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.

Gather up your bricks to summon Dark Souls’ Faraam

The Faraam character/armour set that was used extensively in the marketing of Dark Souls II has now found its way to LEGO thanks to this build by robbadopdop. It’s a very heavy, layered brick build that could easily pass as a stone monument piece if you switch out all the colours for grey. The fine detailing on the shield is particularly impressive, and the shaping of the cloth and fur elements should be commended too.

Another interesting point on this build is that the picture above isn’t a Photoshop of a single build. Instead, the builder made two (one as a commission and one to keep) so we get a rare double-sided view.

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A whimsical world with a waterfall

Whether in person or through the tubes and pipes of the internet, looking at a LEGO castle diorama has always been somewhat akin to viewing a renaissance painting in an art gallery for me. Like many great medieval artworks, there’s always so many things happening, and so many visually foreign and intriguing things occuring all at once — so much to take in. Brickwielder‘s latest build is filled to the brim with fun details and nifty building techniques. From the waterfall to the winding staircase, the bridge, or even all the foliage, there’s enough here to get lost.

A splash of medieval color

This row of colorfully crooked medieval houses by Ralf Langer depicts his first attempt at building a custom LEGO creation. While it’s hard to believe a new builder’s first LEGO creation can be a masterpiece, it’s certainly possible but usually requires lots of studying other creations and experimenting with building techniques. Ralf has probably done plenty of both, and the result paid off beautifully. I like the style of using detached landscape elements to enhance the setting, which adds a lot of depth to the scene.

A slice of fantasy life

Here’s a great example of how effective composition can turn a LEGO scene into something special. This slice of landscaping from Sergeant Chipmunk is a nice model of two warriors meeting on a smartly-constructed bridge. The surrounding scenery is nicely-done — the layers creating the gradients around the small stream are fantastic, and I like the amount of detail going on with the campsite and animal life. However, what really catches the eye is the way the bridge cuts across the diorama in a dramatic diagonal, and how the framing walls follow the contours making it feel like a slice of terrain cut from a genuine fantasy world. Wonderful stuff.

An idyllic blacksmith shop

The blacksmith shop is surely one of the most frequently built medieval LEGO structures beside castles, of course. And this wonderfully detailed shop by Sebastian Bachórzewski looks so peaceful I like to believe this blacksmith is busily making swords into ploughshares. It’s hard to understand why he looks so grumpy… maybe he just hit his thumb with the hammer.

One of the things I enjoy most about this particular shop is the textured roof with those big beams. The wide variety of green parts, including a longhorn steer’s horn used to create the thick vegetation is also a nice touch.

If these castle walls could talk

Nothing says foreboding fortress like a castle’s huge main gate and portcullis. Construction of this particular LEGO castle by Benjamin Calvetti began in July 2016 and, after utilising around 10,000 bricks, it is finally completed. Benjamin’s castle is around 20” inches (50cm) wide and seems to be emerging straight from the rock. The best part of this castle is that despite being freshly built, it has all the hallmarks of an aging building — some moss is growing in places, damage to the stonework and the odd slightly alarming large crack.

Click to see close-up views of the castle

Medieval castle in a digital age

Castle was one of the earliest themes introduced by LEGO back in 1978. The theme no longer continues, but fan builders have maintained a strong alliance with this favourite topic to display their creative talents. Sunder59 has built a microscale castle complete with gatehouse and stone fortifications surrounding the town. This is a digital model and has the advantage of using parts that are not officially LEGO parts at present. Despite this, I really like this model and it could easily be built in real bricks with a few small changes.

A closer look at the castle reveals some of the parts that are not currently part of LEGO’s inventory. I spotted three parts in colours that don’t exist yet; dark blue lipstick on the top of one tower, the reddish brown 1 x 1 bricks with studs on 2 adjacent sides and the Technic sprocket on the main tower.

How do you feel about us highlighting digital builds and renders? In a digital age, more and more people share their work online and the renders are improving all the time – is it cheating to use parts that don’t exist yet in those colours, or just part of the advantages of building this way?

Forest hovel is not too shabby

Not every fantasy character lives in a big grey castle or Tudor-styled town. However, those are the typical LEGO models we tend to see in Castle-themed building. Tirrell Brown‘s forest hovel makes a pleasant change of scene. The central building is nicely put-together, with a depth of texture creating a somewhat dilapidated feel. But it’s the overall colour scheme which catches the eye and elevates this composition. The colour gradient on the shaped base is particularly good, and the background trees fit perfectly. Those rocks and the small pond are nice touches of detail too.

An enchanting lake castle

Many LEGO castle creations are built into a rocky or wooded landscape, possibly inspired by real-life castle locations found all over the world. It’s one of the reasons that this castle by Isaac Snyder stood out to me, situated in a tranquil lake setting.

The round transparent blue dots used for the water surface and the bricks made from tiles in the foundation are simple but elegant. I also appreciate the dark blue slopes used in a variety of ways to form the many roof sections.

A fine fortification

One of the challenges facing any castle builder is how to make a big gray wall interesting. Maxim Baybakov has risen to the challenge with this wonderfully detailed castle. Maxim uses textured bricks, and the occasional side-facing stud to create visual interest, along with some well-placed plates of an alternate color. The same technique on the white walls provides a nice weathered look. Another great detail is the curved windows of the upper towers. But the most interesting design choice — which caught me by surprise — was using window elements turned backward, with the screens on the inside. This simple choice makes the windows seem much more natural in a castle wall.

Log houses never looked this good

In the LEGO creations of today, it seems as though technique is being emphasized more than ever before, especially within the castle genre. It seems as though not a day goes by when I don’t see an innovative way of making an everyday texture. This build by alego alego features a wonderfully designed blacksmith shop, primarily made using various Technic connector parts as individual logs. While I have used one or two of these parts as a single log in my own builds, I never would have conceived of making a whole building out of them, and the result is fantastic.

Check out these posts below for more amazing landscaping techniques:

Cloud dragon rules the skies

Dragons are the quintessential fantastical creature, common in myths from cultures around the globe, and a muse for artists and sculptors for centuries. LEGO builders are no exception — and here it’s John Cheng who has succumbed to the dragon’s call. This striking dragon bust is lovingly assembled from a well-chosen selection of curved and sloped parts, creating a great impression of musculature beneath scaled skin. Further, the blue and purple colour scheme is bold without being garish, and allows the lightning-flavoured horns on the dragon’s head to really pop from the image. The cloud-styled base of the model works nicely too.