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.

Bleak but beautiful

If I had to pick one element of the LEGO world where building styles and expectations have changed the most in the last few years, I’d suggest landscaping has seen the biggest transformation in techniques and general quality. The level of detail, clever brickwork, and creativity on display in a good piece of landscaping now is amazing. EdgelessAbyss provides a great example — a scene where the rockwork is the absolute star of the show. The restrained use of colour, the way the tumbledown ruins blend into the surrounding earth, the solitary figure — the elements all comes together to make a bleak and beautiful fantasy scene.

The builder says this was based on the style of the Dark Souls III and Berserk videogames. However, I’d love to see them use these techniques and styling on a version of Ahch-To, the Star Wars planet whose distinctive rocks and twisting stairs were filmed on the Irish island of Skellig Michael.

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The sound of a thunderous charge in the dark forest

The prolific teenaged builder William Navarre is no stranger to realistic historical Japanese themes, but this latest creation of a company of samurai ambushing a camp of the emperor’s ashigaru is one of his best addditions to the series.

There is much to see in this full LEGO scene, from the minifig action that seems to express motion much better than one would expect of the somewhat motorically limited minifig, to the flags and the realistic ground texture. The background deserves discussion too; while the opinions on the trees’ textures may be variable, the textures do work for what they are supposed to. More importantly, you should not miss the most subtle, but also the most ingeniously simple part of the build: the angled black background with dark blue rays of light penetrating the treetops.

A tiny corner of Transylvania

We’ve previously featured alego alego‘s imaginative parts usage in a microscale LEGO castle made of minifig torsos. This new creation is no less imaginative in its parts choice, but delivers an altogether more sombre and gothic look. The six-barrel shooter creates an excellent impression of castle crenellations, and the spikes atop the towers lend a real feeling of height. But it’s the big drill piece as a floating rock, coupled with the elegant spiral stair which pushes this model out of the ordinary. I can just imagine a tiny Count Dracula surveying his domain from a window in the highest tower.

Snowbound fortress offers small comfort

You don’t have to wait for winter to see a snow-covered fantasy castle. Isacc Snyder follows his microscale LEGO Rivendell model with this equally cool teeny-tiny fortress. There’s a nice selection of parts here, with Technic cogs providing excellent depth of texture on the towers. I also like the ice-clear frozen lake at the castle’s foot, and the white tooth plates suggesting a spill of snow over the edge of the base. Personally, I might have added black screwdrivers to the turrets on the topmost towers, increasing their “spindle-y-ness”, but that minor reservation aside, I love this model.

Anyone up for a quick round of mini golf?

Taking a break from his normal pastel art-deco-inspired buildings which look like they belong on postcards, Andrew Tate‘s most recent LEGO creation is something even more whimsical, a putt-putt golf course! There are so many fun details, like the colorful putting greens with obstacles, employees dressed like they work in a renaissance fair, and different colored golf balls for all the players. It’s also impressive how Andrew captured the look of a castle that appears real at first glance, but upon further inspection, seems like it’s probably made out of carved foam and painted wood rather than stone.

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.

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.