Château de Chenonceau shines in LEGO
In between competing in another Iron Builder competition and contributing to New Hashima, builder Gerrit Gottschalk (gGh0st) spent much of 2024 working on his microscale masterpiece — a model of Château de Chenonceau. The 16th-century French castle sits in the Loire Valley with its bridge and gallery crossing the river Cher. Gerrit’s model consists of about 6,600 LEGO elements and is 80 cm long.
Building in the Architecture style at this scale was a new adventure for Gerrit but you wouldn’t guess it from the end results. It’s a remarkable build filled with innovative parts usage and a high level of detail that remains virtually seamless.
Gerrit started with sketches, then moved to Studio in planning his ambitious model. He also looked to an earlier version from LEGO designer Aaron Newman which didn’t include the keep and is built at twice the scale, but helped Gerrit with proportions.
A standout section of Gerrit’s model is keep’s main tower with a ring of snowshoes, their points hidden in a 4×4 cone. Just as impressive is the smaller tower, which uses an inverted palm tree top in white for the short bars.
The the main building brings a plethora of new techniques. Gerrit paid special attention to ledges, balconies, and windowsills, using elements offset a fraction of a stud to add the right proportions. Nozzles along the rooftop create a seamless transition from white walls to slanted roof. The way Gerrit slightly recesses the bowls at the bottom of towers into the wall is just magic.
For the church, Gerrit uses transparent teeth as stain glassed windows. A minifig microphone doubles as a bell. More clever parts usage with the smaller towers with stud shooters stacked on their side, the gaps serving as windows.
The gallery is a bit more repetive per the original design, but still stunning in brick with Gerrit’s precisely protruding balconies a highlight. The pointed foundations under the balconies were the first part of the build Gerrit tackled.
With this amazing Architecture-style castle, Gerrit shows that there is no building style he can’t master. We’re excited to see what subject he tackles next!
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