This ain’t no Hogwarts. This broken down school by Jonas Obermaier has been turned into a base of operations for a nefarious gang of survivors of the End. In addition to the well-textured vegetation running wild on the grounds, there are some very nice architectural details not to be missed. Take the Dobby heads on either side of the lion head below the roof, for example. Also, a number of micro-figures in tan are a nice touch along the rooftop.
You can tell a lot about a historic Lego diorama through its landscaping. This collaboration by Classical Bricks, Cole Blood, and Mountain Hobbit shows a majestic castle settled on a rocky and hilly landscape next to a flowing river. The construction of the castle on top of the highest point of the ground elevates its sense of grandeur. It’s no wonder this creation caught the attention of many and won “Best in Show” at Bricks Cascade.
Respect the Crown! And respect the LEGO building on display in this fabulous Castle diorama by LegoLord. There’s a cute little town nestled in amongst the forest, an impressive church and gatehouse, and towering over it all, an impressive fortress of a castle.
The castle walls are superbly detailed, with a great mix of textured parts, muted colours, and building techniques. Large-scale LEGO Castle creations can fall into the “big grey wall” trap, but not here — it’s excellent work all round, the eye rewarded with beautiful touches wherever it falls…
Click here to see more images of this stunning creation
Somewhere in the heart of America, in some tiny, rundown town, sits a gas station just like this one. Actually, there are many of them along old nearly-forgotten interstate highways. They are a staple of rural American culture. The original (non-LEGO) miniature diorama by Yasu Okugawa from Doozy! Modelworks, was built with many materials, and is quite beautiful. But this version by César Soares packs a ton of detail into a small space, using only LEGO! He does a wonderful job of capturing as many aspects of the original as possible. (Aside from the added touch of recognizable LEGO stickers instead of the originals)
The build is definitely one to zoom in on and take a while to look at every angle. From revolver gas-pump handles to green artist-pallette trees, and even spoon chair legs, it’s certainly a clever use of parts. The techniques used to achieve such an authentic look on the building, pumps, and car are truly impressive!
The classic real-time strategy game Starcraft II has inspired many LEGO creations over the years, but one of the most impressive has to be this stunning version of the multiplayer map Megaton. Built by David Frank, the map features the home bases for all three factions and measures over 16 square feet. Additionally, David has wired it with lights, giving features like the Khaydarin crystals a realistic glow.
Click to see more of this amazing creation
Unless you’re stuck in the Middle Ages, you’ll probably know that contemporary LEGO castle building techniques call for texture overdoses and lots of earth tones. That is all great, but I often like builds that are different from this new norm, because variation is key. Joel Tyer approaches the problem of originality from a different angle – the addition of white pillars at the side of the wall in this market scene gives the creation a unique and memorable appearance, without sacrificing complexity for uniqueness’ sake.
The terrace alone is not the only reason the build is so good, of course. The landscape is very fluid and the little stream outlines the base perfectly. The tower has an interesting hexagonal shape, rounded off at the edges with Technic pin connectors. This looks surprisingly good even with the different levels of textures in play.
And don’t miss the action at the back of the market, with soldiers and merchants going about their business.
With the original Tomb Raider video game released back in 1996 and yet another movie this year, it’s clear that there’s a lot of mileage in the Lara Croft story. The mix of adventure, exotic locations and history also makes Tomb Raider great inspiration for LEGO creations. Kevin Wanner has created a Tomb Raider diorama that has some powered features — a cascading waterfall and a perilously angled B-25 that moves as Lara Croft crosses. The negative space lettering is nicely constructed and there’s a lot of character built into the overgrown crash site.
CLick to see close-ups and a video of the moving features
If you were a medieval peasant, would you prefer a cozy hut in the village, or a windmill in the countryside? Though it may be a bit drafty, I think I’d pick the windmill. At least, I’d pick this one, built by Sandro Damiano! With its quaint cabin and cobblestone path, it’s a peasant’s castle!
Sandro does a great job of capturing all the little dimensions and levels. It keeps your eyes wandering around the scene. This garden is full of tasty veggies to take to the market!
“Cute” isn’t a word you’d normally associate with the dystopian cyberpunk future envisioned in Blade Runner. However, that’s what comes to mind with automaton120‘s futuristic microscale LEGO street scene. The backdrop nicely evokes the neon-soaked architecture of cyberpunk-LA, but the stars of the show here are the vehicles. That police spinner is a cracking little model, and the others really capture the feel of the cars and trucks in the movie. The presentation of the model could have been better, maybe clipping the ugly sheet backdrop out of the image, and some image processing could have added lens flare to the signage and vehicle lights etc. But not every builder likes to add post-production effects, so that’s nit-picking at an otherwise cool LEGO creation.
Regular readers will know we like us a LEGO Police Spinner here on TBB. Syd Mead’s classic design is a rite-of-passage build for any self-respecting sci-fi builder. We’ve featured a few brilliant examples in our time — including this stunning rain-soaked Blade Runner scene from Tyler — but we don’t see a lot of microscale versions, so this creation was too cute to pass up.
With the recently concluded LEGO speeder bike contest, there have been hundreds of speeder bikes submitted, and I too have decided to join in at the last minute with a police chase diorama. The build started with the police speeder and its huge windscreen, which gave me the idea of a wall-smashing speeder in a future where buildings are so cheap to rebuild, a police officer may consider just breaking through a few walls to catch a criminal.
I have put a large majority of the effort on the speeder bikes themselves, with the somewhat simple diorama acting as a catalyst to join them together in a cohesive scene. The walls are literally broken up by the hole that the police speeder has punched in them, as well as a hole being repaired by a 3D-printing robot.
Since this diorama was built for a contest and it was limited by a deadline, I put emphasis on the speeder bikes themselves, but the concept of a crushed wall and a wall being printed are something I really want to revisit. While I do have a technique for both in mind, there are a lot of other things I want to build before I return to Distrikt 18.
Broken windows, damaged buildings, garbage on the street and infrastructure destroyed are some of the tell-tale signs of a post-apocolyptic world. There’s ample of opportunity to see some post-apocolyptic decay in this fantastic diorama by W. Navarre that centres around a couple of office buildings in what used to be part of a city and descends into an underground world of “every man for himself.” The Chima game card works surprisingly well as an advertising sign, and the collapsed sign with the Nike logo has seen better days. I particularly like the subterranean part of the build; it’s like an underground car park that has been repurposed, and there’s plenty of pipes, wires and drains to catch your eye.
There’s a lot to admire in this closer view of the rear portion teased in the image above. Click to see an edited version full of special effects
More often than not, landscaping techniques in LEGO creations serve a secondary purpose, like helping a building or a story feel complete. While this little landscape by Emil Lidé does contain more than just plants and rocks, that hierarchy of motives is inverted here. Instead of the landscape augmenting the “story,” the decrepit wall and building’s remains add some purpose to the dense and diverse foliage.
