Tag Archives: Castle

Dragons! Knights in shining armor! Trebuchets & ballistas! From enormous LEGO castles buttoned up for battle to peaceful village market scenes, we’ve got your LEGO Castle needs covered right here.

Farmhands down, this is a great trophy

This exquisite construction by the one and only Markus Rohlbühler brings together two of my favorite things in the LEGO hobby: non-minifig scale and trophy construction. Handed out as an award for this year’s Brickscalibur contest, this darling farmhand is quite the amalgamation of curved slopes. With studs pointing every which way, the maiden’s blue dress proves well-crafted. And the little detail of her rolled-up sleeves, made using the bottom of the facemask from Ninjago’s Zane, is absolutely stellar.

If you’re interested in even more like this, check out this excellent orc trophy by Markus that we featured late last month.

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D&D’s latest LEGO bad boy is also a Strahd boy

As the LEGO Dungeons & Dragons builds continue to spill forth, builder Plastic Pauper has a great take on one of the game’s first monsters: the vampire lord. I have to commend the character construction here. With sharp lines for the count’s suit contrasted by the more flowing contours of his face and cloth cloak, this dark noble feels alive wielding his menacing rapier (that’s 1d8 piercing damage, folks!). And I adore all the gold filigree and tan ascot adorning his chest. Such a well-crafted villain is further complemented by the dynamite background in this vignette. The ornate stone walls surrounding the figure feature a ring of keys, a pair of candlesticks, and quite the imposing gargoyle. But my favorite detail has got to be the spiky ends of a portcullis in the doorway to the vamp’s rear. What an excellent homage to the fantasy role playing game!

Ready to encounter some more great D&D builds? Check them out in our archives!

Rockhall lights the way to an epic layout

Call me weird but I love a huge LEGO layout with a unified color scheme. Take this striking red and white creation by the eerily named Eric TheSkeleton, for example. The buildings, lighthouse, even the numerous airships stay faithful to that red and white color scheme; it’s kinda like the White Stripes live there. I’m sure there are other real-life examples but with the hill and Mediterranean-style red roofs, this layout reminds me of Coimbra, Portugal. Upon closer inspection, this is actually a microscale build but the island citadel seems to have a more massive footprint than what is true to life. The bones as waves are a masterful touch! That water just might be a bedsheet or a tablecloth but, with the tiny ripples, the effect works amazingly well within the composition. It’s not quite a purist approach but the last time we upset the purists, we had a record number of complaints from folks with AOL email addresses so maybe lightning will strike again this time. Here’s to hoping it does!

Yellow castle king under attack

We all love a bit of LEGO nostalgia every now and then and this build by Lars Barstad really hits the soft spot. It’s got a nod to the yellow LEGO castle from way back when, and then there is the Black Falcon king for the generations after the yellow castle. The posing of the minifigures is great and the little baby with the helmet on is too cute. The miniature castle is amazingly well done. It looks like the yellow castle but it also looks like a theatre backdrop. Of course the amazingly brick build heavy curtains also really help to set the scene.

We can’t take our eyes off this watchtower

Lech Kulina has achieved some real sorcery with this medieval watchtower. Its near-perfect cylindrical shape is an illusion, achieved by creating a 16-sided polygon that approximates a curve to the naked eye.

Lech was nice enough to give everyone a look at how it was done with some helpful cross-section pics. Although, to me, it still looks like magic.

When you see a serpent

I don’t know about you, but I like my placid meadow villages free of marauding sea serpents. However, the folks were not so lucky at this fine farm by LEGO builder Faëbricks. The dark water looks ominous rather than tranquil, and the sand-green serpent rears his head in a pose that might be an easter egg for LEGOLand’s Brickley. As for the whole scene, I don’t know whether this builder was inspired by Valheim, but this moment seems to be drawn straight out of one of my games, from right after my boat got wrecked by a serpent and I’m swimming furiously to shore hoping my stamina holds out.

A delicious drumstick tower

Ben Spector thought he could hide LEGO turkey drumsticks in the tower roof of this lovely build and get away with it. Well, this is surely not the case because we did notice this clever part usage. But that is not the only smartly used part. We get ice cream scoops used as smoke and cheese slopes representing stained glass windows. Since LEGO will probably never release non-licensed castle sets with skin-toned Minifigures, I always navigate towards creations that do match these criteria. One of the best things about this creation has to be the base of the tower which grows wider and wider until it is wide enough to support a full-blown tower on the first floor. Chapeau!

Gorgeous crenellations adorn this Black Falcon fortress

I cannot get enough of the beautiful LEGO stonework on this Black Falcon castle by Michał Kozłowski. The long, slender slopes reaching up from its walls and forming the battlements atop them add such height to this construction. Those expertly textured and colored walls reach up to two dark, sleek roofs capping a duo of spires. It almost completely distracts from the enemy horde trudging through the vegetation on the ground below. Festooned with birch trees, this plot is where our invaders have set up a ladder to breach the walls.

Thankfully, this fortress is armed with a heavy duty ballista to take out any enemies that make it over the bulwark. I think this design is top notch, and definitely my favorite part of the build.

A lavender dream over turquoise waters

Ralf Langer is a master when it comes to making bulky LEGO creations. He also is very capable of making builds look very delicate and fragile. In this creation it is almost baffling to me that he manages to make this massive tower look light and airy. The hexagon shaped towers are created by sticking hot dogs into 1×1 round plates with holes. Ralf’s builds always look quite part intensive so my guess is that these two towers actually weigh quite a lot. Yet he still managed to make it look like they are just floating in mid air. The window in the middle part of the build looks quite interesting and Ralf himself is quite fond of it, so I hope he ventures further into that style of architecture because I am most curious what he’ll come up with.

A crusade to distant worlds

While knights in armour might often be associated with big grey castles, they did venture much further east in the (often ill-fated) crusades. Andreas Lenander has applied this scenario to LEGO’s own Black Falcon knights. Despite the sun and those hot-looking outfits, they look quite content to be living here! To be fair, it’s much more colourful than their typical monochrome abodes. This style of architecture does require some different techniques than you might expect in typical castles. I’m drawn to the domed roofs on the two larger buildings, each made using half a planet — specifically, I believe it’s Endor and Bespin. Talk about an out-of-this-world idea!

The future of the Forestmen

I think LEGO should consider bringing the Forestmen theme back (and castle in general, for that matter). Look at this creation by Sylon_tw. It features the classic light grey, black, and blue colour scheme but it is brought up to date. The blue is combined with dark blue to make it look less primary colorish and lend a mottled look. The grey walls feature texture to achieve an overall worn-down look. And the black is just a little bit less dominant than it was in the original theme. There is lush foliage everywhere and cute little forest critters hiding in it. Best thing about this whole castle creation? It is not conflict driven. At least if you presume the archer is just practising for athletic reasons.

Big detail to be found in this Lilliputian village

Welcome to the microscale marvel that is the LEGO village of Valendiell, created by the brilliant Peter Ilmrud. First things first, we need to address the gigantic tree at the center of this build, which towers over the village, the lighthouse, and even the neighboring castle. I like the natural shape created by the foliage, setting it apart from the minute vegetation scattered around it. Under its massive boughs, we have a darling castle design, utilizing these technic pins as turrets. It’s an ingenious bit of parts usage, but nothing compared to the outstanding implementation of the brown minifig epaulettes on the airship and the small boat. And I’m only scratching the surface of all the great secrets hidden in Valendiell. See what else you can spot below.