Besides sharing fantastic creations through the front page of the Brothers Brick, I like collecting building ideas to use in my own models sooner or later. No kidding, I have a ton of folders with pictures and links to my favorite ideas in numerous genres. Castle is one of the genres I’m planning to explore, but I’ve been in search of a perfect vision — until today. Kallstark Stronghold by Louis of Nutwood might be exactly what I was looking for. The way the castle merges with the landscape puts this build on par with modelmaking masterpieces; obviously, a LEGO version lacks weathering, but the texture of the walls adds so much character. The towers’ and walls’ proportions may be questionable, but I’m a fan of the current composition. The castle looks a lot bigger than it is. And this is precisely how it gets a little bit of magic — I need to know what is happening inside!
Tag Archives: Castle
TBB Cover Photo for January 2022: The king’s royal hangover
Why is the start of the new year in the middle of winter? It’s dark and cold out, everyone is tired. Even indoors can be dark and cold, just like this grand high-ceilinged throne room built by Andreas Lenander. After a night of celebrations within his keep, the noble king returns to his throne with a royal hangover to ponder the existential dilemma of ruling instead of partying. Or he may be wondering what’s taking his servant so long to fetch the breastplate stretcher…
We recently wrote about this grand royal hall, but we decided to use this immersive and atmospheric shot as the cover photo for our social media platforms. Despite my questionable interpretation of the scene (and one too many Bobby B references), the composition of this build and the photo speaks for itself as good storytelling. The king positioned on the white carpet draws the eye to the throne looming in the darkness, prompting the pondering of his situation. Does the darkness mean that his kingdom is in peril? Do the columns signify that the king is trapped in a risky position of power (and he’d rather be spending his life partying with peasant girls)? Ok, I’ll stop now.
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Take note of this impressive castle vignette.
Francis Wiemelt has delivered a 12×12 castle vignette featuring a medieval scribe, attending to his work in a room worth writing home about. From the slanted brickwork in the ceiling, to the well textured stone floor, there are loads of impressive details in this build. My favorite part is the scribe’s desk, which is made (appropriately enough) from books.
Beautiful mosaic patterns feature in this grand hall
Andreas Lenander has designed this fantastic looking great hall. Light trickles in through the windows, surrounded by intricate stonework frames. Tall pillars are placed close to the main walkway with extended connector pieces assisting in adding to their height. A grand window overlooks the king who greets an approaching visitor while the guards stand ever watchful. Cast your eyes down to the floor and you can see complex mosaic patterns created by wedge pieces. The outer squares along the path also have some great details with arched pieces creating elegant curves in the patterns.
As Andreas says in the video, you wouldn’t want to tip this model upside down, otherwise those wedge pieces will be going everywhere.
Cute forest animals abound at the Everdell Castle
I love how hobbies or interests are able to bring people together. I am quite the LEGO nerd and thanks to LEGO and its community, I’ve met so many lovely people. My partner on the other hand is quite the board game geek and thanks to him I got sucked into the community that comes with the dice. What never stops to amaze me is the amount of love that goes into designing board games. John Snyder and Isaac Snyder drew inspiration from the game ‘Everdell’. The game is filled with cute forest critters and almost magical surroundings. For their latest build, they decided to give the ‘Castle’ card the LEGO treatment.
The castle wall looks really organic and irregular at the top due to a fine selection of pieces. We can find dinosaur tails, spider legs and plant limbs used for the wooden castle gate. Each wooden beam gets adorned with a white horn, claw, cone, lever base, or a bulb to represent fresh snow. The main tower has a crazy angle to it and I can’t figure out how the bricks are connected at the place of the angle. My guess is flex tubing but I might be wrong. It may as well be friction and gravity. There are cattle horns used in brown as architectural details. We get flags made out of pentagonal tiles with a little crown attached to it with a rubber band, which looks like a little layer of fresh snow on the top of the flag. The inhabitants of the castle are LEGO animals, which makes this build less than minifigure scale, which allows for parts to be used in a very original way. The skis used for doors look massive and add a sense of grandeur to the castle. Have you spotted the brave little blue hamster defending the castle?
What do you get when you cross an elephant and a fountain?
Sometimes you just want to have fun, like LEGO builder W. Navarre clearly did when building this amusing vignetter of a hunter getting his comeuppance from a delightfully chibi elephant. The scene playing out here is great, but I’m mostly enthralled by the excellent elephant, who is completely adorable right down to the toenails. I’m also loving how good those grey Mixels eye tiles work turned sideways.
Just a slice of medieval life
To say that I’m intrigued by this LEGO layout built by td_brix is an understatement. The path comes from a destination unknown. It traverses through this outpost in the middle of the water, then leads out of the composition again to another unknown destination. Why is it here? Where does the path lead? Who lives here? This little slice of medieval life proposes more questions than answers. But still, it is a pretty stellar thing. I’m enamored by the highly textured three-tiered roof. I want to live here, even for just a weekend or so. If this were an Airbnb, I’d book this place in a minute!
The shadows of Shadar Logoth
The eerie city of Shadar Logoth stands in magnificent ruin in this large diorama by Brick Ninja. They’ve been slowly working their way through scenes from Robert Jordan’s monumental Wheel of Time series, presenting each snapshot completely immersively. Brick Ninja doesn’t show us the full build–or even if the structure is more than a facade. Instead, it’s built for the camera, to be seen from this angle, and it’s beautiful, with architectural details sculpted throughout. The detailing at the top of the large central doorway is especially nice, as is the huge domed roof.
Excuse me sir, but there is a croissant in your mustache
Scratch that, the croissant is the mustache! This stout warrior by Dan Ko makes great use of a few specialty parts like the French pastry, as well as spider webs used for a tangled web of hair that also reminds me of The Witcher‘s main character. There are also several of the new angled pipes with stud elements used for hands, and to hold the helmet’s horns… well, horn. Finally, a folded net draped across the shoulders is a nice touch.
A peaceful floating temple in miniature
Floating islands are a popular inspiration for many LEGO builders, and it is easy to see why. They are mysterious and fantastical, and they can provide a great challenge to build them in a way that both supports the model and hides that support to enhance the magical appearance of the finished scene. Nathan Hake does a masterful job of using falling water to provide the support for this microscale floating island with a temple nestled between the trees.
A Roman border tower keeps an eye on them goats
Whether it be the great natural color scheme, fantastic textures or intricate shapes, there’s a lot to love about this Roman border tower built by Ben Tritschler. But the star of the show, to me anyway, has to be those goats. Clearly I’m not the only TBB contributor thrilled by goats. However, I do seem to be the most vocal about it. What can I say? Goats are pretty much the formula for success around here. Even when they’re scary as hell. I may consider also going gaga for those sheep. They are not without their charm. As a LEGO builder, Ben is also not without his charm. Check out our archives to see what I mean.
Visiting a Venice-like Vacation
LEGO builder Ayrlego has stunned us with this incredible Venitian-style vintage building and dock.
What’s not to like about this build? The windows caught my eyes first, as their simple design carries so much implied detail. It’s impressive that Ayrlego was able to replicate the window design not once, not twice, but seven times. Harder to spot is the stair railing, which is made up of cheese slopes and eyeglass pieces. So simple, yet the paired brick choice is flawless for how well it works here. I love the pattern of the rounded and square tiles scattered throughout the build as well.
Ayrlego has been featured on The Brother’s Brick several times before. Check out his builds here.