Tag Archives: W. Navarre

LEGO Mosaic from A Plague Tale: Innocence exudes hope and happiness in dark times

While I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the video game A Plague Tale: Innocence, it’s fair to say I know my way around a LEGO brick. So when I say that this mosaic by General 尓àvarre (W. Navarre) is one of the most impressive bits of 2-D brickwork I’ve seen. At this scale, the General must employ clips aplenty. These clips are used adeptly to hold all manner of barred piece, forming an intricate picture of the game’s main characters. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s additional work around the edges of this mosaic to give the 22×30 stud rectangle the look of a aging photograph. It’s a masterful union of color, texture, and technique, capturing a moment of happiness in a dark, bleak setting.

Happiness and Hope

Gloomy cathedral in the dead of night has some spooky spires

Cathedrals are generally spooky enough in my opinion, but it seems that Josiah Durand has decided that their cathedral needed a bit more spooky, with glowing red lighting softly seeping through the stained glass windows, and spikes, lots of spikes. Oh, not spooky enough? how about some mist, some fire at the rooftops, and a mysterious figure either falling to their death or giving up their earthly form to drift to the heavens…

The City of Destruction: Purity's Death

LEGO Creation of the Week (#17): Armenelos The Golden by W. Navarre

Every week readers of the The Brothers Brick Telegram channel choose the Creation of the Week: one project that impressed all of us the most. Something unimaginable happened last week. The one and only Fuji printer lost the public vote to a brilliant forced perpective build by Josiah Durand! We have no idea how this is possible, but Armenelos The Golden is our most revent Creation of the Week! Congrats!

Meanwhile, the new vote is already on! Join our Telegram channel to follow all the best LEGO creations, latest news, and, of course, vote for your favorites. See you there!

Behold Armenelos The Golden

You’d think in a LEGO forum chock full of nerds there would be among us a few experts on Lord of the Rings. A perusal of our archives proves such an expert has not been forthcoming lately and instead, you get contributors like me striving to do a passable article on a subject matter we know very little about. It’s a sacrilege, I know, but it doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate this breathtaking scene presented by Josiah Durand. It’s called Armenlos The Golden. I see beautiful shapes, a stunning artistic composition, and amazing build techniques while the rest of youse likely see a beloved scene from Rings of Power. If you fancy yourself as an authority on Lord of the Rings, (Then why not apply to be a contributor here? You can always do that, you know!) then you’d most certainly want to take a deep dive into our archives.

Armenelos The Golden

A hard place that totally rocks

I hate to interrupt a person in mourning, but I have to geek out over this absolutely gorgeous resting place. Joe (jnj_bricks) collaborated with W. Navarre to pay homage to the game Plague Tale: Requiem. And, I have to say, rarely has nature rendered in LEGO looked so, well…natural. The various rock faces come together at dazzling angles. Grass and weeds are perfectly suggested with minifigure claws and chopsticks. And that out-of-focus, forced perspective background gives an epic scope to the whole thing. What I wouldn’t give to visit this place…I mean, other than burying my brother here. Sorry, Amica, I’ll let you get back to that…

A Plague Tale: Sorrow

The legendary duel between bright Fingolfin and dread Morgoth

Long before Sauron plagued Middle Earth, there was the evil Morgoth. W. Navarre presents us with the Dark Lord’s duel with the shining Elven king Fingolfin in a lovely LEGO scene. Fingolfin stands before Morgoth, his blade gleaming in the darkness surrounding them in Angband, the Dark Lord’s stronghold. Morgoth prepares the first strike, commencing the legendary duel that will ultimately claim the Elven king. The figures possess a beautiful craft speaking of a great love for J.R.R Tolkien’s legendarium. Fingolfin’s figure is splendid indeed, but Morgoth’s is where my eye is drawn. There’s an amazing amount of greebles adorning the Dark Lord, and some amazing parts making up his armor. One such piece is the drill bit in the center of his face, a piece that’s more versatile than I expected at my first encounter with it.

