In order to create all the amazing stuff you see here every day, LEGO builders have to do what all artists do: (a) learn a variety of strange techniques, and (b) endlessly steal from one another. And now fans of Microscale dioramas have a chance to kill two birds with one stone! Serbian builder Milan Sekiz has used a relatively new sloped piece (lovingly nicknamed the baby bow) to come up with three different microscale tree designs. Change the colors of the bows to represent different seasons.
Over the years, we’ve featured a number of great LEGO vehicles from the Alien franchise, from the ever-popular Cheyenne dropship & APC to the Sulaco and Nostromo. But I think Grantmasters is the first builder I’m aware of to tackle the massive ore refinery that the Nostromo is designed to haul through deep space. At this scale, the famous freighter is built from only eight pieces, but is still quite recognizable.
Our second find from the hoard of Letranger Absurde is this cunningly crafted microscale homage to the book that first introduced the world to the concept of the alien invasion story, H. G. Well’s The War of the Worlds.
From the builder: “I’ve always been a fan of H. G. Wells’ fiction (one of the very first builds was a Time Machine / Star Wars crossover; it’s a complete mess, but that’s a different story!). So building this was always on my list. The dumbbell choice of part in Iron Builder was just the inspiration I needed to finally go ahead with it. I chose to take a more personal approach to the scene and not base it directly on any adaptation, but still wanted to keep a rather retro aesthetic for the tripod… unfortunately I’ve only had enough parts to make one.”
The name Notre Dame may be most widely associated with a certain cathedral in Paris, France. But the cathedral of Notre Dame is Strasbourg (also in France) is actually more than twice as tall. In fact for over two centuries it was the tallest building in the world – taller even than the Great Pyramid of Giza – eventually being surpassed in the Victorian era by such behemoths as the Eiffel Tower and the Washington Monument. But it still remains one of the finest surviving examples of late Gothic architecture, and is nicely captured here in microscale LEGO form by Daniel Stoeffler.
Looking like something right out of LEGO’s own Architecture series, this microscale model of the iconic statue of Christ The Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro is the work of German builder Jens Ohrndorf. Proportioning, detail and texture are hard to get right at this scale (especially with a human figure) but Jens nails it, and the result is immediately recognizable.
Disproving my assertion last week that LEGO models inspired by Classical literature are rare, the talented and prolific Letranger Absurde has just posted a microscale scene from the Iliad in which Greek ships stand offshore as their horse rolls up to the gates of Troy. While one’s eye is drawn to the red-roofed temple, don’t miss the Greek ships, whose bows and sterns are chocolate frogs! The whole scene is set on sideways bricks, enabling the builder to create some excellent waves with white wedge plates.
Over the last few months, Irwan Prabowo has been posting a series of microscale LEGO dioramas inspired by all of the Star Wars movies, including the upcoming The Force Awakens.
My favorite is the crashed Star Destroyer seen in the trailer for the new movie. An X-wing and TIE fighter in the sands add some additional visual interest to a scene that might otherwise be a bit more plain at this scale.
Here are all of the mini-dioramas together, including the Death Star trench run, AT-AT assault on Hoth, and Sarlacc pit:
To see all of them in detail, plus some more not in the group shot above (like Owen & Beru’s moisture farm with a Jawa sandcrawler) check out Irwan’s photostream on Flickr.
Sometimes there isn’t a need to reinvent the wheel, just change about half of it and give it a fresh paint job. That’s exactly what Zach (zachmoe) did with his amazing micro-scaled ship:
This ship might look slightly familiar, it’s based on Rob (dasnewten)’s Prometheus which we’ve featured before. Zach made it his own by upgrading to a quad engine arrangement, and adding the delightful little dock on the side. And if you’re wanting to try to build your own version, Rob has graciously provided some breakdown so that even us non Titans of Space can build one.
Kiwi builder Grantmasters has been plugging away at the Cheyenne dropship from Aliens over this past week. Calling it done for now, he’s shared this fantastic build that highlights the dropship and an APC (which fits inside) in a cool diorama. While the highly functional dropship is excellent, I also really appreciate the contrasting backdrops — the planetary surface and the power plant.
Tristan made this beautiful scene as a tribute to two friends who recently passed away. I was struck by the realism of the sun’s burning disk and the great use of forced perspective, and I think it makes a lovely memorial.
This 1:200 scale model of the USS Kitty Hawk isn’t the first large-scale LEGO ship model Matt Bace has built, but it just might be his best yet. While his model of the USS Missouri is impressive at over 4 feet in length, the Kitty Hawk dwarfs it, coming at 5 feet, 3 inches long, and boasts an astonishing complement of aircraft, with over 40 helicopters, fighter jets, and support aircraft adorning its flight deck. This model was built digitally, but anyone who doubts the skill and time required by a model like this has clearly never built a large, detailed digital model.
It’s Seafair Fleet Week here in Seattle, and the annual “Parade of Ships” went past my downtown office window this afternoon. Inspired by all those big boats on Elliott Bay, I went looking for a nice set of cool LEGO ships, and quickly found these beauties by Rancorbait.
First up, the “Nova” Medium Assault Cruiser incorporates great brick-built striping and a sporty red fin.
The “Eclipse” Heavy Assault Cruiser is very obviously part of the same fleet, with a consistent design aesthetic, though the Eclipse is a bit larger and has significantly more greebles. The bridge overhanging the white section is an excellent touch.
Finally, though it’s a different scale and certainly isn’t part of the same fleet, I can’t help but love this big red “Warthog” gunship. There are just so many non-right angles all over this thing!
