Building your own design – How to start?

For a person coming into the LEGO hobby today, chances are they are probably coming into it due to an IP or specific item that caught their attention.  Reading posts in various groups, I see an increasing number of posts asking how one goes from building a set with instructions to building their own design.  This is a bigger leap today than it was when I got started in the hobby.  It can be a daunting challenge as to where or how to start. Going from the LEGO Black Panther Jet to building your own design can be quite rewarding, but how to start? 

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Looking back at my journey with the hobby, much has changed.  When I started in the hobby in the 90’s, there were alternative builds showcased on the boxes.  There was more focus on the building system rather then the IPs.  The parts library was also much smaller. Going to the front page of Bricklink, it shows at the time of this writing that there are 54,854 parts listed in the catalog.  Comparing sample years, in 1995 there is 442 items identified in the parts catalog verses 2018 has 3040 items identified.  

Taking these numbers into account, when you consider the number of possible combinations of two 2x4 bricks is 24 different ways.  Three 2x4 bricks can be combined in 1,060 ways. Six 2x4 bricks can be combined in more than 915 million possible combinations.  The possibilities are truly mind-boggling when you consider all the possible combinations of all the parts in the catalog.  

With all this, it is not intended to scare anyone away from trying to create their designs. One of the most common recommendations offered is to jump in and try.  This doesn’t really answer the question as to how does one start.  The following is not intended to be “The” answer, but rather one of many possibilities that may or may not work for the reader.LEGO is a construction toy, with a building system at its core.  With that in mind, it is important to spend time to learn the system.  There are many approaches on how to do this and again, I will focus on one method.

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Take any three parts and try to put them together.  It doesn’t matter what three parts you choose, just choose any three.  For example, I chose: a 1x1 Cylinder, 1x2 Plate and a 2x2 Plate

Studying the images located below, you can see that for some of the examples I have repeated a part. The idea is to start with three LEGO Elements and see how they can connect and what shapes you can create with them. 

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Why not give it a try yourself and see how fun it can be to experiment with various ways of connecting LEGO Bricks together.  Cheers from the Construct-a-Venture Crew!

Editor’s note: Many thanks to Megan Rothrock and Jim Foulds for this guest post

Chocolate Box Cottage

This lovely little cottage by builder Full Plate looks right out of the pages of a classic fairytale. With it’s picture perfect setting and rustic charm it’s very welcoming. And while the overall MOC is fantastic, that thatched roof is the stand-out feature. It’s a huge investment in bars and clips, but you’ll have to agree it’s worth it.

Gnome Castle

No, that's not lens distortion or some trick of the eye, this castle by Swan Dutchman is actually slightly angled outward. It's a subtle effect that had to make construction exceedingly difficult, which makes me love it even more. The temptation would be to emphasize the effect, since it was so difficult to accomplish, but Koen resisted that urge and the results are absolutely stunning.

Rough Water

The ship in this diorama by builder Kloou is lovely, and deserving of attention. But really I can't stop looking at the water. This looks incredibly tedious, fragile, frustrating, time consuming and maddening, not to mention the part count. It also looks absolutely marvelous, and is worth all the heartache (easy for me to say, I didn't have to build it).

Technique Tuesday - Simple Spheres

Every once in a while you just need to connect two elements together that were not designed to fit that way. That is usually the genesis of a cool technique in fact, just a clever way of doing something LEGO never intended (subversive and creative at the same time!) This is an astoundingly simple way to connect two sphere halves by ledamu12 that will have you going "why didn't I think of that?"

Technique Tuesday - Fa-brick

Builder BMW_Indy is credited with this fabric (get it, fa-brick?) technique. Using boat tiles, netting and pips you can weave as much as you need, as long as it's in 10x10 pieces. Builder Deborah Higdon used this technique to great effect with this stylish purse.

Technique Tuesday - Simple But Effective Flooring

One of the best things about the LEGO community is that we can learn from one another.  Here at BrickNerd, we like to share techniques that we see from builders all around the world. . .

Flooring is an often overlooked aspect of a good vignette or diorama. But rather than treating it as an afterthought I think you'll find paying attention to this area adds a lot of punch if it's well integrated. This doesn't mean it has to be super elaborate or a parts hungry nightmare. This technique by N-11 Ordo is a pretty good balance of parts to impact and can be modified to fit a number of genres from space to castle. 

Technique Tuesday - Building Guides

One of the best things about the LEGO community is that we can learn from one another.  Here at BrickNerd, we like to share techniques that we see from builders all around the world. . .

This week's tip isn't really about a particular technique, but more of an invaluable resource. Brickgun.com not only has a slew of really cool weapons, instructions and other nifty models to purchase, there's also a ton of really valuable and useful building guides in the free section. I have a print out of all these at the studio, they really come in handy. Click through and grab them, and give the site a good look, it's excellent.

Need Help Making Something Round?

AdNorrel has shared two interesting techniques to create a round shape using simple LEGO elements.  Trying to add some columns to your new build?  Here are two designs that would work really well!  Trying to add a rounded turret to a castle wall?  Try one of these on for size!  The beauty of the LEGO community is that we are always learning from each other.  Happy round building!

Axe Tree Tutorial

Trees are hard to build. They're fragile, finicky and difficult to make convincing, or at least interesting. Even more rare than a good tree is the instructions on how to build it. Well builder Full Plate is providing just that, a tutorial on how to build this tree which uses a novel methodology of axes and droid arms. Head on over to this tutorial hosted by our pals at Eurobricks. How ironic, a tree built from the very thing designed to chop them down.

Watchtower Of Orodruin

Everywhere you look at this scrappy watchtower by Tim Schwalfenberg you'll see two things: A very interesting technique, and something unconventional. From the craggy brickwork at the base of the tower, to the cobbled railing at the top, and from the uneven stairs on the left to the boulder rock work on the right, it's amazing. I have to admit I think this would probably give me fits though, it looks so fragile I wouldn't want to stand anywhere near it while simultaneously needing to get a good close look at it.

You Scream, I Scream

We all scream for this wonderful ice cream MOC by shfio. The studs out SNOT construction of this delicately swirled ABS treat are a wonder to behold. We've all seen builds of this type before, but the fact that it not only swirls upward but also diminishes as it goes up sort of blows my mind. It's like a brain freeze, without all the calories.

Metro Infinity

I love when I'm scrolling through my Flickr feed and a MOC makes me stop and go "how the heck..." This incredible micro scale metropolis of the future by lisqr had that exact effect this morning. Even after staring at the photos I'm not certain how this was accomplished. I mean it's obvious it's a series of decorated wedges, but it's so irregular and at the same time patterned and predictable. I think my brain just melted.

Space Invader

I'm not certain if this unorthodox mosaic by pasukaru76 is an homage to the original video game or to the street artist. But since the the street artist is paying homage to the video game does it really matter? While working in London I used to walk under an original Space Invader every morning, and wonder how on earth he got it up there.

Cool Tree Technique

I don't post techniques very often, but I think this is very clever. 6kyubi6 shared this palm tree technique, and it's some of the best palms I've ever seen.