Category Archives: Models

This is what we’re all about. We scour the web for the best custom LEGO models to share with you. From castles and spaceships to planes, trains, and automobiles, you’ll find the best LEGO creations from builders all over the world right here on The Brothers Brick.

God Save the Queen – A Night at the Opera

Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy? Nick Jensen brings us a fantastic LEGO album cover for Queen’s A Night at the Opera. This album is in Good Company with the other Queen builds Nick has done in the past and would make Freddie proud! The flex tubing script makes me feel like dancing in the rain. The details achieved in such a small space is superb. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see the detail on the great lions, fiery crab, and majestic swan as the centerpiece here. I can honestly say that this album is the Love of My Life and Nick, I think You’re My Best Friend. You can find me Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon listening to Death on Two Legs now! Any way the wind blows…

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This Xenomorph build has some bite

Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise are cool and terrifying at the same time, and this LEGO sculpt by Grantmasters is no exception! Based on the collector’s edition of the Alien: Weyland-Yutani Report, an informational book on the franchise, there’s so much detail packed into this low relief sculpt. Those slopes making up the brunt of the face look like they were made for rendering a Xenomorph, but the build really shines with the greebling on the sides of the face. Hinged cylinder links frame the face and connect to each other with a rope element across the top of the head. The Corners of the mouth feature many elements, such as minifigure arms and hands as well as some skeleton legs. The weapons orbiting the Xenomorph stand in for tendril designs. However, I think they’re present to guard the Xenomorph so it doesn’t leap out at the unsuspecting.

If Tatooine was in 30’s era Detroit

I used to think I was the only one who did this; you look at a Star Wars vehicle and imagine its Earthly counterpart. For example, the Millenium Falcon could be a Ford Falcon, Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter could be a Jedi Starliner and Darth Vader’s TIE-Fighter could be a bitchin’ 70’s era Econoline with shag carpeting, beef jerky dispenser, lava lamps and a Boris Valejo space-wizard airbrushed on the side. Right? Well, it worked better before I put it to writing. Anyway, LEGO car guru and real-life car guru Peter Blackert clearly thinks of this stuff too as evidenced by this terrestrial 1939 Buick Y-Job concept made into Luke’s Landspeeder. There aren’t a lot of these lying around so I had to Google the vehicle but once I did, I can see how Peter saw the retro-futuristic shape of the Landspeeder. This computer render, in my opinion, perfectly melds the swooping curves of both designs.

Doing this sort of thing is a fun and imaginative exercise but if you prefer to keep your Landspeeder designs true to the movie, then try your hand at building the official UCS Luke’s Landspeeder LEGO set that has come out recently. Installing a beef jerky dispenser in the dash would only sweeten the deal.

I really FALL for this simple design

While LEGO builder Carter Witz tells us he has kept this design pretty simple I’m still smitten with it anyway. Granted it doesn’t have mind-blowing techniques and complex gear trains but you can go a long way with a well-appointed layout. I love the trees, the smiling minifigures and the rock patterns. That waterfall though really makes the piece special. The look and feel takes us back to a specific time in LEGO history right in the sweet spot of childhood memories. You know, before all the backaches and sore knees. This builder frequently takes us to special places. Check out the Carter Witz archives to see what I mean.

In Spudkirk, it’s all about the little things

The fictional town of Spudkirk is home to this LEGO scene by builder Evancelt Lego, featuring a row of tiny townhouses and itsy-bitsy infantrymen. And the details here, even at this scale, are larger than life. The cobbling on the wall is excellent, demonstrating how war-weary the town must be. The use of color in the road, specifically the blotches of lime green and burnt orange, further the worn look of the town. And it does this without drawing too much attention away from the rest of the model. This allows other, more nuanced details to shine through, like that teensy tree on the left. The yellow-orange flowers as foliage on top of a trunk mostly composed of a brown stud shooter fits perfectly at this scale.

Revisiting the classic TIE Fighter from Star Wars

TIE Fighters are one of the most iconic spaceships in pop culture today, and one of the most fun to see built with LEGO. Faku Saku returns to the classic ship with this redesign of an earlier TIE Fighter model he did a few years back. Redesigned and built from the ground up, the wings on this fighter stand out with some exquisite details. Right from the gate, we can see Faku kept the grille tiles for the solar panel detailing on the outside of the wings. Tiles and wedges nicely fill in the inside of the wings. The points where the wings attach to the ship’s body feature greater screen accuracy than the original model. And the outside of the wings? They have a cleaner and stronger appearance than most builds I’ve seen for a Tie Fighter!

