doesn’t simply look at his LEGO collection and wonder what he can create; instead he looks at his bricks and asks, “What if LEGO sold different sets?” A 21-year-old UCLA theater student, Aaron’s got a knack for designing LEGO creations to fill his own alternate universe where LEGO produces the sets he’d like to see. And he’s got a fantastic sense of style. Aaron’s models center around a castle theme called Dragon Lands, which is a hybrid of LEGO’s official Vikings and Fantasy-Era Castle lines. He creates sub-themes to mimic LEGO’s habit of releasing sets in waves, and includes a set designed for each price point. His latest sub-theme, titled Dragon Lands: Mythic Machines, features crude orc siege machinery pitted against dwarven and elven strongholds. And, of course, there are lots of dragons, because no Castle theme is complete without them.

I recently had the opportunity speak with Aaron about his unique style and learn a bit about how he designs fan creations that look like sets.

Click to read the full interview

Who says you can’t teach an old build new tricks

Notice anything familiar about Simon Schweyer‘s most recent build? You should because this lush landscape was featured on our blog last month. At that time, however, this two-toned rocky shoreline was home to a thriving Greek Polis. Simon ingeniously (and quite literally) razed his Greek city to the ground and started building anew on the existing bedrock. His resulting medieval scene is so different from the original build that I didn’t recognized the recycled landscape at first. Both builds are jaw dropping, but I prefer the Red Shield Inn. Simon truly hit his stride the second time around.

Apparently, experienced builders are known to repurpose parts of their builds from time to time. And why not? Recycling saves time and tests the limits of your creativity. It forces you to step back and really think about your build. Then transform it into something completely different. I’ve never recycled a build of my own, but I’m eager to give it a try now that I’ve seen Simon’s success with the technique. One note of caution for those of you who also plan to give this a try: Be cautious when repurposing an old build into an entry for a contest. Many LEGO competitions have rules specifically prohibiting this kind of thing. Be sure to check first.

I’m curious to know what other transformation have taken place. Have you repurposed part of a build before? And if so, were you able to recycle anything other than the landscape?

F-4 Phantoms and the fine art of building camouflage

For almost ten years I have had a model of an F-4 Phantom in my LEGO aircraft collection. I have kept making changes to it, as I learned new tricks and picked up new parts. However, certainly compared to newer and larger models by Carl Greatrix and James Cherry, my old US Marine Corps F-4N looked a bit dull. Mind you, I am not about to start building studless or creating more of the colour scheme with stickers any time soon, but I did feel like jazzing it up some. My choice: turn it into an Israeli F-4E Kurnass 2000.

What makes this interesting in my book is the brick-built camouflage and most of the work in the rebuild was spent on this. The LEGO colours that best match the original colours weren’t particularly easy to work with: tan, dark tan and sand green, but the overall look was worth the trouble.

Fellow Phantom enthusiast Justin Davies (rx79gez8gundam) recently posted an update of his Phantom design, built in LDD.

Click through to read more about designing camouflage in LEGO