BrickJournal LEGO Fan Magazine - #80

Located off the French coast, Mont-St-Michel is a tidal island that was built up as a commune. Only a few hundred meters from the mainland, the site was accessible to pilgrims during low tide, but also defensible, as the high tide would protect the island from invaders.

Mont-Saint-Michel and its surrounding bay were inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979 for its unique aesthetic and importance as a medieval Christian site. Over three million people visit it annually.

Builder Udo King created this model of the site, which has a footprint of 96 studs (two large baseplates) by 96 studs, and stands at about 40 bricks high (15 inches or 38 centimeters). In terms of time, this was about 70 hours of building and uses over 20,000 LEGO elements.

Photos were used for building reference, and what’s unusual about the model is that the building technique is traditional. There is very little sideways (or SNOT) building—walls are angled with wedge bricks and plates.

People

Udo King’s

Mont-SaintMichel

Article and Photography by Udo King

Of all of his builds, Mont-Saint-Michel was the hardest to complete because of its complexity. The site had been on his mind for a long time before he found the inspiration to concentrate on building it.

The result is amazing. The model is an accurate 3-D map of the site, which is something Udo enjoys: “I love to build things from photos, and I love the challenge of building something in such a way that everyone who knows the original immediately recognizes my builds as these.”

I love building big. With LEGO I have the opportunity to build anything I can think of... I build the world as I like it.

A top view of Mont-Saint-Michel.

Building Figures

Article

Andrew Tereshchenko has been building for the past nine years, and in that time has made impressive sculptures that look more like detailed action figures. Back then he collected sets off the shelf. He got tired of collecting, and the last sets he collected were from the 2000s: Knights Kingdom II, Vikings, and Spongebob Squarepants.

Andrew started building his own models like other AFOLs—he got impressed by some image/character, or found some piece is similar to X in object Y, which would lead him to building object Y.

Building is absolutely unpredictable for Andrew. Completing a model is a process that can take a couple of days, maybe even a month. For a few projects, it can take six months, a year, or more. Andrew isn’t in a hurry to build—today, he may be thinking of what pieces can be applied to a face, for example; and tomorrow he will be able to connect two or three

and Photography by Dan Rubin

Andrew Tereshchenko:

One of Andrew’s creations, a scribe from the videogame Stronghold

Andrew Tereshchenko.

of them. The day after tomorrow, he may realize that nothing will work, and the next week he will finally connect more. After that, he’ll assemble the nose, then find that it won’t connect to the rest of the model design, and put the model aside until he comes up with a new look and solutions to continue.

For unusual applications of parts, Andrew mentions three of his models:

1. Lothar from Gothic II: using the Shoretrooper helmet from Rogue One as the bottom half the face.

2. Aun’Va from Warhammer 40k: the forehead is built from the Sweet Mayhem Happy Meal toy that was released for the LEGO Movie 2. The nose comes from Jayko’s torso from Knight’s Kingdom 2.

Lothar from the game Gothic II.

Lothar’s interior structure.

Can you find this part in Lothar’s face?

Can you find these parts on Aun’Va’s face?

People

Guillaume Greuzard: Castle Builder

Article and Photography

by Guillaume Greuzard

Guillaume Greuzard (gui.lego on Instagram) is a French LEGO fan. During the week, he works in an insurance company, but off-work, he builds. One of his recent builds is titled Medieval Metropolis and is a detailed layout of a town from the Middle Ages. This model is one of Guillaume’s favorite and hardest builds because he was able to use different colors and add some touches of fantasy.

He has built other models too—Guillaume’s been building since 2017, when he returned to building from a 25-year Dark Age. He recalls as a boy playing for hours with his minifigures, trying to make big battlefields. As an adult, he realized the endless possibilities LEGO bricks can give you… it became more than a simple toy.

In spite of the years between his building as a boy and an adult, his favorite themes have remained the same: Castle and Pirates! He also really is a fan of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, as they are very similar to Castle, with a fantasy touch. He also likes the old Cowboy sets and some Ninjago, but if he had to choose two, he would keep the Castle and Pirates!

Guillaume began his AFOL days as a set collector, trying to get the sets he didn’t have when he was younger. He got so amazed by what some builders made and displayed at exhibits or on Instagram, that he decided he had to try building original creations himself.

Guillaume’s remake of the Imperial Trading Post.

A Visual Tour of Guillaume Greuzard’s Castle

Metropolis

Guillaume Greuzard’s Castle Metropolis is an excellent example of not only building a set of buildings, but also building an environment. The display comes to life thanks to attention to detail, sideways building, and accents of color. Let’s take a close look at the display!

