Blake Baer

Hey all, Well, after almost 6 months of work, here it is. Erebor, I am proud to say, is the largest creation I have had the pleasure of working on and completing. I love the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (from which Erebor is taken) so I really enjoy working on LEGO projects that pertain to that area. I had a blast working on this project. There is something so inherently satisfying about seeing a project like this come to a close and enjoying the attention it receives that really makes all the hard work worth it. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you... Erebor! Hope y'all like it! Please leave me a comment letting me know what you think. Check out the Flickr set for more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baericks/sets/72157638097215594/ Have a great day, -Blake Erebros by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Erebor by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr

Thank you all for the comments! Ummm... and what if there isn't? ;)

Thank you all for the kind comments! I really appreciate them. Also, here is a video showing some motion for the windmill:

I have heard of some builders who do design their creations in CAD before they begin building, but Jack and I just liked to build from our heads. Its more fun and allows for creative room.

Hey all, I haven't had the pleasure of browsing these forums as much as I would like, but I do stop in periodically to post the occasional creation. Here is my latest vignette, an entry for the MOCOlympics over on MOCpages. The category for this round was "apocalypse now" in which I was required to build the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. This is my take on the category. Enjoy! Have a great day, -Blake More pictures can be found on the MOCpage: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/371276 The Four Horsemen by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr

Hey all, Some of you may remember my previous WarScape creation (http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream). In case you missed it, WarScape is a microscale castle adventure that is built in a modular form, and each module has a little substory attached to it that connects to an overall story. Its incredible fun. WarScape Series: Volume 1 by Sean and Steph Mayo Volume 2 by Blake Baer Volume 3 by LukeClarenceVan Anyhow, here is volume 4 (for the other volumes, look above)! Please enjoy. Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the years. God bless, -Blake WarScape Vol4; Chapter 1 of 5 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr WarScape Vol4; Chapter 2 of 5 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr WarScape Vol4; Chapter 3 of 5 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr WarScape Vol4; Chapter 4 of 5 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr WarScape Vol4; Chapter 5 of 5 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr

Rivendell by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Hello all, I present to you my latest creation. This is a collaborative with a good friend of mine for Brickfair VA 2012. Due to both of our unique interests in Lord of the Rings and our supreme passion for the LEGO brick, we decided to combine them into a creation for Brickfair 2012. This was our second time collaborating on a creation (our first collaborative being Amon Hen), and this was definitely the largest, hardest, and most fun project that either of us have worked on. Because of our unique building styles, we complemented each other well and used the best of both our talents to great effect. We chose Rivendell because of its beautiful landscape, its iconic nature, and the fact that it will be in the upcoming Hobbit movie trilogy. It is our hope that you will enjoy the natural beauty and our creative gifts as expressed in this artistic representation of Rivendell, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. Signed, Blake Baer and Jack Bittner Enjoy! Flickr pic | More Pictures (MOCpages) | Video I really appreciate hearing from you all. Please leave a comment letting me know what you think. Also, suggestions on how to make it better are quite welcome. :) Cheers! -Blake Flickr pic | More Pictures (MOCpages) | Video

Thanks again guys! I really appreciate the support.

Yes! (I am surprised and impressed that you remembered that about Amon Hen). This one splits apart into 9 different sections. Here is the aerial view of the sections: http://www.mocpages.com/image_zoom.php?mocid=338321&id=/user_images/29890/1345670900m Thanks!

Thanks guys! The encouragement is quite... um... encouraging. It means a ton to us both. Thanks again! :)

Hello all! I present to you my latest work, Matsumoto Castle, for the EB Architecture contest. After looking through hundreds of pictures for inspiration, I decided upon Matsumoto Castle as my model for a variety of reasons. In the true spirit of the contest, I was trying to supplement Adam Tucker's wonderful architecture series by building something not as mainstream and modern/minimalistic. I also didn't want this to be just another "cool" skyscraper, no matter how well I might be able to pull it off. At a first glance, I was repulsed by the prospect of building a castle but as I considered the architectural styles and flairs that the Japanese castle brought, I thought it would be worth looking into. As I said before, I was trying to make this as true to the Architectural line as possible. Things like the base, the colors and the presentation were all factored in. But ultimately, I wanted this to be unique and to stand alone from the normal approaches. Matsumoto Castle Location...................Matsumoto, Japan Built........................1593-94 Type........................Flatland Castle Owner......................23+ Daimyos Architect..................Yasunaga This is built for the Landmark series. Many people recognize the oriental architecture strictly based off of the roof style. I was trying to capture the familiar roof structure which was very difficult at this scale and with the chosen color palette. I also incorporated geographical aspects into the build by using water, terrain, trees and paths. While I wanted these to be detailed and to add to the build, I also didn't want them to detract from the architectural impetus of this contest. The coloring was a supreme issue in this creation. The castle takes a very bland gray-scale which is boring and uninteresting to the eye. I therefore chose to add dark tan and red to the build while accenting it with blues and greens in the landscape around the castle. Altogether, it ties in very well with the essence. Ultimately, I am quite happy with the end product. Architecture is one of my many interests, so this contest was quite fun. Thank you Rufus (and other behind the scenes admins) for hosting and running. I quite enjoyed it! More info on Matsumoto castle can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoto_Castle More pics can be found on the MOCpage: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/317551 Or on Flickr: Otherwise, please enjoy! I appreciate your feedback. -Blake Matsumoto Castle by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Matsumoto Castle by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Matsumoto Castle by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr

2) 2 vote 15) 1 vote 36) 1 vote 45) 3 vote

Thanks guys, I appreciate your responses! Thank you for noticing! I made a specific effort to include the white trims on the roof.

