The Picture of Suburban Bliss

Aaron Newman July 20, 2021

I designed this replica of a private residence on commission. Although the client only paid me for digital deliverables—i.e., design services and instructions, but no physical bricks—I couldn’t resist splurging a little on parts to recreate my finished product in real life, with a few modifications of my own to “spruce up” the build. Yes, that was a pun, because yes, the addition of a towering redwood tree in the backyard was one of my biggest add-ons!

This 360-degree home recreation also features fully realized, furnished interior spaces, making it perhaps the most in-depth structural recreation I have ever completed at this size. Keeping balance between external and internal was a fun puzzle to solve, and while I was battling for space much of the time, I’m pleased with and proud of the final result.

Read on to learn more about the design choices behind this build, and to check out all the rooms of the house!

We Are Cleared for Takeoff

Aaron Newman June 21, 2020

I designed this replica of a Tupolev 204-300 (Tu-204-300) on commission. It was my first time building a replica airplane, but I hope it won’t be my last; I had loads of fun working on this plane!

The stimulating puzzle of this project was capturing the craft as accurately as possible… not just by eye, but by math. Read on to learn more about the design choices behind this aircraft model.

"Here's the Story... of a Lovely Lady..."

Aaron Newman May 20, 2020

I designed this famous house from The Brady Bunch (1969-74) on commission. Before beginning work, I hadn’t even listened to the show’s catchy theme! However, I very quickly came to realize that merely speaking the first few lyrics of that song will send many people into paroxysms of nostalgia. The Brady Bunch is a landmark show beloved by millions, and the Bradys’ iconic house now a tourist attraction that is the second-most photographed house in the United States. It was a real treat for me to replicate and recreate a truly meaningful piece of American pop culture.

I love tackling the challenges unique to replicating architecture in brick form, and this home posed more than just those delicious run-of-the-mill puzzles. You see, I was set to model a house that technically never had, and never will, exist. My model of the Bradys’ house—the combination of an amalgam of sources—required a good deal of compromise, research, and imagination to reach its finished form. Read on to learn more about the design choices behind this project!

North Shore, Chattanooga

Aaron Newman April 22, 2020

I built this replica of a private residence on commission. This house, nicknamed “North Shore Chattanooga” by its owner, is a gorgeous piece of architecture that was a blast to replicate in bricks!

I am extremely proud of this little model, which I think packs in a great deal of accuracy and detail despite its small size. Learn more about the design choices I made on my replica of North Shore Chattanooga by reading on.

Sketching Medieval in Monochrome

Aaron Newman June 18, 2019

I built this model as a trophy for the 2019 Summer Joust, a medieval-themed building contest. As one of the competition’s judges, I was asked to prepare a prize for the “No Bley” subcategory. Entries in that category weren’t allowed to use any “bley”—a portmanteau of “bluish grey,” shorthand used to refer to LEGO’s post-2004 gray hues— so I thought it would be fun and tongue-in-cheek if the entire prize I designed was built from those colors!

Read on to learn more about the design choices I made on this monochromatic model.

Middle Earth or Micro Earth?

Aaron Newman December 17, 2018

Peter Jackson’s adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are some of my favorite movies ever— and while I’ve designed within his cinematic vision before (my Balrog and Minas Tirith models are a few of note), it was an enjoyable exercise to recreate some of the films’ most iconic creatures at a tiny scale. I made these quite fast, going from start to photographs in only two days! Making a series of three felt apropos to honoring the trilogy; you might notice I’ve done one build for each movie. Read on to find out more about each build’s design process.

Battle on the High Seas

Aaron Newman October 12, 2018

The root for this model was my idea to use the plastic sprue from the 2018 Harry Potter wand element as an anchor. One thing led to another, and before you knew it I had a miniature 19th-century frigate on my hands! I built and refined my boat design over about a week. Meanwhile producing these photos, with their complex backdrops and lighting effects, took a bit longer than that… especially once I realized I wanted the photo you see above, where I’ve spliced both color variants together on one canvas for a “War of 1812” battle situation; that was a doozy to make!

Read on to learn more about the design choices behind these models.

Strike Gundam: Launch Ready!

Aaron Newman October 4, 2018

I had no prior experience with Gundam before this little model, and have never seen any of the Gundam anime, but I absolutely loved my experience building my first Bandai model! The intricate parts, the tiny stickers, and the awesome flexibility all enraptured me. (I had such a good time, in fact, that I returned to the store one more time some days later to acquire another even more sophisticated Gundam.)

The idea to recreate my first Gundam in my more usual medium, LEGO bricks, occurred to me soon after I finished assembling the Bandai model. However, as other projects took the forefront for me, I forgot about this idea… until one afternoon when I had a lot of time on my hands, and felt like building something new, I picked up the ol’ Gundam and decided to try my best to replicate it 1:1 with LEGO. Seemed like a fun brain teaser.

Read on to learn more about the design process behind this creation!

"Small" Tales: Making a Miniature

Aaron Newman September 26, 2018

I designed this miniature version of my Tale of the Three Brothers build, from late March of this year, for a microscale LEGO Harry Potter contest online. I had the idea to miniaturize my previous Wizarding World creation as soon as I read about the contest; after all, that build received such a warm response, and it remains one of my favorite presentations to date. So I set myself the task of making it micro!

This final build, the which I finished in a short day’s work, was a fun and quick exercise in miniaturization. While building stuff smaller-than-life in LEGO is hardly unusual (case in point: even my huge 40” Chateau de Chenonceau isn’t quite the same size as the real-life castle!), to take an existent design of mine and replicate it smaller was a novel task.

Read on to learn more about the parallels I drew between the original scene and its smaller version.

This Seaside Castle is my second ABS challenge build.

Strong castle, sleepy village

Aaron Newman March 19, 2018

This model, a Seaside Castle, is the second build I've completed for my second round in the ABS Builder Challenge, an online competition where LEGO® artists are tasked with implementing a "seed part"—in this case, a silver goblet—creatively into as many builds as possible.

Read on to learn more about the design choices behind this model.