Tag Archives: Dioramas

There’s nothing like a massive LEGO diorama to prove that you’ve arrived as a LEGO builder. The LEGO dioramas we feature here span everything from realistic medieval castles to scenes from World War II, and more than a few post-apocalyptic wastelands.

Who stokes the fire in the long-forgotten castle?

Halloween has come and gone, but it should not be the only day of the year when we get to see dark and moody themes. Tymothy Shortell would agree, having built castle ruins that look perfect for the season yet apropriate throughout the year.

All the colours, or lack thereof, make for a great atmosphere, mostly facilitated by the dark gray of the castle wall. While the castle is my favourite part, the landscape is very important too. The whole scene is a round shape, with natural flowing transitions between rocks and grass. The editing and photography are what takes the build to a higher level though, especially a dim orange light shining through a window.

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This huge LEGO diorama brings Hobbiton to life

The iconic landscape of Hobbiton is a stark contrast to the majority of other locations presented in the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien, and its unique style is quite the popular theme for LEGO builders to tackle. Coming off the tail of a large Middle Earth-themed collaboration, Jake Hansen has joined forces with Cole Blood in what I hope is not the “Last Alliance”.

The large scale of the diorama–16 32×32 baseplates, or about 11 square feet–really brings the best out of the rolling hills made of stacked plates. Continue reading →

Salazar Slytherin’s slithering serpent stalks students

Robert Maier has opened the LEGO Chamber of Secrets and unleashed a fantastic beast of a basilisk! If you’ve followed Robert for a while like we have you’ll note this model, while a bit of a departure from his usual post-apocalyptic fare like a toxic wasteland and a world without trains, displays his typical knack for textured, murky worlds.

In this scene you can see Tom Marvolo Riddle (AKA teen Voldemort) near the climax of the book/movie after he has spent months manipulating Ginny Weasley with his diary-Horcrux. Here she’s unconscious just before Harry Potter swoops in to save the day on Fawkes the phoenix in a bit of deus ex machina. The ambiance of the scene is perfect with bones of victims past, rotting plant life, and foggy water. The basilisk model itself dominates the chamber as it slithers out of Salazar Slytherin’s statue. I especially like the vertical nature of the statue against the horizontal striations of the chamber walls. You can check out some finer details of the basilisk itself in the closeup shot below. It’s a far cry from the basilisk we reviewed in the Hogwarts Great Hall!

The wrath of Hurricane Maria descends on the island of Puerto Rico

A little over a year ago, Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, killing thousands of residents and leaving many more without power, water, and basic necessities for many months afterward. Contrary to the words and actions of some American politicians, Puerto Rico is no less a part of the United States than Washington, D.C. itself is, but recovery efforts have been hampered by racism, callous politics, and name-calling. LEGO builder Nathan C. lived through Hurrican Maria, and recently created a LEGO model that illustrates the fear, terror, and destruction he experienced as the storm passed over him.

Not only does his detailed LEGO diorama capture the destruction that Hurricane Maria caused on the island, Nathan has animated his model with LEGO Power Functions — the tree and satellite TV dish sway in the wind, roof boards flap, and more. Also be sure to click through to the photo above to read Nathan’s detailed notes about the specific ways in which Maria affected the people and buildings of Puerto Rico, ranging from the implosion of concrete walls to broken water mains.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve featured a strong political statement in LEGO about a terrible storm. Back in September 2005, I commented on the Federal government’s poor reaction to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans with a much smaller LEGO vignette.

Water you talking about?

Sweden’s Andreas Lenander latest LEGO creation is a terrifying canoe ride right over the edge of a waterfall. These minifigures certainly appear as though they’re on an adventure they’re not likely to forget. I think what strikes me the most about this diorama is the palpable dynamic energy of the rushing water, free-floating figures, and tipping canoe as the river crests the edge of the cliff.

You could argue that there’s nothing particularly innovative about the techniques on display, but what Andreas has achieved here with a few simple, repetitive pieces is really remarkable. It’s a strong exhibit of how purposeful prop placement (the minifigs, canoe, water) over background noise (plants, splashing water, textured rocks) can achieve a visually interesting composition.

This was the winning entry in Swebrick‘s head-to-head elimination AFOL-vs-AFOL contest, which for 2018 was based on Adventure. We’ve also featured Andreas here recently for his lifelike cigarette smoking in an ashtray and earlier this summer with his Titan starfighter.

Basement dwellers and brave adventurers alike

Henrik “teabox” Zwomp‘s adventure-themed LEGO diorama, titled From the Safety of the Basement, is a clever juxtaposition of real (minifigure) world players in their home as they venture forth through the not-so-real role-playing game world, complete with dungeon floor inlaid with the ubiquitous grid system. The wall texturing also provides a nice contrast to the scenes playing out in front of them, not too dissimilar from those achieved in our last D&D post, Mimic Mishap!

