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.

A blessing in the old chapel at Marbury Village

As we start wrapping up our coverage of the various LEGO Castle creations that were part of the Ye Old Merry Battleground collaboration by “InnovaLug” at Brickfair VA, we would be remiss in our duties if we failed to highlight this beautiful village by TBB alum Mark Erickson. Mark’s village includes two half-timbered houses and an excellent church in unconventional tan (sandstone, I presume). The church has sculptures in the same color as the structure — though in fact these would likely have been painted garishly when carved originally in the Medieval era — as well as a graveyard and a red roof with some subtle texturing.

Mark’s extra pieces of rounded landscaping that sort of “drip” off of his main diorama illustrate the interesting approach that the InnovaLug team took to their collaborative display. Rather than integrating the various contributions on a single underlying brick-built landscape (as we did with our Battle of Bricksburg display), the team used white space between the builds to highlight each build separately. We tried this approach with TBB’s “ChronoCon” display at BrickCon a couple of years ago, and it’s not generally a style of collaborative display that I think works all that well — though InnovaLug seems to have pulled it off quite well by spanning the open space with little details like the smaller landscaping pieces here. What do you think of this display style?

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I fear nothing. All is as the force wills it.

The German-language LEGO Star Wars forum Imperium der Steine is hosting its annual “MOC Olympics” at the moment, and with the release of the full trailer for Rogue One this past week, we’re seeing a lot of great entries inspired by the forthcoming movie. TBB regular and all-around talented builder Cecilie Fritzvold has recreated the mysterious character Chirrut Îmwe in LEGO, centered on the scene in which he battles Imperial Stormtroopers with nothing more than a staff.

Cecilie says that she created the Stormtroopers first, since she thought they might be the hardest. Creating enough detail on the troopers’ helmets to make them recognizable at this scale is no small feat. Cecilie completes the scene with some solid forced perspective, including a minifig-scale Stormtrooper in the background (though she gives him taller legs to bring him into the same shape as the brick-built ones in the foreground).

The Allied liberation of Venlo, 1st March 1945

Maarten W is proving himself the master of the LEGO street scene. We’ve previously featured his Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and desert market creations, but this WWII-inspired diorama is his best yet. It’s a recreation of the moments when Allied forces liberated the Dutch town of Venlo on 1st March 1945.

The damaged buildings are beautifully done, giving a sense of what the townsfolk must have endured as the battle raged around them. Maarten has included numerous small vignettes throughout his diorama, such as the American GIs interacting with the survivors.

The details of the left-hand house are particularly poignant — the remnants of the upper-floor telling a tale of shattered domesticity. And whilst I’m not a “dog person” myself, even I can appreciate the message of hope for the future as one of the townspeople finds his pet amidst the ruins.

Like a troubled bridge over water

On a bright spring morning, troops from two nearby castles converged at one of the bridges of County Madison. Fat trout could be seen swimming in the creek below, and all agreed that it was a prime spot for fishing. But no one could decide who should make the first cast. As things often went in the era of Castle, violence ensued and blows were traded. By the time the melee was finished, all the fish had been scared away. The moral of the story? Isaac S. makes pretty awesome medieval bridges.

A tall tower stands alone in the woods, looming

Farwin Castle by Brother Steven is one of the most striking pieces of castle architecture I’ve seen recently. This exceptionally tall, spindly tower still manages to capture an elegance of proportions, looking mysterious yet stately. Unlike many contemporary medieval themed builds, Farwin Castle doesn’t employ much of the precariously complex stonework that’s in vogue. Instead, its strength lies in its solid geometry and fascinating dimensions. You have to wonder what purpose this tower serves. The home of a lovesick, ascetic prince? The prison for a lunatic mage? The guard tower on a dangerous border? Whatever it is, we like it.

Brother Steven says this castle is part of a larger collaborative display, where multiple builders created locations from the same world, so don’t miss the fantastic stable from the collection that we already highlighted.

Chibi-style Rogue One battle scene

Rogue One continues to inspire new Star Wars LEGO creations. Check out this fantastic beach battle scene, lifted from the Rogue One trailer and “chibified” by Boba-1980. The microscale vehicles are really good — I particularly like the versions of the U-Wing and the TIE Strike Fighter.

Aside from the good landscaping and figure posing, there’s a whole ton of action packed into a tight space in this diorama — justifying the builder’s choice to go with an unusual scale for the vehicles. Nice work.

Medieval stable in a classic Castle-style

Isaac S. proves Castle models haven’t all moved into a world of ramshackle angled walls and twee color-schemes. Ignoring the prevailing fashion pays off wonderfully in this excellent little build — there’s great landscaping, a lovely depth of texture in the walls, and even a nice splash of color which manages to look realistic. To top it all, it looks like this model might stay in one piece if you turned it upside down — something you couldn’t say of many of the “wonky-style” Castle builds.

The model looks almost as good from the rear. Check out that smart little stained-glass window…

Lunar Lander and Rover are out of this world

Getting to the moon is tricky; getting around on the moon is not. The last three missions all got to ride the Lunar Rover, built here by Dorian Glacet.

This gorgeous little scene features the lunar lander in exquisite detail, plenty of texture to the moon’s surface, and the little Rover that could. I love the attention to detail with the equipment and the rover’s tracks.

It’s Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff at the Hogwarts quidditch pitch

While it’s doubtful any builder will ever challenge the sheer scale of Alice Finch’s LEGO Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling’s magical series of books continues to inspire LEGO builders. At nearly seven and a half feet long, Martin Harris and his son have built a massive minifig-scale quidditch pitch that gives Alice a run for her money. The pitch features all the colorful stands shown in the second movie, and there’s plenty of action both inside and outside the structure.

Each end of the pitch features a trio of goals.

Naturally, beaters are aloft to protect Harry from bludgers as he tries to catch the golden snitch.

Visit to Catwoman’s Cat Lair is not going well for Batman

Finally! After seeing others build Batman a LEGO batcave and Joker a LEGO funhouse, someone finally built Catwoman a secret home to call her very own. That someone is Jenn Lee and her kitty-friendly creation is purrfect! After all, what Catwoman lair would be complete without a 70s-style Catwoman costume, an entire wardrobe of sparkly capes, wigs, and handbags, and, of course, a boiling pit of lava to dispose of your enemies? I’m not sure if Batman and Robin were invited or decided to pop by unannounced for a visit, but either way, it seems they’ve overstayed their welcome.

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the Force

As an entry in the current MOC Olympics building contest, Boba-1980 recreated this memorable moment from Star wars: A New Hope, in which audiences were first introduced to the “force choke”. And while Admiral Motti’s lack of faith certainly was disturbing, I think Darth Vader’s attempt to kill a coworker during a business meeting could be considered marginally more disturbing (but totally relatable).

“No, no, no... THIS one goes THERE, THAT one goes THERE!”

Thomas Flament created this detail-packed 32×32 stud slice of life aboard the Millenium Falcon that perfectly captures the look, feel and clutter of the ship’s interior, as well as including a suitably greebly section of outer hull and even a mini-Falcon on top!

There’s a nice sense of depth here with both the circular corridor receding into the background and the below-deck maintenance area (with Chewy hard at work). The clever part usage to create the curved sofa is also a nice touch.