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.

Machinations in the Boardroom

To get the necessary overview of what’s happening in the LEGO world, we here at TBB often have to rely on various sequences of small pictures — it’s just not possible to review hundreds of LEGO photos a day in deep, individual detail. Sometimes, amazing LEGO models get overlooked as a result. So we’re eternally grateful to readers like Chris Edwards to make sure we don’t just blog LEGO models that “looked good from the thumbnail.”

This fantastic photo by Nathanial Brill (Shuppiluliumas) is a perfect example of what we might have missed if we were only looking at a tiny version of the picture.

Low light emanates from the walls and ceiling, illuminating the scheming executives. Outside the window, Nathaniel uses microscale buildings to provide a clue to the scale of the city in which these captains of industry plot their hostile takeovers.

It’s definitely worth taking a look at the large version on black. And don’t miss the setup shots.

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New brick separator adds Technic axle pusher, tile-removing wedge

Paul Lee just got back from a trip to Billund, where he picked up a brick separator with some new features.

Paul says:

The brand new debricking tool. It’s smaller. Streamlined down to about the footprint of a 2 x 10 plate. There are many notable new features. There is a technic axle pusher for removing those stubbornly embedded axles. There are of course the standard top and bottom brick removing configurations. Also new is the pointed wedge at the back end of the lever, very useful for popping tiles and splitting plates that the other end can’t. It basically doubles as an ABS thumbnail. It’ll do whatever you would do with your thumbnail without ruining your manicure. Lastly, another nice added feature is the jumper plate offset in the underside, allowing the removal of jumper plates that the previous version of the tool could not handle.

Lab Tracks

Brian Williams (BMW_Indy) is definitely not a LEGO purist and likes to do things his own way. With results like this I can see why. Whenever I see something new by Brian I always find myself questioning my own rules.

I’ve never seen The Wild Wild West TV show that inspired this creation, but I have to admit I’m tempted now. The idea of a lab on track is pretty cool.

This was an entry for the Spaghetti Western contest on Eurobricks and you can vote for your favourite train here.

Sparrows

These sparrows by Schfio are extremely well built. At first glance they look real. It blows me away when a builder can capture such a great look in something so small.

Many thanks to Bruce for the heads up!

Hurricane Irene

Built as an entry in the “Wind” theme for the MOCOlympics, this scene by Blake Baer is very sobering. What really struck me was the realism of the scene and power inherent in nature. The waves, the power pole through the house and the foliage on the trees really give this a sense of the power of the hurricane.

Not the castles you’re used to

Not only was it really difficult to choose a `lead’ shot for this amazing collection of castles, it’s quite hard to quite describe the bizzarre form of creative genius RoxYourBlox has used for them. They’re casles, but not as you’ve ever seen them. Making tidy work of both LDD and excel for the trigonometry he (I assume) has created some of the oddest geometric castle-like structures I’ve ever seen. And you should see the one that didn’t make it to the brick.

LEGO Catwoman Line Art

This is simply incredible. I passed it over several times because I thought it was a drawing. People are always saying that some build or other doesn’t look like LEGO. Well, this one really doesn’t. This build is nothing short of outstanding. Mark Anderson built it. Obviously, he is awesome.

Lego Trump International Hotel and Tower

Sean Kenney recently built a 10 feet tall model of the Trump International Hotel and Tower with 65,000 Lego pieces. Different from other skyscraper sculptures I’ve seen, this one simulates the effect of the reflective glass on the actual building. This was achieved by building a pattern of the reflected skyline inside the transparent “glass” bricks. The illusion is simply stunning.

See more details and the techniques used on MOCpages. The model is on permanent display in the Chicago Lego store.

A little bit of every LEGO

“This build features a bit of everything: modulex, duplo , fabuland and regular system bricks”… that really says enough about Pierre E Fieschi’s Sobani Battleship. Well almost enough, it’s also beautiful.

Another Masterpiece from the Mosaic Mama

Katie Walker is the undisputed ruler of the cheese slope. Give her a random pile of them and the odd handful of 1×1 plates, tiles or bricks and awesome things start to happen. You have to check out her latest. I keep thinking that she is going to run out of new techniques or ideas but it ain’t happening.

Goons, hired goons

Rong Yiren is no stranger to great character design but these goons manage to have personality with absolutely no motion and minimal detail. They are reminiscent of 8bit characters of old.

Seeking whom it may devour

This is ‘Skull’s Deamon’ and it has a rather freaky look to it, if you ask me, which you didn’t. David has achieved that unique look by building this monstrosity out of virtually nothing but Star Wars battle droid pieces. I think I’m going to have nightmares tonight.