It takes time, patience, and skill to complete a massive, complicated LEGO set. But even master builders don’t have to worry about also making those little plastic pieces themselves. That’s why this video showing the construction of a realistic model castle is one of the most impressive builds we’ve ever seen. Not only is this giant display incredible, but it also features 30,000 individual foam bricks.
Martina and Hansi of the YouTube channel Nerdforge decided three years was enough time to forget how much labor and frustration went into making a custom model castle out of 2,500 single bricks. For this build, they decided to go really big. Much, much bigger, in fact. They designed a wall-fortified model castle out of a whopping 30,000 individual foam bricks.
To start they used foam and plaster to make a rocky base for their castle, which also features a nearby river. They also used cardboard to serve as the base for both the castle and its walls. With their structure outlined, Martina got to work cutting out bricks from thick, sturdy blue XPS foam. Fortunately, the pair learned from the mistakes of their last build (which still led to an incredible little castle). This time they came up with a much easier system of gluing each piece to the cardboard. And considering this model used 12 times as many bricks, it’s a good thing they did. Otherwise, we might not be telling you about this until 2025.
A lot more went into this replica than just some foam and glue, though. They relied on tools as simple as a wad of aluminum foil, which gave the bricks a realistic texture. They also used a mod podge acrylic paint on water for the model castle’s foundation along with lots of resin. All before giving the castle a weathered white-ish paint job.
The end result speaks for itself. This looks like a real place you could visit. But the real joy of this video is watching the impressive process. It’s one thing to snap a bunch of little pre-made bricks together. It’s quite another to construct all those bricks yourself.