Key Points
- Place a minifigure or small brick in the space where you’re going to build to ensure there’s enough space for LEGO figures to walk through the castle.
- Use alternative bricks, such as taller bricks, to save on pieces when building the tower sections of your LEGO castle.
- Customize your LEGO castle with your own colors and design to make it unique and reflect your personal taste.
If you’re familiar with LEGO, you know that there are an insane number of ways you can connect the bricks to create an awesome build. There have been some truly weird and wonderful sets coming out of the LEGO HQ. While themed sets and vehicles are always on trend, architectural builds are popular too. Maybe you’ve tried your hand at building a house, but want to expand to something more fantastical. There are a lot of LEGO sets based around castles, but it can be a lot of fun to build one from scratch yourself. We’re going to go over a relatively simple example of how to build a LEGO castle here, referring to this great instructional video from Mr Walkington’s World YouTube channel.
The good thing about this is that, aside from the base plate, all you need are standard 2×4 and 2×2 bricks. We’ve provided the video below, a list of the pieces you need, and our tricks for making your build a success.
How to Build a LEGO Castle: The Pieces You Need
You can build a LEGO castle using many different methods, depending on your desired result. You could aim for realism, take inspiration from a real-life castle, or let your imagination run wild. Either way, the build in this video is a good jumping-off point. Once you have the basics of constructing the walls, towers, and gate down, you can customize the castle however you wish. To get started with this build, you’ll find all the bricks you need listed in the table below, along with their part IDs.
| Pieces Needed |
|---|
| 32×32 green baseplate (11023) |
| 369 2×4 bricks (3001) |
| 55 2×2 bricks (3003) |
- Includes 996 pieces in total
- Accessories include 2 shields, a treasure chest, and working battering ram
- Protect the King's throne
- Good for ages 7-12
How to Build a LEGO Castle: Useful Tips
Mr. Walkington gives a lot of useful pointers in his video, and it’s not too hard to follow along. This is especially true since the variety of bricks you need is kept to a minimum. As such, you can keep to this example, or add your own adjustments after you’ve finished the foundations. The beauty of LEGO is that the combinations are almost limitless. You can always swap out bricks as and when you wish to test out a different strategy. And remember, if you’re not happy with the result, all is not lost. You can easily adjust as you go, or start the project over completely. After all, the fun is mostly in the journey and not the destination!
Even though the tutorial is helpful, we can all use some extra guidance when building our LEGO projects. Take a look at our suggestions below to build a castle to be proud of.
Interlock Bricks to Build a Strong Foundation
One of the most important tricks when constructing anything architectural is to make sure the integrity of your walls is strong. The easiest way to do this is to overlap bricks as if you were building a real-life house. Instead of laying bricks directly on top of each other, you want to overlap the brick halfway along the bottom brick. This gives you an alternating brick structure, which adds a lot more strength to your build. If you follow this rule, your castle will be a lot more resistant to accidental nudges and movements.
Use a Minifigure or Brick to Visualize the Dimensions
Another great tip is to place a minifigure or small brick in the space where you’re going to build. For example, where the castle gate would be. Mr. Walkington does this in his video so that he can make sure there’s enough space for LEGO figures to comfortably walk through the castle.
- 1,500 total pieces
- LEGO set 10717
- Variety of colors
- Brick separator included
Use Alternative Bricks to Save on Pieces
It’s good that this build uses relatively simple bricks, but you may not have enough 2×4 pieces to complete it. In this case, you can use some taller bricks to build the tower sections. This will greatly minimize the number of bricks you need. You can also leave the back wall out if you’re limited on bricks or some gaps in the walls.
Customize Your Castle to Your Tastes
One of the best things about LEGO is that you can customize it however you wish. The tutorial uses fairly basic colors. But you can use any colors you like to build a castle that you love. Feel free to take some inspiration from some real-life examples as well, or castle-themed LEGO sets. Some builds are fairly complex, but they’re very impressive at the same time. Castles naturally lend themselves to fantasy settings, so let your creativity shine!
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock.com.
