Brian, AKA Hound Knight, takes over no man’s land in this little vintage scene. I love the use of ice cream in this. Great Scene, Hound!
Tag Archives: Dioramas
The Battle of Cherbourg in LEGO
Immediately after the start of the Normandy invasion on D-Day, Allied forces began a battle for the strategic port city of Cherbourg that lasted more than three weeks. My diorama highlights the aftermath of the battle, when townspeople begin emerging from the rubble, while Free French partisans hoist the Tricolour above their safe house.
The diorama features an updated version of my M4 Sherman tank:
For more photos, check out the photoset on Flickr, and you’ll be able to see this in person in just over a month as part of the Operation Bricklord collaborative display at BrickCon 2010.
Where do shoes come from? Containers!
Better late than never. Nate Brill (Shuppiluliumas) and PennLUG debuted this wonderful container ship and port at BrickFair2010. RAILBRICKS have already written at great length about it so I’ll spare the details here but I will add that I’m a huge fan of the old rundown port next to the much more modern one. Lovely!
Recognizing your dragon: The Gronckle
While we wait patiently for How to Train your Dragon to come out on DVD/Blu Ray, Taylor Baggs (Unitronus) helps us out by teaching us to identify the various species of dragons in and around.
The Gronckle, seen below, is a fairly small, portly dragon that prefers masticated rocks as projectiles.
BrickFair 2010 Debrief
BrickFair 2010 took place last weekend, and I’ve now finally had a little bit of time to recover. Like any LEGO convention, it was a blast! There were a lot of fun times to be had hanging out with other LEGO builders. There were also some great sessions, including a presentation by LEGO designer Jamie Berard (which culminated with the unveiling of the Tower Bridge set).
People have also had some time to put their photos online. This works out well, as my wife had both of our cameras in the Galapagos, while I was at BrickFair. You’ll all have to wait for more photos of the latest award-winning display from my compatriot Nick and I of 3LUG. In the meantime, I’d like to highlight some of my favorites from the con.
The above is part of a diorama depicting the battle of Fort McHenry, the inspiration for the Star Spangled Banner. This diorama incorporated some great detail techniques, including smoke from the cannons, and wall-shrapnel. The builder chose to depict the ship in cross-section, which was a fascinating bit of extra detail. The most amazing thing about this creation, though, was that, according to the MOC card, it was built by a thirteen year old!
I also quite enjoyed the display above, by Jordan Schwartz. There’s some lovely detail work in the railing, and the columns are nice as well.
Recycling is fun
Once in a while, Fedde (Karf Oohlu) applies his humorous use of unusual Lego parts to larger creations. This diorama depicts colored parts being fed by robots to a hungry recycle machine. This creation has definitely made the best (and perhaps the only) use of the Crystal King‘s head.
32×32 in Red
Classic-Castle‘s current 32×32 Building Challenge focuses on the three primary colors–and Harry Russell has risen to the occasion beautifully. His contribution focuses on Red, and the whole atmosphere is simply haunting.
Chicken will not do tonight
I love the usually exotic vignettes by Crises. This one features a carnivorous plant, but what makes it interesting is the use of the Clickits cord for the plant’s tongue attacking an unsuspecting visitor. I also like the technique of using control lever bases to prop the glass panels.
Prettier with water
Water makes a lot of landscapes look better by giving them a sense of life and movement. In this diorama by Tom Simon, water is used to great effect in enhancing the look of the scene. In particular, the color gradient of the river and the widening flow of the waterfall are techniques that warrant imitation. With such great irrigation, I wonder why there are no crops in the field.
Battalion Aid Station, Normandy, June 1944
After I built my US Army Dodge WC54 ambulance, it deserved a proper historical context — a Battalion Aid Station in a ruined farmhouse courtyard.
In the US Army, Battalion Aid Stations are the first line of medical treatment after battlefield first aid by medics or fellow soldiers. Wars of the 20th-century saw many conscientious objectors serving as non-combatants in the American armed forces, often as medics. Army medics served heroically, charging into battle alongside their armed comrades. Eleven received the Congressional Medal of Honor as a result of their actions in World War II.
My Battalion Aid Station is based on historical photographs from the Western Front in 1944 and 1945, after the Normandy Invasion on D-Day. Naturally, I had to convert a couple of the more immersive shots into black and white:
Though the muddy lane with the M3 half-track and hedgerow was an afterthought — one that nearly emptied my bin of plant pieces — I’m quite pleased with the result:
Because the subject matter fascinates me so much, I built a great deal of detail into this that you can’t see in a single photo. Check out the photoset on Flickr for more.
(I’ll be discussing some of the build process for my improved ambulance separately, because I think the role of constructive criticism in improving one’s models is something that deserves its own post.)
Show some backbone!
I was going to delay posting this to leave the 5th birthday post at the top of the page for longer but decided that we are here because we highlight cool LEGO models. Marco Tagliaferri (Tagl) demonstrates a lovely addition to the popular moonbase standard in the form of this transit spine standard. It feels so real.
And he has instructions to boot.
New buildings in town
Matija Grguric made some quality buildings for the City Diorama at Kockice Expo 2010. The brightly colored structures really added a liveliness to the city. I recommend checking out the diorama by clicking on the picture below.
