Asian Temple

I've always had a bit of fascination with Asian architecture, and I think it's a testament to the flexibility of the treehaus blocks that I've managed to find ways to use them to evoke a style that they weren't ever intended for. 

Quite some time back I worked on a pagoda style temple like this in minecraft which I really never finished.   But the study I put into it was helpful when I began experimenting with an Asian aesthetic using the treehaus blocks.

Before I worked on this big temple, I built a number of smaller structures as practice and was surprised at how nice they looked, and at the various techniques that could be used to build these types of buildings. 

I began building larger, and had a pretty good sized temple that was similar to the upper structure you see in this build.  That got me thinking even larger and I started seriously contemplating a full fledged pagoda temple, but it wasn't really until I figured out the way I wanted to do the roof that I decided to give it a serious attempt.

Had I known just how close I would come to using every one of those slope blocks in my collection, I might have thought twice before building it quite this large.  Luckily I had just enough.  If I'd had more I think the design might have looked a bit nicer with a couple more layers.  Still I think it turned out very nice over all. 

The third "story"  roof was actually the toughest because by that point I'd basically used up my whole supply of slope type blocks.  I struggled with this for awhile, and almost tore it all down but after thinking about it a few days and experimenting with some other block types I came up with something that turned out pretty good after all.  It's kind of a happy accident that the roof on each level has it's own style, had I had more blocks it may have been more uniform, but as it is I was forced to come up with some different techniques and the finished build is more interesting because of it. 

Another new feature I made use of in this build is the lights.  I was inspired to give this a try by some images of wood blocks I'd come across on Amazon.  The blocks themselves weren't really compatible with the blocks I build with, but the lighting made the models look really beautiful.  When it came time to photograph this temple, I decided to see what kind of lights I could find on the web.  What I came up with were some simple led lights that are primarily intended for putting inside balloons or paper lanterns for decorations at weddings and the like.  These were quite inexpensive and small enough to hide pretty easily inside the building.  The main thing was I didn't need to worry about wires, since the structure was already built and it would have been incredibly difficult to weave wired lights through it without knocking it over. 

Anker Stein in Sketchup

Set #6 as it's packed away for storage

I wanted to post some images and discuss my current block project.  I started on this a few weeks ago when I discovered a new type of construction block that's apparently been around since the 1870's.  Not wood or plastic but a type of synthetic stone.  These blocks, called Anker Stein, which translates to Anchor Stone in English, originated in Germany, and have gone through many revisions and iterations but they are still being manufactured using the same old methods.  I have yet to purchase any of these blocks as they're very expensive, but I was so enthralled with them that I immediately began constructing them with Sketchup, which is a free 3d modeling program I've used for years.

I've been working on this for the last couple weekends, and it turns out there is an absolutely huge number of block variations, which in this way makes it more like Lego than the Treehaus wood blocks that I've been building with the most of late.  With so many blocks to model, it took a long time just to get something I could start to build with.  I'm far from getting all the blocks available, but I have enough now that I've been able to build something nice.  The church that's pictured here is a plan that I found on the Anker website.  I think it turned out really well. 


Once I had it built (a time consuming process in itself) I've spent quite a lot of time tweaking the lighting and materials and experimenting with the various style settings that Sketchup provides so that I could get just the right look.  I think these renders look incredible, and are far better than some other cad-type drawings that are being used currently for displaying these models and for making building instructions.

Left side is a rendering with Sketchup, on the right side is Anker Cad

I don't know if this is something other fans of these excellent blocks will find useful, but I'll be interested to know what people think, and willing to share what I've managed to create.  Sketchup is an excellent program, but there's a lot to learn to become proficient with it, and it's not purpose built for making block castles as are the cad programs that have been used for this in the past (though from my research it looks as if those programs are hard to come by now and have issues). 

First post. New blog, old builds.

This is my first post, first time blogging.  This is a place I can share my various block-based creations, projects, and web discoveries related to one of my hobbies: building with blocks.  That includes actual physical blocks, and virtual blocks as well.  So basically anything from wood blocks to Lego to Minecraft.

Since I'm new to the whole blogging thing, this first post is sort of a practice run.  I'll use it to share a few pictures of some of my earlier wood block constructions.

Half Tower

That Half Tower was my first impressive wood block tower.  It blends Treehaus blocks with Blocksmith blocks.  Treehaus are more versatile, cheaper, and I own a lot more, but Blocksmith are more detailed and precision made.  Even though they aren't 100% compatible in size, I find they work well together, and the coloring differences are actually rather nice.

Rook Tower

  The Rook Tower was a bit of an experimental design, attempting to go away from the usual geometric shapes that towers tend to follow.  I like the staggered height use of the half-round blocks in the lower 1/4, giving it a cool pattern.  This photo doesn't show it but I also have a bit of a checker-board look at the base.

King's Landing

This one was a fun attempt to make a sprawling city.  I made use of many new techniques, especially for forming the various walls. 

Ghost Tower

Probably the tallest tower I will ever attempt.  The Ghost Tower made use of every block in my inventory (at that time).  I actually had to slide my dining room table once I realized it was going to hit the light.  Placing the top most blocks was very tricky.  What surprises me most about these large constructions is how durable they are.  It's cool to see how the interesting methods I come up with hold up as I continue to add more and more blocks.

Well that's enough for the first post.  I might go back and post more details and photos of these older builds at some point.