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

The Fabulous Flanker

Way back in the eighties, I bought a book about Soviet combat aircraft that contained two grainy photographs of the Soviet Union’s latest air-superiority fighter: the Su-27, which received the NATO code-name Flanker. At the time, this was very exciting, because the Cold War hadn’t ended yet and very little was known about this fascinating aircraft. That changed only a few years later, when the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. Russian aircraft manufacturers could no longer rely on large orders from the Soviet Air Force and started offering their most advanced fighters, including the Flanker, to foreign customers. Because of this, an ever growing collection of different versions of the Flanker was regularly displayed at airshows all over the world, often in oddball camouflage schemes and performing jaw-dropping maneuvers.

Everblack, whose F-15 Strike Eagle was featured here earlier this year, has now built a nicely shaped scale model of one of the latest versions on offer, the Su-27SKM. It is a multi-role version of the basic single-seat fighter, intended for export customers. The particular jet he modeled is the demo aircraft used by the manufacturer. It carries an interesting combination of air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, which is used at airshows to demonstrate the aircraft’s versatility. My favorite feature is the camouflage, which is a faithful reproduction of the white, grey and black color scheme of the demonstrator.

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Brickfair Va 2013 Military highlights

Some of the great models that were on display at Brickfair Virginia have already been blogged here in the last few days. I haven’t posted much of anything recently myself, because I’ve been taking a vacation in the US and have been traveling around since before Brickfair. However, today I have a little time to share some of my favorites from the show. Since the models I took to the event were in the military theme, the military tables were more or less my home for the duration of the show and I’ll highlight some of the builds there for now.

The guys I hung out with the most, Matt Hacker, Evan Melick (Legosim), Corvin Stichert and Aleksander Stein, built a collection of military vehicles, mostly based on existing vehicles, with a few fictional near-future vehicles thrown in for good measure. The quantity was impressive, but it was the quality that impressed me the most. Almost all of the vehicles have working features, such as opening doors and hatches or suspension. Even though they were built by four different people, they all seemed to fit very well together.

As good as these were, the award for best military vehicle went to the M1070 Heavy Equipment Transporter built by Christopher Jenkins (Jenkballs), which is well deserved as far as I am concerned. I saw this model a few months ago and liked it then, although the photo wasn’t all that great. Seeing the vehicle with my own two eyes makes all the difference, however.

The M1070 is the standard heavy hauler for the US military and is used to transport M1 Abrams tanks, for instance. It is not the most common choice of subject, but I like trucks and have long been thinking about building one myself. This model is superbly done, with every detail painstakingly built out of tan elements.

Also on display was a collection of models from the Battle of Gettysburg. This famous Civil War battle took place 150 years ago this year. The ‘Defense of Little Round Top’ diorama, by Gary Brooks (Gary the Procrastinator), won the award in the ‘Best Historic’ category.

Little Round Top is a rocky hill South of Gettysburg. A counterattack by the defending 20th Maine Regiment against Confederate troops was a pivotal moment in the battle. There is nothing I don’t like about this diorama. It’s the sort of model where you keep noticing new things as you turn around it. The landscaping is fantastic. The hill looks muddy and slippery somehow and that is no small feat.

These were just some of the highlights at the show for me. I spent a lot of time meeting other builders and looking at their models. I still have dozens of photographs to go through and will highlight some of the other models that I saw in the next few weeks.

BrickFair Virginia 2013 this coming weekend

BrickCon may be the US convention that TBB is most closely affiliated with, but another big one is about to take place the coming weekend: BrickFair Virginia.

There are about a thousand builders registered, including a fair few people whose models you’ll have seen featured on this blog. Nannan had a great time there back in 2011 and BrickFair Va 2011 was the first US LEGO convention I attended. I had a blast. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it last year (or to any of the other US LEGO conventions so far), but I am back in Virginia for this year’s event. Dan will also be there. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the models and to meeting their builders.

The convention takes place at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly Va (near Washington DC) and is open to the public on Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th of August from 11am to 4pm. Online ticket sales end today. You can buy tickets at the venue, however, for the same price, but will probably have to wait in line for a while. If you are in the area, it will be a fantastic day out.

The P-61 Black Widow is a sinister beauty

If, like me, you’re into LEGO aircraft models, this week is off to a rocking start. Yesterday I had the pleasure of featuring mrutek’s P-51 Mustang; today I am happy to present the P-61 Black Widow by Sydag.

