Details: This fantastic island resort layout was whipped up for LEGOWORLD 2011. Built in minifig scale with all the expected details - landscaping, docks, boats, interiors, waterfalls - you name it, it's there. You can't help but suspect most people didn't even notice the Jørgen and Kjeld minifigures inside - these rare minifigures are used by some LEGO employees like business cards and are highly collectible. Some of the furniture uses a technique with minifig hands and lever bases to make pieces that ordinarily wouldn't connect (such as coins or window panes) into perfect table tops. The stunning scope of this model distracts from such small details, though, and draws attention to the landscaping and water.
Details: This is a model of a Japanese ferry boat. You might not be able to tell from the thumbnail here, but the real boat's in the background of that photo. The ship is in minifig scale and features some nice on-deck detailing. The back has some open sections so you can see the cars it is carrying inside.
It looks like there's some more info on this graphic, but I can't read Japanese (my ability to pretend to speak all languages on the internet depends on text not being part of a graphic).
Details: This model of a Dutch farm is part of a display for an event hosted by the The Dutch Water Museum. They have a LEGO exhibit running through the end of the month. The photos above on flickr aren't from the builder of the windmill (Neverroads, whose windmill can be seen on Brickshelf), but they do show some more views of the layout (and to the best of my knowledge, McBricker created the rest of this layout). It's a great layout overall, but there are a few specific highlights I'd like to point out. Carefully positioned flex tubing gives this farm a trellis and water pump near a trough, staggered small elements give a very realistic texture to walls and roofs (those pigs in that photo are new for this year, and the tan fences are made from more flex tubing - placed in 1x1 Technic bricks), and the trees and landscaping came out looking fantastic.
2 Much Caffeine has so many things here that are working well that at first its easy to overlook the fact that this is a LEGO creation.
The scene is laid out well and the humor (or is it horror? ;D) is immediately evident.
The squid's eye stands out as a well done technique along with the whole scale of the tentacled beast. I like the minifig legs sticking up out of the water as well as the guys hanging on to the boat for dear life! 2 Much Caffeine has a nice use of white and green tiles to represent where the ripples are. Another technique that he's handled well here is angling the chest and box to get across the idea that these things are bobbing around in the ocean.
One last thing to note: it's not visible in this picture, but if you check out his other pics you'll see good use of a technique for finishing off the bottom of what is otherwise a flat boat. Very nice indeed!
Details: SlyOwl is a a fairly prolific builder who gets blogged a lot and for good reason. Here's one he posted at the end of February that I didn't see mentioned elsewhere—much to my surprise! Steam Battle is a good dose of LEGO steampunk with a lot going on without overdoing it, and a variety of excellent modern building techniques.
Here are three of my favorites in this MOC:
The Splashes You've got that boiler unit hitting the water front and center of the MOC and a gigantic clear cylinder dish representing the splash. A bit to the left is a smaller splash but a really cool "freeze-frame" effect like you often see in a photo of a drop of water taken at a very high speed.
SNOT Wake This is better visible from a slightly different angle, but you can see some of it here behind the smaller splash. The boat is moving in toward the dock at a decent clip, demonstrated by the use of white, light blue, and light bley built into the SNOT (Studs-Not-On-Top) base. You can also see SlyOwl's use of 1x1 clear cylinders here as bubbles.
The Floating Rock I've noticed a number of builders recently using this concept (e.g. Reejoc on his amazing interpretation of the Queen of Hearts' Castle from Alice in Wonderland). Let alone the excellent building techniques, I'm intrigued by the idea of a chunk of dirt or rock that defies gravity and is its own island in the sky, as it were.
Details: The RMS Olympic (a sister ship of the Titanic) has been rendered in microscale - with LED lights for nighttime viewing. I'm on my way out the door right now, but you can't wait on a ship like this. Trust me - check the photos and you'll be surprised to see clever uses for chains, robot arms, and a variety of other parts that generally have little to no use on a microscale ship. That's a ship for water, too - not a spaceship.
Details: It's a floating island. It's a gorgeously detailed water-themed model. It shows off studs-not-on-top techniques. It has some amazing rock work. That's before we get into the island on the top, the real details, and what this model is actually supposed to show. Sometimes the "wow" factor on a model just tunes out the model itself for a little while. The model itself is actually an excellent castle with a marketing area and a rich back story. Oh, and it's balanced on a completely original base in the most creative way possible. There are even gorgeous bits that look like they should be falling off, but they still work perfectly. I don't even want to know how long it took to get the center-of-mass stuff correct here - I suspect that a college Physics course was involved. I'm actually pretty happy that the photos are a little grainy, too - it proves that this really exists and wasn't just made in the gravity-free world of LEGO-themed CAD software. I should probably discuss the details here too - I particularly love the animals in this shot.
Details: Last time we featured JP Brown's work, we saw his Rubik's Cube Solver, which was conveniently hosted on his own site. This time though, LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT-themed blog TheNXTStep brings us his new aquatic robot. This robot has some non-LEGO parts that float (I don't know what they are, exactly, but I am pretty sure it's technically "cheating" some astute commenters filled me in - these are zeppelin parts from the Adventures line (which was out about 8 years ago)), but and the programming and the moving parts are all done with MINDSTORMS parts. You can even see it steer itself with different rowing patterns in the YouTube video:
This is controlled remotely via bluetooth with a .NET program - which means that this isn't completely autonomous, but I suspect that the programming has simplified it to the point where not much is done manually either.
Oh, and DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS, it's NOT SAFE to risk your NXT by putting it too close to the water. If you are going to try to create something like this yourself, make sure that you can test the non-electronic parts first in a smaller body of water (maybe a full sink or tub) so that you can make sure that the expensive electronic parts will be safe and dry.
This fantastic island resort layout was whipped up for LEGOWORLD 2011. Built in minifig scale with all the expected details - landscaping, docks, boats, interiors, waterfalls - you name it, it's there. You can't help but suspect most people didn't even notice the Jørgen and Kjeld minifigures inside - these rare minifigures are used by some LEGO employees like business cards and are highly collectible. Some of the furniture uses a technique with minifig hands and lever bases to make pieces that ordinarily wouldn't connect (such as coins or window panes) into perfect table tops. The stunning scope of this model distracts from such small details, though, and draws attention to the landscaping and water. 
-themed blog 
