Ed Diment finishes HMS Hood — in 20-foot-long minifig scale!
Personally, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time!
Ed Diment has completed his minfig-scale HMS Hood. Packed with incredible details, this is my favorite of the big ship builds, which have included the USS Harry S. Truman and the Titanic, among others.
The working derrick on the main mast is powered by a 9-volt system:
Here’s a close-up with a minifig, which gives you some sense of the massive scale of this ship:
The highly detailed superstructure is worth a closer look:
Ed built a full complement of boats to go along with Hood:
Even photographing a LEGO creation of this size is a challenge of its own:
Ed was also gracious enough to answer a few of our questions:
The Brothers Brick: How long did it take you to build it?
Ed Diment: 7 months.TBB: Does the curve stress the bricks?
Ed: No brick stress needed, it is all stepped plate and tile on its side.TBB: How many bricks did you use?
Ed: Just under 100,000.TBB: How much did it cost?
Ed: Difficult to say, some of the LEGO goes back 30 years, but if you were to buy all the brick new about $15,000.TBB: Where do you keep it?
Ed: In sections in my LEGO room. Nowhere in the house is big enough to display it.TBB: Are you going to keep it together?
Ed: I’ll be keeping it together for at least a couple of years. A couple of museums have expressed an interest, so perhaps longer.TBB: How much is motorized?
Ed: All four turrets are motorized with power functions for rotation and elevation. I’ll try and get some pictures on YouTube.
Thanks, Ed!
Check out Ed’s HMS Hood photoset on Flickr for 184 pictures — including work-in-progress shots that show how this amazing creation is constructed.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:43 am
It`s sick. Really sick :D
October 12th, 2008 at 9:58 am
7 months of progress looks so good. Congrats Ed!
October 12th, 2008 at 11:38 am
So very, very cool. This ranks right up there with Malle Hawking’s Truman.
(Added a few of my own favorite photos, Josh. ;-) )
October 12th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Oh my.
That is some dedication right there.
Painstaking detail!
Wow. Just wow.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Daaaaaaang. All I want now is to be able to play some COD on that. :D
October 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Fantastic work. Probably THE best Lego ship that’s ever been built.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I’ve enjoyed watching this come together. I can only imagine the investment in parts and time. It’s paid off though, and the completed creation is nothing short of epic.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
As an example of large scale building this is fantastic but with the high level of detail it really does stand out from the crowd. For example each of the small boats is a great model on its own.
October 12th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
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October 12th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Crimmeny jim-jam!!!!!!
October 13th, 2008 at 6:38 am
I hope he puts the instructions online… I’d buy that from LEGO factory!
October 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I was at Ed’s house when the final bricks were placed on this, and it’s every bit as good as it looks in the photos. The side-on tiles approach gives the hull a beautiful sculpted finish. It’s a stunning achievement and I hope he keeps it intact for a good while. Well done Ed!
October 14th, 2008 at 10:14 am
James: So is this basically a Lego mandala? Will Ed dismantle the thing at some point?!
October 14th, 2008 at 10:39 am
He just needs to watch out for that guy down the street making that Lego Bismarck….
October 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Battle Cruiser Operational.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Terrific stuff. I love the full set of ship’s boats and the sheer scale of the final vessel.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:49 am
yeah, but how well does it float?
October 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
It’s great that some museums are interested in displaying it. It’d be a shame, after all that time and energy went into making it, for such a cool model to never be appreciated by people in-person.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
That is truly amazing dude.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
With all due respect for Malle Hawking, his Harry S. Truman may be built out of a larger number of bricks and have a partial interior, but it is not nearly as accurate a representation of the real ship as Ed’s Hood.
I’ve been to Ed’s place on several occasions while he was building it and have seen the ship whilst he was building it. Still, this didn’t really prepare me for seeing the model on display at the Great Western Lego Show in Swindon in early October, where it was admired by more than 5000 visitors and about sixty Brickish members, myself included.
I agree that bringing it out for a show now and then and storing it in parts in between those events would be a shame. A more long-term display would be in order and it’s good to know museums are interested. If he wants my Swordfish to go with it, he can have it ;-)
October 14th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Absolutely impressive. I really enjoy scale replicas in LEGO. I would like to start building some larger buildings myself if I can find a good deal on bulk bricks. Keep up the great work!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I always wonder how people end up with enough usable legos. I have been collecting them for the last 24 years myself, my uncle gave me all of his, and whenever a friend’s kids outgrew them they would give them to me. Altogether, I probably have close to a million of them. But I do not have nearly enough of any usable colors and types to pull anything off like this. It boggles the mind.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:54 am
[...] which have included the USS Harry S. Truman and the Titanic, among others.The full story is here:http://www.brothers-brick.com/2008/10/12/hms-hood-is-finished/ Leave a comment Powered by LiveJournal.comAdvertisement Customize if (SnapShots) { [...]
October 15th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
[...] -too big to bring to school for show-and-tell, you’d have to bring the kids to the house to see this 20-foot-long warship [brothers-brick] [...]
October 18th, 2008 at 6:16 am
[...] Ed Diment finishes HMS Hood — in 20-foot-long minifig scale! | The Brothers Brick | LEGO Blog… [...]
October 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am
[...] can read more about it here on Brothers in Brick [...]
October 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
[...] gun turrets and it is so large that he has to store in sections because it wont fit in one room. [ Source [...]
October 26th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
As an ex R.N. Destroyer man I was real impressed with this amazing model. I hope it fairs better than the original. And Ed, as we say here in Australia “Good-on-yer-mate”.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:01 am
[...] all seen the super awesome Lego Aircraft carrier that was built to scale with the mini-figs, but have you seen the 20 foot long replica of the HMS Hood? Check this [...]
November 1st, 2008 at 12:39 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
where the hell do you get the time for this?!
November 11th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
^ He does it instead of playing Halo all day, week in, week out. ;-)
December 16th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
[...] Ed Diment finishes HMS Hood — in 20-foot-long minifig scale! [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 2:38 am
[...] Now take a closer look. [...]
April 10th, 2009 at 10:26 am
[...] a feat of LEGO naval engineering rivaled only by Malle Hawking’s USS Harry S Truman and Ed Diment’s HMS Hood, Jumpei Mitsui (JunLEGO) completed his World War II battleship Yamato today. digg_url = [...]