Emblem of Gondor (LEGO remix)

Lego
Emblem of Gondor (LEGO remix)

My work of the Middle earth map is going very slowly forward. It has basically stood still for a while when other projects have been taken up my time.

But when I have had the time to work on the map, I been struggling with is what to do with a big dark blue corner of the map. To not add any decorative element to that part feels boring and a waste of potential (and I wouldn’t need to buy as many dark blue bricks to fill it up)

While brainstorming things to build I came up with the build below. I felt it wouldn’t work with the map, but it would work as a stand-alone piece. So, a stand-alone piece it became.

Emblem of Gondor
Emblem of Gondor

For the people that are not familiar with Lord of the Rings and/or classic LEGO pieces, the build is depicting the emblem of Gondor with a classic LEGO tree instead of the usual curvy tree design.

Comparison between LEGO tree piece and my build
Comparison between LEGO tree piece and my build

Structure

The build is 5 plates thick, the minimum I was able to make it. 5 plates are the same size as the width of 2 studs, which gave me room for all the SNOT (Studs not on top) techniques I had to use to get the right shape. I have studs pointing in all directions.

Build Thickness

The mess of pieces in different direction and support structure can be seen on the backside.

Backside

Below are two screenshots from LDD where I have changed the colors of the build to reflect the direction of the stud. (Left side is the build from the front and right side is the build from the back.)

Stud direction
Stud direction

Looking that the build from the front, the colors represent:

  • Red for studs forward.
  • Tan for studs backwards
  • Green for studs to the left.
  • Yellow for studs to the left.
  • Blue for studs down.
  • Orange for studs up.

Additionally

  • White is for 1x1 bricks with additional stud on side, 87087
  • Dark Gray is for 1x2 bricks with studs on side, 11211
  • Light Gray is for 1x4 bricks with studs on side, 30414
  • Lavender is for inverted brackets, 99207

It is not visible anywhere, but the bricks with studs on side are used with AAA pieces to connect with the plates at the bottom.

Next?

I’m not sure when I will be able to complete the Middle Earth map, but I’m hoping it will be done this year. Maybe some more stand-alone builds will spring from it first.

/Henrik