Tag Archives: ZCerberus

What awaits the weary traveler within the wintry walls of the Crow’s Nest?

“Halt! Who goes there?” A lonely warrior, his cloak billowing in the frosty air, approaches ZCerberus’s formidable tower known as Crow’s Nest. Along the way, our intrepid LEGO hero passes an assortment of slopes and angles used to evoke snowdrifts and half-buried evergreens. He gazes upon the light bluish great accents on dark bluish gray stone and steps beneath inverted sloped elements used to create dramatic battlements. My favorite part of all, though, has to be the brick-built coat of arms above the door, including upside-down feathered wings. We don’t know what this solitary traveler seeks within those sturdy stone walls, but we know what he’ll find: an impressive display of building techniques that bring this wintry scene to life.

Crow's Nest

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Ye olde classic gets a fancy modern update

If you remember having 6703 Knight’s Castle in your LEGO collection as a kid, there’s a good chance you’re nursing some back pain, clipping your phone to your belt, and wishing these words were a little bigger and easier to read. Still, you’re never too old to appreciate ZCerberus‘s take on the classic set, just in time for its 40th anniversary. The update stays true to the aesthetics and architectural footprint of the original while showcasing just how far LEGO bricks and their builders have come. The red stone of the gatehouse hasn’t changed, but the castle walls are beautifully textured with tiles, while the wild foliage at the base adds an air of rugged mystery.

KnightsCastle2

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This build’s a grind

Castles are nice, but there’s something I love about a tranquil domestic scene of medieval life, and what encapsulates that better than a stone mill and miller’s cottage? This lovely little diorama is the work of ZCerberus, and although the stonework is nice, and the round mill is great, some of favorite techniques here are more subtle. First, there’s the mixing of brown and dark red for the roof tiles, a subtle swap that helps give a lived-in nature. Similarly, the mixed olive green and dark tan for the ground makes a wonderfully earthy tone. And secondly is something so foundational it took me a minute to even realize it: this diorama has two bases, thanks to a black slab beneath the sculpted landscape. Usually, LEGO dioramas have one or the other, but I really love the presentation here.

MilgrathsMill

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Orange is the new bley

Every year, for a little over a month, the LEGO sci-fi fans among us get a treat: SHIPtember. A celebration of insanity and massive amounts of small interlocking bricks, it is one of my favorite times of year (it doesn’t hurt that I enjoy everything else about autumn, too, like Oktoberfest beers and wool sweaters). One name that consistently shines out among the rest is ZCerberus, who, perhaps taking his cues from the changing foliage of the Northern Hemisphere, has created a fleet of massive orange spaceships. This year’s model is a repair frigate, LL885, ready to fix any small fighter that might have an issue. Small cranes, tons of greebles, and lots of roller coaster tracks make this one a great addition.

Back LL885

Love orange spaceships? Then check out ZCerberus’ other builds, since he has built a whole fleet of them.

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So many spaceships! It’s heaven for Benny.

If you’ve been following The Brothers Brick lately, you may have seen some sci-fi builds by ZCerberus. He had an awesome entry for SHIPtember, a cool spider walker and, most recently, a Classic Space vehicle. Now he’s back and bigger than ever. In my article on the SHIPtember build, I expressed hope that the fleet would continue to expand, and he has delivered in a delightfully orange way. The one on the far left is the previously-covered SHIP, but the rest are nearly as impressive size-wise and equally as detailed and heavily armed. I love the editing job with the cool space background and all of the ships flying together.

Fleet1

See more details of the fleet

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Rocket man, burning up his fuse out here alone

LL166, this is Moonbase Control, you are clear to begin your approach…

Time to run through the LEGO Classic Space checklist: Transparent yellow canopy? Check. Blue body plating with light grey greebly-bits? Check. Yellow and black striping? Check.
And yet, this spaceship by ZCerberus manages to look fresh and new whilst still complying with all the Classic Space “rules and regs”. That’s at least partly down to those twin engines, with the cogs in the mountings implying the thrusters can rotate, making this a neat little VTOL craft. The fuselage angles are sharp too, with more than a little whiff of an Apache helicopter, making this look somehow dangerous despite the lack of obvious armament.

LEGO Spaceship

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All the Blacktron spiders come out for Halloween

Halloween in space must be terrifying with these giant mechanical spiders crawling all over the place. I always knew Blacktron was the outlaw faction of LEGO space, but creepy spider mechs just might take it to a whole new level. Builder ZCerberus has carefully woven a design that’s spindly in all the right places, while still looking satisfyingly armored and menacing. And that trans-yellow X-pod canister for the cockpit is just the perfect touch.

Harvester

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Space ships don’t have to be grey

When I think of spaceships, I think mostly drab grey things. This is probably because my imagination has been so strongly formed by Star Wars and the dingy industrial feeling of that universe, evident in almost every Imperial vessel (like the Star Destroyers) and the Millennium Falcon. ZCerberus bucks that trend with a glorious orange SHIP (Significantly Huge Investment in Parts) called Dominion. I know I would submit to its dominion if such a craft appeared on my scopes, because it has enormous cannons of some sort bristling off of every surface, plus a full squadron or twenty of smaller fighter ships docked inside its hull. The greebles on this thing are worth admiring, as they all look perfectly positioned to do something technical, like vent things or convey things or connect things. The whole surface is highly detailed without looking cluttered, which, in my numerous, and all failed, attempts at building a SHIP myself, I have learned to be a sophisticated skill.

Dominion1

I love the angled hull plates with the dark orange striping, with the white striping and brick-built lettering (does this belong in classic – or neo-classic, more specifically – space, with the “LL” designation?). 2×2 modified bricks with side grooves make for some great cannons on the side, and some 1×2 log bricks are just as good on the top in a similar role. The side cannons are mounted on round turrets made from 6×6 radar dishes, which fit neatly into the undersides of some 1x8x2 arches. All in all, this is one of the sturdiest looking SHIPs I have seen, as well as one of the coolest. Check out Z’s Flickr to see more space ships (not SHIPs) in the same color scheme, all part of an epic fleet. I hope it keeps growing!

Dominion Breakout

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