Prettier with water

Water makes a lot of landscapes look better by giving them a sense of life and movement. In this diorama by Tom Simon, water is used to great effect in enhancing the look of the scene. In particular, the color gradient of the river and the widening flow of the waterfall are techniques that warrant imitation. With such great irrigation, I wonder why there are no crops in the field.

Kowe’on Sanctuary

Edit: Apparently the name is “No Ewok” backwards, which makes sense, because there is an Ewok in there. 🙂

The tree itself is a knockout, but the action and whimsy that surrounds it makes this creation something special. I Scream Clone has it going on.

Lego Forestmen Treehouse Kowe'on Sanctuary

Mister Clone was nice enough to humor me when I asked for a new overall shot. Thank you!

Little John meets Robin Hood

I’m a sucker for landscaping. I like when it adds to the scene, and helps amplify it. Johnathon Gilbert’s creation does just that for me:

It has a sense of action, and makes me wonder what would happen if they lost their balance on that log! The implied movement in the water tells me it might not be pretty…

Kaiju rampage in the micropolis of Tokyo!

Between lack of LEGO time and an unsorted collection, I’ve been struggling with what to build for BrickCon — especially Big in Japan. I wanted to build Tokyo Tower, a big Shinto shrine, Ginza, and the National Diet Building. My solution to build them all was to go microscale.

Micro LEGO Tokyo

Naturally, every Tokyo skyline needs a rampaging Godzilla-style monster, or kaiju. From the moment I saw the alien in the LEGO Star Wars set Freeco Speeder, I couldn’t help but thinking he would make a great kaiju.

This was my first attempt at following the Micropolis Micro City Standard and gives me an opportunity to enter Reasonably Clever’s 2nd Micropolis Building Challenge (for which the deadline has been extended to July 24th, by the way).

After I’d finished six standard Micropolis modules for Tokyo, I experimented with some non-standard, non-urban modules, and ended up with Himeji Castle.

Himeji Castle

See more pictures in my photoset on Flickr.

The Anglo-Saxon pit-house was a big step backward from the Roman villa

I just finished reading Peter Heather’s excellent The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. After my visit to Room 49 in the British Museum a couple summers ago, I wrote in my Moleskine “Post-Roman Britain=Post-Apoc.”

So, does this diorama by Harry Russell (Karrde) featuring an Anglo-Saxon pit-house fall under ApocaLEGO?

LEGO Anglo-Saxon Pit-House

Nah. But I’ll use any excuse to blog an archaeologically inclined LEGO model.

(Hat-tip to Legobloggen for helping me to catch up after a busy, busy month.)

Neuschwanstein by Bob Carney

As shown at this year’s Brickworld, Bob Carney’s Neuschwanstein does not disappoint. This castle is massive and simply gorgeous. It really captures the grandeur that King Ludwig was going for, though I’m certain without the whole “bankrupt my country” thing. Bad idea, that.

Anyway, fantastic castle. Mr. Carney has plenty of work-in-progress pictures on his site, as well as some photos of the real castle and a bit of history. Check it out!