When you’re building a floating castle, space is limited. The City of Alaylon designed by the legendary architect Sir Alberto Mauriccio (according to the LEGO builder, Brother Steven) is a wonderful example of making the most of limited land. The island in the sky that this fortification and village are perched on is actually made up of two pieces of land connected by a sky bridge. There is nothing boring or plain about this castle in the sky. The many wall and tower fortification are built using some common elements of various sizes, like radar dishes and 1×1 round plates, and the inclusion of sloped elements at regular intervals along the walls ties the different structures together. The outer walls are gently curved to reinforce the crescent shape of the landscape. The many upper towers, all in white, are also built to different dimensions using a wide variety of arches and...

Make sure you’re at the right platform as this fantastic recreation of the DB Class VT 11.5 arrives at the central railway station. Built by Holger Matthes, this LEGO version of one of the most legendary German trains combines everything that a LEGO train builder could think of. Six cars, each 7 studs wide, stretch over 80 inches/2,5 meter long. Designed with a huge variety of curved slopes, this VT 11.5 looks almost like a PIKO set! The only thing that could possibly make a brilliant model like this VT 11.5 shine even brighter is, of course, a custom set of interior lights. Describing pictures like the one below makes almost no sense, so, it’s much better to enjoy it without any comments! The post Travelling across Europe? Pamper yourself with a first class seat in DB Class VT 11.5 appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Alexander

Logey Bear’s latest LEGO build was inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon and includes a number of scary-good part choices. Front and center is an alien clinger from the Alien Conquest theme bringing fun curvy details to the face. It pairs exceptionally well with the minifigure arms that surround the eyes. A pair of bigfig arms are cleverly used as upper legs and several pairs of flippers are used for the webbed feet and gills. The post Creature from the Brick Lagoon appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: David Pickett

From Jurassic Park to Jurassic World, velociraptors have remained a fan favorite in the series. While the raptors in Jurassic Park were hungry killing machines, Jurassic World gave us lovable trained carnivores. The scenes of Owen Grady bonding with Blue since birth are memorable, and I bet Owen would be proud of this wonderfully detailed LEGO version of Blue built by PaulvilleMOCs. There is a pleasing balance of form and function here. A splash of color keeps the model visually interesting, while ball & socket and hinged joints allow Blue to “strike a pose.” I really like Blue’s mouth, which consists of a 1×3 hinge tile, with the finger wedged between a modified 1×1 plate with clip. Finishing off the mouth is a dark pink minifig hand, which makes for a really cool-looking tongue. And if you still haven’t had your prehistoric fill, the builder has also done a fun rendition...

If there is any indicator that the winter holidays are fast approaching, it’s the release of LEGO’s annual addition to the growing Winter Village collection. Each year at around this time, we see another charming set hit the shelves, and they’re arguably just as prized to collectors as Modular Buildings like 10260 Downtown Diner. This year’s holiday season brings us 10163 Winter Village Fire Station. The set has 1166 pieces, including 6 minifigures, a baby,  and a dog. It’s currently only available for LEGO VIP Program members, but will be available to anyone starting October 1st, retailing for $99.99 USD. The box and contents The box size and background are very similar to many of the previous sets in the line. The “Expert” ribbon runs down the side, and a glowing light brick symbol immediately indicates there is a lighting feature. Like the other sets, the back displays a collage of...

It’s one of the contradictions at the heart of LEGO building, that we love to see the rectilinear brick subverted. Bravo to jaapxaap, who has centred his latest model on some seriously wonky geometry. There’s no doubt that Falcon Castle is suffering from years of subsidence, its central tower quaintly leaning at the most acute of angles. Of course it takes real talent to do this, which you pick up again in the embellishments that have been added: the ingot bricks used to simulate wear, or the golden tower painstakingly formed form telescope pieces. In the end though, you just have to marvel at the way the imperfections of the ramshackle fortress have been so perfectly built. The post Creating a charmingly crooked castle appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: David Alexander Smith

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the second week of September 2018. TBB NEWS: This week was relatively quiet for news, seeing only two large sets becoming available for purchase, and the announcement of Bricklink’s new design program. 75222 Betrayal at Cloud City and 10263 Winter Village Fire Station available – Whether you’re already prepping for Christmas or just want to see Han Solo dunked in a vat of Carbonite, LEGO’s two newest sets are ready for you this week.Bricklink announces AFOL Designer Program – LEGO partners with Bricklink for the latest way for LEGO fans to have a chance at their designs becoming official sets. TBB Reviews & Features: This week’s reviews were all about Star Wars, and we reviewed two sets from their respective...

Star Wars never looked so good as with this LEGO Friends-themed makeover. This B-Wing is a fully custom build by Tyler Sky and reimagined for a more colourful Rebel vs Imperial universe. If the peaceful and friendly lasses can’t melt the heart of their enemies, my advice is to just lock, load and fire the ion cannons away! What makes this even slicker is the lack of visible LEGO studs (save for a couple around the sides of the cockpit). And if you really like this, read our earlier article on Tyler’s similar take on the Y-Wing The post Melt the hearts of thy enemy — or then again, there’s always the laser blaster appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Edwinder

When it comes to building historic Chinese architecture from LEGO bricks, it can prove challenging to capture the sweeping curves of rooftops and ornate details. While we’ve seen builders employ a variety of techniques for this, with his model of the Aiwan Ting Pavilion, Chinese builder Smoker Nie has managed to pull off both the shape and the details in an especially eye-pleasing manner. Aiwan Pavilion is located on Mount Yuelu in the Chinese province of Hunan. Smoker’s building is an excellent likeness, both inside and out. According to the builder, 12350 LEGO bricks were used in its construction. The roof is particularly well done, with a combination of plates, slopes, and 1×1 round bricks used to form the curves and points. A splash of red underneath represents part of the supporting structure and helps the roof really “pop.” What really makes Smoker’s version of Aiwan Ting Pavilion so exceptional is...

This article is Part 2 of an ongoing series. Read about the LEGO Grumman E-1 Tracer Part 1 here. About two weeks ago, I started building a new aircraft model: a Grumman E-1 Tracer. Because some of you might like to know how one might build such a LEGO scale model, I am documenting my process in a short series. In the first part I described why I decided to build such an oddball aircraft in the first place and how I plan a build like this. I also explained that I usually start by building the difficult bits. A few of those are the subject of this article. The Tracer’s wings are not quite perpendicular to the fuselage. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if the engine pods and the main undercarriage weren’t attached to them. I have built angled wings before, including some rather large ones. In practice,...