Category Archives: Building Techniques

Finally, a nemesis worthy of my vast intellect

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Following his amazing GLaDOS from Portal 2, Brandon Bannerman (Catsy) miniaturizes a turret to minifig-scale (or near enough), alongside an adorable custom Chell fig, complete with ASHPD.

Chell, ASHPD and Turret

For all of you out there who’d like your own turret to keep you company during the long twilight of civilization, Brandon has kindly posted instructions.

Turret Breakdown

Another interesting thing about Brandon’s design has been watching it evolve based on feedback from fellow builders. See the earlier iterations here and here, together with the comments that inspired the final version.

Sydney Opera House

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The Sydney Opera House is probably one of the hardest buildings to make in LEGO due to its compound curves. All attempts I can remember seeing have used plate sculpting which gets the shape right but not the smooth texture of the shells. Until now!

Bad Leo has used a building technique that is nothing short of brilliant to construct the compound curves. I believe this is similar to how the real opera house is constructed. The end result is amazing.

Beautiful, beautiful cheese floors

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I’m consistently wowed by the geometric designs that Katie Walker fiddles with and frequently shares. It’s extra rewarding when she incorporates the results of her experiments into beautiful architecture like this grand staircase and mosaic floor.

LEGO Katie Walker Eilonwy77 Grand Staircase in Queen's Palace

Human-powered transport

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As much as I like to see more Asian elements within the available palette of LEGO elements, and as addicted as I am to the collectible minifigs, I can’t say I’m thrilled with the hair piece used for both (both?!) the sumo wrestler and geisha. Nevertheless, I can’t help but love anything that springs from the brilliantly bricking fingers of Michael Jasper.

LEGO rickshaw

Via twee affect, which has a nice discussion of the various interesting techniques that Michael inevitably applies to his LEGO creations.

This is NPU

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I freely admit to getting frustrated by the amount of ‘NPU‘ (Nice Part Use) I see thrown around LEGO models. The acronym was originally used for a part being used cleverly in a different circumstance. Both these examples feature such a use. Nowadays it seems to be used for just about anything. This, dear readers, is wrong (to para-borrow a phrase from Twee Affect).

We need more flame units!

First we have Joshua Morris (I scream clone) who demonstrates a classic NPU by using a turkey on Mr Potato Head’s nose and croissants as his eyebrows.

some kind of Rally Car...

Secondly Robert H. (Robiwan_Kenobi) uses loads of parts in unusual ways but the most notable ‘NPU’ is the little airvent made from the end of a skiflipper.

Note how in each case a very specific part has been reused in a novel way. That is NPU.

Tablescrap Robbery

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Tablescrap Robbery

Most people are satisfied with simply uploading a bad picture of their LEGO tablescraps and adding them to their group. Nothing so simple was on the agenda for Brent (thwaak). He arranged, narrated, photographed and edited. And I’m glad he did.

Beautiful curves of the Phenix

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Christophe Corthay‘s Star Trek inspired Vulcan ship called the Phenix has some of the craziest curves I’ve seen. They’re crazy because not only are there so many rings, but they are also textured by SNOT techniques. I can’t imagine the amount of strain in this model, which could make it explode at any moment. But for what it’s worth, the result looks drop dead gorgeous.

Circle is the new square

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There was a time when circular towers were the latest innovation in castle building, now Tyler (Legohaulic) builds castle on a circular base. I only remember one other creation that features this technique, and that was built several years ago. Filling the circle is difficult with rectangular LEGO bricks, but Tyler finds an effective solution by laying differently shaped bricks to create a cobblestone mosaic.