Laying the Land

The entire display is built on a base of plates and bricks that raises everything off from the display level. The built base serves to separate the build from the table and creates a ‘stage’ for everything.

A closer examination of the edges shows that the ground of the display is studsup, but the edges are built with studs to the sides. This is done by building the ground level five plates high. Five plates height equals a length of two studs, so the level is two studs high. Using bricks that have studs on the side at the top allows a perfect fit for the sideways bricks.

You can see how this works in the close-up. The round plates on the right edge allow for the slope bricks to be added studs-up and merge with the ground level. The slopes in the center and left are sideways and attached by hidden bricks with side studs under the dark green round plate. The sideways bricks are not evenly placed, creating a shadow that creates an outline.

The Castle Metropolis.

Looking Inside

Interiors are a challenge for layouts, as they are often hidden by walls and roofs. In this case, though, one side of the layout has the buildings open to show interiors. This is very clever, as the facades of the buildings can be seen without the cutaways being distracting.

Building

Barthezz Bricks’ Assassin’s Creed: Venice 1486

Article and Photography

by Bart Deliën

Barthezz Bricks is a page on Facebook (and gallery in Flickr) that centers on Castle building. The person behind the creations is Bart Deliën, a 37-year old dad from the Netherlands. During the day, he works as a Senior Content Manager at bol.com, an online e-tailer. Bart returned to building in 2017 after a Dark Age of twenty years.

Bart’s initial trigger back to the hobby started in 2016 when his parents wanted to move to a smaller house. They wanted to get rid of all of his LEGO, so they asked him what he wanted to do with it. He took in the collection and spent the next year sorting and rebuilding his sets from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Discovering that his sets were missing a lot of parts, Bart found Bricklink.com and joined the LEGO community. When he saw the builds from Mark of Falworth (a Castle build) and Aliencat (a Dutch builder that made a fantastic city management build), that got him thinking: “That’s what I want to do as well.” The rest is history.

Bart’s favorite theme is historical, definitely including the

Bart’s layout of Venice, from the game Assassin’s Creed.

One of the ships built for the diorama.

Castle era. Looking at his galleries and builds, one can see his affinity for history.

His builds are 90% his own imagination and fantasy. Bart very rarely searches for inspiration in existing things. He likes to imagine how it would look, or looked, back in its day. For his Venice diorama, he completely made up how it would have looked at that time. For his diorama of Lond Daer, he only had four lines of text from Wikipedia when he was asked to join a building collaboration. To build the diorama, he had to develop an architectural style and layout for the human race of Gondor that would blend in with the Lord of the Rings movies, as they are the main reference points for people.

Most of Bart’s builds take 300 to 400 hours within a fivemonth timeframe to complete—a typical layout is about three 48-stud by 48-stud baseplates. This includes the design and development phase, building, and taking photos.

A gondola made for the layout.

His latest model of Venice has taken much longer—three years! The layout could have been done much sooner, but other things happened in the past two years that were more important than building. Bart’s family had a baby boy, Jens, in 2020. They also bought a new home in 2021 which needed a lot of hours to complete, as they did everything themselves. Those put the LEGO building time on hold.

During this time, he also redid the layout a few times— once when he was six months into building and had 50,000 pieces used. He finally finished the build in 2022, which now totals four square meters.

A closer look at the center the layout.

Some of the details can be seen here. The assassin waits.

Another ship in the layout, the Stella di Orione.

Building

Pantelis Manthos’ Building in a Frame... and More!

Article and Photography by Pantelis Manthos

Building into a non-LEGO item is a twist on building, but is starting to come into its own. There are simple plates that are used to mount LEGO minifigures in shadow box frames, but using a frame to make a LEGO shadow box vignette is relatively new. One builder has made some awesome vignettes using movies as inspiration.

Pantelis Manthos is one of those builders that never had a pause in building—he has been a builder for over three decades. From Greece, his love for LEGO, love for creativity, and the fact that he managed to design and build his own creations, made him love his hobby more and more.

Pantelis’ favorite theme is Castle, and he loves everything that has to do with them and the Medieval Era. The beauty and simplicity of the classic LEGO castles inspired him the most, and to start building his own creations.

Pantelis’ frames, based on (top) Castle, (bottom left to right) Indiana Jones, the Hobbit, and Harry Potter.

Pantelis’ castle frame is visited by royalty.

