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.

Clear the decks, pirates be approachin’

There’s nothing like a good pirate ship to shiver our timbers, and Nicola Poloniato has built a suitably intimidating ship, cloaked in black. The Black Star is approaching at speed with a full compliment of sails, not forgetting the Jolly Roger. I can’t say she looks friendly, just look at those cannon balls blasting from beneath the main deck.

It’s worth taking a closer look at those firing cannons; I love the smoke effect and their explosive movement cleverly built with a mix of transparent round 1×1 plates.

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Too much technology for a barn to handle

Sometimes, a LEGO creation (or any work of art, really) can be vague, with the viewer not being sure what it is supposed to be. Sometimes, creators themselves are not sure what their creation is. This is somewhat true for AdNorrel and his latest build, the “Coordination center.” While it is obvious that the scene is supposed to be some sort of high-tech beacon or communication hub, AdNorrel says he was more inspired to follow a specific image he imagined rather than try to justify it logically.

Moving from top to bottom, the glowing sphere at the apex is slightly reminiscent of a futuristic blue Eye of Sauron. The texture on the tower is interesting, as most builders would just go for an intense mix of hoses, gears and other logical-looking details without much coordination, but AdNorrel focuses on geometric shapes that are only later complimented by all sorts of technical bits. The hoses give the whole creation a bit better of a flow, connecting the tower with the grassy landscape directly. The tower and the barn join seamlessly, but still showing the strange metallic beacon bursted out through the roof at some point. The base needs mentioning too; while it does not really have much on it besides the barn and the … thing, it manages to look good with a smoothed out border and a healthy mix of stones and grass.

2017 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 20

Welcome to Day 20 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. Will Day 20 give us plenty?

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

Park gives me a sense of enormous wellbeing

As winter blows through in my part of the world, it’s nice to enjoy a touch of summer parklife with this sweet LEGO scene from Sheo. The scale used here is deceptive, I was surprised at how big this model is in real life — those are large quarter-circle fences providing the upper columns in the central rotunda. The pavilion is lovely, with its little fountain, and I like the geometric design of the gardens and their flowerbeds. Nice use of panel parts for the paths too, creating a tiny height difference between the paving and the grass — an almost insignificant detail, but the sort of thing that elevates the best microscale building.

Denethor stars in Tolkien’s A Christmas Carol

What do you get if you cross Charles Dickens’ famous novel, A Christmas Carol and Tolkien’s novels, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit? Patrick B has answered that question in a series of six creations that show the journey of Denethor as Ebenezer Scrooge. Each of the six vignettes tell a part of the story in beautifully detailed LEGO scenes from Scrooge’s miserable start, a warning from Saruman as Jacob Marley, experiencing visions with the ghosts of past, present and future, before the final change to a more benevolent man.

Saruman appears as Jacob Marley to warn Scrooge to change his miserly ways or face a dark future of unhappiness. I love the clock on the wall and the chair in the corner in the bedroom.

See the next four Tolkien’s A Christmas Carol scenes

I’m dreaming of a white reindeer [Instructions]

With its smattering of red and gold, this predominantly white LEGO scene by ianying616 makes a sweet and simple festive treat. The tree in the background is nicely-done, with just enough decorations to avoid looking stark. And I like the use of tan tiles amidst the restrained colour scheme — it gives a bit of contrast which allows the central reindeer to stand out. The little creature itself is a cool model, with good use of toothed parts, tiles, and curves to provide texture and detail.

If you want to build your own festive white reindeer, ianying616 has kindly supplied instructions,. The first page is shown below.

There are eight pages in total, and can be found in ianying616’s reindeer instructions album.

A new beauty born of decay

When I first looked at this picture, I thought to myself that someone really needs to clean up the weeds on their mansion, but then with some quick research it turned out there is nobody to do the cleaning. Château Nottebohm is an abandoned castle in Belgium, which has been uninhabited for over half a century. While the landscape looks more like a savannah than a temperate forested plain, Marion has definetely done justice to the mansion itself.

On the outside the building seems to contain no large bricks whatsoever, achieving intense chaotic textures characteristic of decaying buildings. Textures like these feel more at home in larger creations, but Marion has managed to make them look good even at this small scale. There are complex shapes achieved with more or less legal techniques, for some of which I am not even sure they can be done without cutting bricks, so purists beware! For a better understanding of some of these techniques, I suggest anyone interested to look at the work in progress photos, like this example here.

2017 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 19

Welcome to Day 19 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.

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!

Attention! It’s time for the Christmas parade

Toy soldier figures are a mainstay of Disney theme park decorations at this time of year. Koen has built a wonderful LEGO version, with great shaping and brilliant attention to detail. The hat is fabulous, and the nicely-done face captures the character well. I particularly like the rosy cheeks and pointed pink nose. And that angled hat brim is excellent.

No army is tiny enough to sieze this castle

I have no idea what the tiny attacking army is thinking, but apparently they are trying to besiege this cute, impenetrable fortress. The scene, built by Timothy Shortell, is as complete as they get. There’s ingenious use of parts in the siege equipment, the dark green plains are dynamic, the castle is highly detailed and, most of all, the intense cliffs at the back are amazing. I have never believed them to be useful in a serious creation, but at this scale and level of texture, the rocky wedges (part 64867) at the left and right ends of the cliffs actually look perfect.

The wonderful world of warehouses

Warehouses are one of those things that make modern life go around. They’re also one of those things that most people will never step inside but could not live without. If you’re among the warehouse curious, Norton74‘s recent build is just for you. From the shelving, to the pallets, to the equipment – this build incorporates all the quintessential elements of a warehouse.

After studying this model for a while, one thing that immediately stands are the variety of different forklift models shown. Considering this whole build was a commission for a forklift truck company, that’s not entirely surprising. Exploring other photos from the builder reveals some additional forklift and hand truck models that didn’t make it into the the scene above.

2017 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 18

Welcome to Day 18 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.

Click to reveal today’s LEGO advent calendar builds!