Tag Archives: Microscale

Some say “Go big or go home!” but it takes real talent to compress something down to just a few studs and still keep it recognizable. Of course, many of the micro models we feature here aren’t so small after all, whether it’s a vast cityscape or starship.

Sobani Field Command Ship

I’ve never really built micro scale before, but I can certainly recognize a good creation. Take this Sobani ship by Pierre E Fieschi. Every part has a purpose, and each little bit is used to represent some undefinable space ship detail. Then, they’re all wrapped around a shape that’s entirely unconventional.

I’m also a big fan of the color scheme. I too have felt the siren song of dark red and tan on a big creation. I think both Pierre and I have to blame the designers at LEGO for using this color scheme in the Dino Attack line. Add that the Dino Attack sets were easy to find on clearance, and Pierre’s fleet becomes possible.

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Mont St. Michel

Arthur Gugick is a genius, this is a well established fact. His latest creation, a recreation of Mont St. Michel, simply reinforces the idea.

The best of nnenn: ReWorld roadtrain

Posted on behalf of Keith Goldman – all words are his.

Nate turned me down when I asked him to join the crew for “Zero Hour on Highway 44”, what a diva….said something about not being inspired to build a car…and then posts this two months later. Instead…I had to go with Dave Shaddix. Think about that for a minute, I asked for nnenn, and I got Shaddix. I’ll never forgive him for that.

Be sure to join us in sharing your own thoughts on Nate’s online eulogy.

The Best of nnenn: MRMP

As we’ve said, nnenn‘s building was as much about making fun toys for his sons to play with as it was about style.

This creation is a great example of where he really brought playability to his work. The roving city/base has a great style, and the aircraft with it aren’t shabby either. The great thing is, you don’t just get one of those things, you get them all. It looks like more fun than Autobot City, and I’m sure most kids could spend countless hours playing with this thing. I love it.

Be sure to join us in sharing your own thoughts on Nate’s online eulogy.

The best of nnenn: Hurassa heavy-dropship – TB12 “Porcilm”

Understanding that nnenn built as much for his sons as for himself puts lovely microscale creations like this dropship in perspective.

It’s the perfect size for a child’s hands, with incredible play value packed into a tiny model. When I blogged this back in 2007, I remember thinking back to some of my favorite non-LEGO childhood toys that this evoked. Two itty-bitty vehicles that emerge from an adorable micro space ship? There’s not much more playable — or awesome — than that.

Be sure to join us in sharing your own thoughts on Nate’s online eulogy.

The best of nnenn: TSFF-4290m Azura Class Capital Platform

With the recent passing of legendary builder Nate Nielson, better known to all of us as “nnenn”, we’re going to spend the next week commemorating him with a retrospective of his best builds.

One of my all-time favorites is this microscale carrier:

Be sure to join us in sharing your own thoughts on Nate’s online eulogy.

Achilles Last Stand

As we’ve mentioned before good photography is a very (maybe most) important criteria for being blogged here. Fredoichi gives a textbook example of good LEGO photography. Well lit, well framed, well defined and well posed. As an added bonus his Nakao M5 is well good and, well, it uses sand blue.

The XG/01 Chopper sports some lovely curves

Checking the links in the last post brought me to this gorgeous green bike by Pierre E Fieschi:

Yes, those are the minifig stands from 7595 Army Men on Patrol.

While we’re at it, I can’t pass up this Spark-class microscale space carrier:

Spatlantis station by Philip Stark

This is just a fun micro space station by Philip Stark (Erdbeereis1) in a theme he calls Spatlantis. In addition to the little construction details, I like the overall feel of a jellyfish combined with a mechanical space station.

Kissler Tower

Justin Vaughn’s latest addition to his Micro city (Micropolis) is a thing of sheer beauty. Built to TwinLug’s Micro City Standard, the whole build seems effortless.

Check out the rest of his set to see other great Micro creations!

The Sabota Death Ring

My latest creation is a good example of what happens when a builder gets carried away with a simple concept. My simple concept was to use blue bubble domes as microcolonies, which grew into a large mass that I am calling The Death Ring (see story on Flickr).

The large dome is constructed from stretcher hoses that maintain the shape without central supports. The smaller domes contain glow-in-the-dark disks that give off an eerie light in the dark to simulate the glow of the bioluminescent spheres in space. The size of the model may look deceptive due to all the small greebly bits that play with your sense of scale, but the actual diameter is 1.5 feet.

Fredo Houben: More to the brick than meets the eye [Interview]

I recently came across a quote by Ace Kim, the admin of FBTB, who said “a good picture of a terrible model will look better and be more appealing than a terrible picture of a good model.”

To a degree this is very true, which brings us to this interview with Fredo Houben (Fredoichi), a LEGO builder and graphic designer from the Netherlands. Granted, his models aren’t terrible — in fact they’re actually amazing.

What contributes to our enjoyment of Fredo’s creations is not simply the way he puts his bricks together but also his flawless presentation. As a bonus in this interview, Fredo goes through the steps he uses to edit a mediocre photo into a polished image.

The Brothers Brick: What do you like to build and where do you get your ideas and inspirations?

Fredo: Well, I mostly build in the sci-fi theme. Think of starfighters, multiped walkers/mecha and near-future vehicles. Occasionally I step out of that realm and do something else with the brick, but it’s sci-fi that I enjoy the most.

I find it fun and interesting to vary and play with scale, though I don’t make the biggest things out there.

I really like the challenge of building in a smaller scale. As for ideas and inspirations, I have a lot of interest in the design aspects of things like video games, movies, animation and Japanese toys, and that’s basically what gets things going.

TBB: When did you enter the online LEGO community and have you had a dark age? If so, how did you rediscover LEGO?

Fredo: I uploaded my first MOC on Flickr in 2008, since then LEGO is part of my life again. I say again because I stopped playing/building when I was 12 years old. I’m 36 now, so yeah I’ve had quite a dark age. Back then I played with LEGO day in and day out ever since I was 4. I had quite a collection by the time I was 12, but I lost interest in it and other interests took over like my Amiga, music and games. I felt pretty bad about it because I really enjoyed building, so I tried to come back to it a couple of times, but it didn’t feel the same anymore so I moved on.

Fast forward 23 years later, I all of a sudden felt the urge to do something with LEGO again. I work as a visual designer and I love toys and was thinking how I could create my own models and toys. Just do something else instead of design and 3D on screen… LEGO seemed perfect. I got extra motivated when I stumbled on some amazing work from a couple of builders on Flickr. Seeing stuff from Soren Roberts, Peter Reid, nnenn and Adrian Florea really gave me a good look of what you can do with the brick. These guys use parts in such a creative and different way and all have their own visual style. I had a lot of ideas, so I got my old collection from my parent’s attic and bought some new sets and just started.

More of our interview with Fredo after the jump: Continue reading →