The castle frame, with some other builds by Pantelis. His inspiration comes from favorite movies, beloved characters, as well as historical monuments around the world. Building time depends on the project he has decided to work on. Usually, when he thinks of something that he wants to build, he tries to create it in a short period of time. For Pantelis, that means completing a build in ten or so days. He also tries to avoid using difficult parts as well as difficult techniques. He always thinks plainly, and just wants to capture the scene he has in mind with traditional techniques.

An example of his way of thinking is his latest creations, built inside IKEA frames. Using this type of build, he reduces the use of parts and can give focus to one specific scene. Considering parts, colors, and presentation, he starts the process of building.

A closer look at the castle frame.

All About Character!

Article and Photography

by Liam Mohajeri Norris @brixter.productions

Building brick-built characters with LEGO has been a passion of mine for nearly a decade. I love the challenge of creating a well-known pop culture icon out of LEGO. If something in the build is off, it can ruin the entire model. When everything is just right, on the other hand, the recognition is instant. Figuring out how to build a character that hits this sweet spot is tricky, but so satisfying when done right. I have been iterating my character-building method for years, always trying to incorporate more playability and strength at a relatively compact scale.

The evolution that has led to my current style started over six years ago, back in 2016. I had recently turned 13, and was finally able to submit my first LEGO IDEAS project: a brick-built Po from Kung Fu Panda. This build was quite different from the characters that would follow, but it does carry one important similarity to my later models: the scale. Most of my character builds have been of a similar action figure stature, slightly larger than Miniland scale but still workable and, importantly, playable. Unlike all the builds that would follow, this Po was not poseable. However, within a year I was working on a follow-up project featuring Tintin that shares many more similarities with my recent work.

Ms. Marvel.

Po from Kung Fu Panda.

Building Tintin and Captain Haddock was my first attempt at creating poseable humanoid figures based on existing characters. Since these were built digitally, I had no way of knowing whether or not they would actually stand up, but I did my best to make them physically feasible. With the unlimited color palette of LEGO Digital Designer, I did not have to worry about parts such as Mixel ball joints only existing in certain colors, a challenge that has led to many of my later innovations. I never finished submitting this project; it still waits in my “Drafts” tab on LEGO IDEAS. Notwithstanding, these figures were an important step toward my later characters. In 2017, I saw the trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW) for the first time. I was captivated by its incredible vistas and sense of exploration. After seeing BotW gameplay live at a friend’s house, I knew I had to build a LEGO version of its protagonist, Link. I was in the middle of an overseas move with my family and had no access to my LEGO collection, so I turned to LDD once again. The resulting build had a number of issues with proportions, not to mention the lack of a head.

Tintin and Captain Haddock.

My first attempt at Link.

Minifigure Customization 101:

There’s 60ish Days Between Every Issue...

Caitlin, my daughter asked, “Whatcha doin?” to which I replied, “We’re making Phineas and Ferb Custom LEGO figures.” My wife inquired, “Aren’t you a little old to be doing that?” and I answered, “Yes, yes I am.”

Greyson, my son, joined in by asking, “Hey Dad, where’s Perry?” I told Greyson, “He’s just a platypus; they don’t do much.” Greyson replied, “Platypuses are the only mammals to lay eggs.”

Article and Photography

by Jared Burks

I Know What We’re Gonna do Today!

Ultimately I decided to “Seize the day”—well, couple of weeks—I am not Phineas after all, but “I like to keep moving forward.” B-b-b-but making the figures took a touch longer because I searched the entire Tri-State area and just really couldn’t find Perry the Platypus.

Great Googly-Moogly, I couldn’t merely make Phineas and Ferb. I of course had to include Perry the Platypus. However, I quickly realized I had to make Agent P, to which my children replied, “That’s so cool.”

Backstory—I think it’s Best Expressed in a Song!

Oh wait, this isn’t an audio format. In retrospect, here are the details of my monologue describing my evil plan: I started out sculpting the heads using Fusion 360, as I still have not had enough time to work with Blender. I initially thought I would merely sculpt everything and print it out and paint all the various parts of these figures. While I started this way, I quickly paused after a few initial prints when I realized just how hard it was going to be to paint various areas of these figures. The eyes, for example, would be quite challenging.

Reflecting on what I was going to do, which seems like a recipe for evil, I decided to print each part of each figure separately so that I could use colored resin as a base. This way, if the paint is damaged through play, it would blend and hide the damage.

“I Know What We’re Gonna Do Today!”

Head turnarounds of Phineas and Ferb.

Phineas and Ferb, Perry TM & © Disney.

