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.

Watch me whip, watch me neigh neigh

Today we get to see one of our favorite LEGO artists might have fared as a more traditional user of ink and paper. We’re quite familiar with the work of 2016 TBB Builder of the Year Grantmasters as a LEGO artist: sometimes it’s an adorable kung fu panda, other times it’s a lifesize steampunk pistol, or even primeval anatomy. Grant is a master of scale and always brings excellent, inventive parts usage to the table.

As related by the builder, this “drawing” is meant to represent the start of the drawing process, the rough shapes and lines only just starting to come together as opposed to a completed, clean rendering. Swooping curves are achieved with whips, katanas, and even a high-pressure sprayer.

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Destiny Rules

Call it fate, call it karma, call it luck…whatever name you hang on it, destiny is a force to be reckoned with. And while it can be a scary thing, it can also be beautiful. I mean, just look at First Order LEGO‘s Hand Of Destiny. This monochromatic vision in bluish-grey LEGO may not evoke feelings of giddiness, but it still is a lovely thing to behold.

There are a lot of great textures in play in the base and fingers, but to me the real star of this build is the tree’s foliage. Those are hundreds of 8mm wheel rims. If you look very closely, you can see that they’re attached using various 1×1 clip plates. There has to be some very interesting architectural support hiding under those rims, too.

I’m always struggling to find good uses for all the LEGO wheels that accumulate in my parts bins. Maybe the techniques in play here can help inspire some creations of my own. And if not, that’s got to be the case for some other builder. Destiny demands it!

Longing for a better world

This LEGO render by Steven Howard is a stunning sight to behold. The lighting, the dark shadows within the room, the textures, the central figure peering out into the brightly lit exterior are all handled beautifully. Buuuuut the title and the shackle around her ankle clue us in that not all is right with this. Steven tells us that he supports an organization called Rapha International that helps children who are being exploited and trafficked in Cambodia and elsewhere. Obviously, this is a subject close to Steven’s heart and if you’d like to help in some way then visit rapha.org to learn more. He’d also like to encourage other LEGO artists to build or render something that brings light to a cause you believe in and to use the hashtag #buildabetterworldwithlego. Who knows, doing so just might make this world a little better in some way or another.

Rover on a remote realm

When you’re traversing the unstable surface of an alien world, it’s important to have appropriate transportation. Luckily, SweStar has provided us with the rover we need to navigate transparent green rubble. The rear wheels are paired to offer steering control, and toothed for peak propulsory power. The front wheels, on the other hand, are smooth and broad for stability and speed. Riding high above the ground, our exploring hero is safe and sound, confident that the sensing sensors will sense any danger, the grabbing grab arms will grab on to anything that needs grabbing, and the slick hull will ensure that striking alien assailants will slide right away.

The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry

Symmetry in art is a funny thing. It is the cause of much disagreement. Some find it fascinating and perfect, while others see it as unnatural and repetitive. I fall squarely in the first camp. I find symmetry and the attention to it in art to be fascinating. Two of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick, deal heavily in symmetry to great effect. Builder Markus Rollbühler taps into this form with great aplomb and gives us a LEGO creation that is quite beautiful and fascinating to examine.

At first, I thought perhaps there was some visual tricky going on here, but closer examination reveals this to be a fully realized, symmetrical model brimming with detail. There is some really fun parts usage, like Minnie Mouse’s skirt for the planters in the front and those beautiful purple potion bottles. The treasure chests as table legs are another nice touch. It should also be noted that those brick walls aren’t just stacked bricks! They are actually tiles placed on SNOT (Studs Not On top) pieces, providing a much more dimensional and realistic look to the walls. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go stare at this photo some more and revel in the perfect symmetry of the world between those walls.

Level 1313, the OTHER Star Wars hive of scum and villainy

Minnesotan Hypolite Bricks gritty Coruscant Level 1313 diorama exhibits his penchant for dynamic, textured LEGO dioramas.

For those not familiar, Star Wars 1313 was a promising but ill-fated video game focused on the darker underworld of the Galaxy Far Far Away’s capital planet Coruscant. The concept has recently been revived on the final season of The Clone Wars. This model appropriately features Imperials, aliens, droids, Quarren and Twilek artwork (ads or graffiti?), and -of course- death sticks. There are some neat greebling and detritus strewn about, and you can imagine the sort of shady dealings going on in each alcove.

Check out prior featured works from Hypolite Bricks like the N1 starfighter in Rebellion hangar, and the bounty hunter attack on Republic senators. In all models, you can really feel the hustle and bustle of the “used universe” that is so instrumentally Star Wars.

First study, then rock out!

A builder who goes by the name of DOGOD brick design has a dream. It’s a very specific one. It takes place back in his school days and he is studying at a fast-food restaurant. He listens to rock music and once his studies are done, his electric guitar is right there for when he wants to totally rock out! Apparently DOGOD is also a lion. That sounds like a few dreams I’ve had actually, minus the homework, but totally the rockin’ lion part. I approve of the pink and purple streaks in his mane.

Star Citizen Vanguard heads to the front lines

Stephan Niehoff revisits the sci-fi video game universe of Star Citizen, the oft-delayed but undeniably gorgeous space combat simulator.

Like Stephan’s Brutus gunboat we previously highlighted, this craft is a herculean LEGO creation packed with neat details and shaping techniques, and given the appearance of metallic wear with a dusting of chalk. If you look closely you can spot an inventive use of multiple orange flippers (aka Frogman’s feet).

The more I see of the game’s vehicle designs the more I’m reminded of Sky-Fi, a favorite sub-genre of LEGO fan building which features (sometimes illogical) flying vessels that repurpose familiar air- and space-craft design elements. The Vanguard looks to me like a very chunky offspring of the P-38 Lightning.

How to build a bitty bowling lane [Instructions]

Although it kind of sucks to be stuck at home these days, one upside is the number of glorious LEGO creations coming from builders all over the world. But if you’ve got builders-block or need something small to get you started, Tiago Catarino keeps the instructions rolling! When you can’t go to the real bowling alley, why not build yourself a little lane? This adorable build would look great with several lined up together!

As always, Tiago has provided a visual tutorial. Follow the link below to build along!

Click to watch the video

The delicate, dappled wings of spring

In the northern hemisphere, spring is underway. It might not feel that way for some, as snow is still falling in parts, but it is indeed springtime. And what says springtime better than a butterfly? Maybe flowers, but flowers need pollinators like butterflies, and so the two go hand in hand. Or proboscis in nectar pit, as the case may be. So when the Style it Up contest gave the prompt to build something with LEGO that is perfectly symmetrical across a line, I (Benjamin Stenlund) eventually settled on a Monarch butterfly, one of the most recognizable insects in North America. Ok, I admit, my wife told me to make a butterfly.

The challenge, of course, is trying to replicate the complicated patterns on the wings, with their many angles and colors, all while using a mostly rectangular system of interlocking bricks. I found that the old fingered hinges were better than the newer clip hinges, as they are flat, so I was thankful to have my childhood LEGO laying about. An even greater challenge than the building was photographing it without glare, as the flat surfaces reflected everything. But the end result, in my not-so-humble opinion, is delicately beautiful.

Another day at the market of tomorrow

Even though we don’t have hovercars yet, we can still imagine a world where scenes like this one, by lokiloki29, of a farmer taking his wares to market in a floating carriage, pulled by a robot horse, are as common as rain. Tha bot-horse has some great details, like the subtle angle of the head, and the multi-jointed legs look almost insect-like. The carriage is the perfect blend of sci-fi and historic, with that brown railing and reigns for the bot.