Microscale is an interesting LEGO building style for a few reasons. It lets a builder recreate ideas they could not otherwise due to the constraints of their collection or time. It also presents a unique challenge of capturing shapes and textures with only a few pieces, which would be easier (but perhaps less rewarding?) at larger scales. With this water mill by Robert4168/Garmadon, the grass and the front face of the house have the characteristic simple microscale charm, but the house’s left wall, the hill with the cute fence, and especially the thatched roof have a texture to them that even larger scale creations would envy sometimes.
Category Archives: Models
Shogun from the 16th century
This build of a seemingly cute warrior by John Cheng is so much more than it seems. Imagawa Yoshimoto was a feudal lord during the 16th century in Japan who was very good at not only battling but also at diplomacy and securing key alliances during his reign. His black steed and the accompanying base is quite a unique complement to the usual BrickHeadz builds that we’ve seen quite a lot of lately. Aside from being brick built, Pokémon Conquest fans may recognize him as a playable character.
Soldiering on amongst the trees of Ardennes in 1945
The Battle of the Bulge was the German’s last offensive of World War II. Although it initially caught Allied forces off guard, especially in the heavily wooded Ardennes region, it proved to be a major disaster for Germany that hastened its inevitable demise. Dunedain98 has build a wintry scene from this battle that depicts American soldiers preparing to attack an StuG III Assault Gun alongside a derelict, battle-damaged home.
A view closer down to the action from minifigure eye-level really shows off the atmosphere with the snow-laden trees and the offensive anticipation in the air. Continue reading
A spectacular avail of scale
When you view a LEGO model in person, you’re limited to seeing things as they appear to the naked eye. In the digital realm, especially when a healthy amount of photoshopping is involved, scale is just as ripe for manipulation and modification as anything else. With Koen‘s latest build, it’s obvious that this point is understood fully.
From the castle on the left to the massive flag in the middle, the final product here is just as much the finished photo as it is the builds on their own. That’s neat.
It’s worth noting that this creation was made for the LEGO Ideas logo contest that we wrote about recently. While it’s hard to say if LEGO Ideas would be open to adopting such a maximalist logo, this is certainly a stellar build.
2017 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 4
Welcome to Day 4 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the three mini-builds from the LEGO City, LEGO Star Wars, and LEGO Friends 2017 advent calendars along with commentary from our team.
If you’re opening one (or more) of these advent calendars along with us, we’ve made sure the pictures and commentary on each day’s models will be behind a jump and posted in the evening every day, so we don’t accidentally ruin the surprise. Let’s see what Day 4 has in store.
Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!
Hercules’ fourth labour is anything but boaring
In Greek mythology, Hercules was sentenced to serving King Eurystheus for twelve years after killing his family in a fit of god-induced madness. Part of his punishment required Hercules to perform twelve seemingly impossible tasks, and Bob DeQuatre has created the fourth task in LEGO bricks. His snowy creation sets the scene with the large, aggressively dark Erymanthian Boar standing on high and a rather more diminutive looking Hercules facing up to his opponent. The composition is well thought out with the temple subtly built away from the main action on the left. I love the landscaping with rocks, snow and a stream frozen into an icy cascade on the right.
Taking a closer look at the boar also reveals some nice sculpturing to achieve his muscular form. I appreciate the thought that has gone into creating a realistic landscape, notice the ground underneath the tree is devoid of snow thanks to the leafy umbrella of protection above.
The Jacobite Risings took 5 builders 10 months to build using 1 million LEGO bricks
This year’s big build by Brick to the Past is called ‘The Jacobite Risings: The Fight for Britain’s Throne’. The risings took place between 1689 and 1746, mostly in Scotland as supporters of the Stuart dynasty attempted to restore them to the throne. They were effectively Britain’s last civil wars.
The model is around 16 square metres in size, sitting on the equivalent of 105 48 stud baseplates. It has a mountain in its centre that reaches about 1m high. It was built by the Brick to the Past (BTTP) team, Dan Harris, James Pegrum, Simon Pickard, Tim Goddard and Steve Snasdell, and took around 10 months to complete.
See more detailed photos of this massive build and read our interview with Brick to the Past
I didn’t built it, I did naaaaaat... Oh hi, Mark
Iain Heath never misses a chance to capture the latest pop-cultural phenomena with LEGO bricks, so it was just a matter of time before he would publish his tribute to the upcoming The Disaster Artist movie. This build is so terrible, it’s actually impressive.
Riding the rails with a LEGO WWII Army supply train
An army marches on its stomach, and it’s hard to feed a soldier without an appropriate supply route. Cutting off an enemy’s supply routes is a quick path to victory, so it’s imperative to adequately guard your own routes. Enter the armored train, ready to defend itself. Builder tablizm brings us an amazing demo model of a US Army military train, showing off a variety of cars from different eras.
Let’s take a closer look at the individual cars below.
On a wing and a prayer
LEGO lends itself well to repeating patterns, but we don’t see a lot of circular ones. Azurekingfisher addresses that omission with this beautiful wreath built from tree branches, angel wings, elephant trunks, and various flower parts.
Seeing as it’s December, I may take inspiration from this and attempt some brick-built Christmas decorations on this sort of pattern. I’m thinking this would make a lovely festive wreath with a bit of dark green and red in amongst the gold and white. The builder has made some more colourful versions of the same design in the past, and they look stunning laid out alongside one another.
2017 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 3
Welcome to Day 3 of our LEGO Advent Calendar countdown. Each day, we’ll reveal the three mini-builds from the LEGO City, LEGO Star Wars, and LEGO Friends 2017 advent calendars along with commentary from our team.
If you’re opening one (or more) of these advent calendars along with us, we’ve made sure the pictures and commentary on each day’s models will be behind a jump and posted in the evening every day, so we don’t accidentally ruin the surprise. So what did Day 3 hold?
See all of the Day 3 LEGO Advent Calendar mini-builds
Big things come in small cottages
Fall is changing to winter, at least in North America, and it always seems to inspire LEGO builders to depict these changing seasons in bricks. emillide has put together a lovely set of tiny cottages, experimenting with many interesting roof and tree techniques, some of which are truly baffling.
Take this summer scene, for example. I am at a total loss trying to figure out how that tree on the left is holding together, but I love it. Also, each cottage has a different base construction, making a nice finished model.