Arjan Oude Kotte’s (Konajra) Fireplay 33 tugboat is a stunning creation that combines large-scale sculpting with advanced detailing techniques. The model contains more than 20,000 pieces and took more than 250 hours to design and build. All that work should warrant a visit to the gallery on Flickr for more pictures!
I had to blog this little sports car by “de-marco” to make sure enough people see his cleverness. Especially on the bonnet and indented doors. Magnificent. And it’s the correct 5-wide ;)
Continuing our coverage of great LEGO models debuted at BrickCon 2012, Paul Hetherington just posted his FUN HAUS! building, which won “Best in Town.” (Paul has a serious winning streak going — he also won Town trophies in 2010 and 2011, and won our “Best Apocafied Building” prize during Zombie Apocafest 2009 for his Turns at Midnight carousel.)
Paul’s funhouse was inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebrations, as well as the work of artist Pooch. The building features moving cars as well as letters, so the video is well worth a watch.
According to flickr user Tikitikitembo, there’s a whole city in there. This awesome microscale municipality fits neatly into the bowels of a brick-built 2×4. The blue lining on the box is a touch that works magnificently, and there are lots of neat pieces in the structures, ranging from the super old-school to the brand new.
It must be the season for Unofficial LEGO books, as hot on the heels of The Big Unofficial LEGO Adventure Book comes The Big Unofficial Lego Builder’s Book: Build Your Own City
The industrious RAILBRICKS team recently brought us yet another issue of their excellent magazine. This time it features layouts, and is thus probably more relevant to non-train builders, with its demonstration of landscaping and detailing. Highlights in this issue include articles on the excellent layout of Alban Nanty, the collaborative layouts of Mike Pianta (scruffulous) and me, and a community spotlight on Hong Kong’s Legend Bricks. Once again the whole team have done an excellent job on this lovely free resource.
What may look like a farm barn by Mike Yoder is actually an engineering bay for a mecha. Covert? Yes. Clever? Definitely.
Check out the video for some functional elements of the build.
Anyone who’s looked at my photostream in any detail would have noticed I’ve slowly but surely been collecting English trains, vehicles and buildings from the pre-WWII period. Ultimately I have a goal of assembling it all into a single layout, and this street is my first demonstration.
I’m really, really hoping to make it to Brisbricks for this weekend’s exhibition to show this.
Dark-Alamez has built us a Chicago street section. Two of the buildings are based on real ones, while the third one is out of his imagination. It took me just a glance at the thumbnail to recognize the city this creation represents. Aside from beautiful buildings my favorite is the Chicago Loop railway segment.
A while back, I reviewed Olivia’s House for the Friend’s line. I mentioned then that I might just have an infatuation with the new line, and I’m pretty sure that’s still true.
At the time I reviewed the set, I enjoyed the functionality of it, and was inspired to build something similar. What came of that inspiration was Olivia’s House 2.0.
My main goal for this was to have it come apart, just like the set, though mine admittedly goes back together just one way. I kept some aspects of the original set, too, like parts and designs from the bathroom and kitchen, and the design of some of the extra pieces.
The whole thing ends up being six rooms with two major hallways and a grand staircase, along with an attic. I had a ton of fun building this, getting everything to look exactly how I envisioned it. Eight months to finish it.
You can see more pictures of each individual room and module, along with some of the different smaller builds, in my flickr gallery.
I’ve been somewhat less than diligent in my checking of Brickshelf lately, so I count myself very fortunate I caught the Eurobricks thread for this wonderful train station. Unlike art deco, which is lends itself nicely to LEGO bricks, the art nouveau style of Rochefort’s main station is quite a challenge to represent in LEGO. But Domino39 has pulled it off with aplomb. Beautiful work. See especially the droid hands making up the front canopy.
