Category Archives: Models

This is what we’re all about. We scour the web for the best custom LEGO models to share with you. From castles and spaceships to planes, trains, and automobiles, you’ll find the best LEGO creations from builders all over the world right here on The Brothers Brick.

Classic television star fighters get the LEGO treatment

Some of you might feel that there are contributors at The Brothers Brick who have an unhealthy and self-indulgent obsession with nostalgia for 70s and 80s pop culture. And that those should contributors be stopped. And you would be absolutely right, on both counts.

Unfortunately we cannot be stopped, so please enjoy this latest LEGO-themed slice of retro goodness from SPARKART, who put together this microscale collection of ships from the Glen Larson TV shows Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica. These look totally swooshable, and each one is instantly recognizable as I peer at it over the rims of my half-moon spectacles.

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“Hard Six” mech will hit your soft spot

The only thing better than alternate history is alternate history with big stompy mechs. Matt Rowntree must agree with me because his “prototype heavy walker, model 3, mark 3” (or “Hard Six” for short) certainly fits the bill as a Japanese war machine from 1949.

Be sure to check out Matt’s photostream for other shots including a really cool Jungle platform supply station and the fact that the nose features a sticker from LEGO set 7701 Grand Titan.

Big, black and beautiful: The Blacktron Behemoth

This huge Blacktron-themed tank by Adrian Drake measures a whopping 104 x 48 studs. Complete with a rotating turret and articulated corner treads, this LEGO tank is an absolute necessity for any Blacktron fleet worth its salt.

Adrian explained that his build was inspired by the artwork of DeviantArt user Duskie-06, but of course modified for LEGO building and tricked out in black with yellow trim and red transparent pieces in order to be a true Blacktron vehicle. According to Adrian, “The entire thing is basically a giant technic framework that, when I take the treads off, I can pick up and swoosh quite easily. It is, in reality, a SHIP with tank treads.”

If you’re looking to build a Blacktron Behemoth of your very own, be forewarned, to complete a tank like this you will need to spend countless man-hours in R&D and manufacturing. It took Adrian nearly two months to complete this build and that was even with the assistance of child labor: Adrian’s 9-year-old son designed the gun on the top of the turret and his 12-year-old son tirelessly mass-produced the tank’s treads. Without minions of your own, you’re looking at a much longer timeline before your tank rolls off the assembly line.

To see the up-close details of this build, be sure to check out more photos of Adrian’s massive Blacktron tank on Flickr. You can also see this tank in person at Brickworld Chicago or BrickFair DC.

Brick Ops

While I still actively buy and play with LEGO, Spy vs. Spy remains a part of my childhood exclusively. Due to import charges and weak local currencies I could never afford to buy Mad magazine, but the hours I spent hiding from store employees while I read Spy vs. Spy are etched into my memory. Andreas Weissenburg does the characters justice in this vignette. I don’t know what I love more, the little tank being driven by the white spy, or the fact that the black spy is wielding a brick separator! My money is on the black spy…

The heavens arrayed above the glassy cockpit

What a magnificent view the pilots of this stellar craft must get as they soar among the stars! Builder aido k says the spaceship was inspired by the sweeping curved windscreen from the UCS Slave I, and the wings from the Creator Blue Power Jet, but the marriage of the two brings forth this a sports car for the next century—a luxurious vehicle for the elite.

The cat is back! A LEGO 1/36 scale Grumman F-14

It has been thirty years since Top Gun hit the big screen, and the true star of the movie, the charismatic Grumman F-14 Tomcat, was retired from US Navy service almost ten years ago. I built my first LEGO Tomcat more than 20 years ago and I have kept making improvements, as I learned new tricks and as new parts became available. Usually the changes were fairly small, with the core of the model changing very little.

Ever since I completed my 1/22 scale model a few years ago, I’ve been eyeballing my three smaller 1/36 scale models, no longer liking what I saw. They looked very crude compared to the bigger model and they lacked a few essential features. The intakes on the Tomcat are cranked and the vertical tail fins are canted outward. These sort of things may not seem important, but they make a big difference to the look. Furthermore, the undercarriage never really worked properly, the nose was a bit long, the angles of the wings weren’t quite right and there were a host of other little things that could be improved. Of course, I had to avoid messing up the things I did like about the existing model, but small incremental changes weren’t going to hack it any more.

I started with a new model, albeit with the old one nearby for comparison purposes. The first jet I decided to rebuild has the famous skull and crossbones markings of Fighter Squadron 84 “Jolly Rogers”, like they had in the ‘seventies. I don’t care much for stealth fighters. My Tomcats are probably the closest thing I have to a signature build, which makes me proud to say that the cat is back!

A better proportioned Ultron

While we all love the iconic minifig, it does occasionally have its shortcomings. This was apparent in the Ultron minifigs from sets like The Avengers Quinjet City Chase or The Hulk Buster Smash. That version of Ultron was just too stubby and cute to be the monolithic, metallic machine that was the Ultron we saw in the movies. Luckily, takamichi irie does the character justice with this fan-made brick-built figure.

Fully transformable LEGO version of Sideswipe

Building LEGO versions of Transformers has always been a massive task from both the builder’s skill and the bricks’ limits. Joe Perez has already shown his mettle with a frankly unbelievable Soundwave, and now he’s gone and done Sideswipe too.

It goes from this:

To this:

In around nine steps which require nothing to be added or removed from the model. Impressive!

I’d rather be a pig than a fascist

One of my favorite Miyazaki characters is Porco Rosso, and we’ve seen many LEGO versions of Porco’s iconic red plane before. But this character portrait of the gruff pig himself, in all his metaphor and charm, is something special. It’s no surprise that it comes from the hand of Eero Okkonen, whose fantastic brick characters regularly grace our blog.

Check out some of the fantastic LEGO models of Porco’s red Sovoia S-21 we’ve featured, by Uspez Morbo, Mike Psiaki, Jon Hall, Sydag and Stephen 趙(Chao).

Burly LEGO mech is all set to ruin your day

Fateheart knocks it out of the park with this chunky and menacing LEGO mech. Often this kind of model can look too shiny and neat, but the mixed use of old and new gray here really adds to the sense of scale and creates a feeling that this bad boy has seen some real action.

LEGO mechs aren’t usually my thing, but I like the beefiness of this one, and its simple stark color scheme. Topping it all off is THAT gun. Lovely stuff.

Flying boats make a forest stop-off

Check out this fantastical scene from Brother Steven. We’ve got medieval-style treehouses, a brawl in a bustling marketplace, and a tethering tree for magical flying boats! Excellent work all round.

This model pulls of a difficult trick — creating a scene with fantasy elements which still manages to feel realistic. It’s well worth clicking through to the original image and zooming in to see all the lovely detail on display in the marketplace around the base of the trees.

Just dump it in a crater

It’s hard enough to live in space, thanks to cosmic radiation and lack of atmosphere. Why make things even tougher by leaving toxic waste laying around? Horcik Designs has a new vehicle called the HMT4 to handle all your hazardous material handling needs. It has treads aplenty to handle the roughest terrain, and it is adorned in the colors of Neo-Classic Space. The impressive density of details is only enhanced by some carefully chosen custom stickers. So cool!