Here’s proof that you don’t need a lot of colors to build an exciting and dynamic model. Simple grays and white convey the power of the water and the feat of engineering in this vignette of a Russian dam by vir-a-cocha. This model is also notable for its excellent mix of studs and tiles, conveying both industrial realism and naturalistic landscaping simultaneously. I’d love to see an Architecture set like this.
aido k has created a wonderful piece of microscale cartography depicting England’s south-eastern coast in 1216. The different castles are all excellent and this feels like the sort of map a medieval lord might have planned his attacks with. I admire these kind of creations based on historical reality, but I can’t help but imagine a microscale model like this depicting Westoros…
Elaborating on his theme, the builder has gone on to create another model of Dover Castle itself — still in microscale, but closer-in. Particularly nice work on the defensive walls and towers, although I suspect the carefully balanced tiles might not stand up to sustained attack!
TBB’s own Simon Liu has been busy at Brickworld and these micro AT-STs were a small part of a larger Star Wars: Battlefront display. The AT-STs are delicately balanced and ingeniously built at such a small scale. The background is a microscale version of Alex Doede’s bunker.
Simon says that these are in the tiniest form he can do, but I reckon there are some nano AT-STs out there waiting to be built.
In the same year we were introduced to such trend-setting digital marvels as the CGI dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, and the groundbreaking first-person shooter Doom, a rather different kind of video game appeared. It was a puzzle game called Myst. It was set in a virtual world that was presented to players not as low resolution 3D animation, but as beautifully rendered high resolution images. It was a nod to text-based adventures from the dawn of the gaming age, and became a surprise success, dominating the PC game market for almost a decade and helping to drive adoption of the new CD-ROM media format. Letranger Absurde has created this microscale LEGO version of the familiar Myst map.
NASA Engineer and LEGO fan Nicholas Mastramico has brought us a most excellent follow up to the shuttle, launch pad, and SLS rocket we featured last week. Nicholas’s microscale version is eye-catching with the great detail he’s packed into such a small model. What makes his version particularly special is his relationship with the rocket: Nicholas is a structural design engineer for NASA, and is currently working on the real SLS rocket.
This means his micro-SLS has a unique opportunity to stand in the shadows of its ancestors, like the Saturn V rocket pictured here.
Nicholas says he’s always been a huge sci-fi fan – but it was the early pictures of Mars from Sojourner that truly hooked him on space travel. He decided then he would build rockets for NASA one day, and that goal guided him through school to where he is now. He was recently involved in a test with a weather balloon, for which he provided a passenger. The experiment took the minifig up to 120,000 feet!
There are more shots of some of the features of the mobile launch platform and payload capsules, as well as an itty-bitty adorable crawler!
Microscale creations often bring out the best in builders, forcing would-be architects to look at mundane LEGO pieces in new and unusual manners, seeing a portcullis arch in a shark’s jaw, fortress spires in Technic pins and embellished walls in pauldrons. Take a look at this fascinating floating castle by Marcel V., and observe how all the tiny details crafted from odd pieces coalesce into a menacing microscale fortress.
Polish builder Rafal P has perfectly captured the largest landmark in Warsaw in microscale, and he managed to incorparate almost every little detail in this relatively small creation. The building is question is the Palace of Culture and Science and it was built in 1955 in a Stalinist manner. Today it is still the tallest building in Poland and the seventh tallest in the European Union at 237 meters (778 feet).
Rafal’s perfect photography creates an atmospheric look, but bright trees and colorful vehicles cheer up the gloomy ambience. The rounded conference room is perfectly represented despite the difficulty of building curved objects with LEGO parts. The clock tower, antenna and rooftop details are amazing. Soviet remnants in architecture have always amazed me and it’s a joy to see them built with LEGO parts.
Fabulous microscale F1 cars on show from BrickMonkey. Really nice close-up photography makes these models pop on their starting grid, and the use of the silver hub wheels and grille slopes adds some lovely depth of texture. But the killer parts usage? That upside-down handle piece as a rear spoiler. Excellent work.
Shannon Sproule brings us a cute little space rover concept. As usual, the presentation is top-notch, with Shannon’s trademark 50s retro sci-fi style in full effect — lovely curves and color choices giving an “astronaut chic” feel. The use of the “tooth plate” on the cab flanks, along with leaving a bunch of hollow studs visible, builds an impressive sense of texture. Lastly, the addition of two white rubber bands across the cab windows splits up the expanse of black with the sort of thin detailing which is so hard to do on a model this scale. I want to drive one of these beauties all the way across Mars.
We’ve seen a lot of LEGO renditions of Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, including a gorgeous scene of Laputa among the clouds and a beautiful music box floating fortress. But there’s always room for more, so here are a few that caught our eye.
Mel F‘s lovely little version is a joy. Mel built it to be a desk ornament, and it’s got that perfect balance of size and complexity to subtly show co-workers that LEGO is cool, but you’re not insane (that comes later when they see your LEGO room).
Another gorgeous version comes from builder 米 基, with this terrific soaring castle surrounded by clouds. It even has Dola and her pirates’ tiny gliders flitting about beneath the massive fortress.
This magnificent palace of a sultan looks splendid in microscale, a size not often used for the inspiring architecture of the near east. Marcel V. puts those gold ice-cream swirls to great use atop the minarets, and tiny crowns adorn the other towers.
I love when a small build looks like a full-sized build at first glance. And that’s exactly what Robert4168’s mini pirate ship does! The base of the ship is actually a single row boat normally meant to hold only one or two minifigures. But with a handful of tiny parts and some expertly folded sails, Robert has created a massive-looking ship that’ll still fit in the palm of your hand!