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Capturing the legendary King of Fish

Legends are immortal and reach across time to transport us through their stories. Piotrek Przytuła tells one such story through LEGO–the Polish legend of King Sielaw. Long ago, the Masurian Lakes was ruled and guarded by Sielaw, King of Fish. At the behest of the Prussian gods, he protected the waters from greedy fishermen and settlers. Piotrek tells the story through a cross-section so we can see both above and below the waterline. The background is simple, which helps it set the scene and blend behind the impressive action. I do love how the shades of blue grow darker as the water gains depth.

Find out what happens next in the legend

Introducing Cubone’s edgier cousin

I’d choose this Pokémon! Created by Sandro Quattrini, this interpretation of the elusive Cuebone has a mysterious and deadly look to it. The skull helmet is represented by a lower jaw piece, featured in a mosasaurs model from back in 2001. Cubone carries a simple bone club in the original design, however, this version turns the weapon into more of a blade. Holder clips and mechanical arms portray spiked ribs along the blade, leading to a handle formed of flat gears. The stocky rounded proportions of the character are still retained through application of sloped bricks at the main body and the legs. The model has a superb design which is still easily recognizable while having new exaggerated details.

This train tracks. Wait. No it doesn’t.

Sure, there are LEGO train sets on their way this summer, but if you look even further into the future you can find out that Oscar Cederwall (o0ger) has his own unique vision of how the rails will evolve. Basically, they’ll be ditching the rails in favor of hover technology. Smart move. This was a creation a year in the making, and the attention to detail really shines through.

You can take the train out of the desert by clicking here

This outpost is in vogue

As we’ve seen in the past, Ayrlego knows how to throw together a pretty rad LEGO building. And this new Mokolei Outpost is no exception! But where their previous constructions typically show the wear of time, with nicks in the walls or peeling plaster, this tan and turquoise tower looks fresh and new. Of course, there’s the typical cobbled feel to the terrain. And the other wooden structures bear a weather-worn patina. But all of this comes in stark contrast to the crisp edges and detailed texture work on the outpost, with pristine lion-head sculptures and ornate patterns carved into each wall. It’s a design fit the chicest sheik.

Did your Land Rover break down? Call the AA

Of course, I don’t mean to imply that Land Rovers are unreliable vehicles. However, if you were in the UK, were to own a classic Land Rover and, God forbid, it would break down on you, what would you do? One of your options could be to call the AA. That is the organisation formerly known as The Automobile Association. Not the other famous organisation with the same initials that helps people overcome another expensive and destructive habit.

The AA operates a roadside assistance service, with mechanics crisscrossing the country in vans. However, if one of their mechanics can’t fix the problem, because it is actually pretty major, they also operate a fleet of recovery vehicles. A lot of those are German-built MAN TGL flatbed trucks, one of which I have now built in LEGO. Like the AA vans, these are a common sight on British roads, also quite commonly seen carrying Land Rovers. I’m still not saying those are unreliable, mind you. I actually like Land Rovers. My LEGO Land Rover model is something of a classic in its own right; I originally built it more than ten years ago and it has never broken down, except for when one of the wheels fell off as I was taking pictures of the truck. Since I’m a stickler for scale and I have not changed the style of my building for this, these two vehicles fit together really nicely.
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This rabbit looks like he is late for a very important date

I might have a soft spot for Disney characters built with LEGO. This white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland by Versteinert. He serves as the Queen of Hearts’ royal herald, an obligation to which he is often late. To help him with his busy schedule he carries around a big pocket watch to keep track of time. In this creation, there are a lot of food parts involved. The ears of the rabbit are made using white bananas. For the hairy cheeks, croissants were used and the trousers incorporate two dark tan pumpkins.

I tried zooming in on the face to get a more clear picture of how it is constructed but unfortunately, I just can’t figure out whether it is construction, friction, or gravity. Maybe it is a combination of all of the above. For the pocket watch, Versteintert stayed in the food theme. The base of the watch is a big Fabuland pot. Which to me is quite humorous as Fabuland was also filled with cute anthropomorphic animals.