Terrain Workshop: Tree 34

This idea chased me out of work one night.  The basic premise was to have stacked, multiple 1x2 Rounded Plates w/Rounded Leaf with all of them at an angle to the one below it.  That's not quite how it turned out but I like the final version more.

The center of this is an Axle Connector w/4 Bars & Through Axle Hole.  Two

1x2 Rounded Plates w/Rounded Leaf are placed on each bar of the connector.

The inner one is placed in a vertical orientation, the outer is placed horizontally.

Another 1x2 Rounded Plate w/Rounded Leaf is placed on the open stud of each

inner Leaf in a diagonal orientation.  A 2L Axle w/Pin w/Friction Ridges is placed

through the center of the Axle Connector, axle side down.  A 2L Smooth Axle Connector is connected to the 2L Axle w/Pin, a Notched Axle goes in the

bottom of that with another 2L Smooth Axle Connector attached to that.  A

1x1 Round Brick goes on the other end of that assembly.  This is eighteen

pieces which is 3 Hits.  It's 25 feet tall and 28 feet across in 6P Scale.

I haven't got that many Sand Green 1x2 Rounded Plates w/Rounded

Leaf so right now this is an orphan build.  I hope this gives people

ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Trees 33

I dug these out of my storage bin the other morning in a "quest" to unify a group of trees into one terrain set.  Except, it turned out I had never taken pictures of them and never posted about them.  Weird.  This design is a riff on my Tree 8 with elements of Tree 19 added in.

The core is a Travis Brick with four Appendages, Bladed w/Pin plugged into it, and four 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip on the end of them. This is mounted on a 1x1x6 Solid Pillar then a Fez and a Cone are mounted on the Travis Brick.  This is a total of twelve pieces which is 2 Hits.  The tree is 38 feet tall and 30 feet across in 6P Scale.

To expand and toughen this build we have to add another Travis Brick with four 

Appendages, Bladed w/Pin, and four 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip mounted at an angle

to the first.  New to this version are three 1x1 Round Plates sandwiching

each Travis Brick.  All of this is placed on the 1x1x6 Solid Pillar then the Fez

and a Cone are popped back on top.  This is a total of 24 pieces which is 4

Hits.  This expanded version is 43 feet tall and 40 feet across in 6P Scale.

As you can see, both versions are tall and cover a decent amount of space.  Once again I hope I've given people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Trees 32

Sometimes you subconsciously reach back to older builds while trying to design something new.  That's not a bad thing.  If a technique has worked before, it should work again.  Today's creation draws from ideas I had back in 2022.

This build starts with a 1x1x6 Solid Pillar Support and a Travis Brick with four

Trunks w/Bar End (Long Straight Tip) plugged into it.  On the ends of the

Trunks are four 1x2 Round Plates w/Pointed Leaf.  On top of the Travis

Brick is a 1x1 Round Brick and a 1x1Round Plate w/Twist.  This tree is 29 feet

tall and 15 feet across in 6P scale and can take 2 Hits before being destroyed.

As you can see in this version, I changed the colors and a few of the parts to

make something that would fit better with some of the plants in my Oasis

setting.  The trunk is changed to two 3L Axle Connectors joined by a

Notched Axle.  Topping that off is an Axle/Friction Pin.  The Travis Brick,

four Trunks, and four Pointed Leaves are added to that.  Topping off the

stack is a 1x1 Cone.  Added to the outside of the Pointed Leaves are four

1x1 Round Plates w/3 Layered Leaves.  This version is 26 feet tall and

15 feet across in 6P scale and can take 3 Hits before being destroyed.

Here's the size comparison against the usual suspects.  Once again I hope I've given people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Helicopter Plants

Yet another build put together while sorting.  The name comes from the idea that a 1x2 Round Plate w/Rounded Leaf, to me, looks kinda like one of those Helicopter Seed Pods from Maple trees.  The entire build also looks like a set of helicopter blades at rest.

The core of this build is the Round Brick w/3 Diagonal Bars.

Attached to that are three 1x2 Round Plates w/Rounded Leaf, a

Notched Axle, and a 3L Axle Connector.  That's six pieces, which

means it's 1 Hit.  It's 11 feet tall and 22.5 feet across in 6P Scale.  

While this might not be very tall in relation to some of the usual suspects it does cross the Cover Threshold, it takes up a fair amount of space, and they can be placed in an overlapping fashion to make dense sections of Cover that inhibit movement.  Also, having a ton of these on the table would look pretty cool.

