If you find yourself driving through German farmland, you just might find one these Fendt 500 tractors working the fields. Stefan brings us a faithful looking brick-built version, complete with the iconic green and black livery. He has also gone above and beyond to build a series of implements for the tractor, such as forest blade for the front….
See all of the great attachments for this tiny tractor
A blend of agility and speed unmatched across the Twelve Worlds — well, at least that’s what Jeremy Williams says of his latest LEGO starfighter: the Xylian Interceptor. The overall shaping of this spaceship is wonderful, and the crystal-clear photography allows you to appreciate all the building techniques that went into it — don’t miss the complex arrangement of hinges, slopes, and curves that form the tips of the crescent body. I love the way the cockpit spheres are clamped in place, managing to look both realistic and futuristic at the same time. Jeremy’s trademark greeble skills are on display all over this model, particularly in the junction between cockpit and crescent, and the engine housing. Put a well-built model together with a strikingly simply colour scheme and smart presentation, and you’ve got a great little LEGO sci-fi creation.
Resurrected from its ocean grave after an apocalyptic event in the year 2199, Japan’s famous WWII battleship became an unlikely spaceship in the classic anime Star Blazers. Builder marchetti36 has masterfully recreated it in microscale, giving it a nifty display base and a fleet of smaller craft.
Despite the relatively small scale, there are lots of great touches of detail. One of the best is the design for the space battleship’s bridge, which consist of trans-neon green 1×1 plates turned sideways and set on an angle.
Built from constraction elements–better known as Bionicle and Hero Factory–these detailed figures make excellent use of the system’s posable joints to picture this duel with a true sense of movement. Mid-swing, the Predator appears to have the upper hand for the moment, but never discount the Alien with its menacing tail. The green background builder cid hsiao has posed them on lends an eerie sense of unease to the scene, making this truly seem like a battle between otherworldly creatures.
I imagine being a fisherman in the middle ages was a modest but good life–if you count out living out in the open, ready to be raided. Jako of Nerogue solves this problem for his fishermen with the fortifications around the village he built. This facilitates both a picturesque and also practical feeling about this whole diorama.
I love how the diorama really makes sense. The village is confined by the wooden walls, and nothing is left outside… Or maybe it was just all pillaged. Sadly there are not many pictures showing the fortification’s interior, but the outside is impressive enough on its own. The mixing of dark tan with exotic greens is very realistic and pleasant to look at, and the grass also hides some cleverly used clip pieces to simulate taller blades of grass. The whole diorama is brought together with a few splashes of brighter colours, like the regular green bushes and a bit of water in the back.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, the summers never got that hot. But that didn’t stop every kid in the neighborhood from chasing down the popsicle truck, clutching their allowance whenever that twinkling version of Daisy, Daisy was heard piped out of an old loudspeaker. Sven Franic has captured this vibe perfectly in this wonderfully detailed popsicle truck built using aqua, which is impressive, and the perfect color choice for this model.
The addition of a table and chairs, and a bright, colorful awning really completes the scene.
Thanks to Chris Elliot, the 1927 Csikós Bismuth Sport Coupé comes to life in LEGO-form! What’s that you’re saying? You’ve never heard of a car company called Csikós? There is a reason for that…It never existed! Now that we know Chris’ car was a work of fiction, how did he come to design and name it? Stylistically, Chris drew inspiration from a few real-life automobiles including including a prewar Bugatti (sharing a color scheme with the new LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron.
See more of this lovely vintage coupe
A few years have passed from The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit hysteria that included an official LEGO theme, but many builders still find inspiration in Tolkien’s fantasy universe. Roanoke Handybuck is one of these builders and his latest creation is Beorn’s house. We can see the party of dwarves accompanied by the Grey Wizard and Bilbo Baggins meeting the master of the house.
The builder uses colours and their combinations to great advantage, especially mixing the dark tan and olive green, which seem to naturally fit together. Do not limit your attention only to the beautifully flowing roof, because the stonework of the house’s walls is quite impressive too, as is a plethora of details spread around the diorama.
Enchantments, potions and magic! What else would one need? César Soares sure knows what is important in life – who cares about all that pointless real stuff, right? Joking aside, this is a pretty impressive creation. The builder says he has wanted to build in this scale for quite some time, and I can totally agree. Minifig utensils and the thicknesses of some bricks are often out of proportion with the minifigs they are made for, and that often looks very cartoony. This is not a bad thing on its own, but some times, it is nice to see more realistic Miniland scale creations like this one.
I have said that this creation is impressive, and just being built in Miniland scale is obviously not enough to achieve that. The scene is filled with unique part usage, most notably cloth pieces. Just look at the broom and the unrolled scroll! And still there is more to see, like legs of the chair and table that are tilted off right angles, clever use of the log minifig costume under the table on the right and the wall texture, which uses a technique most often seen as floor, due to how unstable it would be when set upright. I wonder what kind of magic César used to keep it in place!
One of the great joys of LEGO is when you see a piece used in a brilliant new way. That’s exactly what Victor has done here in this tiny microscale office interior. Yes, the 80s-look geometric floor design uses a bunch of those new diagonal 1×1 tile parts, and the lamp and wall pictures are smartly-done, but it’s the chairs you should be looking at: two minifigure mohawk hairpieces — upside-down and balanced on round 1x1s. Brilliant.
At first glance, this ruined city may look a little like a classic post-apocalyptic zombie scenario (like the stunning scene from The Last of Us) but this build by Ralf Langer actually represents an apocalypse of a more realistic and consequentially more threatening type: a devastating earthquake. Admittedly though, the two are visually very similar, zombies and sci-fi gear aside.
The diorama is huge, but Ralf does not merely rely on size to impress. Instead, he makes textures and details so fine that they would make a tiny vignette worth drooling over, let alone a diorama with a surface that could fit a hundred such vignettes. The different angles at which many surfaces of the diorama are set give a very dynamic and organic feeling, and the builder has done it so well, it almost looks like it’s not LEGO. The colours used are perfect too, with various earth tones and realistic colours on the buildings.
Click to see some close-up pictures and a few techniques behind the builds!
Orcs can be beautiful, as Dr. Zarkow demonstrates in his Warcraft-inspired Orc Burrow. Everything here, from landscaping details to the building itself is well-executed. The use of cheese slopes to create the impression of rough stonework on the hut is particularly brilliant. If you’d like to see how he achieved this technique, he has been kind enough to share a photograph of how it was done. There are also some really playful details, including the pig hitched to a cart filled with wheat. Seeing that made me squeal with excitement!
