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.

All-mighty Atalanta

Employing some delightful designs within the overall model, Builder Alexandre Bigeard has crafted a sleek spacecraft full of detail. Fans of ships such as this know well the similarities and slight differences that pop up as designer after designer tries their hand in this style. Panels made of stacked brick and laden with details attach at varying angles to a greebly central frame. Technically intricate pieces line every visible surface to really sell the spacey them. Industrial colors of gray, black, and tan are augmented with lines of red and yellow, lining this up to be quite the lurker within the dark void of space.

More details and an exploded view on this build below

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One mech, two mech, tan mech, blue mech

It’s not everyday that you can trace the evolution of a LEGO design by a builder through their photos. But Bartosz Sasiński has the development of his four M-Series mechs well-documented. Their first addition, the M-1, was posted over a year ago. And it features chunky armor and stable click-joints. As a result, the build looks sturdy, with some interesting textures running up the torso and around the cockpit’s exterior. But more than anything, that striking color scheme of greens, white, and dark gray make this chunky boi pop.

See the evolution through version 4 below

Restocking Fort Stockton

Part of a larger LEGO concept by the builder, this model of the docks at Fort Stockton, Wullham features some lovely architecture, delightful parts usage, and realistic rock formations. Flickr Builder Evancelt enjoys historical era models full of red jackets and muskets set against natural scenery with old buildings. Here they used some simplistic parts as crenellations and molding along the top of the fort, while cleverly employing letters with a red seal as diamond-leaded windows. Well-molded sea grasses and foliage compliment the sharp change to rock as we move down to the dock. Basalt formations are a delightful bit of geology that we don’t see enough of in LEGO builds or real life. Using dark grey at the base to illustrate the spray and waves of the sea on the rocks is a great decision that adds to the realism of the build.

Of course, the multilayered dock is also wonderfully detailed. Multiple shades of brown make up the boards, while reddish brown and dark brown in the supports mirror the water effect used on the rocks. The lamp piece is a good period setting element that matches well with the flat-topped chest. I love seeing historical models that aren’t focused on war. Sure, these are soldiers at a Fort but still, this is more about daily life than about a battle and I’m all about that. Not to mention how soothingly executed that blue sea is on the eyes. Well done, Evancelt, well done.

Then why is it a HAMburger?!

This cyborg version of an old Fabuland figure is pretty torn up about your food choices. Flickr Builder Moko has been making mechs for a long time and, after creating some cyborg versions of LEGO animals, they’ve moved on to some LEGO legends. For the unfamiliar, Fabuland sets were introduced at the end of the 70s and went out of production at the end of the 80s. As Moko puts it in his blog, Fabuland offered a more “picture-book-like world view” with anthropomorphized animal citizens. Think of them as the middle sibling between Duplo and LEGO with a twist of Richard Scarry’s Busytown. Though these figures and sets aren’t produced by LEGO anymore, they still have a core fan group among some collectors due to their rarity and obscurity. Here Moko has created a mercenary cyborg soldier with an edgy appetite. The plethora of detailed, hinged elements that Moko uses combine in the arms, legs and bodies provide a thick, responsive frame to protect the rider within. Fully armed and prepared for combat, this mech only has one week spot but its a necessary one. After all, how else are you supposed to keep eating during battle? Can’t have crumbs in the cockpit either.

Aside from all of the amazing details and angles that Moko has created, the solid yellow crystal piece with a red brick as French fries is a stand out detail here. The color-blocking and range of motion that Moko employs always renders a satisfying product that reads well and strikes envy in LEGO mech fans everywhere. Either that or fear, given its intense arsenal and bulk.

The LEGO boar of Erymanthos

Don’t let the weapons sticking out of the creature’s side, Hercules really is trying to take him in alive. This June seems ripe with Kaiju-inspired creations and Builder MySnailEatsPizza has added their own to the mix. Based on the fourth of Hercules’ twelve labors, this massive boar terrorizes the villages and forests surrounding Mount Erymanthos. A brick-built snout and face blends in with Technic and Bionicle pieces in the body. A smattering of bones of those that have fallen before it compliment its numerous, massive tusks.

Pig out on some more pictures below!

Spooky castles at a distance

This latest model by builder LEGO Monkey certainly provides some challenges moving level to level. Adorable, spindly castles are perched on floating islands connected by cascading waterfalls. The whole thing reminds me of a level from Kingdom Hearts 2 that I remember playing through back in 2006. Where’s Sora, Donald, and Goofy when you need them? While they’re out protecting the universe with Mickey, I hope you have Glide Lvl 3 unlocked for this tour of the castles’ grounds. Horns and minifigure accessories adorn a variety of light bluish grey elements to make delightful towers and halls which come to a cute, curved point. Angled and sloped pieces are used in dark bluish grey to create each of the floating islands, while different shades of green elements make up the lawns and foliage. Vines stretch between each block and blue flame elements are wedged together to make microscale waterfalls reaching down to the trans-blue and clear tiles of the sea below.

Honestly, I’m not sure how each of these islands is staying up but I love the results in this edited photo. Whatever spooky actions LEGO Monkey used to keep them in the air, I hope they can keep the magic going.

