LEGO building with colour: The Ascent

Emil Lidé's latest LEGO build makes great use of colour, drawing the eye to the changing seasons along the path up a mountain The Ascent is a microscale landscape build that depicts the path up a mountain, with variations in climate as altitude increases. The build was inspired by a family vacation to Switzerland during which I had the chance to do some hiking around the beautiful mountains there. Though the change of seasons with altitude is rather exaggerated in this build for dramatic effect, this was something that I found very noticeable while ascending the Alps and that I thought would make for a great model.

I love building natural landscapes but while my builds have generally been quite flat, this was a chance for me to try building something with a sharper incline. One of the challenges I found was how to portray the inside of the mountain. I didn't want to have a big grey wall around the sides and the back as I felt it would unnecessarily detract from the natural flow of the build. My solution was the arch shape that can be seen in the pictures, which I think is much more in line with the organic nature of the build, though it may not be as realistic. [gallery columns="4" size="medium" ids="26911,26912,26913,26914"] The build features one new tree design, a larger tree made by ninja horns and flotation devices. This was a lot of fun to develop and although neither cheap or practical, it makes for a pretty organic look which is always what I strive for when creating LEGO trees. Signs of civilisation have been kept to a minimum, with a small fence at the bottom and a camping site at the top being the only man made elements in the build aside from the path itself. I had to hold myself back in this area. Usually I find that it is the small, discover-able details that makes a build interesting, but in this case I wanted nature to be the focus of the build, instead of something like a cottage in the forest. [gallery size="medium" ids="26915,26916,26917"] All in all I am quite happy with how it turned out. The arch is a bit of a logistic hassle as it can’t be subdivided, but it is manageable. I will likely build more mountainous terrains in the future. Check out more of Emil’s work on Flickr, where his handle is Full Plate. [gallery size="large" ids="26908,26910,26918"]