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.

LEGO Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster and Starman prepared for launch

In February 2018, an impressive test launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket was conducted with Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster as the payload. For SHIPtember each year, LEGO builders challenge each other to build a LEGO spaceship (in which “SHIP” means “Significantly Huge Investment in Parts”) at least one hundred studs long. Adrian Drake took up the challenge to construct an impressive LEGO model of Musk’s roadster and its dummy pilot “Starman.” Whether it counts as a spacecraft for SHIPtember is debatable (we believe it does count!), but it hits the 100-stud-long mark (about 31.5 inches) and is shaped and sculpted rather well at this scale.

The fully detailed cabin interior is worth a closer look.

See more photos of Adrian’s Tesla Roadster and Starman on Flickr.

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Have a yabba-dabba-doo time!

This neat microscale creation by Lennart Cort absolutely nails its subject, literally reducing Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble to bricks and studs. Building at this scale requires that rare ability to see the archetypical aspects of its theme in individual elements, and who would have thought a 1×1 orange and a 1×1 brown brick would represent these Stone Age buddies so well. The foot-powered car similarly convinces in its use of cylinders for rock wheels. Here at TBB we are dazzled by so many amazing piece uses in the models we see, so it’s always good to be reminded that sometimes the base elements of the LEGO system are all that’s needed to have a yabba-dabba-doo time!

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boldly Go Where No Princess Has Gone Before

Patty Rau has launched Cinderella into space aboard the FGP When You Wish Upon A Star. There’s a lot to love about this LEGO spaceship. The bulbous midsection is a great nod to the vehicle’s origin as a pumpkin. The ship also contains elements from all three minidoll-scale versions of Cinderella’s carriage: printed inverse slopes from Cinderella’s Carriage (2016), printed curved slopes from Cinderella’s Dream Carriage (2014), and gold filagrees from Cinderella’s Enchanted Evening.

It seems like Patty is doing a series of Disney Princess spaceships, as she has also created one for Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Apparently Sweet Mayhem isn’t the only minidoll with a spaceship.

A LEGO Stormbreaker fit for an Asgardian king

Riley Scott fancies himself the “Tony Stark of LEGO”. However, his latest creation positions him to take the title of Dwarf King currently held by the lonely Eitri.

I think we’re past the point of spoiler warnings with Avengers: Infinity War already in its home video phase, so I’m just going to jump right into how perfectly this model recreates Stormbreaker after its unique birth. In the movie, the freshly-cast hammer and axe sections fall out of the mold, and with both Thor and Eitri unable to help complete the weapon angsty teen Groot finally jumps into action by grabbing the separate pieces and intertwining them with wooden tendrils. Compare the LEGO model to its completed appearance in Infinity War below: the contrast of the metal look against the more organic stacked round LEGO bricks and plates is stellar.

One more shot of the strongest weapon in Asgardian history, one we saw deal some major damage to Thanos in the climax of the film. Sadly, Thor should have gone for his head.

A floating LEGO village fit for a king

When you’re building a floating castle, space is limited. The City of Alaylon designed by the legendary architect Sir Alberto Mauriccio (according to the LEGO builder, Brother Steven) is a wonderful example of making the most of limited land. The island in the sky that this fortification and village are perched on is actually made up of two pieces of land connected by a sky bridge.

There is nothing boring or plain about this castle in the sky. The many wall and tower fortification are built using some common elements of various sizes, like radar dishes and 1×1 round plates, and the inclusion of sloped elements at regular intervals along the walls ties the different structures together. The outer walls are gently curved to reinforce the crescent shape of the landscape.

The many upper towers, all in white, are also built to different dimensions using a wide variety of arches and other architectural elements that compliment each other quite nicely.

The smaller shops and building inside the castle walls are the perfect addition to the scene, providing a glimpse into the day to day life of its residents and visitors. I really love the mason perched on a small platform to do some delicate repair work.

Travelling across Europe? Pamper yourself with a first class seat in DB Class VT 11.5

Make sure you’re at the right platform as this fantastic recreation of the DB Class VT 11.5 arrives at the central railway station. Built by Holger Matthes, this LEGO version of one of the most legendary German trains combines everything that a LEGO train builder could think of. Six cars, each 7 studs wide, stretch over 80 inches/2,5 meter long. Designed with a huge variety of curved slopes, this VT 11.5 looks almost like a PIKO set!

