LUG Brasil was invited to display some Middle Earth LEGO at an Anime convention in Rio de Janeiro. Due to space constraints we had to combine Hobbit and LOTR in a single layout, which proved a bit challenging for the geography/chronology freak in me. Not sure whether to tag this as a MOD or a MOC, because the landscape is a MOC but most of the actual builds are MODs or even original sets.

Anyway, here is how it turned out. The left side is intended to represent the Battle of Five Armies from The Hobbit, while the right side is the Battle of Helm's Deep, from The Lord of The Rings. Bag End and the major characters' minifigs were also included upfront, just because people love them so much. This was a last-minute decision, but really helped attract people to our table and was probably the most photographed part of the layout.

Hobbit + LOTR @ Anime Wings by preuss, on Flickr

For the Hobbit side, I've built a mountain to better display the Dol Guldur sets - there are 2x 79014, 5x 79011, 2x 79001 and 1x 79015 scattered over there. In front of that, there is a Mirkwood Elf outpost made of 5x 79012 and 1x 79004 next to a mixed Lake Town / Dale made of 2x 79017, one 79013, one modded 79016 and the guards from 32x 30216. Some of the polybags' builds were modded into the little catapult boats. There's also a 79002 somewhere to help with the scenery.

On the LOTR side, there is a 9474 on steroids (I essentially increased the tower, raised the terrain and did some landscaping around it) 2x 9471 and the mandatory 10237, plus an extra Ent and half of a 9476. The Isengard area ended up looking pretty poor due to bad planning on my part - if only I hadn't left the rest of the 9474s at home, it would have looked much better.

Please let me know what you think. This was my first public LEGO display and I'd love to know how it could be improved. I've already learned a lot of DON'Ts while unsuccessfully trying to transport parts of this one to an out-of-state expo, so any tips to help moving big landscapes would be greatly appreciated as well.

Best,

Julio

I love this!

I`m personally building some displays with all the official sets, but I went the route of seperate `scenes` for the sets that went together.

With fully bricked baseplates and a smaller `total surface`, this makes it a tat more easy when it is going on the road later this year (or at least, those one or two that are completed by then)

These are some wip pictures, far from finished though as I need to complete the water, build up the ice and ruins still, and add detailing... but it stands nicely on the large plate, and fits a standard cabinet shelf that way

Love the layout, but I would have added a bit more dimension to the landscape, especially around Orthanc, to give it a bit more of that proper sunken in Isengard look.

But with the space you had available, it really looks amazing. Well done!

A great display "all in one".

If you want to follow owlbearsforall's idea, you can get yourself a lifetime project of enhancing the landscape by adding and adding and adding...

- if you feel like it.

Brick on!

I've added more pictures to the Flickr set. Here are my favorites:

Riders of Rohan by preuss, on Flickr

Lake Town Landing by preuss, on Flickr

Smaug by preuss, on Flickr

Gundabad Orcs by preuss, on Flickr

Brilliant work .

The way you integrated and expanded the offical sets in your diorama is just amazing.

Edited January 13, 201510 yr by Balbo