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.

Those who are about to die...

The final round of battle of the 2016 MOC Olympics is here and the top two contestants have been thrown to the lions and forced to build spectacular scenes of gladiatorial combat. For his final entry, W. Navarre built a gladiator facing off against a fearsome man-eating tiger.

The most impressive thing about this build is not the beautifully sculpted figures (though those are amazing!), but the fact that the entire scene is completely filled with LEGO. There’s so much texture and even a bit of gore, it feels like I’m sitting in the front row of the great Colosseum. Mr Navarre’s opponent in this LEGO duel to the death is Deus Otiosus with his fantastical arena battle between a knight and a dragon.

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Warning! Bridge ices before road

Although there is no snow in this little ravine scene by Lukasz Wiktorowicz, it certainly looks like a chilly day to be on that Asian-inspired covered bridge. The composition and muted color palette of this build are both remarkable. I love that Lukasz ingeniously used the old LEGO rope bridge piece upside down to add a beautiful curve to the bottom of his wooden bridge. But my favorite details are the roots and autumnal leaves on those stunning gray trees.

Classy castle in a creaky casket

Marcel V. has built a wonderful microscale LEGO castle in a box. The fortress itself has hints of Disney in its soaring spires and color scheme, but for me it’s the classy brown and gold of the casket which elevate this model into something special. The silky lining within the box lid — achieved with a nice pattern of curved slopes — is excellent. It’s so good when a microscale creation is more than “just” a tiny version of something else. Here, the micro-ness fits with the setting to conjure up something altogether more magical.

I had a go at building a LEGO kingdom in a box myself a couple of years back. However, Marcel’s brick-built box is much cooler than the slightly scabby wooden chest I used for mine!

Protected under the branches of the Observer Tree

Ben Andrews describes this large LEGO diorama as a labor of love, and it certainly is lovely. An enormous tree stands atop a hill, full of treehouses, its trunk surrounded by winding staircases. Across a pool into which drains a broad waterfall sits a beautiful red-roofed watermill.

Full of stunning details and interesting little scenes, you don’t want to miss a single picture of Ben’s Observer Tree. At the top of the tree, there’s a small structure with a telescope, which is presumably where the tree gets its name.

See more of this excellent LEGO creation

The Jewel of the Eastern Seas

jsnyder002 takes a trip East for his latest LEGO creation — a series of minarets and domed towers strewn across a rocky island chain. The architecture has a wonderful Middle-Eastern flavor, without being the stereotypical desert scene these kind of “Oriental fantasy” settings often take. I really like the two-tone rocks of the islands — it gives the impression the ocean around these outcrops might sometimes get quite rough.

There’s a nice sense of activity and bustle with the minifigs moving around the towers and docks. And don’t miss the intricate brickwork used to lend texture to the town’s walls, bridges and steps…

A boatload of interesting details in this LEGO Castle gatehouse

Most of the LEGO castles we’ve featured here on The Brothers Brick lately have started to all look the same — messy rockwork, roofs akilter, and plant life that looks like it’s going to strangle you if you look at it wrong. Greek LEGO builder Giorgos Solomonidis has gone a different direction, placing a pair of Viking boat hulls atop his gatehouse as its roof, and embellishing the wall with studs-out paneling rather than just messy brickwork. The windows built from hinge bricks are a particularly nice touch.

Forest hideout deserves revealing

Brother Steven appears to enjoy a getaway in the woods. At least that’s the message I take from his latest LEGO scene, a forest hideaway lodge. The rock base is lovely, and the light gray bricks make a nice change from the usual darker shades used for stonework. The waterfall is well done and the lodge itself looks suitably rustic. The only bit I’m not sure about is the square-trunked trees, but even though I might have employed round bricks, it’s not a deal-breaker when everything else is so nicely worked.

And don’t miss the lodge’s interior and the hidden tunnel entrance when the model is viewed from the rear. This is a wonderful piece of LEGO building — I could look at it all day.

The world’s an inn, and death the journey’s end

Out of necessity, most LEGO castle builders stick to a regular color palette of light gray or dark gray. Sometimes we’ll use tan if we’re feeling particularly frisky. But Patrick Massey has kicked this old convention out the window and assembled a medieval inn out of beautiful autumn colors. The end result is a stunning and unique creation that looks well lived-in (if not a little spooky).

Winter comes for the Black Falcons

Temperatures are dropping in the northern hemisphere and winter approaches quickly. Gerard Joosten has helped the black falcons prepare with this lovely Winter Fortress. As a long-time Castle fan, I love the traditional Black Falcon colors which make it highly recognizable. The walls themselves manage to mostly avoid the “great grey wall” syndrome with nice texturing and architectural elements.

What I love the most, though, is this gorgeous Black Falcon mosaic decorating the back tower. The details are fantastic, and give a lot of character to the build.

Cry havoc and release the pachyderms of war

Mark of Falworth is on a roll. Fresh from wowing us with his LEGO medieval bazaar, now he brings us the latest thing in Castle-era artillery — monstrous ballistae mounted on the back of elephants. As well as the nicely-built siege engines, the beasties are equipped with armour and tusk-blades, creating a formidable war machine either at range or up close and personal. I’d hate to be on the receiving end of a barrage or charge from these bad boys.

Lording it up in a lakeside castle

LegoLord says he hasn’t built anything for four years, but this impressive castle shows those skills haven’t grown rusty through misuse. The landscaping and lake are nicely done, and the fortress itself has a realistic feel, as if it had been built over centuries, reinforced by a succession of nervous Lords. Far too many LEGO castles are starkly symmetrical, whereas this build has different heights and styles of tower dotted around the external wall.

Zooming in on the details pays dividends — don’t miss the central keep atop its plug of rock, tan walls and red rooftops offering a nice contrast to the surrounding gray and brown. But it’s this close-up view of the walls which reveals the effort LegoLord has gone into to avoid the dreaded BGW — “Big Gray Wall”. The buttressing, the scattered inclusion of textured bricks, the nicely-placed patches of foliage — all come together to create a convincing impression of weathered stonework.

Vikings menace a huge LEGO display of Anglo Saxon Britain

Brick To The Past is a collective of British builders who specialize in large-scale historical dioramas in LEGO. We’ve covered some of their previous masterpieces, including a huge Roman camp and section of Hadrian’s Wall, and their recreation of the streets of Victorian London. We recently interviewed leading member James Pegrum about BttP’s impressive Battle of Hastings display. As if that wasn’t enough for 2016, the gang’s latest effort is this enormous diorama depicting a section of Anglo Saxon Britain in 793AD.

As you’d expect from such a large model, there are numerous areas worthy of your attention. An obvious highlight is the monastery under attack by Viking raiders…

Click here for closeups of this incredible diorama