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.

Giant LEGO City set to launch Space Shuttle in 3, 2, 1

South Korean professional building team Olive Seon specialize in creating huge layouts for retail stores to showcase official LEGO sets (like this epic UCS-scale Star Wars trench run or a true minifig-scale Stay Puft marshmallow man terrorizing the city). Though the official sets are the focus, the team are masters at integrating them into beautiful custom backdrops, and I never tire of seeing the official sets nestled into dioramas like the LEGO catalogs from the 80s and 90s. Olive Seon’s latest diorama is worth it just for the epic shuttle launch they’ve portrayed. Never has the 60080 Spaceport shuttle looked so good.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Fuelling the future

justin_m_winn brings us a vision of a clean-energy future with this scene of a Fuel Cell facility running a test. There’s a good mixture of spacey greebling and robots with more ordinary minifigs. This creates a strong sense of everyday activity in a sci-fi setting.

Justin has other images of maintenance and day-to-day work at the facility. They all display the same combination of good near-future design and excellent photography…

Awesome diorama of The Elder Scrolls Online’s city of Orsinium

The great Orc stronghold of Orsinium is a key location in the sprawling world of The Elder Scrolls Online, and there are few to do it more justice as a model than Thorsten Bonsch. Thorsten has previously brought us into Tamriel through his stunning depictions of a Dolmen and Stonefalls (and he’s also shown his diorama-building mastery by creating possibly the coolest Tardis model we’ve seen).

The technique Thorsten employs for cobblestone here — accomplished by using white tiles turned on edge, then filling all the gaps with grey tiles and slopes — has been around for awhile. But rarely is it so expertly done, with minimal gaps and perfect integration into the landscape. Be sure to take a close look at the stonework on the structures, too; it’s a great example of skillfully combining flat planes with textured details.

Still planning your vacation? Go visit the Riviera!

Inspired by the cover of a book about a South European town, Andrew Tate created this very pearl of Mediterranean architecture. A mixture of European and Oriental elements and colors, a beautifully designed wedding shop and a careful cast of minifigures deserve the highest mark. With some minor changes one could even imagine this diorama as part of LEGO’s modular building series, providing city center residents with a view of the bay and a small yet neat quay.

Scramble the Rebel fighters from LEGO Echo Base

Markus19840420 continues to impress with his LEGO Star Wars dioramas. Following up his Sullust scene, he presents a slice of Echo Base from The Empire Strikes Back, impressive in both size and detail. The carved snow cave look, hanging lights, maintenance bridges, and runway lights make the whole scene feel authentic. I won’t overlook Mike Psiaki’s X-wing and Larry Lars’s Snowspeeder, both great models recreated by Markus from their respective building guides, with some modifications.

See more photos of Hoth Echo Base on the builder’s Flickr.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian architecture in LEGO: The Dorothy H. Turkel House

We have seen a few Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in microscale among the LEGO Architecture series, but this time we have a minifigure scale representation of a Usonian house. Michele must have worked very hard to create this magnificent diorama. The house itself perfectly matches the original building, and there’s even a party going on! We all love parties here at The Brothers Brick! Make sure you check out close-up photographs as there are endless details. It’s also worth paying attention to the vegetation — each part of the diorama features a different kind of plant.

Her Turkel House album on Flickr gives a good insight on building large models. She has shared the full building process starting from the foundation of the house through final decoration.

Sandwood Town Shootout

I’m not really sure if this ruined town of Sandwood has anything valuable in the bank, but Deadeye Bill and his gang wants to give it a “shot” anyway. General Magma masterfully creates this action scene with smoking guns and also includes a little story on the side. Facial expressions of the figures are very carefully selected and body movements are just perfectly arranged. Blood splatter on the sheriff and the collapsed wall on the left building turn out to be nice finishing touches.

“Deadeye Bill and his gang were at it again. The most notorious gang known to Sandwood Town came to snatch up a couple of sacks o’ gold at the local bank, as usual. ‘Not if I got somethin’ to say bout that’, Sheriff Dave must’ve said, before gettin’ shot down by Leroy “the Gambler”, one of Bill’s fellow outlaws. Cold as a wagon tire. And the other one, Dynamite Juan “the Mexican”, was just shootin’ away at it. This robbery committed by three dodgasted chuckleheads soon became one of the bloodiest shootouts ever seen by this rottin’ little town…”

A beautifully spacious number one reactor

One of the kings of space corridors, Jeremy Williams has built the most gorgeous reactor I have ever seen. It is cavernous, beautifully lit and full of of enticing details. The lighting of the observation balconies is atmospheric and the choice of white spacemen gives a real ethereal quality.

This is not just a LEGO build, it’s a theatrical performance!

A new take on Batman’s vintage batcave

While LEGO have just released the official 76052 Classic TV Series Batcave, Marcin Guzicki has his own take on a vintage-style batcave. Marcin’s batcave has a well-supplied equipment area with batarangs and a great retro “recording device”. The clever use of sloped dark bluish grey LEGO parts gives the impression of an underground cave within a beautifully compact diorama.

An equally vintage Batmobile at the other end of the sloped walkway means that Batman just needs to run uphill into action.

Rebel attack on the Empire’s deflector shield generator

Check out this iconic scene from Return of the Jedi where the rebels attack the secret back entrance of the Imperial bunker on Endor. Dunedain98‘s build packs a ton of action and detail into a small space. The various plants, particularly those spot-on Redwood tress, are impressive. But why is Chewie with the ground crew instead of inside a stolen AT-ST? Han will never be able hot-wire that door! Oh wait, nevermind. The doors are already open. Phew, that was a close one.

Even old machinery can serve long when treated properly [Video]

One of the biggest dilemmas that LEGO builders face is choosing between impressive appearance and complex functionality of their creations. LEGO pieces, although offering an enormous number of combinations, still place huge limits on the functionality and mobility of models. That’s why hitting on a sweet build complete with a video of functions in action excites me like nothing else. One of the best Latvian builders, de-marco, whose works are always especially neat and aesthetically beautiful, has shared a small diorama of an old rusty rail-road crane by the loading area.

Click through to see this crane in action

Indominus rex vs. polar bear: Fight of the century

A unique feature of last year’s hit film Jurassic World was the inclusion of a white-skinned hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus rex. This allowed LEGO to create an equally impressive minifig-chomping beast, and lucky for us, this in turn allowed Jme Wheeler to pit said monster against the other most dangerous predator in the LEGO world (assuming you’re a cute little penguin): the polar bear. Let the games begin!

Oh, there’s also the Indominus’ owner camping out in the cave. Exploring is not easy, but it sure is entertaining.