For Phineas, I started with a few basic shapes and created the basic shape for his head. I had to subtract a few features in order to get the final desired shape. I then created two ellipse-shaped eyes and subtracted them from the head. As Phineas is almost always smiling, I cut an area through the head and saved the cut area. I then reduced the size of the cut area and made this his smile. From here I needed to create Phineas’ hair. I started with a basic shape and I merely rotated replicate parts around a central axis and then merged them all together. After merging, I removed the central portion so it would fit on top of Phineas’ head.

Shaping Phineas’ head.

Adding eyes. Adding hair.

Finishing touches, including adding a smile.

The completed head.

Harmony Castle

Design and Instructions by the BrickNerd Team

Castles are iconic. From Neuschwanstein to Disney, their architecture sparks the imagination, from heroic knights to magical fairy tales. For the castle theme of this issue, we wanted to capture that same majestic feel and recreate it in microscale. This castle is a fortress fit for royalty with soaring towers, turrets, and more!

The castle is also a love letter to the LEGO System. It has a fun variety of special elements spanning almost five decades of LEGO that all fit together flawlessly in perfect harmony.

The flowers used in the spires were introduced in 1977 with Homemaker sets which integrate seamlessly with the party hats introduced in Friends sets from 2016. The rest of the model features everything from Mario bases (2020) to constraction barrels (2012) to Unikitty horns (2014) and even some Technic as well—a beautiful example of how well the LEGO System works together.

So get ready for your quest and start collecting pieces, because this timeless castle is ready to be built!

Parts List

(Parts can be ordered through Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)

Qty Part Color Description

8 35464.dat Bright Lt Blue Slope Brick 45 1 x 1 Double

1 32062.dat Black Technic Axle 2 Notched

3 24131.dat Medium Azure Figure Friends Party Hat

3 65468d.dat Medium Azure Minifig Food Cupcake with Hollow Stud

2 24866.dat Green Plate 1 x 1 with 5 Petals

4 3023.dat Bright Green Plate 1 x 2

1 66789.dat Bright Green Plate 6 x 6 x 0.667 with Rounded Corners with Studs on Edges without 4 Centre Studs

1 89522.dat Bright Green Animal Horn Spiral

2 6587.dat Dark Tan Technic Axle 3 with Stud

1 24246.dat Reddish Brown Tile 1 x 1 with Rounded End

3 85861.dat Reddish Brown Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud

3 3024.dat White Plate 1 x 1

3 3742.dat White Plant Flower

2 4070.dat White Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight

2 18654.dat White Technic Beam 1

3 20482.dat White Tile 1 x 1 Round with Pin and Pin Hole

1 35480.dat White Plate 1 x 2 with Round Ends and 2 Open Studs

1 36840.dat White Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up

3 37762.dat White Cylinder 1 x 1.333 with 0.5L Bar and Bar Hole

2 71708.dat White Technic Beam 2 x 3 Liftarm Bent 90 Quarter Ellipse

2 73230.dat White Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Axlehole

6 85861.dat White Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud

1 98585.dat White Technic Connector Circular with 2 Pin Holes and 3 Axle Holes

2 1748.dat Lt. Bluish Grey Tile 1 x 2 Half Round

2 2460.dat Lt. Bluish Grey Tile 2 x 2 with Pin

4 3070b.dat Lt. Bluish Grey Tile 1 x 1 with Groove

2 14769.dat Light Bluish Grey Tile 2 x 2 Round with Round Underside Stud

2 Light Bluish Grey Tile 1 x 1 Corner Round

6 Dark Bluish Grey Technic Friction Pin 1/2

You can go to the BrickNerd website by typing: https://bricknerd.com/ in your browser or by scanning this QR code!

You Can Build It

MINI Build

MINI Sea Serpent

Design and Instructions

by Christopher Deck

Hello and welcome everybody, I am excited to guide you through this issue’s building session! We have another castle-themed magazine this time, and as with the previous castle building sessions, we want to miniaturize an official castle set. Today we will have our focus on the popular knights’ boat Sea Serpent!

The set was released in the year 1992 and belongs to the castle sub-theme of the Black Knights. It was the largest boat of the castle series until then, and also the first one to use cloth sails, as introduced for the Pirates theme three years before. The Sea Serpent is still a very treasured set today, and thus our object of desire for today’s building session.

Miniaturizing a given set is always a challenge, as the original models are already small themselves. You need to be creative in parts use to obtain the original shapes in even smaller size. The build itself is very compact, consisting of more than sixty pieces!