I'll probably add these to my Asian Antenna Farm table-setting as they'll help fill in some of the empty spaces and they match the vibe.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Marsh Plants

This build owes a lot to my Giant Cattails creation.  I'm not sure where the initial idea came from but it does add another type of vaguely terrestrial, marshland type flora that we can put on the table for a game.

Starting at the bottom we have a 3x3 Plate with two 1x3 Rounded Plates w/Open Studs on top of it.  This is the base.  It doesn't count towards the number of pieces in the build and also helps us space them out evenly.  The plant itself starts with two Apollo Studs, a 6L Bar w/Stop, another Apollo Stud (inverted and placed on one side of the Stop), an Eggshell/Crown, and a 1x1 Horizontal Swirl Round Plate which are on the other side of the Stop.  Each stalk is six pieces which is 1 Hit.  A single stack is at least 17 feet tall -- depending on how deep you push them into the Apollo Studs and the base -- and 5 feet wide in 6P scale.  You can arrange them from one to four pieces on a base which will give you varying levels of "density" for this terrain.

I changed the color of the top two pieces to Pink and I also swapped out the 1x1

 Horizontal Swirl Round Plate for a 1x1 Vertical Swirl Round Plate.  This could be

used to denote a variant of the original or one that's in a different growth stage.

The Horizontal/Vertical Swirl Round Plates come in a combined total of nine colors.

The Eggshell is thirteen colors.  Apollo Studs come in 25 colors.  The Bar w/Stop is

available in fifteen colors, so you can have a wide variety of looks with this design.

As you can see in the size comparison, it's a reasonably tall build.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds. Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Haunting Tree

I mentioned once before that a friend of mine said "Ideas aren't interesting until they keep you up at night."  This.  Is.  One.  Of.  Those.  Ideas.  This creation absolutely haunted me from the moment it popped into my head.  Hence the name.  It doesn't help that one of the pieces is only available -- in that color -- in one set.

Let's start at the top.  The first piece is a Boat Stud, then two Plates w/Bar Arm Up, two 1x2 Round Plates w/Pointed Leaf are attached to the arms.  Continuing downward we have a 2x2 Truncated Cone, then a 2L Pin Connector w/Slot, then three 1x1 Round Plates and two 1x1 Round Bricks, staggered.

I made a second version that swaps in two 1x2 Round Plates w/Rounded Leaf for the 1x2 Round Plates w/Pointed Leaf.  I think I like the first version a

little better but, I didn't have enough of either type of leaf to make a full

set that way.  Both versions of this tree are 2 Hits and 19 feet tall in 6P 

Scale. Version 1 is 35 feet from tip to tip and version 2 is the same.

If you want to make them a little taller -- and tougher -- you pop off the Boat stud, add two more Plates w/Bar Arm Up, and two 1x2 Round Plates w/Pointed Leaf, along with two 2x2 Round Plates, then re-attach the Boat Stud.  This adds 1 Hit and three feet in height.  If you like the second version you add in two more 1x2 Round Plates w/Rounded Leaf.

As you can see they're fairly tall and should make for good

Cover on the table.  As always, I hope this gives people

ideas or techniques to use in their own builds. Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Lesser Pirate Palm

Wanting to use the Triple Pin/Axle Connector in a more "normal" build, I came up with the following idea.  This doesn't have much in common with the original Pirate Palm beyond the 6x5 Swordleaf w/Clip piece.

Inserted into the ends of the Triple Axle/Pin Connector are three

2L Bars w/Stop Ring, attached to those are three 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip.

That assembly is placed onto a 1L Axle/2L Pin w/Friction Ridges

which is plugged into a Smooth 2L Axle Connector which is attached

to another Smooth 2L Axle Connector by a Notched Axle.  The stack

is topped off with a 1x1 Round Brick.  This is a total of twelve pieces

which is 2 Hits.  It's 26 feet tall and 16 feet wide in 6P Scale.

I'm calling it a "Lesser Pirate Palm" because it only uses three Swordleaf pieces as opposed to the four of the original.  The trunk is also shorter in this design.  When I first built this I had the leaves pointing at the ground.  But I discovered that it looked so much better the other way around.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: (Clone) Trees 31

So this build is a one-off.  A look at what it's possible to create when you don't care about availability or cost effectiveness.  I have two of the Brickcraft Axle Connector w/5 Leaves pieces from recent reviews.   There's only one in each set so that basically makes them $4.97 each if you buy the set just to get them.

