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.

TBB Cover Photo for September 2018: Bricktychon – The Wood Tryptichon

The TBB Cover Photo for September 2018 is this beautiful triptych (a fancy word for a picture or carving featuring three panels side by side), which shows the journey of wood during medieval times, from logging through cutting and use in a large building. The photo is a collaboration between three builders: Travis Brickle, who built the forest, Simon NH, who built the sawmill, and Ralph Langer, who built the medieval construction scene. While each of the builds is stunning in its own right, the builders did an excellent job coordinating their photography and build styles to create a trifecta of creations that tells a simple yet charming story.

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Mimic Mishap: a Dungeons and Dragons LEGO adventure!

Taylor, of the Brandon and Taylor Walker building duo, has put out another entry in his Dungeons & Dragons series. As a newly-minted D&D player in the middle of his first adventure (I’m a half-elf Ranger with a sailor background who always follows orders, even if they’re wrong), I’m probably paying more attention to this one than I normally would have! There are five unique figures representing a range of the official character classes all facing off against a monstrous mimic treasure chest. The standout figure for me is the demonic tiefling with his mustache-for-horns. The floor and walls are also extremely well done, adding a patterned texture to offset the chaotic battle.

And if you’re as hungry for more D&D LEGO content as I currently am, check out our archives for cool models featured previously!

Bricks for Glory I: so you want to build a hero

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Sierra was one of the biggest names in PC gaming, and high-quality adventure games were one of their specialties. One of their most beloved franchises was the Quest for Glory series, developed by Lori Ann and Corey Cole. Of the five games in the series, Letranger Absurde chose to recreate the opening scene of Quest for Glory I: So You Want to be a Hero. As the hero enters the picturesque town of Spielberg for the first time, he is greeted by Sheriff Schultz Meistersson and his massive right-hand-man, Otto Von Goon. Going by the colors used, Letranger appears to have based his representation on the VGA remake. He makes a great use of various angles to form the buildings in front of the town square, and forced perspective is cleverly used to suggest there is another area to explore. The characters are instantly recognizable, including a brick-built version of Otto pulling off a yo-yo trick like he often does in the game.

A magical little windmill

This innovative building technique for windmill sails is simply magic! Magic wands that is. Andreas Lenander leaves some of the new wand pieces from the Harry Potter Collectible Minifigures attached to their plastic sprue and takes full advantage of their interesting shape. Beyond the smart parts-usage for the sails, the mill itself has a decent level of texture for such a small model, and is set within a nice little landscape — suggestive of a wider world around the building. This wouldn’t look out of place in a medieval real-time strategy game. And anything which reminds me of The Settlers is a good thing in my book.

In the City of the Dead, you will find the Claw Viper Temple

Diablo 2 is a game that is almost two decades old now, yet still holds a sizable following, including myself and, judging by some of his creations, Tammo S. Taking the game’s age into consideration, the photography angle of the creation makes much more sense, as it reflects the top-down view of the game. If you’re familiar with the game, you’ll love this creation for all its accurate details like the Paladin character in the middle sporting a Holy Fire aura and a Bone Shield. But even if this is the first time you’ve heard of this game, there is a lot to see.

Combinations of different tan colours to create an impression of stone bricks and all the textures and architectural elements really facilitate the Egyptian style of this part of the game. The creation was undoubtedly built for the top-down view characteristic for the Diablo videogame series, but this alternate angle still shows a some details that would otherwise remain hidden.

Just another day on the olive farm

This pastoral farm scene by Jonatan Svenning packs a lot of great details into a small space. One of my favorite features is the simple roof, which uses 2×4 tiles connected on the underside and resting on the sloped wall with no apparent stud connection.

The narrow door and the textured walls provide a cozy vibe, while the low rock wall looks sturdy and weather-worn. I also love the multiple colors for both the landscaping and the path, that go so well together.

