Tag Archives: Landscape

An Avalonian home and gardens spills over the border

In the peaceful rural setting of Avalonia, there is a grand old house called Königsfeld Manor. Life in the village of Avalonia is normally peaceful, but this spring a visit from an old friend brings worrisome tidings. This diorama by Patrick Massey is the perfect antidote to the current wintry conditions in the Northern Hemisphere. There is a lot to admire in this scene with its engaging mix of landscaping and architecture. My favourite part is definitely the overspill of landscape beyond the black border, I think this may be the first time I have seen this technique used so effectively.

The main house has some lovely architectural details and surprisingly it appears to be built on stilts; perhaps the monsoon season brings flood water. The decorative roof ridges are not the usual village design so I wonder if there’s a more sinister character living here. There’s another small building under construction with just a wooden frame on show at the moment. Perhaps it’s a storage barn or a granny flat to stop granny hassling those who live in the main house… ‘Have you seen my glasses?’, ‘Can you pass me the scroll?’, ‘These carrots are undercooked!’…

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Tribute to a sunrise

There are few joys in life quite like a sunrise. I find them especially beautiful – though admittedly that may be partially due to the fact I’m a life-long night-owl. I find the colors and serenity quite beautiful.

ForlornEmpire has done their best to capture the beauty of a sunrise in LEGO. While they call it a “sorry” attempt, I’d respectfully disagree. The colors are lovely and striking, like a true sunrise. I like the forced perspective on the road, leading you to where the sun is starting to peak above the horizon.

It’s all downhill for now

This downhill creation from Graham Gidman is one of his entries to this year’s medieval-themed contest Colossal Castle Contest XIII.

The builder describes the scene as ‘Graham leading his men down the mountainside start the fight‘ (I am paraphrasing somewhat). The unusual proportions caught my eye initially as the build is high but of narrow depth and depicts a sloped mountain descent that would be perfect for a spot of single-track mountain biking.

I have favourite and not-so favourite parts in this creation. I will start with my no-so favourite as I don’t want to sound overly negative about this great build. While I like the technique of light/dark blueish-grey slopes and tiles ‘jumbled’ to create the mountainside, it suffers slightly from being very flat and smooth on the facing side. Maybe a little more ‘cragginess‘ next time…

Moving swiftly on to my favourites, the red feathered bird in the nest is great; I think the nest may be Bilbo Baggins hair. I also like the skilfully created sloped tracks — a lot has been achieved without making the terrain look too contrived. Finally, the little collection of overgrown greenery in the middle left area is a nice touch.

This year’s Colossal Castle Contest has been brimming with great entries, you can see others blogged by TBB.

Fancy a little hot sauce with your mushrooms?

This lava-tastic creation by Thorsten Bonsch is inspired by an online role-playing video game called The Elder Scrolls Online (“ESO”) and is the second ESO-inspired build we have showcased. The first was Thorsten’s mammoth 11,000-piece creation called The Dolmen.

The game landscape captured is called Stonefalls and is described by Thorsten as “…a mainly grey and barren region in Morrowind, dominated by giant mushrooms and streams of lava…“. I have not played the game, but Thorsten certainly captured my attention with those giant mushrooms and the beautifully depicted lava flow. The LEGO colour palate is utilised perfectly to show the ebbing heat of the lava flow. Note the minifigure standing centrally, helping to give a sense of scale to the gigantic fungi!

Hot stuff…

Historic island getaway

Build for the Kaliphlin Civil War challenge over the course of four months, this latest breathtaking creation by Guilds of Historica veteran Patrick Massey is called Al Amarj Island. There seems to be something interesting going on in almost every nook and cranny of this diorama. Multiple styles of architecture and vegetation all seem intricately woven together, and the rock archway looks very natural. Outstanding! When can I book my vacation there?

Denmark, the land of LEGO, in LEGO, featuring LEGOLAND

Danish builder Lasse Vestergård has created this gigantic microscale map of Denmark, featuring tiny versions of many of its landmarks. Not as much Viking stuff as I’d expected – but they sure have a lot of cathedrals! And of course, LEGOLAND Billund is in there too – can you locate it?

Check out the entire album for closeups and explanations of all the landmarks, including Roskilde Cathedral, which Lasse has created in LEGO before…

Cloudy with a chance of fireballs

Conveying action in a microscale LEGO scene is impossible unless it’s action on an epic scale. Pascal Schmidt demonstrates this perfectly with his model of a volcano raining fiery death on what I assume is some poorly-situated Roman era town. Note the NPU (“nice part usage”) of white ray guns in the pyroclastic cloud.

For some reason this reminded me of a build from last year that we kinda overlooked, a microscale tornado by Jimmy Fortel, created during a round of Iron Builder, and featuring some more NPU (the seed part for the contest was Mixel ball and socket joints).

The Windmill

Organic shapes can be awfully tricky with LEGO, and part of that challenge I think is what makes some of the pieces of landscaping and life we see that so very impressive.

Eduardo Gavilán (aToMiKWiWa) does a lovely job with the rock formations that create the foundation for his windmill, and shows how the builders used the formations to their benefit instead of sculpting to what they needed.

The Fortress of Cameria

This gorgeous river fortress was built by Soccersnyderi for Guilds of Historica.

I really like how the castle spans the river and the landscaping is quite nice. All the pieces really seem to mesh and create something special here. You also have to love the roof on the main tower.