Lord of the Rings 20,000 Piece Helm's Deep w/ 1,500 Figures- Inspired by Brickstruct

samiam391

It remains a work in progress, but I'm proud to say a significant portion of my Helm's Deep project has been completed and is now on display.

I owned the #9474 Helm's Deep model released by LEGO, but I always thought it was rather lackluster. Mid 2014, having completed Kevin's excellent Edoras model, I immediately hungered for another large LotR build. I soon discovered book 1 of Helm's Deep and decided to take the plunge. I excitedly purchased the parts and began building soon after. This portion of Helm's Deep stood alone for a long time.

After Kevin completed books 2 and 3 in 2015 and 2016 respectively I went ahead and purchased the parts from Bricklink and begin assembling what I could. Upon the release of book 4 (the wall) towards the end of 2017 I was finally able to put all my 9471 together to save a significant amount of the cost. I completed building Kevin's model sometime in December. For about a week after I added my own adjustments and tweaks to his excellent build. I'm currently taking a break with these adjustments, but plan to add more further down the line (I've also heard wind of a book 5!).

Since my purchase of book 1 3.5 years ago I have chased down every below market price Uruk Hai and Rohirim possible. Roughly 200-250 come from kind Bricksetters here. The remaining 1,250+ (mostly Uruk Hai) were bought in bulk off eBay in the Uruk-Hai Ballista polybag which surprisingly ended up being cheaper than buying just the figure. Rohirim were very difficult to acquire and were usually done so individually. Most of these came from kind Bricksetters, some off of eBay, Bricklink, and BrickOwl. 

I have no idea how many hours I've poured into this project, but I have no doubt it is likely 1-2 hundred, perhaps more.  It felt like it took over a hundred hours alone to readjust the figures that lost their balance on a stud-less platform (the nerve!). Each figure is specifically positioned to mimic the scene before the wall explosion. I drew a lot of inspiration from the movie, but wanted to stay more accurate to the book (be gone Halidir's elves!). I do have plans to eventually re-position for the scene at "first light on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East."

Final Counts (all approximations):
Pieces: 20,000- 16,130 in Kevin's build and a few thousand from what I've added.
Uruk Hai: 1,300
Rohirim Swordsmen: 75
Rohirm Archers: 89
Rohirm Villagers: 29
Kings: 2
Elves: 1
Dwarves: 1

Special thanks to Kevin for keeping his word and actually continuing with this project. I doubt I could have whipped up such an excellent rendition of Helm's Deep that he has been able to capture in his instructions.

If you have any questions that I haven't covered, please ask.

If you're a fan of this work, please make sure to check out Kevin's website. You'll find lots of excellent manuals, many  that go beyond the LotR universe. He's a great person.
http://www.brickstruct.com/Brickstruct.com/Welcome.html

Sorry, for the poor photo quality.

More photos will be added (and you can also see my progress over 3.5 years) on my flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/samiam391/
And Instagram: rarest_lego_minifigures

Thanks for looking! 

CCC

Wow. Your 100-200 hours estimate seems rather low to me. Especially if you include time for buying parts.

paul_merton

Opening all those polybags must have taken a while alone :D

TheFew

Hope you are handy with a duster!!

msanders

Incredible!!!

snowhitie

Love love love it. Job well done!

Thanos75

It's an honor to know that I helped with that troop count. Absolutely fantastic Sam. Great job.

Switchfoot55

Absolutely phenomenal work here! Very well done! 

Fizyx

Soooo... when is this Ideas set going to get released?  Day one purchase for sure!

For real though, that is super amazing.  Just the minifigs alone is amazing, especially considering they mostly came from polybags.  I can't even imagine opening that many polybags.  And then to top it off with that amazing build... I'm of the opinion that this may just eclipse that 6 ft Barad-dûr from several years ago that I used to use as my prime example of large scale LEGO LotR pieces.

the_creative_box

Wow. It looks super accurate, that is a lot Uruk-hais in there. It must have took ages to assemble the stronghold and gather all the figures. 

leego76

Great work, glad to see those figs gone to good use!

FowlerBricks

WOW!

SumoLego

What, no Glimmering Caves?  I think you're only half done.

Fantastic work - the army building was a feat all by itself.  Frankly, I wish I was move involved with the site a few years back when I could have secured sets and pieces for you.

KevBrickstruct

Hi Sam, Thanks so much for posting this thread...and I really appreciate the positive kind words regarding my design, and am super in awe too of how you've pushed it to the limit with the figs and additional creek and actions scenes.  I'm very happy to announce that yes, BOOK 5 ( the Glimmering CAVES ) is in progress.  With Dungeons and stables to boot!  So, you'll need to add one more section!  Ha!  Awesome!