Working down from the Axle Connectors w/Leaves we have 2L Axles going into a Dark Brown Triple Axle/Pin Connector linked by a Friction Axle/Pin to a Reddish Brown 2L Pin Connector w/Slot.  Then there are two 1x1 Round Bricks with a 1x1 Round Plate between them, and it ends in a Smooth 2L Axle Connector attached to the stack with a Friction Axle/Pin.  This is a total of twelve pieces which is 2 Hits.  It's 32 feet tall and 19 feet wide in 6P Scale.  As you can see from the size comparison picture it is fairly large.

I chose to end it in the Smooth 2L Axle Connector so I didn't have to use a Large Jumper (of either the Square or Round variety) to secure it to the Plate.  The Friction Axle/Pin between that and the 1x1 Round Brick is slightly exposed but I can live with that.

In terms of price the 2L Axles are $0.01 each, Triple Axle/Pin Connector is $0.03, Friction Axle/Pins are $0.01 each, the 2L Pin Connector w/Slot is $0.02, 1x1 Round Bricks are $0.01 each, the 1x1 Round Plate is $0.01, and the Smooth 2L Axle Connector is $0.01 for a total of $10.07 for the entire tree.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.

Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Solar Panels

Recently SkullHPT posted an image of a Solar Panel Station on the Discord.  This made me look for an image of my solar panel design used in my Roadway Rumble table-setting, and I didn't have any.  So that became an excuse for this Terrain Workshop.

This is a pretty simple build, the majority of the parts are four Printed 1x4 Tiles.  These are placed on a 4x4 Plate which is attached to a Hinge Brick Base and 2x2 Top Plate combo.  This is a total of six pieces which is 1

Hit.  It's 11 feet tall (depending on the angle) and 10 feet wide in 6P Scale.

I generally mount them on a 2x2 Turntable to give them a "play function".

As you can see, up against the usual suspects, it's a decent size.  I hope

this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.

Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Tree 30

Let's finish out the week with a callback to a two year old design with a couple of parts changes and some color changes.

It begins with two 2x2 Round Brick 45 Deg. Elbow, and a Dragon Tail/Curved Neck, all of which are connected with 2L Notched Axles -- including one that goes into the base. Then an Friction Pin connects a Travis Brick to the top of the Tail/Neck, and four 6x5 Plant Leaves are connected to that. That is a total of twelve pieces which is 2 Hits. In 6P Scale -- and this layout -- it's 5 feet thick, 40 feet long, 30 feet tall, and 27.5 feet wide (at the end).

I've got two of the Dragon Tail/Curved Neck pieces so that's all

I have assembled at the moment.  I hope I've given people ideas

or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: (Clone) Trees 29

I'll be honest, this build is really only 1/3 Clone bricks.  This design came about due to digging through parts to find something similar to the 8x3 Leaf w/Bar from the Miniso Toys Lily.  I found eight pieces in the 2025 Brickcraft Poinsettia set that fit the profile.  A 6x4 Leaf w/Bar in Green and Red.

We start with four of those leaves attached to a Technic Pin Connector w/4 Clips.  Then you add four 1x1 Round Plates and three 1x1 Round Bricks.

I place the Round Plates on the top and bottom of the Pin Connector and

in between the Round Bricks.  That's a total of twelve pieces, which is 2

Hits.  It's 15 feet tall and up to 37.5 feet across -- depending on the angle

of the leaves -- in 6P Scale.

Having two sets of identical leaves in different colors allows you

to build Summer and Fall versions of these trees.  Or you could

just put them all on the table at the same time, Green on one side
and Red on the other to denote some sort of demarcation line.

There are also Dark Green versions of the 6x4 Leaf w/Bar if you

want a third color.  It's up to you how you want your table to look.

I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.

Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Clone Plants 2

After my post two Mondays ago I started looking at my first build again and some possibly better ways to utilize the The 8x3 Leaf w/Bar while increasing the amount of Lego parts in the build.

Once again starting with parts sourced from this set.  The 8x3 Leaf w/Bar is connected 

to a Tile Clip and that is mounted on a 1x1 Round Brick.  This is repeated three

more times for a total of twelve pieces.  This build is 2 Hits and roughly 24 feet

tall by 7.5 feet wide in 6P scale.  I recommend using a color other than Dark

Red as the edges of the Round Bricks in that color can be a little fragile.

