Ice Beam vs Mech

 I was asked a while back to do a rebuild of one of the Friends LEGO sets.  I also needed a set to use for Rebrickable.com's April MOC Alternate Build Competition.  So this serves a dual purpose.

So here we have the Ice Beam vs Mech:

This is an alternate build of the Downtown Bakery (41006):

 

This was an interesting build.  The clear blue studs led me to play with a leaky fire hydrant.  The large round corners reminded me of shoulders on some bulky cartoon mechs.

As I played with the idea of a rampaging mech, I started to look at the big clear pieces I had.  I thought an ice beam spraying a wall of ice to stop the mech might be cool (see what I did there).

 Nothing too complicated, but fun all the same.

As usual, instructions can be found HERE.

Chateau de Helm's Deep

It's finally time to reveal the alt-build for The Battle of Helm's Deep (9474).  I present the Chateau de Helm's Deep:

This has been my largest build to date.  I started with putting together all of those windows to see what it would look like.  After playing with it for a bit, I thought, "That looks like a Chateau."

After doing a Google search, I was pleased to find that a Chateau was really what I was looking for and not some word I made up.

While the back doesn't look like much, it has a lot of play features.

The rooftops come off, the back walls and staircase swing open and the center piece in the back pops out.

The second floor also separates from the first floor.

Let me take you on a tour of some of our fabulous features.

As you enter, you will notice the wonderful tile flooring throughout the foyer.

Our dining area is cozy and we serve an excellent chicken leg.

 

We have a great sitting room with a lovely couch and loveseat and a fine lamp.

Next you will find our beautiful spiral staircase leading to the upper floor.

We have an impressive armory with authentic Middle-Earth era weapons and armors.

Finally, you will find that are sleeping quarters are welcoming after a long day (even if the beds do run a little on the "firm" side.)

Overall, I really like the end result.  I still feel the back looks a little junky and it all doesn't close quite as nice as I would like.  Despite that, I feel that this is a lot more complete than I expected it would be.  It took a lot of work, but I like each of the little rooms and the spiral staircase.  I hope you like it too.

As always, full instructions can be found HERE.

Mini-Micro Scale

I've been doing this blog for a little while now, but it is starting to feel so been-there, done-that.

So I've decided to take the blog in a new direction that will help me keep things fresh and hopefully help me to post more often.

A lot of people work on LEGO models.  Some of them work on a micro scale.  I'm going to dedicate this blog to the Mini-Micro Scale.  This scale is so small that the models are built using only one brick.

To start, let's look at the historical Russian landmark, the Kremlin.

A magnificent red building that has been a great symbol of Moscow.

For this build I really wanted to get a feel for those wonderful rounded towers.  I think this really captures the feel of the building.

Next I'm going to bring it back stateside and look to our own iconic government building, the White House.

The building many presidents have given speeches in front of and a great piece of American history.

With this model, I feel like I got to the fundamentals of what makes this a great building.

As we move on, I wanted to get something from one of the western states.  So let's move on to Seattle's Space Needle.

This is a tall structure that makes me feel like the aliens have landed.

This model didn't go as well as I thought it would.  I was really hoping for that strong Seattle feel, but I just couldn't make it happen.

Finally we move to India for the great Taj-Mahal.

This amazing structure was also the subject of one of the largest sets LEGO ever sold.

It really does look amazing at 5922 pieces!  Let's see how it looks at 1 piece!

I never realized until now how much the Taj-Mahal looks like the Kremlin.  Who knew.

As usual, you can find all of the building instructions and model files HERE.