We haven’t gotten a good medieval windmill since the release of the #7189 LEGO Castle Mill Village Raid in 2011 (pictured below), so I thought to share some of my favorite custom LEGO windmills built by LEGO fans. Windmills were (and in some places still are) an important part of daily life. They make it so much easier and faster to mill large quantities of grains. The windmill in the above-mentioned LEGO Castle set is a particularly interesting design, because the entire structure can rotate to face the wind. According to Wikipedia, this is called a post mill, and variations of it were used for centuries all over Europe. (As a side note, it is also worth mentioning that this is the only set ever released that included a goat. Besides the two goats in this set, this elusive LEGO animal was never seen again. The few that are available on the secondary market sell in the $30-$40 range.) Since LEGO decided to discontinue the entire castle/medieval line, let’s take a look at some great custom LEGO medieval windmills!
The medieval windmills below were built by LEGO fans César Soares, Peeters Kevin, and denil oh. They all have a round tower shape, built with advanced brickwork techniques. (You can click on the names to go to the builders’ gallery and see larger pictures).
Another batch of medieval windmills that I really like are by Sandro Damiano, Legonardo Davidy, Roanoke Handybuck, and Jonatan Svenning. The medieval setting, rustic design, and lots of details add great character to these windmills. Also notice all the different ways the windmill’s blades are made.
And here are a few examples of post mills that can rotate to face the wind by LEGO fans Atahlus, Ayrlego (note that this is actually a sugar mill in the middle of a sugarcane field), and Barney Main. Again, just click on the names to go to the builders’ gallery and see larger pictures.
And here is a traditional Dutch windmill with its characteristic shape and colors by LEGO fan Paul Nicholson.
And of course, as we are dealing with LEGO, windmills don’t always have to be realistic. Check out this steampunk-inspired windmill by LEGO fan Tommy M.
Windmills are a great addition to a LEGO diorama as it adds visual interest and even movement. There are many other LEGO windmills you can find at various LEGO forums, but I wanted to give you a taste of what’s possible. As you can see, you can use simple building techniques, or go all out with some very complex designs. I will leave you with one more windmill scene by LEGO fan Markus Rollbühler with a couple of children flying a kite.
What do you think? Have you ever built a LEGO windmill before? And how do you like the windmills featured here? Do you have a favorite? Are there any other LEGO windmills that you really like? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
Oh yeah…
The images unwind
like the circles that you find
in the windmills of your mind…
Pretty complex nature scenery there, as well, for most builds. Might go hand in hand.
Wow. These are beautiful! It’s so interesting how many ways the propeller things are implemented. (sorry, I’m not a windmill expert, I don’t know what they are called). The landscapes are beautiful too. Now I want to build a windmill!
So, what happened to the goat? Why didn’t they include it in other sets? It seems weird to create a mold for just one set. They should be having more farm animals anyway.
Oh, and the windmills are beautiful. I just got curious when you said the goat only came in one set.
This made me curious too. What happened to the goat?
As I mentioned in another comment, the mould got damaged. So, no more goat.
According to LEGO designer Mark Stafford, the mould got damaged, so the goat died. 🙁
That’s a shame about the goat. The windmills look amazing. Like someone else said, it makes me want to build classic castle again.
That has to be the lamest excuse ever. I’m pretty sure that over the last 60 years, the mold for the 2×4 brick got damaged and they just produced another one. When they did any series of bionicles/sizzler/constraction, they produced tons of new molds. They have the design, just get another one made – simple. And while you are at it, create more animals (I’m sure animal packs would sell very well: farm animals, wild animals, safari animals – all very desirable).
Yeah, theoretically. Playmobil seems to manage hundreds of different animal molds, though.
I collect Playmobil animals. They are super cute. But they don’t have and don’t need the same type of precision moulding as LEGO, so they are cheaper to produce. This is also the most likely reason we get tons of DUPLO animals, but not system LEGO.
Oh, I agree with you. We definitely need more animals, and I miss the goat! My guess is that they already knew LEGO Castle was going to be discontinued, and goats were not critical for any recent and upcoming themes. So, they didn’t bother recreating the mould. New moulds are expensive, so they only make them if they really pay for themselves. Goats were not mission critical.
One of the best features here is the rounded brick techniques and the rounded roofs. There is a lot to learn from those. I just wonder how stable some of these builds are.