You could also mount the 8x3 Leaf w/Bar on a 1x2 Plate w/Open O Clip on Top

along with a 1x1 Round Tile.  This is repeated three more times for a total of

twelve pieces, you then mount them on a + Plate.  This build is 2 Hits and roughly

22 feet tall by 7.5 feet wide in 6P scale.  I'd fill in under the Clip Plates with 1x1

Plates to neaten it up a bit and cut down on the amount of possible rotation.

Changing over to the other build from Monday's post, let's also switch to parts from another manufacturer.  The 2025 Brickcraft Poinsettia set has parts similar to the 4x4 Leaf w/Clip pieces in the Miniso Lily set.  Starting with the 5x4 Leaf w/Clip, we attach one to a Padlock, then mounting that on a 1x1 Round Plate.  This is repeated three more times for a total of twelve pieces.  This build is 2 Hits and roughly 14 feet tall by 15 feet wide in 6P scale.  The 4x4 Clip Leaf and 5x4 Clip Leaf are both $1.24 per Piece, Yellow Padlocks are $0.10 per Piece, and Bright Green 1x1 Round Plates are $0.01 per Piece for a total of $5.40 per build for either version.  Which is kinda steep but I feel like the Brickcraft sets have a better availability than the Miniso ones.

The 2025 Brickcraft Amaryllis set also has a part similar to the 4x4 Leaf w/Clip piece.

Starting with the 7x4 Leaf w/Clip, we attach one to a Padlock, then mounting that on a 1x1 Round Plate.  This is repeated three more times for a total of twelve pieces.  This build is 2 Hits and roughly 20 feet tall by 15 feet wide in 6P scale.  The 7x4 Clip Leaf is $0.83 per Piece, Reddish Brown Padlocks are $0.02 per Piece, and Reddish Brown 1x1 Round Plates are $0.01 per Piece for a total of $3.44 per build.  That's a bit better.

I hope this gives people ideas or techniques

to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Bendy Trees

I bought the Japanese Maple Tree set a few weeks ago and strip-mined it for parts.  The creations in this post were inspired by those parts.  This build owes a lot to my Twisting Trees which I didn't realize until a few days after I put them together.

The simplest incarnation of this design, which I built last, starts with a Corrugated 2x2 Round Brick, three 2L Axles, four Smooth 2L Axle Connectors, topped off with a 2L Bar w/Stop Ring and two 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip.  This is twelve pieces which is 2 Hits.  It's 26 feet tall and 27.5 feet from edge to edge.

Tree 2.  The next incarnation of this design, which I built first, starts with

a Corrugated 2x2 Round Brick, a 2L Axle, a Smooth 2L Axle Connector,

another 2L Axle, two 90 Deg. Macaroni Tubes, two more 2L Axles, a

45 Deg. Macaroni Tube, topped off with a 2L Bar w/Stop Ring

and two 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip.  This is twelve pieces which is 2

Hits. The taller one is 34 feet tall and 27.5 feet from edge to edge.

Tree 3.  I think this is where things start getting interesting.  As always it starts with a Corrugated 2x2 Round Brick, three 2L Axles, and two Smooth 2L Axle Connectors.  Then we add in a Triple Angled Axle/Pin Connector.  This is only available, in Tan, in the Japanese Maple Tree set -- and there's only two of them.  You top it all off with two 2L Bars w/Stop Ring, two 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip, and a 1x1 Round Plate w/3 Thin Leaves.  This is twelve pieces which is 2 Hits.  The left one is 23 feet tall and 27.5 feet from edge to edge.  The one on the right subs in a 45 Deg. Macaroni Tube for a Smooth 2L Axle Connector.

Tree 4.  This is a simpler version of Tree 2, or a more complex version of Tree 

1.  It starts with a Corrugated 2x2 Round Brick, three 2L Axles, three

Smooth 2L Axle Connectors, a 45 Deg. Macaroni Tube, topped off with

a 2L Bar w/Stop Ring and two 6x5 Swordleaves w/Clip.  This is twelve

pieces which is 2 Hits.  It's 27 feet tall and 27.5 feet from edge to edge.

Size comparisons with the usual suspects. I'm not sure where I'm going to use these but I look forward to getting them on the table at some point.  I hope I've given people ideas or techniques

to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Handlebar Tree

It's been a while since I've had some Pillar Support pieces, so let's try and build some new trees with them!