The first radars entered operational service prior to the Second World War, but during the war the equipment became sufficiently compact to be fitted to aircraft so that they could find targets at night. However, radars were still fairly bulky and interpreting their signals was a fine art. Some single-engined single-seat fighters were equipped with radars, but most night fighters were bigger twin-engined machines, with a dedicated radar-operator in addition to a pilot. The P-61 Black Widow was the US Army’s purpose-built night fighter, used during the latter part of WW2. It carried a gunner as its third crew-member.

Having built my own version of the P-61, I can really appreciate the shape of Sydag’s model. Our models are similarly sized, but because he has decided to forgo having space for a minifig crew, the fuselage on his model looks far more accurate and elegant. It’s sinister and beautiful at the same time.

This P-51D Mustang is ready to take on the Luftwaffe

I have come to admire mrutek for his models of some of the lesser-known aircraft of the Second World War, such as the A-20 Havoc and the Yakovlev Yak-1, but he has now turned his attention to a rather more famous aircraft: the P-51D Mustang. The P-51D combined a license-produced Merlin engine (famous for its use in the British Spitfire) with an airframe that could carry enough fuel to fly all the way from England to Berlin, escorting bombers. Nonetheless, the aircraft was sufficiently fast and agile to take on the best the Luftwaffe could throw at it. The P-51D was the first Mustang version with a bubble canopy, that offered excellent visibility to its pilot, and is an aviation classic.

The model carries very attractive markings similar to those of the USAAF’s 361st Fighter Group on D-Day, with its yellow nose and invasion stripes. It’s not all perfect, though. For instance, I think the nose is a bit too long and should curve upward more at the bottom (I have purposely chosen a picture where this isn’t obvious). I also think that the distance between the leading edge of the wing and the front of the canopy should be a bit bigger. I know that building WW2 fighters isn’t easy, however, and overall this is an instantaneously recognisable model with some very nifty techniques.

The wacky Popcorn Wagon

Those of you who read this blog regularly will have seen tricked out and wacky hot rods by Lino Martins (Lino Martins) before, but few rods are as tricked out, as wacky or as hot as his latest creation: the Popcorn Wagon.

He normally builds his own custom designs, but this is a model of a real-world show rod from the sixties. These things weren’t so much cars (nobody knows whether this one can even drive under its own power); they’re sculptures on wheels. There is something oddly ‘meta’ going on here. Show rods are almost like real-world versions of the sort of vehicles Lino normally builds, which themselves are a kind of sculpture with wheels. Gnarly!

Summertime in Italy

As part of an event in Ballabio, North of Milan, the Italian LEGO users group ItLUG held a Creator contest, which was won by Dario Minisini (oirad72) with this lovely cottage.

I’m not sure whether the combination of the shape, the red roof-tiles and the white walls triggered it, but when I saw this picture I was immediately reminded of Italy, even before I knew the back-story. Like many Creator sets, its construction may be relatively straightforward, but the colours, the proportions and level of detail make it work.

It is a Corner Cafe, but not as you know it

We don’t feature many modular buildings (or Cafe-Corner Compatible buildings, if you prefer) on this blog any more. After a while they all start to look a bit the same. A few weeks ago, however, I attended a Lowlug meeting and saw the very original models by Christiaan de Roo (aloisvonesterhazy), inspired by Amsterdam. My favourite in his collection is a somewhat older model called “Cafe het Hoekje”, which is Dutch and translates to Corner Cafe. It is built in the very attractive style typical of many 19th century buildings in city centres in the Netherlands, reminiscent of 17th century Dutch architecture.

One thing I don’t like about many modular buildings, including some of the sets, is their overly elaborate decoration in too many or odd colours. I prefer a more restrained look and Christiaan got that just right. There is a variation in the colour of the roof tiles, which adds some extra visual interest, but most of the building is plain brown with white accents. The building also has a full interior with some spectacular tile work on the ground floor. You can enjoy it in all its detail by checking out the full set on flickr.

You built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?

When first introduced, the DeLorean DMC-12 looked as though it came from the future. In reality, however, it turned out to be a disappointment. Its stainless steel body was impossible to keep clean, its fancy gull-wing doors leaked, its electronics were unreliable, the build quality was shoddy and its performance was lacklustre. It is no surprise then that DeLorean Motor Company went bust after a few years. Nonetheless, the Back to the Future Trilogy turned this sleek but hopeless clunker into a pop culture icon. In the words of Doc Emmett Brown: “The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?”

Back to the Future is a popular subject for LEGO builders, and we’ve featured a fair number of Back to the Future models here on The Brothers Brick. Now, thanks to LEGO CUUSOO, LEGO is getting in on the action too, with an official BTTF DeLorean scheduled for release soon. Like many of you, I’ve seen some of the preliminary pictures, and though I quite liked the original version on CUUSOO, I though it looked rather over-sized with the figures standing next to it. The size was chosen such that it could seat two minifigures side-by-side in a vehicle.

