About Ralph

Ralph Savelsberg, also known as Mad physicist, is an actual physicist, but he's not all that mad. He has been building with LEGO ever since he could first put two bricks together. He primarily builds scale models of cars and aircraft. You can find most of Ralph's stuff on his flickr pages.

Posts by Ralph

Back in the thirties, racecars were beautiful

Yesterday, the Scuderia Ferrari racing team announced their new car for the 2014 Formula One season and it is hideous. It looks like a fat bloke sat on its nose. Of course, what looks right and what is right in terms of aerodynamics doesn’t necessarily match up. What also doesn’t help are stringent rules aimed at keeping the speed of the car down. There used to be a time when things were different though. Back in 1933, the shape of a racecar wasn’t yet determined using wind tunnels and computational fluid dynamics. There were also far fewer restrictions. Ferrari didn’t yet produce their own cars, but raced cars such as the Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza, recreated by bobalexander!. This car won the 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, with drivers Tazio Nuvolari and Raymond Sommer.

Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza (1933 spec)-Scuderia Ferrari

Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza (1933 spec)-Scuderia Ferrari

Just look at the fenders and the boat tail. I’m all the more impressed with this model because it was built in dark red. The number of different parts available in this colour is on the increase, but it is still a lot harder to work with than, say, regular red. The end result is truly gorgeous.

Friday Night Fights (Round 32)

We’re reaching for the skies tonight, with two models that on the one hand are very similar, but on the other could hardly be more different. Both represent a Liebherr LTM 11200 9.1, which is currently the world’s largest mobile crane.

In the red corner we find the heavyweight contestant: a 1/15.5-scale model by Huib van der Hart (liftingbricks). I blogged this last year, when it was still a work in progress. Its size imposed daunting technical challenges and, at the time, it couldn’t yet be erected. Now it can, however, and it is so big it’s intimidating.

Project Lego liebherr ltm 11200 9.1

In the blue corner, we find a minifig scale version by Maksymilian Majchrzak (MAKS). This is his largest model to date and at 2 kg and with a height of 70 cm, when fully extended, it’s not exactly tiny. In this competition, however, it’s the bantamweight. Despite its much smaller scale though, it looks very much like the real deal, is highly detailed and has many working functions.

Liebherr LTM 11200-9.1 (3)

In last week’s dragontastic installment, Stormbringer’s Skrill Showdown narrowly beat Jonas’ Smaug the Stupendous, with a final score of 8 to 7. It’s up to you this week, dear reader, to decide whether size matters.

Seventy-five LUGNuts challenges, can you believe it?

More than six years ago, Lino Martins (Lino M) and Nathan Proudlove (Proudlove) started a flickr group for LEGO car lovers called LUGNuts. Over the years they’ve managed to draw in many of the best-known car builders in the online LEGO community. They’ve also enlisted the help of Tim Inman (Rabidnovaracer), Peter Blackert (Lego911) and myself as moderators. I’m pretty sure that many LEGO-related flickr groups fizzle in far less than six years, but LUGNuts is still going strong. The vast majority of cars blogged here are built by LUGNuts members (and not just because I look at the group’s photo pool for things to blog). The group is kept interesting by the monthly LUGNuts challenges. For these, members build something according to a particular theme, which is usually thought out by Lino. He also gives the challenges a snazzy name. We usually don’t pick winners and there are no prizes; the fun is all about participating, being creative and building a vehicle that you perhaps wouldn’t ordinarily build. Here are the challenges and some of the vehicles built for them last year.

Freakin' Balls-Out Sweet 75th LUGNUts Challenge Extravaganza!

  1. ‘Mad Motor Skills’: Harley Davidson by Bricksonwheels
  2. ‘Toyota Tacoma Time’: Toyota Tacoma by Rolic
  3. ‘Behind the iron curtain’: Fiat 125P Kombi by Raphy
  4. ‘May the Force be with you’: Naboo carfighter by NKubate
  5. ‘A Baker’s dozen’: Claas Harvester by Lego911
  6. ‘Summer of 69’: Mustang GT350 by Aaden H
  7. ‘Redo and redemption’: VW Dragbus by Lino M
  8. ‘Super 70’s Sensation!’: Unimog by Nolnet
  9. ‘LUGNuts Sixth Anniversary ‘: Green Goblin truck by Rabidnovaracer
  10. ‘Take it to the next level’: Brütal Legend Deuce by Proudlove
  11. ‘Diorama-rama’: Hamm road roller by Mad physicist
  12. ‘Freakin’ Balls-Out Sweet 75th LUGNuts Challenge Extravaganza!’: ?