The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Úlairi, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death. Their steeds were winged creatures: if birds, then greater than all other birds, and were naked, and neither quill nor feather did they bear, and their vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and they stank. Creature of an older world maybe. Vultures upon the weak....--"Silmarillion"/"Return of the King" Hey all, After my respective failure with the dragon Smaug, I decided to try my hand at another dragon by joining Sean's contest. Indeed, my axe is rather dull when it comes to dragons, so I hoped to hone my axe a little bit through this contest. I have no expectations of placing but I wanted to show some support for my good friends Sean and Steph. That said, I hope you like it! Nazgûl by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Nazgûl by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Nazgûl by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Any feedback you can give will be highly appreciated. Thanks! -Blake

Here is the Brickshelf Gallery: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=498346

I was trying to picture it as though they had just landed on a battlefield and there were dead orcs there already.

Thanks Magma! As you said in your comment on Flickr, I should indeed try some larger Dios, like Amon Hen. I will hopefully be pulling off another large creation this summer. Regarding the orc blood issue: While I knew it was black, I thought red would help add color to the normally bland scene. I didn't want it to look too dark. Thanks for the replies guys!

Good day all! Some of you who know me, know that I mainly deal in the realm of castle and LOTR, so this change was quite a challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed it though, and I hope you do as well. Centurion 1-16 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Centurion 1-16 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Centurion 1-16 by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Also, I just noticed how well it fits into the color scheme of this forum. Comments and critiques especially welcome on this one. -Blake

Hello all, The large contest on MOCpages is going on now, and my 3rd round category was "There's no place like home." The original context for the quote came from The Wizard of Oz, so things naturally fell in place for me. I chose to depict Dorothy's first experience of Munchkin Land. Anyway I hope you like it, and I would appreciate it if you would leave C&C to let me know what you think. Thanks! God bless, Blake (Pics link to MOCpages) The flickr photo can be found here.

Alright laddies! Those of you on CCC and who follow me on flickr/MOCpages know about my series that I did for the CCC on Classic Castle. For those who don't, For the CCC this year, I decided to try something a bit new. I connected all of the categories with different scenes from the book by JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit. And so then, I just made the scenes in LEGO form and submitted them as entries. Having known about the LOTR license coming up, I thought it would fit perfectly in with the timing. So here they are, in order of date posted. Roast Mutton by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Riddles in the Dark by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Queer Lodgings by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Flies and Spiders by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Barrels out of Bond by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr A Warm Welcome by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Gathering of the Clouds by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr The Clouds Burst by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr Inside Information by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr And this is my latest and in my eyes, best. Fire and Water by Blake's Baericks, on Flickr More pics can be found here (MOCpages) and here (Brickshelf when public). I believe that I posted another thread on here with the first 3 creations, but I thought a more official thread was needed. C&CC Welcome! Happy New year! -Blake

A collaborative build for Brickfair 2011 between myself and my good friend Jack Bittner. The MOC, depicts the scene of Amon Hen from the book/movie Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring. Please go check out Jacks page as well, because this is as much his build as it is mine. Also, more pictures and details can be found at MOCpages,Brickshelf and Flickr. We built this to be modular in the sense that it is in 6 different sections that are easily assembled. All pictures link to flickr, though I suggest that you look at the MOCpages for much more details and pictures. Thank you all for looking at these few pics! Once again I would really appreciate it (and I hope you would to) if you took a look at the MOCpage/flickr/brickshelf for better detailing and descriptions. Also note that this won best Vignette and best Sci-fi at Brickfair 2011. Comments/suggestions/criticisms/praise/other are always welcome! Signed, Blake

Thank you all for the support you guys have shown. I was really tickled to see this get on the homepage. NOTE: Looking over the replies, I found it really interesting to evaluate all of your favorites. The variance of opinions was very refreshing. Thanks again!

Haha, actually yes it is in part. I played through the game before beginning this series to effectively inspire me.

Those of you who have been following my LEGO career know that I build a ton in LOTR. I have had series of hints recently that this was coming, so for the CCC I started to build Hobbit creations instead of the typical castle(this is proof that LOTR can replace history/castle). The timing was absolutely perfect on my part. PROS: For me, I am totally excited about this prospect. I have waited over 10 years of my life for this time, and the availability of LEGO LOTR sets is just making me dizzy. The new sets and pieces that will be coming are just unimaginable. Totally stoked for this. CONS: I can't help but have a certain reluctance about the licensing as well. The fact that I will now be building in a licensed theme kinda makes me sad. That is a major reason I have stayed out of StarWars, if only for the fact that it is way too popular(debatable). However, I think that because people know that I have been building LOTR long before LEGO announced this, I feel that I can still have some credit left as being a creative thinker(not saying you SW guys aren't). My second nitpick with the license is that it will be replacing the history sets. For how often I get the history sets, I probably won't notice a change. But for the periodic few that I get, I will be missing them. This also depends on how good the LOTR sets will be. In my eyes, I can see them being exactly the same as the POTC sets-- which I am not a fan of. I don't know what to make of this boyos. The entire community is getting pretty excited about this, while I have some qualms. Time will tell, and I suppose the ultimate satisfaction will be in actual seeing the sets. Just my 2 cents as a loyal LOTR/castle builder -Blake