Tag Archives: Industrial

Start your shift at this awesome alien refinery

Sometimes, the best LEGO builds are the most down-to-earth (or down-to-another planet). Check out this refinery by qian yj. Sure, it’s in outer space, but there’s a mundane familiarity in the way the alien workers are just doing their jobs. I love the cool, industrial grays and whites paired with subtle blue or red highlights. Anyone who’s ever worked the daily grind can relate, no matter what planet you’re from. I don’t know what the aliens are refining, exactly, but I hope they get their lunch break soon.

Alien Refinery Factory

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This microscale factory will blow your mind

Builder Eli Willsea uses the barrel of a cannon to great effect as smokestacks in this intricate microscale factory. The many little buildings with red roofs make me think of something straight from the mind of Dr. Seuss, looking a lot like a scene from The Lorax. Tiny tread pieces are used to make ladders. Watch your step on your way home from a long shift, as this factory has one thing in common with Imperial construction… no handrails.

The Spoon Factory

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What’s happening in the back alley

We’ve featured quite a few LEGO facades, but it’s surprising to see how much life might be behind these buildings. Kris Kelvin (Montgomery Burns) depicts the back lot of two buildings in excellent minifig-scale realism without sacrificing any detail or action. This diorama is bustling with new shipments of lobsters, Scala bottle elements, and pork chops. In addition to the goods, you’ll find dark tan tiles scattered across the sidewalks and air conditioners that really capture that city grime. There’s also a variety of bar and fence parts to create all sorts of railings, gates, and pipes throughout. We’ve spotted the use of some rare brown fence pieces incorporated into the tall gates of the lot entrance. And at the intersection, there’s a pair of stoplights supported by bar handles and lightsaber hilts.

In the backyard...

According to Kris, this build, along with an autumn garden, is part of a larger city diorama in progress. While we’re waiting to see it all come together, visit our archives for a look at some more detailed dioramas.

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An oil platform built from oil-based bricks.

We all love to build LEGO creations and occasionally some of us even make a bit of money doing it. I don’t know much about Fitec Supply but I hope they paid handsomely for this stunning oil platform by Niek Geurts. It’s tough to pinpoint what scale this is. It’s bigger than what we’d call micro-scale, maybe more in the realm of midi-scale and certainly smaller than minifig-scale. Regardless, the detail here is top notch. I’m loving the cranes, the oranges lifeboats and the helipad. The overall industrial feel of it makes me want to put on a hard hat and some coveralls and check temperature and pressure gauges or whatever else it is they do on oil platforms. With LEGO creations this good, we’ll be certainly be checking the gauges on what Niek is up to from time to time.

Lego oil platform

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The wonderful world of warehouses

Warehouses are one of those things that make modern life go around. They’re also one of those things that most people will never step inside but could not live without. If you’re among the warehouse curious, Norton74‘s recent build is just for you. From the shelving, to the pallets, to the equipment – this build incorporates all the quintessential elements of a warehouse.

Warehouse Life | loading/unloading

After studying this model for a while, one thing that immediately stands are the variety of different forklift models shown. Considering this whole build was a commission for a forklift truck company, that’s not entirely surprising. Exploring other photos from the builder reveals some additional forklift and hand truck models that didn’t make it into the the scene above.

Warehouse Life | forklift and pallet truck full range

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Industrial design

Microscale building is most commonly associated with the giant collaborative ‘Micropolis’ city displays at events like Brickworld, where the focus is on gleaming modern architecture. So it’s refreshing to see Flickr member HOEFOL going seriously old school with microscale models of structures from the industrial revolution.

Which of course means factories, mills and a lot of smoke stacks:

 

But if you weren’t fortunate enough to live in the big city with all those rats and consumption, you might have lived in a farmhouse like one of these (with just the rats):

 

Not exactly contemporaneous with the others, but here’s a bonus scene entitled “Stranded”. Yup, not even HOEFOL’s cute little canal barge is gonna be able to get you out of this situation!

So much clever part usage in these scenes. I was particularly impressed by the inclusion of window sills, the recessing of the doorways, and use of flowers for the surf effect in that last creation.

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