We start with four red 1x2 bricks with studs on one side. These set the beginning for the completely SNOT-built lower hull, but also are part of the original set’s color scheme that also has red color for the boat’s deck. Around these bricks, curved slopes and wedge plates form the boat’s basic shape. With recently appeared bracket pieces we are able to place studs on top again, needed for the superstructures. Two old offset plates, already around as long as we have Classic Space, form the forecastle and aftercastle. An old minifigure signal paddle is used for the bowsprit, minifigure brushes are used for the side paddles, and—again minifigure utensils—snowshoes are used for the rudders.

Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)

Boat Hull and Masts

Qty Color Part Description

1 Black 87994.dat Bar 3L

1 Black 30374.dat Bar 4L Lightsaber Blade

1 Black 4095.dat Bar 6.6L with Stop

2 Black 79389.dat Bracket 1 x 1 - 2 x 1 Down

4 Black 4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight

4 Red 11211.dat Brick 1 x 2 with Two Studs on One Side

1 Black 4589.dat Cone 1 x 1

2 Reddish-Brown 3852b.dat Minifig Hairbrush with Short Handle

1 Black 3900.dat Minifig Signal Holder

2 Reddish-Brown 30284.dat Minifig Snowshoe

2 Black 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1

1 Green 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1

1 Black 85861.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud

1 Blue 6019.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Open U-Clip)

1 Yellow 4085b.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical (Thin U-Clip)

2 Black 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2

1 Black 3794a.dat Plate 1 x 2 without Groove with 1 Centre Stud

2 Black 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4

2 Blue 4590.dat Plate 1 x 4 Offset

1 Black 3022.dat Plate 2 x 2

6 Black 26601.dat Plate 2 x 2 without Corner

2 Black 3176.dat Plate 3 x 2 with Hole

4 Black 11477.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1

2 Black 29120.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left

2 Black 29119.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right

2 Black 15712.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip)

2 Black 3070b.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Groove

1

The sail is brick-built and attaches the characteristic red sea dragon plume piece that is found on the bowsprit of the original model.

I hope you will enjoy building this little boat! See you next time and take care, all!

Down On His Luck:

An Australian Painting Pop-Up MOC

Article by Brian Everett of BrickNerd.com

Photography by Jane Gibbons-Eyre

There is no doubt that Instagram has gained in popularity in recent years (especially during Covid) with the AFOL community. That community has grown to be quite massive really, and it hosts a variety of builders, set collectors, and smaller communities for one to follow.

I enjoy chatting with like-minded AFOLs and discovering new creations that I was not aware of when they are often shared by others, which is the reason I continue to spend so much time on the platform (way too much!).

Creative works being shared by others is exactly how I became aware of Jane Gibbons-Eyre. At the time, Bricktober 2022 was running and I was enjoying the highlight of many MOCs coming from that show. And then I spotted Down On His Luck, a MOC that looked like a painting that has popped off the canvas.

Down on His Luck by Jane Gibbons-Eyre.

Article by David Strenzler, Bantha Bricks:

Fans of LEGO Star Wars

Photography by Pierre-Luc Belanger

Galactic greetings! I am David Strenzler from Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. As administrators of the best LEGO Star Wars themed group on Facebook, Frank Averstegge, Eloi Parizeau and I witness amazingly creative builds by Star Wars fans worldwide on a nearly daily basis.

Pierre-Luc Belanger is a very active member and MOC builder in our community. I thought it would be great to learn more about this skilled builder and his newest creation: Anakin’s XJ-6 Airspeeder, as seen in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Pierre-Luc Belanger’s XJ-6 Airspeeder XJ-6

David Strenzler: How’s it going, Pierre-Luc? The LEGO Star Wars community has known you for some time through the Bantha Bricks Facebook group, where you have impressed everyone with your diverse and creative Star Wars builds. Could you please introduce yourself and what you do?

Pierre-Luc Belanger: Good day David, I am doing pretty good, thank you. I hope everybody feels alright on your side too. My passion for LEGO began when I was eight years old and focused on the LEGO Star Wars theme. I grew up trying to do my best to recreate scenes and sets that LEGO had never released. When I reached adulthood, I lost track of my passion for LEGO for nearly a decade. Then, while waiting to hear back from applying to the Army, I felt really stressed and bought the Poe’s X-Wing Fighter 75102 to distract myself. My passion returned so quickly that my room was already full in five months. I joined the Bantha Group, and I saw so many creative builds that I started to do MOCs myself. Today, I do my best to pursue my passion for MOCs and LEGO while being in the Army.

Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a surprise theme for us?

Star Wars is definitely my favorite theme. Back when I was a kid, I also owned some Harry Potter, Bionicles and Castle sets. Right now, I still buy some Architecture, Marvel, and