We’re now running the 75th challenge, can you believe it? Lino has imaginatively called it the Freakin’ Balls-Out Sweet LUGNuts 75th Challenge Extravaganza!. This one is special. Every participant builds a car assigned to them by one of the other members and there are prizes for the best three builds (judged by the admins/ moderators). To add some extra fun, there are also prizes for the best three suggestions. If you’re into LEGO cars and ever wanted to build for a LUGNuts challenge, now would be the time to do it! The challenge runs until the end of the month.

The Copperhead concept is one crazy crotch rocket

The Copperhead concept motorcycle by Lino Martins (Lino M) looks as though it is getting ready to kill. Lino himself call it his first steampunk creation, but I’m not so sure I agree. Yes, he has used copper and rust-coloured elements in the build, but it looks too futuristic and at the same time too plausible to be steampunk in my book.

Copperhead Steampunk Bike

I’m reminded of something else entirely. I used to watch the American Chopper TV-show, before I got fed up with all the drama, but I admire the artistry in the way they shaped metal to follow the particular theme of their builds. To me the Copperhead looks like the end result of American Chopper paying tribute to H.R. Giger.

DAF Dakar racer

Today is the start of this year’s Dakar rally. This off-road race, for trucks, cars and motorbikes used to run from Paris to Dakar in Senegal, but because of worsening security in Northern Africa is nowadays held in South-America. Back in 1985, a Dutch team led by Jan de Rooy finished second in the truck category. They raced a much modified DAF 3300 known as The Bull, recreated by Nanko Klein Paste (nkle). The model has a Technic chassis and is remote-controlled using Power Functions, to participate in Truck Trial competitions organised by Lowlug.

DAF 3300 by nkle on flickr

I don’t think I’m particularly prone to nationalism, except when it comes to my choice of beer and the sort of trucks I like. Forget your Scanias, Volvos or Kenworths; to me DAF trucks are king of the road. DAF has its home base in Eindhoven, in the south of the Netherlands, where I lived for more than ten years. I used to see trucks operated by De Rooy Transport haul DAF cabs through town on a regular basis.

Laurel and Hardy’s Tin Lizzy

Happy new year! As some of you may have noticed, we seem to be enjoying a bit of a holiday break at TBB and are not posting much of anything. I spent my holidays with relatives, a few hundred kilometers away from my LEGO.

Laurel and Hardy Ford Model T (2)

I wasn’t building, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about what to build. I realised that I could combine two existing ideas into one. In the last few months, I’ve been building a collection of vehicles from movies and TV shows and I’ve been wanting to build a Ford Model T, also known as Tin Lizzie, for several years, but I never got around to actually building one. Fords Model T were used in many different early Hollywood classics, but I mostly associate them with Laurel and Hardy. As a child, I loved their movies.

Classic Kenworth cab over

I am pretty sure that when most of you think about a large American truck, you imagine it being ornately decorated and having a long nose that sticks out in front of the cab. The type of truck with a flat front, known as a cab over, isn’t very common in the United States (with the exception of light trucks used in cities). In the seventies and eighties things were different, however. Many American truck manufacturers used to build cab over trucks, with the Kenworth K100 Aerodyne, represented by this great model by Maciej Drwięga, being a popular type.

Kenworth K100C VIT Aerodyne

Maciej is in the process of revamping many of his builds and this one isn’t brand new, but well worth having a closer look at. It has a detailed chassis and engine. The dark red colour and the striping give it an eighties look and it looks the part of a work truck. It does have the bells and whistles that you’d expect on an American truck, but without being overly flashy. I also like seeing some exposed studs on the top.