Many of these techniques are quite stable. It’s part of the technique to make the final model look rickety and debilitated. There are a number of tutorials on how to make such walls and roofs. Here are a couple of instances where we discussed them in the past: http://thebrickblogger.com/2018/11/building-tutorials-lego-walls-landscapes/ and http://thebrickblogger.com/2017/08/lego-building-technique-lego-brick-walls/
I wish they would bring back the classic castle sets. Nexo Knights were too weird with the garish colors. We need classic knights and castles. Why did they discontinue them?
LEGO Castle was phased out when Lord of the Rings came in. They were too similar. Then, they tried to re-launch Classic Castle with Nexo Knights in the same way as they re-launched the classic ninjas with Ninjago. However, it didn’t work out. And now we have Harry Potter, which is also too close to LEGO Castle. So we probably won’t see any regular castle sets for a while. Or ever. Very sad, I know… 🙁
Some really beautiful windmills. Has anyone posted instructions or at least hints on how to build an of them?
Forgetting the windmills, many of the landscapes themselves are works of art.
If you are interested to build windmills, you could start out by building the official set on the first picture. Instructions are available on LEGO’s website. That should familiarize you with the construction. That windmill in itself is a nice construction. But if you want, you can start incorporating more advanced building techniques to refine it further.
Many of the builders featured here share at least partial instructions of some of the techniques they used. Just click on the blue link of their name to go to their gallery. Keep in mind that most of the techniques used in these models are very parts-heavy. Meaning, you will need hundreds, if not thousands, of small parts to build them. That’s why full building instructions for such models are rare.
I have collected some tutorials for wall building here: http://thebrickblogger.com/2018/11/building-tutorials-lego-walls-landscapes/ and here: http://thebrickblogger.com/2017/08/lego-building-technique-lego-brick-walls/
Back Room Builder also has some great tutorials on YouTube for intricate wall and landscape building: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuYx-XdC9VuNbyd2ls9vt-A/videos?disable_polymer=1
You can also get the #21310 LEGO Ideas Fishing Store. It uses a lot of advanced techniques that AFOLs tend to use. And the parts are the right color to make your own rustic windmill.
I have the 2011 Castle Mill Village raid set. I love it. I added it to my medieval village set. In fact I was thinking of the dwarf mining set, because i wanted to make more dwarves. In fact I’ve been thinking of pulling out all my medieval castle sets. It’s funny how you can get that ” I must pull out my old Lego theme ” itch and it’s hard to ignore. Lol!😀. The windmills look great.
Oh, so you are the proud owner of two of those rare goats! 😀
LEGO Castle is really the most beautiful theme, besides LEGO Elves. And you can easily combine them with fantasy sets like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc. It’s kind of like LEGO City. There is a lot you can add.
These are so amazing! I would love to have a whole medieval town with a castle, homes, small shops, grazing animals, and yes, a windmill.
I have thought about combining Lord of the Rings with the Castle / kingdom theme. What I may do is make the Lord of the Rings characters with matching fleshtones ( yellow face) like the rest of the castle/ kingdom theme. I already did it to Gandalf the gray and the hobbits are easy. The elves might be harder. However , I do have that 1 elf from the series 1 mystery bag. ( I think it’s from the first series?) As well as a female elf from a few series later. Now you got me going admin , it’s all your fault. Lol!
Who, me? 🙄
Seriously, great ideas. I have considered converting my elves into yellow skinned ones too, but then I decided against it. Elves had uniquely pale skin, so I figured the light flesh-tone of the LOTR sets represents that well, and make them stand out from the regular castle folks. Just something to consider. 🙂
Yeah, there only seems to be four different parts with yellow elf ears. For the LOTR and Elves sets, there are a bunch of different designs with various flesh ear colors…
I think these are all elf eared parts listed at Bricklink…
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/search.page?q=elf%20ears#T=P
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/search.page?q=elves%20ears#T=P
The proportions seem to be as follows, unless I’ve made a mistake.
Yellow ears – four parts
Light Flesh ears – fifteen parts
Medium Dark Flesh ears – five parts
“Exotic” colored ears – five parts
Ah, there’s at least one more Light Flesh ears part listed here.
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/search.page?q=pointed%20ears#T=P
It’s cool to see all the different ways windmills were made. I love this collection! Already bookmarked the page for further reference. Is there a place where I can see even more windmills?
I have a whole collection of windmills saved in this folder: https://www.flickr.com/photos/akunthita/galleries/72157625063656354/
I have really enjoyed reading this article with all the beautiful pictures. Thank you! I love this theme too and wish they would bring it back. I too have bookmarked this page to come back to when I am landscaping my winter village as there are many wonderful techniques to be inspired by!!
Thanks, Alison! 🙂