LEGO master Alice Finch has spent over 12 months piecing together an impressive model of the Hogwarts school of magic, from the Harry Potter movies, complete with decorated and populated interiors.

LEGO makes its own official Harry Potter sets, but they weren’t enough for master builder Alice Finch. While the mother of two understands why the Danish toy company makes sets that are only finished on one side and accessible on the back, she wanted to build her own version that was architecturally accurate with 4 walls and a roof, minifigs scale, and also playable for big and little hands. She had been to many of the places in Oxford were some of the movie scenes were shot, so she already knew what it should look like. Still, Alice did plenty of research for her LEGO Hogwarts: she consulted J.K. Rowling’s books, watched the blockbuster Harry Potter movies and even went to the Harry Potter studio tour in London to see the sets in person. Many times, the details in the books and those in the films didn’t coincide, so she had to choose what worked best. But, after 12 months of piecing together her monumental model from around 400,000 LEGO pieces, she had created every Harry Potter fan‘s dream – her very own Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

At last year’s BrickCon LEGO convention, Alice Finch took home both “People’s Choice” and “Best in Show” awards for her incredible replica of Hogwarts, but the official online unveiling of the 400,000-brick model took place just a few days ago. That’s because it took Alice five months to reassemble her masterpiece in the living room of her Seattle home, and post some decent photos on her Flickr page. Apart from building her very own piece of the Harry Potter universe, she wanted her two boys to be able to play in all the spaces where the story takes place, and now her eldest son is already staging his little adventures in this fantastic play set. Her other son is too young too read the books, but when he grows up, Alice plans on offering him the chance to experience the magic of Harry Potter in the comfort of his own home.

Although she doesn’t know exactly how much the LEGO Hogwarts cost to make, Alice says she ordered thousands of bricks and accessories from all over the world.

Photos © Alice Fitch

Source: Brothers-Brick