Lego Bellatrix Lestrange, escape from Azakaban photo frame MOC
Love her, or hate her, for the limited1 screen/story time she gets Bellatrix Lestrange, a character from Harry Potter novel, leaves quite an impression. In the movies she is beautifully portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. The most famous moment, which is also her introduction to the audience in the movie, is the escape from Azkaban (1996) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (chapter 20); the fifth movie in the series. So i decided to build a Lego MOC of that moment.
As Azkaban, a prison, is itself a rather boring building (a big triangular cylinder in the middle of the ocean) i went for photo frame diorama instead. This also helps to reduce the cost, and required storage space, significantly; also no more cleaning! I did not want to create a mosaic, fortunately Lego has a few Bellatrix Lestrange minifigs. Even
one specifically from when she resides in Azakan (correct clothing); perfect!2 It comes from the minifig series: Harry Potter, Series 2 (2020). Bellatrix Lestrange minifig (colhp2-12)
For the picture frame i’ve used
Ikea’s SANNAHED3 which is 25x25cm (in practice4 24x24 cm) and 5 Lego studs deep. I recommend the black variant for this MOC. Alternatively one can create the frame out of Lego. Ikea’s SANNAHED picture frame Source: ikea.com
Source material
The whole sequence takes less then 2 minutes in the movie and in the books it is not described at all, just stated that it happened. So these screenshots is all I’ve got to work with.
Escape from Azakaban in the movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
As the rumble is fairly hard to re-create accurately (properly scaled to the minifig) with Lego, i took quite some liberty in the design. Unfortunately the picture frame is only 5 studs deep, more would have been welcome to flesh out the depth of the scene but alas. That said overall the movie scene is very well suited for a picture frame.
Digital model
I’ve used Studio 2.0 (from BrickLink) to create the digital model as it works very well for my needs (and is free).
There is not much to say about the model, it does not use any rare parts and one can easily customized when lacking a particular brick (color/type). The only thing i was not able to fix are the stud underneath the letters (“Bellatrix Lestrange”). Fortunately it is not too distracting.
The minifigs are placeholder as the real ones are not available in Studio 2.0. The floating minfigs are dementors, and the center one is the Bellatrix Lestrange minifig mentioned earlier (colhp2-12). Dementor minifig (hp155)
Without further or do, the result
Back
Front1
Front2
Front3
Front4
Studio 2.0 digital model
| dimension | value |
|---|---|
| height | 24.2 cm |
| width | 24 cm |
| length | 4 cm |
| weight | 468.9 g |
| bricks | value |
|---|---|
| lots | 121 |
| brick count | 674 |
As one might have noticed, the model is 0.2 cm too high as the photo frame is only 24 cm. This is due to the stud on the chain at the top of the frame.
There are numerous options: one could damage the brick and file off the stud, damage the frame and “carve out” 2 mm where the stud is, push it in as is given the top will just bend (as it is not sturdy) or connect the chains underneath the top plate instead.
I recommend to just push it in.
Variants
To preference the “Azkaban” sign and dementors can be left out (do not forget to remove the 2x 4x1 plates as well). If so the black frame can optionally be left out entirely with exception of the small part of the right side to support the “floating” rocks.
Extensions
The model lends itself very well to be extended in a stand alone full fledged diorama/(big) vignette. This lifts the 5 stud depth constraint allowing for more details and freedom in the design.
FAQ
Is there a step by step build guide available?
No. I build based on the digital model therefore had no need to create a step by step guide.
Can i publish my own version based on your MOC?
Yes! Everything, i have the rights to, is licensed in the public domain. You can do anything you want with it! (see bottom of the page)
Part list
All bricks which are not visible have color “sky blue”, you can use any color you like for them. Please DO NOT buy them in sky blue since that color is expensive, fortunately most bricks are not even available is said color, protecting you form accidentally buying them.
Studio 2.0 does not contain all available bricks, especially minifigs. Therefore the following parts should be added manually: colhp2-12, 2x hp155. The following placeholder parts should be removed: 34316, 36036, 970c00, 973c00, 3626b.
(the part list can be exported directly to BrickLink through Studio 2.0)
Result
To make the dementors float use thin transparent wire (e.g. transparent fishing wire) around their neck and lower torso. The transparent wire can be attached to top using a 4x1 plate (included in the part list).
I did not build this model yet so i have no real-life pictures.
If you are a fan of photo frame builds see also the MOCs of beewiks.
across all moves she gets a total of 10 minutes 15 seconds of screen time, not a lot. Source IMDB. ↩︎
it is even the cheapest variant and its availability is good ↩︎
together with the RIBBA series two very popular choices for Lego builders! Especially to showcase minifigs. ↩︎
however the frame (27x27 cm) comes with padding (2x 1 cm) to keep the picture in place so in practice inside the padding an 24x24 cm area (which is the size of the window). This diorama could be build without the padding which would gain you 1 stud in width (and 1 brick in height but you lose the latter because the MOC must be lifted 1 stud from the bottom to be completely visible). See this post for more info. ↩︎
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- License: The text and content is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. All source code I wrote on this page is licensed under The Unlicense; do as you please, I'm not liable nor provide warranty.