The Miura is a red raging bull

Italian tractor manufacturer Ferruccio Lamborghini was a man not to be messed with. When he complained to Enzo Ferrari (of the eponymous sports-car manufacturer) that the busted clutch on his Ferrari was the same one as he used on his company’s tractors and about poor service, Enzo Ferrari famously snubbed him by telling him that, as a tractor manufacturer, Lamborghini couldn’t know anything about sports cars. Lamborghini set out to prove him wrong, by starting a company to build the best Grand Tourer money could buy. He chose a raging bull as the company’s emblem.
Since then Lamborghini has become famous for its supercars and, according to the guys from Top Gear, is the maddest car company of them all. Senator Chinchilla has built an excellent model of one of the fist ones: the Miura Jota

Lamborghini Miura Jota

Unlike Ferrari, Lamborghini doesn’t have a racing history, focusing on road cars. The Miura Jota however, was a development of the road car intended for racing. This explains the particularly unadorned look of the car, when compared to the already very clean design of the ‘normal’ Miura. The car never took part in a race, however. In typical Lamborghini fashion it crashed and then burned to a cinder during a test drive.

Most of the car models we feature are basically detailed sculptures, with perhaps a few functions such as steering or opening doors. I don’t tend to blog pure Technic models. This is not because I don’t appreciate the skill involved in building them, but for me it’s about the aesthetic. I prefer the look of system builds. Senator Chinchilla’s Miura has a beautifully sculpted body, with opening doors and an opening clam-shell engine cover. Underneath the voluptuous curves lurks a Technic chassis with steering, working suspension, gearbox and a transversely mounted engine, like the real car. It combines the best of both worlds.

Thanks to Jack Marquez (Ewok in Disguise) for the suggestion.

Ho ho ho, getting ready for Christmas with Gary Davis

Santa’s house, built by Gary Davis (Bricksforbrains), shows preparations for Christmas in full swing, with the elves preparing toys to be delivered to delighted children all over the world. Santa may live in a rustic-looking cabin, but in Gary’s world his whole set-up looks like it could teach amazon a few lessons.

Santa's house1

The elves aren’t running around sorting packages by hand. That work is done by a Rube Goldberg-type contraption (or Heath Robinson, if you’re British) that sorts and packages them before delivering them to Santa’s sleigh. This operation is run by computer from ‘Mission control’ and Santa himself sits behind a desk communicating via his smart-phone. Gary is a big fan of Gerry Anderson’s work, including Thunderbirds, and I think it shows. Merry Christmas.

This hot rod is bigger than yours

It was inevitable, really. We’ve blogged hot rods and a full size LEGO car before and British LEGO-Technic enthusiast Simon Burfield built a working Lego vehicle large enough to carry a person a while ago (which we sadly neglected to blog at the time), but now there’s an actual full-size drivable LEGO hot rod, large enough to carry two people. This crazy contraption was built by Australian Steve Sammartino and Raul Oaida, from Romania.

About half a million bricks were used in the construction. The wheels aren’t made out of LEGO elements, obviously, and neither are a few of the other structural bits. The engine, however, is built with no fewer than 256 LEGO pneumatic pistons, which are powered by compressed air and can propel the car to a speed of about 20 km/h. According to Steve he is neither a car enthusiast nor a Lego enthusiast, which makes me wonder just how big things get if he is enthusiastic!

Via the BBC. Thanks to billyburg for the suggestion.

Step right up! to the LEGOLand Circus

There’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about the latest model built by Nick Barrett (TechnicNick), the LEGOLand circus. Before there were minifigs, LEGO already made the much larger maxifigs (although nobody called them that at the time). Their upper torsos and heads were specialised parts, but their bodies were brick-built. I had a few of these as a child and my sister had a much larger collection. Nick, who is a few years older than me, has combined these classic figures with modern parts and top-notch build techniques in this fantastic model.

Legoland Circus

Apparently I’m not alone in liking this, because Nick’s model won the 6th annual MocOlympics contest. Check out the details (and what happens after the fuze on the cannon is lit) on MOCPages.

Villa Amanzi is an amazing holiday-getaway

If Phuket in Thailand tickles your fancy and you’ve got some money to burn, perhaps Villa Amanzi is just the place to rent for your holiday.

Villa Amanzi

This spectacular model of the villa was built by Robert Turner (rt_bricks). It’s roughly half minifig scale, but still measures a respectable 96 studs x 64 studs x 61 bricks and has a detailed interior. The house is fantastic, but I particularly like the rock face and the tropical foliage above it. Robert’s description sounds as though it could be from a holiday brochure: “It features a 15 metre infinity pool overlooking the Andaman Sea, 6 bedrooms, and a contemporary modern design nestled into the edge of a ravine and up against an impressive rock face that penetrates into the house on multiple floors”