It’s a compelling scenario that is played out all over the world by inspiring (and inspired) dungeon masters and their willing victims (er, players), who act out a type of choose-your-own adventure story with an infinite number of scenarios all dictated by the fateful roll of the dice. I especially appreciate that the basement room not only includes standard geeky paraphernalia on the walls but also books, a scale version of the dungeon map, and character sheets.

You can dip into our archives to see some of Henrik’s past work like the microscale bullfighting scene, and sea serpent attack

For those following along at home, I’ve just gotten enough game experience to hit level 3 and got to pick an archetype for my character. Even though I’m often lost in the wealth of information in the game I’m helped along by my adventure companions and mostly-benevolent DM.

A cold cellar in a hot desert

Either I was more exposed to post-apocalyptic LEGO creations or they were actually more common back when I joined the LEGO community nearly a decade ago, but this theme always brings back memories of immersive scenes filled with danger and adventure. Zombies, bunkers, bullet holes and toxic waste — what else does one need? The seemingly simple theme actually hides limitless potential — if the whole world went down, there are a lot of locations to build, and James Libby chose to show us a desert.

The main feature of the scene is the cutout showing an underground survival bunker including some utilitarian furniture, and of course weapons. The top has some nice details too, the best and the most subtle one being the little wall around the trap door, which has just the slightest tilt to it. What I like the most though is the tan border. The texture adds depth, while the stylish cutout and the skeleton “buried” in the sand create an atmosphere reminiscent of a comic panel.

Meeting at the crossroads

A chance encounter at a crossroad tavern often leads to adventure. This LEGO inn built by Sebastian Bachórzewski taps into this spirit, looking every bit as if it could have been drawn straight from the pages of a fantasy epic. Rough and ready in appearance, with great building techniques used to offset the stone structured base from its wattle and daub upper floors; it’s the sort of spot you’d expect to meet a shadowy stranger. Who are those drunken soldiers looking for? Who might be hidden under those inventively built technic pin wheat sheafs? It’s one of those great builds that segues seamlessly into the art of storytelling.

A fellowship of LEGO builders takes us on an epic journey through Middle-earth with 13 amazing creations

J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle-earth, best known from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books and films, has shaped much of modern fantasy. Indeed, LEGO builders have been finding inspiration there for a very long time, in the recent years even more so with the support of the official LEGO themes based on the movies. Over the years, we’ve seen multiple collaborative projects appear both as online galleries and convention displays; however, we think this latest initiative is among the most impressive. The massive collaborative project includes 10 builders and 13 creations depicting different locations and events of the Third Age of the Sun.

The project consists of dioramas of varying sizes and styles, although modern castle-themed builds tend to have moderately standardized techniques and styles in the fan community. This makes for a very consistent group project, while still letting each builder’s individual style shine through, and making each creation a great stand-alone build. Continue reading →

The lurker in the murky depths

Erstwhile LEGO gearhead guru Lino Martins is mixing it up, bringing us a big vignette of a haunting brackish backwater with a dark secret. This collection of treehouses forms a small bayou village, whose residents are sworn to placate a fearsome beast with blood sacrifices, often in the form of giant alligators lowered into the creature’s tentacled arms by means of a rickety contraption. The smooth dark green bricks make excellent ponds of stale water, with a smooth finish of algae broken only by a few small ripples as the monster’s arms raise.

What with the swamp being infested by an otherworldly horror, it’s best not to disturb that calm water, or indeed get anywhere near more than is absolutely necessary. That, plus the lack of land in the middle of swamp, means the townsfolk of Mangrove Swamp have all the necessities built on raised platforms, from farming to swine raising. Continue reading →

Creating a charmingly crooked castle

It’s one of the contradictions at the heart of LEGO building, that we love to see the rectilinear brick subverted. Bravo to jaapxaap, who has centred his latest model on some seriously wonky geometry. There’s no doubt that Falcon Castle is suffering from years of subsidence, its central tower quaintly leaning at the most acute of angles.

Of course it takes real talent to do this, which you pick up again in the embellishments that have been added: the ingot bricks used to simulate wear, or the golden tower painstakingly formed form telescope pieces. In the end though, you just have to marvel at the way the imperfections of the ramshackle fortress have been so perfectly built.

Per Ardua Ad Astra — LEGO Supermarine Spitfire takes flight over Britain

Per Ardua Ad Astra — “Through adversity to the stars” — the motto of the UK’s Royal Air Force, and what sprang to mind as Paul Nicholson‘s LEGO version of a Supermarine Spitfire thundered into view. For a small model, the shaping is pretty good, capturing the iconic elliptical wing shape well, and there’s a nice mix of colours to create a camouflage effect. And the use of 1×1 “cheese slopes” delivers the essential touch of the raked exhausts down the sides of the engine. I’m less of a fan of the forced-perspective base — I think the presentation would have benefitted from further separation of the plane from the ground, and perhaps a tighter depth of field pushing the background out of focus. However, despite those minor photography gripes the plane itself is a cracking model, immediately recognisable and eminently swooshable.