Since I am currently building cars from Eighties movies and TV shows anyway, seeing the preliminary picture of the set prompted me to have a go at building one myself. Since minifigures are oddly proportioned little characters and play value isn’t my priority, I decided not to bother with them, opting for a brick-built figure instead. I chose the flying version of the car that is introduced at the end of the first movie and was used during Part II.

I am not the only builder who was prompted to build a DeLorean by pictures of the forthcoming set — Larry Lars has finished his own. It is a rather different interpretation of this movie classic, but it looks the business. The model is slightly smaller than mine, which makes it about the same size as the CUUSOO version. In Larry’s words, it’s all about shapes and not so much about the details. He didn’t skimp on the details, though.

Larry and I realise that we don’t have to work with the same constraints as LEGO set designers. Our models would not work as a set; they use far too many parts, are too complicated and use a few illegal connections. Furthermore, mine doesn’t drive very well and the doors are very flimsy. I suspect this isn’t different for Larry’s model either. Inevitably, there’s something lost in translation between fan-designed models like ours and an official set. I’ll await definitive pictures of the set before making up my mind, but I hope LEGO haven’t turned a sleek design into a clunker.

Check back soon here on The Brothers Brick for coverage and a review of the official LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean.

Rolling through the woods in the Leopard 2A8

A forest may not be the most appropriate environment for a main battle tank, but the Leopard 2A8cE tank built by Corvin Stichert seems to feel right at home in the woods. The Leopard 2A8 is a fictional development of the real-world German Leopard 2, fitted with new armour and goodies such as IR signature reduction technology and an active protection system.

I like that Corvin sticks to technology that isn’t too far-fetched. For instance, active protection systems, intended to intercept incoming projectiles and missiles, have already entered operational service. I also like how, unlike many tanks people build and post, this one isn’t just dark grey.

July TBB Cover Photo Winners

This month I had the honour of selecting the cover photos for The Brothers Brick Twitter and Facebook accounts. Pictures for this need to meet somewhat different criteria than the stuff we usually blog. An attractive picture is much more important than the model itself.

That said, the model was what first attracted me to my choice for Facebook, the ATV-4 “Albert Einstein” by Stefan Schindler (Brainbikerider). I may not be into science-fiction models, but I do like real-world spacecraft. I have previously blogged the commercially developed Dragon, which serves as a resupply vessel for the International Space Station. The ATV-4 is its European counterpart, developed by the European Space Agency.

So, the model itself is interesting and already blogworthy in my book. What makes this a great picture for the Facebook banner is that it has the Earth as a backdrop. Even when cropped to fit the aspect ratio for the Facebook banner, it seems to have depth.

On Twitter, the photo has a lot of superimposed text and a TBB logo in the middle. Therefore, our choice should have a fairly large area in the middle where the text can go without getting lost against the background, and there should be interesting stuff towards the edges of the photograph. A nice picture of a model against a white background, which is fairly normal on this blog, simply does not hack it. By themselves, the models in the winning picture, by ROOK, would not have made TBB. They’re Brand Ribbon Sets built by members of ToroLUG for the Yorkdale Mall Lego Store Grand Opening in Toronto. The way they are arranged and their bright colours against the dark background, however, caught my eye and make it a great cover photo.

The ones chosen by Dan for June were a hard act to follow, but I think you’ll agree they look pretty. If you’re interested in the possibility of having your photo featured in same manner, upload it to our Flickr group.

Emergency Response Rescue Vessel Grampian Don

Arjan Oude Kotte (konajra) is one of those rare builders who only seem to build and post brilliant stuff and we have blogged most of it. His latest masterpiece is a minifig scale model (1/40) of an offshore support vessel, the ERRV Grampian Don, which is operated by the Craig Group based in Aberdeen, Scotland.

An ERRV is an Emergency Response Rescue Vessel, which is a type of ship that constantly patrols a zone around offshore installations, to ensure that other ships don’t stray into the zone, thereby preventing collisions, and in case of an emergency, to rescue platform crews and coordinate the response. Arjan started designing this model in November last year. It’s a proper SHIP, with a length of 125 cm (more than 4 ft) a height of 74 cm (more than 2 ft) and a width of 32 cm (about 1 ft). His ships seem to be getting more and more complicated. The wonderfully sculpted bulbous bow is a novelty and check out the angles on the bridge windows.

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