This winter landscape sculpted by John Snyder is a glimpse of the raw beauty of nature. There are many details to reward a closer look from the frozen pond to the brick-built wildlife. I count 9 animals ranging from a blue jay to a hibernating bear, can you find them all?
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.
Sometimes it’s a single LEGO piece which sparks the inspiration for an entire model. That’s what seems to have happened here, with David Zambito deciding the Nexo Knights helmet visor might make a good cowcatcher for a locomotive. He wasn’t wrong – it looks excellent – as does the rest of this microscale creation. The details on the train are good, although I wish the loco itself was a different colour to offer better contrast with the grey rockwork around the tunnel. The mix of skeleton arms used for steam is an obvious highlight, but don’t miss that little tent and campfire – a lovely touch which breaks up the surrounding landscaping.
Life can be busy and sometimes we need to find a place that allows us to relax and unwind. Rather than search high and low for that special place, Milan Sekiz has built his own sanctuary with LEGO bricks. This tranquil scene is beautiful, with its soothing colour scheme and some very nice natural features in the garden. I love the way the colour combination of the leaves tone in nicely with the sloping roofs of the home in the background.
My own favourite part of the scene is the little stream and the cleverly constructed bridge connecting the stone path. Milan has used different coloured plates under the transparent light blue tiles to give the impression of a textured river bed.
There’s only one minor part of the scene that kicked me from my tranquil, meditative state; the combination of the yellow minifigures and flesh has a jolting effect on my irritable nerve.
Picture it, Tuscany 1982. The sky is blue, the cypress trees are green and the sunflowers are in full bloom. Sandro Damiano has built a peaceful LEGO scene that is the perfect antidote to some of the post-apocalyptic creations we feature here on TBB. While technically this is not a complex build, the composition and colourful scene has been well crafted in a picture postcard style. I love the meandering stone path and the shapely cypress trees, while the balance of bright colours is ideal for this cheerful scene.
The changing colour of trees and their foliage can be diverse in Alpine areas, usually making the long, steep hike with a camera well worth the effort. Inspired while hiking in the Swiss Alps, Emil Lidé has built an artistic impression of these natural foliage changes by creating a beautiful slice of LEGO mountain. As the eye ascends his build from left to right, the colours change from vibrant green and lime though the autumnal palatte of oranges and reddish browns to peak at the stark, snowy summit.
We have blogged previous builds by Emil, showcasing his skill at capturing the natural world in LEGO. Have a look at his polluted ocean, Krakatoa’s volcanic eruption, changing seasons in microscale and fall in the Avalonian countryside.
Wochenender presents the first part of a planned series of builds illustrating the colonization of a remote wilderness on a fictional island called Sølvheim. This display showcases the expertly crafted landscape which features melting snow elements — something I haven’t seen explored much by builders, making this an interesting fresh concept. The wooden port and watchtower are the only structures at the moment, but I look forward to their evolution in the upcoming dioramas.
Step aside Rey, there’s a speedier Classic Space speeder in town. Sad Brick has taken the idea of the Star Wars speeder bike and turned it into this grey, greeble-tastic bike complete with bumble-bee stripes on the side. While the bike is cool-looking and fun, the landscape is really something else. This is definitely Martian territory, with some weird looking, colourful flora…and perhaps fauna hiding amongst it. I love the tall rock formations with the eerie red shapes appearing from behind.
The dust displaced in the wake of the speeder is just the icing on the cake for me.
Sea stacks are amazing vertical rock formations that stand in the sea, formed entirely by wind and water as the forces of nature break up part of the headland over time. There are some famous stacks around the world, for example, the Twelve Apostles in Australia or the Old Man of Hoy off the coast of Orkney in Scotland. Tirrell Brown has created a beautiful scene with sea stacks, just off the coast of the imaginary land of Mitgardia. The castle is centrally located upon one of the larger stacks, jutting out the sea with it’s small wooden pier. Tirrell’s sea is very striking, with the combination of dark blue and medium blue depths and transparent waves crashing against the craggy rock faces of the sea stacks.
For those who are not familiar with the sport of Folkracing, it’s a popular and inexpensive form of rally racing with older beat-up cars, which originated in Finland. The races take place on specially designed gravel tracks, and Nybohov Creation Ltd has created this beautifully colourful LEGO track for some micro rally cars to race around. The details and textures look fantastic, with everything from trees and foliage to landscaping with a couple of colourful buildings.
See more details of this tiny race track
Generally, LEGO builders strive to avoid blocky, repetitive designs. And, of course, many of us cringe at the mere thought of large patches of exposed studs. But Loysnuva fully embraced these little-favoured styles in his latest creation, and the result is simply mesmerizing! These sand dunes have an almost pixilated quality to them that works wonderfully.
My initial thoughts about this LEGO scene had nothing to do with Bionicle (which is the actual source material). Instead, I imagined a sci-fi world where robots roamed computer-generated deserts. And let me tell you, I immediately wanted to know more about that world.
Neighbours can be a mixed bunch; some can be horrid if they play their music loudly at night, while others will mow your lawn while you’re on holiday. I think it is safe to say that the neighbours in this inspired microscale scene by Cecilie Fritzvold are more of the silent type. There are a few ingenious parts used in this scene, with a “sunken” technique used to give certain parts a new lease of life at this scale.
The grave stones are a mix of ingots, 1×1 plates with teeth, and blaster trigger mechanisms surrounded by a fence made from grille tiles. I love the nearby church whose structure includes a pair of 2×3 pentagonal tiles sitting at different heights to add depth. The white houses all have roofs made from minifigure laptops; so simple and yet so effective.
Building in microscale is a great way to utilise LEGO parts in different ways, even when a part may seem to have a very specific purpose when first encountered. For example, did you spot the minifigure rollerskates posing as microscale cars? And can you work out how Cecilie has made the trunk of the tree to the left of the church?
