Tolkien's dark towers have long been a popular model for creative Lego builders to emulate (hell, Lego put a pretty decent one of their own out a few years ago) - but this brilliant micro-scaled model of Barad-dûr is made all the better by some inventive use of lighting to make it look even more fabulous.
Made by Ian Spacek for custom Lego contest, this Micro-scaled (a model built on a small scale usually using small 1x1 Lego pieces, instead of usual bricks) version of Sauron's home in Mordor is full of amazing textural detail, besides the fact that Ian also managed to rig the teeny model with enough lights to make Sauron's eye and the lava in the base glow - an impressive bit of engineering in a normal bit of Lego building, let alone on a smaller scale like with this tower. Here's a picture of the model when it's lit up:
What a beauty! My favourite bit is that the 'eye' itself isn't a custom creation, but a tiny piece made by Lego for one of their Lord of the Rings sets last year. That's a pretty clever bit of re-use right there. You can check out plenty of Ian's Lego creations on his Flickr page.
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