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.

Beautiful diminutive kingdom

We’ve covered castles of many sizes from the very large to the incredibly small and somewhere in-between. Look closely at this incredible (entirely digitally generated) microscale Kazum’dar Castle by Sunder_59…

I love how the castle walls rise and fall with the terrain. A bird’s eye view shows the full complexity of the build, allowing a glimpse inside the castle walls at the multi-story buildings, including a perfect wee church, barracks, an assortment of dwellings and a shop. This micro-scale castle is a perfect example of how simple can be elegant.

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All we need is a bit of wind to grind the grain

Windmills have been utilising the energy of the wind power to automate tasks such as water pumping of grain grinding since 500-900 A.D. in Persia. This LEGO windmill by Issac S was inspired by some of the windmills seen in the video game Skyrim and was built for the 2017 Brickstory contest in the Early Middle Age category. The textured stone base of the windmill contrasts nicely with the wood and lighter stone central section and inspired use of the upturned barrel is the cherry on top.

The model features working windmill blades and a grindstone that are simultaneously operated by a crank on the back of the windmill. Issac has shared a video of this feature in action.

If you want to read more about the landscaping and, in particular, the tree seen in the left hand corner of this build, Issac has shared a tutorial. Originally this technique was used by Joeri Riddler and Issac has unpacked the design to allow others to develop the technique.

Pineapple farming in Japan

This scene by W. Navarre, while simple, hides a deeper complexity in the construction of the hut and rockwork under it, but most notably the build has great atmosphere and a unique theme. On such a small scale, using many colours can be very risky, which is why I am happy the builder only used as many as he needed to.

There is more to the build than only that seen on Navarre’s Flickr page, as he shares a few more vignettes on MOCpages, including a temple and a juice pressing structure. While it is not accompanied by a story as most of Navarre’s creations are, it leaves more to the imagination. It was built as part of The Tourney 2017 competition on MOCpages.

A Nordic town to settle down in

Games can provide inspiration for LEGO builders, although its often videogames rather than their more old-school cousin, the board game. Simon NH, however, has taken Settlers of Catan as his muse, and it has prompted a wonderful island scene, which ironically wouldn’t look out of place in a medieval real-time strategy game on PC! The landscaping grabs the initial attention, with a lovely colour gradient around the shoreline and excellent rockwork. But it’s the buildings which hold the eye, rewarding a closer look at some of the fabulous building techniques on display.

See more of this great medieval building

Summer 2017 LEGO Nexo Knights sets unveiled at New York Toy Fair 2017 [News]

Continuing our on-site coverage of the New York Toy Fair, LEGO has revealed 19 new Nexo Knights sets for August 2017, including Clay’s Falcon Fighter Blaster and Jestro’s Headquarters. The Nexo Knights story continues in two new seasons of episodic content on Cartoon Network and a free digital gaming app, Merlok 2.0, that enhances the building fun. Sets range from $9.99 to $129.99. Check out our earlier coverage of some of the sets that we already knew were on the way.

70357 Knighton Castle $129.99, 1426 pieces

70356 The Stone Colossus of Ultimate Destruction $69.99, 785 pieces

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Like a bridge over troubled lava

Whilst collaborative building is often all about massive displays for LEGO shows, sometimes it can result in something smaller, but no less cool. Eli Willsea and Grant Davis follow up on their impressive tropical island megabuild with this microscale scene of two cities separated by a river of fire. This would be an impressive little creation anyway, but knowing it was put together by two different builders somehow only adds to it. There’s a real sense of two different cultures and architectural styles confronting one another from either end of the bridge.

He-Man gets whitewashed

By The Power Of Whiteskull! Grantmasters has the Power! Or he certainly appears to, based on his latest piece of LEGO microscale building. The skull sword hilt is put to excellent use here, and its textured elements give an impressive sense of depth and scale to the tiny castle’s entrance. However, don’t miss the use of skeleton legs, wheels, and a good old-fashioned LEGO maxifigure’s arm in the creation of the rest of the keep’s towers.

Towers over azure waters

Built in transparent blue over white and grey, the sparkling azure water in this scene by Sergeant Chipmunk looks incredibly inviting. The three watchtowers use fantastic color schemes and a not quite “legal” technique to create wonderful shapes, standing on rocks with nary a stud to be seen and dabs of color that bring life to the vibrant scene. But the stand-out feature for me is the organically curved sail made out of leaves.

The ancient ruins of a forgotten civilization

If the builder of these ancient ruins seems similar, you would be right, because Mark Erickson is one of the best castle builders out there, and very active to boot. There are a bunch of details to see in this with architectural texture being the most important one. I am fascinated how well the builder managed to make all the buildings look similar, even with different techniques used throughout. The palm trees also deserve a closer look, as they get thinner towards the top, an effect achieved by transitioning from palm trunk pieces through brown fez pieces to 1×1 cones.

The battle of Helm’s Deep is over; the battle for Middle Earth is about to begin

One of the coolest scenes from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was the memorable battle of Helm’s Deep. German builder KevFett2011 has created a beautiful rendition of this in micro-scale, using only a monochromatic palette. Kevin captures the essence of the fortress of Aglarond nestled into brick-built mountains perfectly, and I love how he has used levers to represent the attacking Uruk-hai pikemen. If you squint a little and look really close you can almost see Gimli and Legolas arguing over who has the highest body count.

The capital of the Woodland Realm

It has been a while since the last part of the Hobbit film trilogy hit the cinemas, so the trend of LEGO Hobbit and Lord of the Rings creations is slowly declining. But that does not mean we do not get amazing builds like this one every now and again. This diorama of Halls of Thranduil by German builder Jonas Kramm was made for the 2016 Comic Con in Stuttgart in June. and I really envy everyone who had the privilege to see it in person. On the pictures, it seems like a digital render at first, and even a close look at the main picture did not really convince me. I had to look at some detail shots to be sure this was real.

The details are superb and Jonas has really captured the balance and combination of natural landscaping and Elven architecture perfectly. A carefully set amount of clean surfaces contrasting rough terrain makes for a very interesting build to explore. The use of bars and tubing for architectural detail is inspiring. And while the foresty exterior with simple yet effective large trees is a stand-out build in its own right, it pales in comparison with the complex architecture of the cavern and the giant root path and throne. The cave floor is also nice to look at with the clear streams, nice subtle colours and a natural subtle slope.

Skyrim’s Bits and Pieces store made of bits and pieces

Even though this medieval store by Isaac Snyder uses textures and techniques we see very often in medieval builds lately, it still manages to look unique; first by its complex layout and secondly by its use of dark gray as the stone bricks, which is for some reason rather uncommon. While the model is called Sigurd’s General Goods and is not a direct recreation, it is obviously inspired by the Bits and Pieces general store in Solitude, from Skyrim.

Isaac’s shop even has a full interior.

See more of this delightful Skyrim building