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.

Malt, hops, water, yeast, and ABS — the perfect pint

LEGO and beer — surely the perfect combination*. Austrian builder sanellukovic certainly seems to think so, having put together this fabulous Medieval brewery. I love the frame of poles out front supporting the hop vines, and the presence of a well — clean water being the single most important ingredient in good beer, and generally the reason for a brewery’s location.

The model has a nice interior, and there’s some great low-level photography to showcase it. I love when builders get their cameras down to minifig eye-level. It gives a wonderfully realistic feel when the images are up close like this…

*Always drink responsibly. Especially if you’re building something. Building whilst under the influence of alcohol often results in terrible models. And don’t even think about drinking beer if you’re not over the age of legal consumption in whatever country you live in. You hear us? Don’t be telling the cops that TBB told you it was okay.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Set sail — for adventure

Always nice to see a LEGO Fantasy/Castle creation which isn’t land-based. I like this little ship by Eggy Pop — it’s a relatively simple model, but it’s a lovely clean build. I particularly like the curved bricks creating the sense of a gathered sail. This is one of those creations where you can’t help but invent a story to go along with the scene: Where is our hero heading? On what noble quest is he engaged?

I’d like to see this diorama in real life, and take a closer look at the “waterscaping”. Check out this close-up of the nice brickwork which makes up the froth and surf as the waves wash against the rocks…

Many names for this towering sight

Orthanc, home of the corrupted white wizard Saruman, is an important part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and is even referenced in the title of the second book, The Two Towers. The film version of the tower may not be quite as iconic as Sauron’s Barad’dur, but it’s still managed to burn itself into the memories of fantasy lovers all over the world. This microscale LEGO recreation by Maelven isn’t the first LEGO Orthanc model we’ve featured, but the builder has added a lot of great style to it.

Although quite a departure from this builder’s comfort zone of highly accurate Star Wars vehicles, Maelven did not disappoint in this turn to fantasy. The intense details on the tower will keep your attention for more time than you would expect, but what I really like is the gradual but very fluent tapering of the tower’s shape towards the top — an effect achieved by slightly tilting many bars and plates on the surface of the creation.

Like this tiny Orthanc? Check out this diorama of the breaking of Isengard featuring a 7 ft tall Orthanc, or a detailed 8 ft tall Orthanc with a full interior.

Find your fame and fortune deep in the dungeons

Dungeons & Dragons is one of the cornerstones of geek culture, but it seems to be somewhat underrepresented in LEGO, possibly because having two time-consuming hobbies like these is not possible for everyone. Galaktek was not discouraged by this, thus he was able to bring this expansive diorama to life for all of the classic RPG lovers out there.

There are many levels, from cellar to temple, each of them filled with monsters, traps and other kinds of detail. The changing colours add to the atmosphere of the scenes they encircle, as they get more and more intense moving down. Every single room has something to see and I advise looking through the Flickr album to inspect them all up close, including some humorous “behind the scenes” vignettes.

A slice of Medieval coastal life

We go back in time to experience Medieval life in this diorama of a coastal village by goilive. To describe this as a village seems an understatement to me as there are a lot of buildings and infrastructure, even a port with a ship moored up. I love the changing colour gradient of the sea as it reaches the sand and the host of details little wooden jetty located centrally or the market stalls in front of the large castle.

From a slightly different angle, it is easier to see some of the activities going on in this busy scene. There’s a fisherman trying to catch lunch down on the beach, a cargo load being transferred onto the ship, while a jester and unicorn entertain some onlookers in the central park. This diorama is going on display at a couple of locations in France later this month and the next; it’s definitely well worth a close-up look in person to enjoy the full scene.

Welcome the cold embrace of steel or the sea

I often look at LEGO creations as art or interesting technical accomplishments, but this 13th century naval battle scene brings something different to the table, which we don’t see often in LEGO… education. James Pegrum of the Brick to the Past team shares some interesting information about an important moment in European history in the photo’s description (accessed by clicking the photo below).