A bridge back to 19th century China

Taking us back to Qing Dynasty China, ElviN has built a historically accurate version of the iconic Double Dragon Bridge. The diorama is packed with the comings and goings of day-to-day life: there’s a peasant fishing in the Nanpan River; a platoon of soldiers marshals a criminal across the bridge; whilst at the other end a farmer waits to herd his cattle over to the other side.

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A mystical treasure awaits those who can find the shrine

You might imagine that the golden crystal in the centre of this scene is the treasure of the shrine, but I believe the true treasures are all the crazy building techniques that Grant Davis has used in his Mountaintop Shrine. From a distance it may look like nothing special and the foliage on the periphery is nothing new, but a closer look will have you looking for your jaw somewhere under your desk (or under a bus seat if you are reading this on a mobile device).

The very composition and colour choices are great for setting up a bright, positive and somewhat cartoony atmosphere, but that is only the first thing to draw your attention. This attention is retained by amazing building techniques I have hinted at in the previous paragraph. Starting with the obvious, the cobblestone wall behind the shrine uses all sorts of round pieces from ends of bars through small ball joints to 2×2 tiles and more to achieve a highly realistic effect. But there are more subtle details too. For instance, you can see that the path leading towards the shrine is not just tiles connected flatly to the base, but is in fact irregular, as if damaged by centuries of disuse. Another subtly irregular thing is the left pillar (built out of frying pans stacked on one another!), which is standing at an angle. One more unique thing and the last I noticed myself is the tree, using the new leaf pieces set in such a way that they make a coherent treetop.

Click if you want to see a behind the scenes video

Visit the busy town of Khevroa in the Isles of Aura

There have been many entries in the continuing Isles of Aura saga, a series of floating islands creations, but I wanted to spend some time touring Isaac and John Snyder’s latest effort: the Town of Khevroa.

We’ve previously featured models from the Isles after the concept’s genesis as Models Inspired by Music and later with Brother Stevens’ Sunset Slumber among others. However, this latest scene has some great examples of packing a lot of detail and building variety into one small town.

Continue deeper into the town

Are you worthy of gazing upon the mighty Talos?

Worthy or not, you definitely should gaze upon Andrew Steele‘s Talos (and guards), because they are amazing creations. The builder doesn’t provide much explanation as to who they are — besides, perhaps, the character from Greek mythology — but we can imagine Talos being an evil overlord, judging by his skull-decorated throne. The figures are impressive on their own, but setting them in a bit of scenery, even if minimalistic, brings the build to the next level.

Click here to gain audience with Talos!

A market where you can buy cartoony and sell realistic

LEGO castle is one of the most perfected themes hobbyists build in, with nearly standardized textures and all sorts of solutions to build your perfect castle or medieval village. There is a price that comes with this, because just trying to build the best medieval creation you can some times is not enough. Originality has split the theme in question into two wider categories: cartoony style with crazy colours and rugged pseudo-realistic builds containing almost exclusively earth tones. Mountain Hobbit has a bit of both, especially noticeable in his latest creation, the Wefyrf Valley Wheat – Market

The landscaping is very neat with flowing curved shapes giving the village a realistic setting, and the dense treetops add to that too. But we should focus on the main part of the build, the village in the centre. The builder uses some wacky shapes for the walls of the houses that are set at a slight angle that still seems believable and coupled by natural colours they almost look realistic, but still somewhat joyfully cartoony – something LEGO bricks do not naturally lend to physically, but definitely do conceptually as a child’s toy in its basic purpose.

The only place where you can trade chocolate for dragon eggs

The LEGO Elves theme keeps surprising me personally with how popular it is amongst fans. While the related LEGO Friends remains successful, it is the Elves with their characteristic motives and colours that keeps inspiring builders to expand the story on their own. The rich world surpasses its target audience and as Martin Harris proves, there is something for everyone in it.

The Elvan sea port of Elvadion is an epic diorama showing us a less adventurous slice of life in Elvendale. There is everything one could expect of an Elves creation here, from bright colours and ornate architecture to cute animals, including dragons.

Click to explore the port town more closely!