The only thing that could possibly make a brilliant model like this VT 11.5 shine even brighter is, of course, a custom set of interior lights. Describing pictures like the one below makes almost no sense, so, it’s much better to enjoy it without any comments!

Creature from the Brick Lagoon

Logey Bear’s latest LEGO build was inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon and includes a number of scary-good part choices. Front and center is an alien clinger from the Alien Conquest theme bringing fun curvy details to the face. It pairs exceptionally well with the minifigure arms that surround the eyes. A pair of bigfig arms are cleverly used as upper legs and several pairs of flippers are used for the webbed feet and gills.

You build...raptors?

From Jurassic Park to Jurassic World, velociraptors have remained a fan favorite in the series. While the raptors in Jurassic Park were hungry killing machines, Jurassic World gave us lovable trained carnivores. The scenes of Owen Grady bonding with Blue since birth are memorable, and I bet Owen would be proud of this wonderfully detailed LEGO version of Blue built by PaulvilleMOCs. There is a pleasing balance of form and function here. A splash of color keeps the model visually interesting, while ball & socket and hinged joints allow Blue to “strike a pose.” I really like Blue’s mouth, which consists of a 1×3 hinge tile, with the finger wedged between a modified 1×1 plate with clip. Finishing off the mouth is a dark pink minifig hand, which makes for a really cool-looking tongue.

And if you still haven’t had your prehistoric fill, the builder has also done a fun rendition of Mr. DNA.

Creating a charmingly crooked castle

It’s one of the contradictions at the heart of LEGO building, that we love to see the rectilinear brick subverted. Bravo to jaapxaap, who has centred his latest model on some seriously wonky geometry. There’s no doubt that Falcon Castle is suffering from years of subsidence, its central tower quaintly leaning at the most acute of angles.

Of course it takes real talent to do this, which you pick up again in the embellishments that have been added: the ingot bricks used to simulate wear, or the golden tower painstakingly formed form telescope pieces. In the end though, you just have to marvel at the way the imperfections of the ramshackle fortress have been so perfectly built.

Melt the hearts of thy enemy — or then again, there’s always the laser blaster

Star Wars never looked so good as with this LEGO Friends-themed makeover. This B-Wing is a fully custom build by Tyler Sky and reimagined for a more colourful Rebel vs Imperial universe. If the peaceful and friendly lasses can’t melt the heart of their enemies, my advice is to just lock, load and fire the ion cannons away! What makes this even slicker is the lack of visible LEGO studs (save for a couple around the sides of the cockpit). And if you really like this, read our earlier article on Tyler’s similar take on the Y-Wing

Aiwan Ting Pavilion is eye-pleasing, both inside and out

When it comes to building historic Chinese architecture from LEGO bricks, it can prove challenging to capture the sweeping curves of rooftops and ornate details. While we’ve seen builders employ a variety of techniques for this, with his model of the Aiwan Ting Pavilion, Chinese builder Smoker Nie has managed to pull off both the shape and the details in an especially eye-pleasing manner. Aiwan Pavilion is located on Mount Yuelu in the Chinese province of Hunan.

Smoker’s building is an excellent likeness, both inside and out. According to the builder, 12350 LEGO bricks were used in its construction.

Click to see more of this LEGO Aiwan Pavilion

How to build a Grumman E-1 Tracer early warning aircraft from LEGO: Part 2 [Feature]

This article is Part 2 of an ongoing series. Read about the LEGO Grumman E-1 Tracer Part 1 here.

About two weeks ago, I started building a new aircraft model: a Grumman E-1 Tracer. Because some of you might like to know how one might build such a LEGO scale model, I am documenting my process in a short series. In the first part I described why I decided to build such an oddball aircraft in the first place and how I plan a build like this. I also explained that I usually start by building the difficult bits. A few of those are the subject of this article.

The Tracer’s wings are not quite perpendicular to the fuselage. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if the engine pods and the main undercarriage weren’t attached to them. I have built angled wings before, including some rather large ones. In practice, however, it is almost impossible to mount the wings using hinges and also have them carry much of the model’s weight. Furthermore, if I were to build the wings at some weird angle, I would then have to figure out how to align the engines attached to still be parallel with the fuselage. My solution is to attach both engines directly to each other and also to the fuselage using a bridge structure. I built this bridge perpendicular to the fuselage using plates. I then put the actual wings on top of it. By combining 2×3 and 2×4 wedge plates I filled in the gaps where the tops of the engines join the wing. Getting everything to fit nicely involved a lot of trial-and-error, but it works.

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