The build itself is very interesting. The technique used to achieve the round hull shapes is not new by any means, but I have not seen it used for ships very often and the smoothness is quite impressive. As expected of Brick to the Past creations, the ships are indeed very historically accurate. Opinions about the sea in this build may be quite diverse, as people tend to either love or hate loose pieces on builds – but can anyone deny the impression of movement that the water gives?

A haven of sea stacks to call home

Sea stacks are amazing vertical rock formations that stand in the sea, formed entirely by wind and water as the forces of nature break up part of the headland over time. There are some famous stacks around the world, for example, the Twelve Apostles in Australia or the Old Man of Hoy off the coast of Orkney in Scotland. Tirrell Brown has created a beautiful scene with sea stacks, just off the coast of the imaginary land of Mitgardia. The castle is centrally located upon one of the larger stacks, jutting out the sea with it’s small wooden pier. Tirrell’s sea is very striking, with the combination of dark blue and medium blue depths and transparent waves crashing against the craggy rock faces of the sea stacks.

Raise your swords up high, hear the black birds cry

We do not often see battle scenes built out of LEGO, for multiple reasons. First of all, amassing a vast number of identical minifigures for an army is not in every builder’s budget, but also arranging them into a convincing action scene is more difficult than it appears. ~The Maestro and his brother in arms Joshua Wilson were as brave as the little plastic warriors of the diorama for taking up this challenge, and they emerged victorious. The battle looks very believable, but more than that – the setting does not lag behind whatsoever.

This diorama of a raiding party attacking a defensive settlement has everything you could wish for; a burning village, tactical fortification, and a realistic landscape, where a battle like this would really happen. I should point out that there are many very well-built parts of the diorama that may go unnoticed with the battle as the focal point – especially the houses of the village and the old windmill.

The mountains are calling and I must go

Legend says a gorgeous temple is hidden somewhere in these mountains. To find it, you’ll have to cross the treacherous lava and fight giant scorpions. Or so they say. What’s inside? Only builder David Leest knows. But you can bet your bottom copper that any heroes that find the temple and live to tell the story will be richly rewarded.

David’s stunning scene depicts an adventuring group comprised of a blue mage, a red mage, a dwarf, and a thief who have finally reached the temple’s doorstep. The temple itself is quite detailed, including studded textures, bas-relief sculptures, and a pleasing mixture of “new” gray and old gray that makes this building look ancient.

The wheel of time is a game of roulette, and the Roman Empire lost

Sometimes, history is quite literally the foundation of the present. This creation is one such example, but with an interesting duality: not only does it represent medieval structures built upon ancient ruins, but it is also literally a rebuild of Antonio Carretti‘s earlier LEGO Forum of Nerva, which we also featured here on The Brothers Brick. The creations very obviously represant the same structure, despite the contrast between a shiny new temple and fortified ruins.

The dark red and orange tower blends with the remains of the temple beautifully, and the white details in the house on the left really show how the stairs of the temple were used to build it. My favourite part is definetely the overgrown and decrepit temple itself, with its former glory hardly recognizable anymore, replaced with an impression of great age and a long and tragic history.

The Knights of the Cubed Table

The classic LEGO Castle themes, like Forestman or Wolfpack, charmed fans with their simple and straightforward designs — faction colors and plain symbols providing the only distinctive elements for each clan. IamKritch makes the most of the styling, reviving two heroes of the past — a couple of fancy Brickheadz warriors. These guys look adorable with their small bow and sword!

A quiet summer evening in the Nine Kingdoms

The Nine Kingdoms is a German forum-based LEGO roleplaying game. It often produces impressive Castle-themed MOCs, such as this peaceful windmill scene by Markus Rollbühler. The model is full of details which come together as a realistic slice of Medieval life — the texture of the roof and upper walls, the unique brick-built windmill design, and the stone arches holding up the whole building. But what makes this creation really one-of-a-kind is the action outside — a family enjoying a peaceful summer day together. With so many Castle-themed creations focused on conflict and chaos, you’d imagine more Medieval minifigs wished they had this luxury…