This starts with a 1x1x6 Solid Pillar Support, into a Brick w/Studs on Opposite Sides, then a 1x1 Round Plate, topped off with a 1x1 Round Tile.  Attached to the Brick are two Tile Clips, two Angular Handlebars, and four Plant Leaves 6x5.  This is a total of twelve pieces which is 2 Hits.  It's 23 feet tall and 40 feet across in 6P Scale.

 

Here's a size comparison with the usual suspects.  For some reason I feel like

this idea has been sitting in my head for a while.  I'm probably going to add

them to the "Road to Nowhere" table-setting as they seem to match the vibe.

I hope I've given people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.

Flickr Page.

Terrain Workshop: Clone Plants

It's been two and a half months since I've done a Terrain Workshop, and I'm finally feeling creative, so let's have some fun with a handful of Clone Brick parts.

This build starts with parts sourced from this set.  The 8x3 Leaf w/Bar is connected to the Bushing w/Clip and that is mounted on an Inkwell.  This is repeated three more times for a total of twelve pieces.  This build is 2 Hits and roughly 25 feet tall by 8 feet wide in 6P scale.  The clone parts are both from one set from one store so availability is going to be limited and the Cost per Build will be fairly high.  So let's move along to a different build that uses parts from the Miniso Lily set with a higher quantity and also more Lego pieces.

There are thirteen of the 4x4 Leaf w/Clip pieces in the Miniso Lily set.  We start with attaching one to a Padlock, then mounting that on a 1x1 Round Plate.  This is repeated three more times for a total of twelve pieces.  This build is 2 Hits and

roughly 15 feet tall by 14 feet wide in 6P scale.  The 4x4 Clip leaf is $0.38 per Piece,

Green Padlocks are $0.02 per Piece, and Reddish Brown 1x1 Round Plates are

$0.01 per Piece for a total of $1.64 per build.  Which seems reasonable to me.

One of the fun things about this build is that the curved nature of the leaf pieces allows us to add more to the internal space defined by those leaves.  Which also allows us to "beef up" the build and add more Hits.  If that's something you're interested in.  I'm going to do two different versions of this.  The first starts with a 2x2 Round Brick -- which goes on top of the Padlocks -- then adds a 2x2 Round Plate, and tops it off with four 1x1 Cones.  This is six pieces which adds 1 Hit.  It's also three Bricks tall which makes it Cover.  The second version starts with two 1x2 Round Plates -- on top of the Padlocks -- the adds four of the Modified Minifig Ski Poles from the Miniso Lily set.  This is six pieces which adds 1 Hit, and it's three Bricks tall which makes it Cover.  It also looks a little more natural than the first version.  The first version looks sturdier though which will probably help people believe that it would stand up to mecha scale weaponry.  Having three different types of pieces allows you to vary the colors to possibly differentiate the different parts of the plant.  If you wanted to do that.

The other fun thing about the second version of this

build is that you can fully open all the leaves to

increase the amount of ground clutter.  This

reduces it to 1 Hit for the central section but each

build covers a lot more space on the table.

Let's do a size comparison with the usual suspects. I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Stations

A friend of mine once said to me "Ideas aren't interesting until they keep you up at night."  I'm paraphrasing because it's been many years since that discussion.  Anyway.  This idea didn't keep me up at night but it did follow me around for several days yammering in my ear.

It all started when I was scrounging Transparent Clear parts for flight bases for another build.  I found a few 2x2 Domes and while they didn't work as flight bases something about them kept bugging me.  I held them up together, bottom to bottom, and something clicked.  Now I just needed something to hold them together.  I thought I had some Block Tech 2L Notched Axles in Transparent Clear but I was wrong.  So I defaulted to the standard Lego Black version.  I wanted to keep the shaping so I used a third Dome for the bottom.  I used a Black 1x1 Liftarm to connect them.  (And why is that piece called a Liftarm?  It's obviously a Pin Connector.)  I then topped it off with a Black 1x1 Round Tile.  For the base I went with a 4x4 Round Plate, because that's what I use for Stations, in a matching color to the bottom Dome.  To finish, I covered the open studs in 2x2 Macaroni Tiles, two in Black and two in a color matching the bottom Dome.

In 6P scale this is 13 feet tall, and 5 feet wide.  If you

want to use it as Cover, instead of a Station, it is 1 Hit.

Most of the time I design Stations to match or compliment individual squads.  These will probably end up as spares -- in case someone needs Stations in a game -- or used as Neutral stations when that rule is used.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their own builds.  Flickr page.