Scale Model - Neuschwanstein Castle

[Paperballpark]

For the past 7 months I've been building a model of Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany, which is now finished!

It measures 161cm long, 90cm wide, and is 98cm tall. I estimate it uses between 75,000 and 100,000 bricks, but I honestly don't know for certain.

It took me over 600 hours to build, over the course of 7 months, and will be on display at Bricktastic in Manchester, UK, this weekend.

For transporting, it splits into 7 main sections and numerous smaller sections - towers, courtyards, roofs etc.

There are 246 trees on the build, each using an average of about 60 pieces. The slopes are purely brick-built and contain no large rock elements.

The base took me about 5 months to build, and the castle itself another 2 months.

There are dozens of interesting techniques contained in it which I used or came up with to get everything looking as good as I could, including at least two techniques which I've never seen before.

My collection of white elements has been utterly decimated by building this, despite stockpiling them for a few years. Likewise a number of other elements, notably 2x4 bricks and leaf elements. I also placed over 80 Bricklink orders, for a total of over 20,000 pieces - a third of which were parts for the trees.

I started planning the build back in 2019, but then life happened, and it wasn't until last year when I was able to really start on it.

The build has forced me to reassess (upwards!) how many parts I own, as my collection is still substantial, despite the use of most of my white elements!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, but in the meantime, enjoy the photos! There's a few more on my Flickr album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiedouglas/albums/72177720306259874

 

[langko]

Far out this is absolutely amazing! Although I feel like it's something you would have to see in person to truly appreciate all the details/size of the model etc...

[Shiva]

Sweeet!

Seems close to minifig or friends scale?

[A_Forest_of_Lego]

Beautiful! I love the little cliff with the plants!

[astyanax]

Very impressive!! Been to the castle in 2021, nice and 'quiet' due to covid measures. This looks amazingly accurate indeed.

[lcvisser]

Absolutely amazing. 

[hikouki]

Now, are we getting this as part of the Disney 100? LOL

Fantastic job! This is truly amazing work!

[scarovich]

Wow, that is beautifully detailed and a rather accurate depiction.

Edited February 26, 2023 by scarovich

[Arjo]

Bravo! Never heard of this castle before but it is beautiful. Did you work from pictures, videos, memory to design it? How did you determine the scale you would use/number of bricks it would require? Did you wing it and placed orders for extra bricks as you went or you had a rough idea what you were getting into? Most impressive in any case!

[t-brick]

Great model! I designed a model of the castle myself about half the size. This one is another level, looks great and seems very accurate!

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Amazing creation 

[Redhead1982]

This castle is stunning in real life, its location is impressive, and is probably well known also for it. What you created is an equally stunning LEGO replica of the castle. I like that you chose autumnal colors for the foliage. Did you plan it digitally first or you just dived in and started building? Both can be a challenging start to a MOC this big. Simply amazing. Well done. Do you have any close-up pictures of the details?

[MrLind]

Beautiful. I love the colour you have in the build and the rounded shape of the foundation. Great, amazing.

[Krol Zmija Sebastian]

Very pretty, and elegant.

[Yperio_Bricks]

Truly a masterpiece

[BrynnOfCastlegate]

The autumn trees are beautiful! A very accurate and impressive model.

[Marooned Marin]

Amazing Well done!

[Anio]

So much dedication to reach such a result. :O

You nailed it !

[mrjazzcat123]

Phenomenal build!

[Paperballpark]

On 2/25/2023 at 1:16 AM, Shiva said:

Sweeet!

Seems close to minifig or friends scale?

No, it's similar to microfig scale (the Games figures), although that wasn't the specific intention.

[Paperballpark]

On 2/26/2023 at 8:01 AM, Arjo said:

Bravo! Never heard of this castle before but it is beautiful. Did you work from pictures, videos, memory to design it? How did you determine the scale you would use/number of bricks it would require? Did you wing it and placed orders for extra bricks as you went or you had a rough idea what you were getting into? Most impressive in any case!

Thanks!

Yes I worked from pictures and videos to build it. The scale was pretty much determined by the need to use the 1x4 arch brick for the windows. I decided to build it back in 2019 but didn't get round to starting until last year, so I used the intervening years to stockpile bricks I knew I'd need, like white bricks, leaves and slope bricks. I still needed to place 90 BL orders though, for about 21,000 pieces. I knew what I was getting into, although I don't think I expected it to use quite so many bricks!

On 2/26/2023 at 12:20 PM, Redhead1982 said:

This castle is stunning in real life, its location is impressive, and is probably well known also for it. What you created is an equally stunning LEGO replica of the castle. I like that you chose autumnal colors for the foliage. Did you plan it digitally first or you just dived in and started building? Both can be a challenging start to a MOC this big. Simply amazing. Well done. Do you have any close-up pictures of the details?

No I don't build digitally. I did create a floorplan though, so I knew where the walls would go and where the outline would be!

I don't have any close-up pictures - the photos I have were taken at Bricktastic on the Friday evening! I'll try and take some the next time it's out on display at a Lego show, but that's not likely to be for another few months or more now.

[Eurolock]

Truly amazing build…hard to wrap my head around the scale.

[skcheung]

Very impressive, the precision of the architecture thing in particular

[Deldius]

That is an awesome model! It would be nice if we could have something as a reference in the picture to compare the size

[Paperballpark]

On 3/10/2023 at 6:34 AM, Deldius said:

That is an awesome model! It would be nice if we could have something as a reference in the picture to compare the size

Well the window columns are white lightsaber hilts, and you can see the leaf elements used on the trees.

If you look at my Flickr, you'll be able to see high res images which you can zoom in on to see more specific elements.