MOCsmith

Guides

Building techniques: SNOT, offsets and greebling

Sooner or later every builder wants an angle, a sideways face or a smooth surface that stacking bricks cannot give. These are the techniques MOC builders use most, with the parts that make them possible.

SNOT: studs not on top

SNOT means building sideways or upside down so that studs face out instead of up. It gives you smooth walls, sideways details and shapes that would look stepped if you stacked them. Parts with studs on their sides do the turning:

Sideways sections line up because of a simple ratio: five plates stacked are 16 mm tall, exactly the width of two studs. A brick on its side is 1.2 studs tall, so sideways building is measured in plates, never in bricks.

Half-stud offsets

The jumper plate (1 × 2 with one stud in the middle, part 3794 and its newer version 15573) shifts whatever sits on it by half a stud. Builders use it to centre a detail on an even-width model, such as a grille on a 6-wide car.

Angles and curves

Hinge plates and hinge bricks give adjustable angles; clips and bars let you attach parts at any angle around a bar. Ball joints are common in mechs and creatures. For curves, a run of slopes, curved slopes or wedge plates usually looks better than steps of plain bricks, and tiles hide the studs where a surface should look smooth.

Greebling

Greebling is surface detail made from small parts: grilles, levers, bars, clips and odd pieces arranged to look mechanical. The word comes from film model makers, and in LEGO® building it is most at home on spaceships and sci-fi bases. It works best in a limited palette so the detail reads as texture rather than noise.

“Illegal” connections

LEGO designer Jamie Berard used the word “illegal” in a 2006 presentation to describe connections that the company’s own set designers avoid, mainly because they stress the parts. Typical examples are a plate wedged between studs, parts that only stay together when bent, and connections that rely on a loose fit. Berard has since said “non-standard” would be a better word.

Fans can use any technique they like, and LEGO Ideas challenges allow them unless a challenge says otherwise. They just tend to wear parts out or fail in models that get moved and handled.

Keep learning

The best teachers are official sets and other builders’ models. In print, The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide by Allan Bedford (No Starch Press) is a long-standing introduction to scale, SNOT and sculpting with bricks.

New to designing your own models? Read how to build your first MOC.

More guides