And Morgoth Came

Smaug brings fire and ruin to Lake-town

From The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug comes a scene of fiery wrath by W. Navarre. This build exists for the Middle-earth LEGO Olympics, bringing an iconic scene from the movie to life. Bard the Bowman pauses a moment as his home is set ablaze by the vengeful dragon Smaug, his determination to save his family and fellow townsfolk set by the heat. The fire illuminates some wonderfully crafted LEGO building and buildings. The homes have great details and features, though those sconces are no longer necessary with Smaug’s flames lighting the place. Some of the roofs have printed tiles, but others have the textures of Technic tread pieces. Of course, the town isn’t the only cool thing in the scene–the ice floating in the water is pretty neat too. The ice is brick-built sideways with slopes and wedges to give it those angles and edges. Though, I think most of it will melt until Smaug stops throwing fire around everywhere.

The Desolation of Lake-town

You’ll have a hauntingly good time aboard the Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman has been haunting the minds of those who enjoy a good maritime legend for centuries. The ghost ship no doubt haunts W. Navarre‘s mind, inspiring this cool LEGO creation. This build is for the Iron Builder challenge, specifically the use of giant green minifig hands. The use of them here is subtle and cool. Can you spot them? They’re the cannons! Their bright green color is perfect for a ghostly vessel doomed to roam the seas for all time. Speaking of subtleties, I really like the hints at otherworldliness on the ship. Those details don’t overwhelm the structure of the ship itself, allowing it to pass as an old sailing vessel–until you’re up close and personal. The ghostly touch I like the most is the curved flame piece at the top of the central mast. It’s the perfect part for that tattered, ethereal flag look.

Ghost Ship: The Flying Dutchman

Continue on, if ye be brave enough

Ancient Egyptian amphibian with hands for feet

Builder W Navarre has taken inspiration from the latest LEGO Architecture set and travelled to Egypt for his latest Iron Builder salvo. The centrepiece is a rather jolly-looking frog, cleverly using the bright green hand piece for the eye stalks. It also sees apples repurposed as big toes on the front legs. This little amphibian does go some way to deceive regarding the scale of the build though! The rest of the build gives slightly more clues, and is worth investigating in its own right as there are some great techniques on display. Much of the background is brick-built in microscale and blurred to add some forced perspective, even the water of the river Nile below. The best bit might just be the hieroglyphs on the frog’s plinth though! A mish-mash of parts, together with some gaps naturally created by the geometry of LEGO pieces, gives them a terrifically authentic weathered feel. Another of the seed part hands even makes an appearance, although it is well hidden – can you spot it?

Premonition: Nile Frogs

You’ll fall for this Assassin’s Creed LEGO scene

In his latest LEGO build, W. Navarre posits an Assassin’s Creed video game set in Spain circa 1398. Our roguish hero is taking his hallmark “leap of faith” down to the streets below. But, while the assassin minifigure is clearly the focus of this build, I can’t help but admire the excellent buildings making up this Spanish city. There’s some excellent stonework displayed on the balconies, and of course the iconic terra cotta rooftops of Spain. And, while the vast majority of the build is sepia-toned, I love the pockets of bright color dappled throughout. A hint of light bright yellow on the side of a building, a splotch of turquoise visible through a window, and the occasional dark red roof tile all stand out, even in the fuzzy background.

Assassin's Creed: Spain 1398

Click here to watch the video!

The black knight always triumphs!

“‘Tis but a scratch!” If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought W. Navarre built a large scale figure of that black knight. Yet, this formidable figure inspired by Dark Souls has no dismembered appendages at all and is actually threatening. While Navarre hasn’t shown the full figure yet, we see just enough. Leaning on his sword after a day of battle, the knight’s weary position conveys so much character. Navarre’s detailed build is not too cluttered, and we can easily tell what is what, and it works so well.

The Black Knight

“Alright, we’ll call it a draw.” Check out more amazing builds by W. Navarre here!

A mysterious warrior takes a moment to reflect

This mystical scene comes from the creative mind of W. Navarre. In the build, we see the silhouette of a figure perched on a rooftop, with the roof tiles cleverly portrayed through the use of ball joint plates. The warrior is overshadowed by a bright moon, which has a great variation of textured pieces representing the rocky surface. Waves crash against the house surrounded by a bamboo forest, featuring the use of tan Technic pins as bamboo stalks. The odd angle of the house mixed with the mystical aesthetic makes this one unique display.

Moon Blade!