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.

Life’s a beach

When a certain young naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin joined the HMS Beagle on it’s historic 2nd voyage in 1831, camera photography was still something of an experimental science. So capturing a visual record of the trip was the responsibility of a ship’s artist, like Conrad Martens.

Historical LEGO scene builder James Pegrum has recreated one of Martens’ more unusual sketches from the trip, showing the Beagle beached for repairs at a spot near the mouth of the Rio Santa Cruz (Argentina).

Yes, everything in the picture – including the distant cliffs – is LEGO. James manages to combine his particular building and photographic skills to create a very life-like scene. If the trip had taken place 175 or so years later, I’m sure Martens would have tweeted an image just like this!

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Micro Choo-choo Train

I’m not the train expert here on TBB, but I do know a few things about micro and setting up small scale micro dioramas, and this build by Galaktek is simply divine:

I love the use of the raised track and the nice 45 degree angle. But what really steals the show for me is the amazing train. The engine is what microscale is all about – using existing pieces in completely different fashion. In this case using the familiar spring loaded cannon base for the little blue engine that could.

Touching the frontier

7 years ago, Rob (Dasnewten) posted the first of his many mindblowing starfighter designs. Throughout the years since and in spite of the many incredibly builds he’s posted, it’s a design he’s continued to return to and refine, resulting in the radically evolved RG-101. It’s a glorious combination of clean lines and gorgeous details that looks better than most of the stuff produced by major studios.

Do not go gentle into that good night

Chris Nolan’s latest movie Interstellar is an epic adventure across time and space, accompanied by an equally epic and thunderous soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. It was by far the most enjoyable cinematic experience I’ve had since Nolan’s mind-bending 2010 masterpiece Inception.

It’s been fun watching various Interstallar-inspired builds emerge over the past few months, most of which – not that surprisingly – focus on the movie’s stylish Ranger spacecraft. But I think Taiwanese builder jp_velociraptor has just created the definitive version:

This is not simply a LEGO sculpture of the distinctive ship, it’s a complete play set! The model opens up to reveal a cockpit with room for all the explorers and one of their clunky robot companions (also shown below in “rescue mode”). Very impressive work indeed.

I heartily recommend that you see this movie. I won’t give anything away… but it’s as emotionally draining as it is visually and sonically mesmerizing. So I strongly suggest you bring a box of tissues with you to the movie theater ;-)

A lantern to light the way

Paul Toxopeus (P@u! +ox) gives us an absolutely gorgeous lantern to oogle at. He’s built in an LED light, and a stunning mosaic that just comes to life when the lights go out.

You can see more details in Paul’s flickr stream here.

I must go up to the skys again

Tall ships and steampunk make very good bedfellows, especially in the hands of Sean and Steph Mayo. Their latest build, the Iron Maiden, is just stunning. I didn’t quite grasp that it was LEGO when I ran across the thumbnail originally.

Should you be so interested, I also recommend checking out the build prior to this. I happen to not care for little flying death monsters myself, but I will acknowledge they are brilliantly done.

Chemistry Tools

When I first spotted this, I did not realize it was a render. I am a big fan of scientific builds, and this is definitely up my alley. I particularly love the molecule model. The scale is fantastic. The periodic table is instantly recognizable.

Matt Bace is definitely knocking out some amazing things, like the power strip we featured last week. I definitely recommend poking around a bit in his flickr steam.

Wowsers!

“Here’s your assignment, Inspector Gadget: Use your powers of Eighties cartoon awesomeness to help Dr Clites defeat the dastardly Mayo Twins in their plot to take over the Iron Builder contest. Use the seed part in any way you can to outdo them. Bring along a small child and a talking dog, for when you inevitably get into trouble. Regards, Chief Quimby. THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT.”

Fiery Phoenix

This mesmerizing Phoenix is made entirely from transparent bricks, and was created by Moko as an entry in the Click Brick 2015 Winter Original Model Contest. Starting next month, LEGO stores all across Japan will be showcasing competition entries created by local builders. One of the interesting features of this contest is that every model has to fit within a 20 stud x 20 stud wide, 30cm high space. We’ll be keeping an eye out for pictures of the best entries, and featuring them right here.

If a Porsche is just a bit too ordinary

If you are millionaire and think a Porsche is just a bit too ordinary for you, perhaps the Ruf CTR3 is just the thing you are looking for. Ruf is a German car manufacturer that specialises in building supercars using mostly Porsche parts. Supercar builder/super car builder Firas Abu-Jaber used to be featured on this blog on a regular basis, until real life took over for a bit. However, he has recently resurfaced and, judging from his spectacular version of Ruf’s current model, is back to his old form.

One of the outstanding features of Firas’ models is how every LEGO element seems to fit in place as though it was designed with just that use in mind. On this one, I particularly like the angled door and flared side panel just behind it, to give the car a bit of a coke-bottle shape. It looks completely natural and comparable to a die-cast model.

Hawker Sea Fury roams the skies

Put into service with the RAF in 1947, just after the close of WWII, the Hawker Sea Fury isn’t quite as well known as its older sibling, the Hawker Hurricane, but it went on to see service as a carrier-based fighter in the Korean War. Building good minifig-scale fighter aircraft is a notoriously tricky thing, particularly sculpting a decent looking cockpit. Maelven has done an admirable bit of work here, though, and this plane looks ready for action.

Wacky birds

For about four years I have been living next to a canal inhabited by crested grebes, gulls, coots and ducks and visited regularly by swans, herons and cormorants. The coots, in particular, are immensely funny. They are reluctant flyers that tend to run across the surface of the water, whilst flapping their seemingly too small wings, instead of actually taking to the air. They are also fiercely territorial and are constantly chasing ducks and other coots away. Their shenanigans put a smile to my face every time.

It will come as no surprise then that I also had to smile at the wonderful pelican built by vir-a-cocha. It was built using only twenty pieces, which goes to show that you don’t need an awful lot of parts to build something that has character, as long as two of them are tiles with eyes printed on them.

The penguins from Madagascar, built by Peter Dornbach (dornbi), also make good use of said tiles and, inevitably, also made me smile. You can support these on Lego Ideas. Penguins may all seem indistinguishable, but one of the neat things about this wacky foursome is how Peter managed to make each unique and recognisable.