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.

Wait a minute, Mr. Postman

What do you get when four of the most talented castle builders out there collaborate on a series of LEGO builds? It’s a bit like alchemy, because the result is solid gold. Well, Grant Davis, Simon Hundsbichler, Marcel V., and Markus Rollbühler teamed up to show the life of a postman, carrying the mail across every bridge in the realm to make sure each and every citizen receives their letters on time. Each build is different in every detail, except the postman himself, but they are all scaled and shot to mimic the others, with the result that the builds complement each other perfectly. I’d love to have these framed on my wall, side by side, because these are not just LEGO builds, but art.

Click to see each of the builds up close

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A LEGO flower by any other name smells of plastic

Flowers are a frequent subject of artists and photographers, capturing the many brilliant colors of nature. LEGO artists are no exception, as the many bright colors available can be combined with stunning results. Amado Canlas Pinlac has chosen a more monochrome palette for this model of baby blues. The curved bricks provide wonderfully textured petals and the white planter box is simple, yet effective in giving the model a sense of scale.

Now that’s a Renaissance man

There is just something about this mustachioed fellow’s gaze that is utterly captivating. Perhaps it’s the twinkle of 17th century worldly knowledge in his eyes, or it’s the amazing part usage that went into the face detailing as well as the costume of this LEGO bust built by Grant Davis.

The eyebrows of this piece are each cleverly composed of two reddish brown claw pieces, while the mustache is ingeniously constructed of two tail pieces with technic pin endings clipped to a reddish brown minifigure epaulette. Perhaps the main focal point of this build is the elegant white “ruff” or millstone collar made out of 4×4 flower pieces with rounded petals and 4×2 wedge elements. The studs on the wedges add some texture to the notably ruffled piece of neckwear. It is hard to pick my favorite use of parts here, I also quite enjoy the hat and its use of rounded-bottom 2x2s. Davis’s bust is both cleverly fashioned and true to its subject – the renaissance nobleman in its depiction.

Build your own microscale Nintendo Entertainment System [Instructions]

If you are as excited about the recently announced Nintendo Entertainment System LEGO set as I am, but your wallet has felt the impact of the global pandemic, fear not! You can experience all the nostalgic feels (in a slightly smaller dose), when you build your own miniature model using these instructions by Thomas Gion. You’ll have to build a TV on your own, although LEGO Designer Chris McVeigh has free instructions for a variety of old televisions which could provide the perfect inspiration.

A new perspective on a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece

It’s 1496 in Milan, Italy and the renowned artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci is finishing up his latest commission, a fresco spanning the wall of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Over the years, “The Last Supper” has become a symbol of the Renaissance art movement. More recently, it has been recreated as a LEGO vignette by Joe (jnj_bricks). In this stunning rendition of da Vinci’s masterpiece, Joe creates the appearance of a two-dimensional fresco with the illusion of three-dimensionality using three-dimensional LEGO bricks– it’s mind-boggling!

Let’s take a look at some of Joe’s illusionistic building techniques in “The Last Supper”. First, the floor in the fresco is built slanting upwards. This creates a deep shadow underneath the table, reminiscent of da Vinci’s chiaroscuro technique of contrasting light and shadow in his oil paintings. Next, the walls of the room within the fresco are built using slope bricks instead of standard 1x bricks, making the “back wall” appear to be much farther away than it actually is. Finally, the bordering brick “window” that frames the fresco completes the composition. Early illusionistic wall paintings that date back to ancient Rome would also use this technique to portray a vista into another world.

All of these techniques enhance the forced perspective in the overall build, creating a convincing replica of the real-life fresco. With the amount of realistic details and artistic techniques packed in this build, it’s hard to believe Joe hasn’t apprenticed for the Renaissance master builders!

Console craze

With new iterations of the Xbox and PlayStation announced for release at the end of this year and the LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System already on store shelves, 2020 is shaping up to be quite the year for gaming console hype. Jaap Bijl encases this momentum in his LEGO Xbox build.

Bijl’s rendition of this fun-machine visually pops with its complementary black and pink color scheme. The 4×4 flower with petals element is expertly used as both lettering and the D-pad on the controller. Additional detailing on the controller is done with 1×1 half-circle tiles used for buttons and round-bottom 2x2s for joysticks. The machine as a whole is expertly brick-built using pretty standard build techniques. Great timing on Bijl’s part for such subject matter as video game imagery seems to be pretty popular with the brand this year, a build like this would look great displayed with the aforementioned NES or even with some of this year’s gamer inspired Ninjago sets.

