LITTLE BUILD CLUBBUILD + PLAY

BUILD TOGETHER

Little whale

18 pieces · 12 steps

A curved blue back, wide flippers and a split tail turn a handful of pieces into a little whale.

Little whale - finished model
Before you build

Find the pieces

Match the shapes and quantities. The pictures show our colours. Use the pictured part and stud dimensions to find the same shape.

Count the studs

Studs are the round bumps on top. Count the lines of studs across and along a piece. When a step leaves a clear row or column, keep that space empty. Match the picture to keep the model facing the same way.

Follow the colour

New pieces keep their colour in each step. Earlier pieces are lighter so you can see what to add. The finished-model picture shows all the colours together.

Choose how to play

Choose one model and check its pieces first. Take it apart to reuse those pieces for another model. Pack-wide lists are optional planning tools; the exact-colour list follows the pictured palette.

Gather your pieces

Match the shapes and quantities. The pictures show our colours. Colour names in the steps refer to the pictures. Keep useful contrasts, such as a light belly against a dark body.

Shape-only checklist

Match these shapes and quantities. The full checklist above shows our pictured colours.

Build step by step

Step 1. Lay two white small plates side by side for the pale underside. Their long edges touch.

Little whale - step 1, new pieces in colour

Step 2. Put a blue small plate across each side for two flippers. Each overlaps one column of the body outline.

Little whale - step 2, new pieces in colour

Step 3. Join the underside and flippers with the blue base plate. Its rear edge lines up with the white plates.

Little whale - step 3, new pieces in colour

Step 4. Put a blue long brick on the table behind the body for the tail stem, centred across its width.

Little whale - step 4, new pieces in colour

Step 5. Join the stem to the body with a blue small plate running across their meeting edge.

Little whale - step 5, new pieces in colour

Step 6. Make the broad tail with two blue small plates turned across its end. Their inside columns meet over the stem.

Little whale - step 6, new pieces in colour

Step 7. Cap the tail join with a blue square. Keep the wide outer flukes flat.

Little whale - step 7, new pieces in colour

Step 8. Put two blue long bricks side by side on the middle of the body, starting two rows from its back edge.

Little whale - step 8, new pieces in colour

Step 9. Add a blue small plate across the rear two rows of the body to join the tail link to the body sides.

Little whale - step 9, new pieces in colour

Step 10. Put a white small plate across the front two rows for a pale mouth stripe.

Little whale - step 10, new pieces in colour

Step 11. Add two blue curves over the mouth stripe, with rounded ends facing forward.

Little whale - step 11, new pieces in colour

Step 12. Round the back with two blue double-curved bricks side by side above the middle body.

Little whale - step 12, new pieces in colour

Ready to play

  1. Draw a sea on paper and move the whale across it by hand.
  2. Find its two flippers, tail and pale mouth stripe.
  3. Tell a story about the whale coming up to say hello.
Sources and credits

Original model and instructions by Little Build Club. Piece geometry from the LDraw Parts Library.

Source and software notices · Image records

Revision: a4cc6624e6b7624438939a780221b51ab95e488f48333bfef85b6fc1de469adc