NEXOGON: Swamp Shrine

For his fourth instalment in our parts festival using the new hexagonal LEGO® piece 27255, Duncan Lindbo (donutsftw) abandons space in favour of... a swamp!

For my next build, I decided to do something a bit different from my standard fare, and went with a fantasy build rather than something sci-fi. The result is this abandoned shrine/temple, hidden away deep in a swamp. Just what is that glowing macguffin inside? The Fountain of Youth? A magic energy crystal? I don't know, but it looked cool.

The temple is comprised of three main sections: the base, the temple, and the roof.

The base itself is fairly plain, but the plates around its edges allow for space to run wiring for LEDs underneath it.

The temple is also straight forward, the only really interesting feature of it is that it allows the roof to be rotated in 45 degree increments, so the ridges of the roof can either be centered over the arches, or aligned with the corners of the temple.

The roof is where things get complicated. Each face of the roof uses a single Nexogon at its core. Since Nexogons only come in Medium Stone Grey [TLG]/Light Bluish Gray [BL], I decided to go for a slate roof, heavily covered by moss and slime.

The ridges of the roof are offset by a half stud in each direction, thanks to a 2x2 jumper plate (Design ID 23893) at the bottom and a 2x6 plate with rounded corners (Design ID 18980) at the top. The whole thing is rather flimsy, until you've sandwiched all four ridges in place. The end result is a rooftop with an interesting mix of angles. To me, the basic roof design is generic enough that with a few details here and there, it can fit in a number of different settings. I can see myself using it in both Norse and Asian inspired builds.

There's a lot of ways to subtly tweak this design, so it's definitely one I'm going to keep experimenting with. That's the beauty of LEGO building!

READ MORE: See Duncan's rotating hexagonal hangar for microscale spaceships

Products mentioned in this post were kindly supplied by the LEGO Group. All content represents the opinions of New Elementary authors and not the LEGO Group.

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