A solution for yellowed LEGO bricks

White LEGO bricks turning yellow, it’s a builders’ worst nightmare. Some builders would discard the yellowed bricks but not Ayrlego. The yellowed white bricks were used in combination with white, light grey, and tan masonry bricks to create a weathered look for the Port Woodhouse Cavalry Stables. Mixing 1×1 round bricks in different colours for the roof further adds to the weathered look of the building.

This build features a lot of classic LEGO elements and their newer/replacement counterparts. The window pane lattice diamond and the window shutter, the new pane lattice with the old window and the old shutters, the old horses in the stable next to the newer more articulated ones and even the use of old and new redcoat torso’s for the minifigures.

Schloss Drachenburg in LEGO: Here there be dragons!

There are castles that are blocky grey fortresses, and there are castles that look like fairytales come to life. One such castle is the ornate Schloss Drachenburg, which bears resemblance to the more famous Neuschwastein. Just a few miles south of the German city of Bonn, this 19th century villa was the passion project of builder Caleb Schilling who replicated this building with an attention to accuracy. A range of earthen tones dominate most of the exterior, while the dark grey adorns the top sections. The overall appearance of this build already satisfies my hunger for beautifully built architecture, but there are plenty of details yet to savour.

Click here to take a closer look at the many architectural details!

Roll through this Starbucks drive-thru for your afternoon Trenta Nitro Cold Brew with Salted Caramel Cream

Reminding all of us how baristas at coffee shops like Starbucks bring a sense of normalcy each day in difficult times, Korean LEGO builder Oh So Jang has built a wonderful Starbucks with a drive-through and detailed interior, based on a real-life Starbucks in Korea.

See the full interior of this LEGO Starbucks

Some happy little trees to pee on

Bob Ross taught a generation of artists and would-be artists to paint, myself included. He had a soothing, gentle demeanor about him and a voice that could squelch a prison riot. You can tell he was a guy that just loved the world and all the lakes, mountains, creatures and trees within it. Happy little trees, he called them. Soothing, mellow little trees without a care in the world, yeah, that’s nice. He taught us that there were no mistakes in your world, only happy accidents. This LEGO Bob Ross Corgi by BrickinNick has surely had a few happy accidents in his day, probably on the rug. But do we get mad at the little fellah? Nah, he’s just doing what he’s put on this planet to do; paint happy trees and maybe pee a little behind the couch. Yeah, that’s nice. And wouldn’t you know it, BrickinNick got us all mellow and groovy before. Give it a gander, my friend.

Chicago’s hockey legend is padded up in LEGO

Here come the Hawks, the mighty Blackhawks! I am not a sports guy, but I respect athletes who have brought a semblance of glory to their hometowns. Especially when I have lived in that town for over a decade, and exceptional athletes become the local heroes. Teacher and LEGO artist Dave Kaleta has built a large sculpture of a Chicago Blackhawks player Jonathan Toews. Being a Chicago native, Kaleta chose the Blackhawks team captain as the subject to commemorate the new hockey season. This build not only serves as cultural imagery for hockey fans and Chicagoans but as just a realistic and detailed representation of a talented sportsman. In addition to the dynamic posing of the skating Toews, this massive sculpture is packed to the brim with interesting building techniques.

One can examine the photo for at length to see how he has assembled the details like the numbers and the Blackhawks logo. Since I don’t have much to say about hockey, I can talk about the build itself!

Read about the details and a little bit of LEGO-related hockey trivia I could conjure up!

In the court of the crimson king

LEGO builder Grant Davis demonstrates quite a few tricks with this massive King of Diamonds playing card. The seed part is a white 4×4 flower. He incorporates twenty-one of those mamma-jammas into the intricate design of this card. Also expertly woven into the design is yellow ribbed hoses and a myriad of parts situated in complex angles. Grant doesn’t provide size dimensions in his write-up but based on the bricks that we can see, we estimate this feat of artistry is nearly three feet high! Now let’s hope he’ll also build fifty-one of his closest friends to complete the deck. Until then, you may want to settle in and check out some of the other stuff Grant has built.