Phoning in a solar sailor

One of my all-time favorite games doesn’t have a name but its variations are known by many. The “telephone” game, in its many forms, gravitates around the idea of altering a phrase, image, or item slightly as it’s passed around to each participant. While most of us played it as kids, some adult fans of LEGO like to play a version of their own that is often out of this world. Builder Eli Willsea created the STG-2 Sailer as the 4th iteration in the latest telephone series. The small, rockhopper-style craft somewhat reminds me of the starter ship in No Man’s Sky (NMS) with its compact body and raised back portion. More NMS parallels arise with the solar sail sections with boosters firing off behind them. The sails creatively use the balloon sections from Friends sets and Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship along with some golden rigging for deployment and retraction. The coloration and parts usage give this ship lots of curves and angles that really catch the eye, an essential part of good spaceship building. Greeble, or detail, all you want but if your ship doesn’t visually swoop it’ll probably end up resembling a flying, mechanical potato. Thankfully, Eli knows how to avoid the spud fate and instead made a fantastic little puddle jumper that the next builder will have fun emulating.

Street corner coffee shop

There’s nothing better than a relaxing stroll through the alleys and streets of a quaint LEGO village, this one constructed by Y. Muto. Multiple levels of terraces attach to the different buildings perched above the tight courtyard below. Delightful roofing techniques in different colors give the different rooftops their own individual character. Each building’s window treatments seem to provide a place for window gardens or ivy. I especially love the different color tiles contrasting the white walls of the green-roofed building with the bay windows.

Check out what else is brewing in this build!

Microscale Waterfall Temple

Microscale LEGO builds can either be the most beautiful or the wonkiest creations out there. Builder Gilles de Crombrugghe pulled all the stops when it came to creating this gorgeous jungle temple scene, from nice piece usage to clever techniques. The choices he made helped create an engrossing, detailed, and realistic scene that feels like an Indiana Jones version of Polly Pocket. Opposing orientations for bricks help create the smooth blue outline of the pool of water. Headlight bricks in the base help attach the waterfalls which cascade serenely to clouds of mist made of ice cream and popcorn pieces. Brown Technic chainlinks make for a wonderful rope bridge with plenty of rickety slack. Steep, stony islands of meticulously sculpted slopes and modified tiles rise from the water, isolating the long-forgotten sacred grounds. At least, until the research team found their way there.

Continue reading →

Rusty rat rod ready to rumble

Are six-stud-wide LEGO cars considered historical vehicles yet? Builder Isaac Wilder. may find it hard to step away from this style but his execution definitely sets him apart from older Speed Champion sets. What the builder gives up in space for minifigures, he makes up in shaping and scale. Fantastic building techniques balanced through nice parts usage gives us a greebly, exposed engine suitable for such a reinvention of a hot rod. Its worn-down, rusty body is an aesthetic choice classifying it as a “rat rod” which is meant to show off the builder’s personality through the worn-down, rusty parts. The nicely executed transition to five-studs wide near the engine also helps give the hoses (used as the exhaust) a nice angle away from the body.

The main thing I’m unsure of is the tires. There aren’t many examples of actual white-walled LEGO tires so most builders usually make their own by wedging parts together or pairing white wheels with black tires. Though it’s possible 1saac made his own, or that I couldn’t find these exact parts while writing, it is also possible these are from a diecast model that just happened to have tires that fit around the silver discs. Even if it isn’t a “purest” model, this is still quite a satisfying example of proper six-stud LEGO cars.

Agra Sunstriker, Beat Wizard

Back at it again with another fantastic figure, Builder Eero Okkonen makes use of some interesting parts from Monkie Kid’s new Galactic Explorer. After watching the Moon Knight finale, this seems like an ancient Egyptian hero in the modern era. Just imagine him strutting up to a bad guy, dropping that boom box, hitting play, and kicking butt in step with the power of the gods.

Drop the beat

Frigid bridges and cold, old stone

Winter may have passed, but its scenes still provide a tranquil allure. This small model by Eli Willsea is a delightfully cartoonish landscape of such a pleasant, icy kingdom. Aqua slopes and curves are built studs not on top, aside from the few exposed to secure the tiny trees and little huts. Using unicorn horns in sand green for different sizes or types of trees is a great method at this scale, but my favorite are the bridges. The mold for wands includes two of the pieces attached to a non-System piece for structural stability. Eli was smart here, wedging unattached wands into the gaps in the wand molds to create small wooden bridges connecting the islands. It might not be “legal” but it certainly suits the scene. Of course, the most complex element is the focal point, the Cold Castle itself. While the nearby huts sport maroon roofs, the castle is capped by dark azure. The stone spires of the structure seem to make use of inverted building techniques to secure the lightsaber hilts. Those create pressure to hold the forks of the bucket handle wedged above the inverted, rounded gold tile used as the castle gate.

This miniature scene is yet another example of the subtle skills that builders like Eli Willsea make use of for their models. It’s one thing to know how to operate within the System but another entirely to know how to break the rules. It starts as a simple suggestion, an experiment in limits, and becomes a signature that builders can rely on to set them apart.