Tag Archives: Aircraft

The Mil Mi-24 means business. Serious attack helicopter business!

If you see this hovering out your window chances are you’re in some deep trouble. It has a capacity for eight troops so you know things are about to get hairy. Thankfully for the rest of us, we can enjoy this LEGO replica built by Stefan Johannson from the relative comfort of our homes. Even as a LEGO model, this thing oozes menace! I particularly like the sag of the rotor blades. Initially introduced by the Soviet Airforce in 1972, this timeless gunship is currently being used by fifty-eight countries and has served in dozens of skirmishes, including the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stej123/52738396487/

This particular model is sporting Ukrainian colors so there is a high probability its real-life counterpart is defending its people and giving those invaders the business. Serious attack helicopter business! News reports cite that the resilient Ukrainian people have been successful in taking down Russian forces with pickled vegetable jars and farm equipment. I can only imagine what they can do with this.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stej123/52738916176/

An itsy-bitsy SR-71 Blackbird

Don’t let its size fool you! This teensy LEGO SR-71 Blackbird by Greyson is a mighty recon machine from the factories of Lockheed Martin. Even while working in a monochromatic palette, this plane still feels dynamic, a perfect recreation of its real-life kin. Each wedge plate feels perfectly placed, and the shaping on the fuselage is all the better for Greyson’s excellent use of the katana minifig accessory. I even like the shaping on its gray stand: a simple bit that only accentuates the clever design of the micro aircraft.

Baby Blackbird

A teeny-tiny Typhoon airstrike

LEGO builder Greyson proves you don’t need a metric crap-ton of bricks to build something neat. Here’s an adorable RAF Typhoon built from seemingly just over twenty parts. We salute you, Grayson!

Tiny Typhoon

A new fighter for a new age.

Devid VII delivers a devastating desert destroyer with this high-tech hover vehicle. The insectoid shape calls to mind the Dune ornithopters, but the markings suggest this is a future Earth military vehicle, rather than an otherworldly piece of technology. Wherever it originates from, Devid’s done an amazing job with not just the build, but the small vignette that supports it. Thanks to the angle of the ship and the dust cloud it’s kicking up, we can practically hear the hover engines as it speeds past us.

Aku MR-01

By desert, Biplane

Intrepid reader, I report from deep within the desert quarter where we find Robert4168 has revisited a classic LEGO theme to present Baron Von Barron’s Biplane. The stylistic flourishes that make 1998’s 5928 Bi-Wing Baron a classic set can be found here, recreated using new parts and techniques in this build. Robert has repurposed modern weapons to serve as the biplane’s machine guns, which work incredibly well, as does the textured desert landscape the Barron sails across! But what impresses this Adventurers fan the most is the trailing map and binoculars, just like the original box art!

5928: Bi-Wing Baron

It hasn’t helped the Baron find the Re-Gou Ruby though, I wonder what happened there…

Viper and Hornet revamped

Time flies. It has been 14 years since my LEGO aircraft were first featured on The Brothers Brick. Perhaps surprisingly, I still have most of the models I had back then. However, although I updated several of them over the years, my F-16 Fighting Falcon, commonly known as a Viper, and my F/A-18 Hornet were now really showing their age. My jet models usually have a retractable undercarriage and that takes up quite a bit of space. As a result, the fuselages on the old versions were about a stud too wide for their scale. So, my main goal was to make those narrower. This obviously requires major changes and, rather than updating the existing models once more, I decided to rebuild them from scratch.

Using curved parts, wedge plates, and various brackets that didn’t exist when I built the originals, I further improved their shape. Some things have stayed the same, though. Lately, I have built some studless models, but it is no secret that I do like studs on my models. To fit with my older models, these two still have them. And while the old versions may have been old, they had features that I liked, such as the design of the cockpit canopy on the F-16 and much of the design of the main landing gear on the Hornet, so I copied those. While I have become somewhat fatter as I have reached middle age, my models are now slimmer and far more elegant. And with these changes, they’re good to go for another decade.

Take flight with Crimson Squadron and build your own sky-fi aircraft

I’ve always been a fan of Sky-Fi aircraft. It’s a glorious retro-futuristic look, typified by the Xbox classic Crimson Skies, and the creations of LEGO builders such as Jon Hall and John Lamarck. To pull myself out of a recent bout of builder’s block, I set myself a challenge — to build a series of Sky-Fi aircraft, in a common colour scheme, with a similar overall style, but each design different. Crimson Squadron is what emerged over the next few weeks…

lego sky-fi plane

The first of the squadron’s aircraft to roll off the production line was this twin-engined beast — the Bulldog. It established the signature elements which sit across the rest of the fleet: the red and chequerboard livery, a whiff of a muscle car from the up-front intakes, a bubble canopy for a fun retro feel, and an overall super-condensed chunky chibi look. I was pleased with how the Bulldog turned out and immediately set to work once more.

See more of the Squadron and instructions to build your own

Pushing the envelope with the YF-22

I keep a few folders on my computer, as well as a paper folder, with pictures and drawings of possible future LEGO projects. That paper folder has held a three-view drawing of a USAF F-22 Raptor fighter for at least ten years now. The drawing included a few measurements, for how large it would be if I were to build it LEGO. The reason it was in its folder for so long is that I could never figure out how to actually build it. However, I am still learning new tricks. Furthermore, LEGO keeps coming up with elements that make previously impossible things possible.

Now, I didn’t actually build the F-22. Other people have done admirable jobs on that (notably Corvin Stichert and Lennart Cort). I wanted something different, so instead, I built the YF-22 prototype. This won the “Advanced Tactical Fighter” competition in 1991, to replace the USAF’s F-15 fighters. The F-22 Raptor is its production version. The jet’s design really pushed the envelope, with low observability (“stealth”) combined with high speed and high agility. And building it, I feel I pushed the envelope too.

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A LEGO Sopwith Camel fit for any museum display

Sometimes a LEGO creation comes along that is both well detailed and informative. Such as the case with this amazing 1/9.2 scale Sopwith Camel built by James Cherry. This mostly uncovered model is suitable enough to draw a crowd in any museum. The wingspan is 94cm (over 3 feet!). Even the greenery is interesting in the sense that we’ve never seen this used for grass before. It’s easy to assume from this photo that this model is merely a replica based on the 10266 Sopwith Camel set from 2012. However…

Lego Sopwith Camel F.1 Display

…click this link to see a comparison

This sci-fi craft leaves me feeling thunderstruck

One of the things I miss most now that I live in California is thunderstorms. Sure, we occasionally get a bit of rain. But it’s rare that that lightning flashes or the windows rattle from the vibrations of a thunderclap. And I always used to find that so soothing. So, if I had a chance to take to the skies in the ThunderGlide by builder Rubblemaker, I might never come down again. This craft channels the atmosphere’s own electrical power through its lightning rod to stay aloft as long as a storm is raging. Which is pretty rock and roll, when you think about it. What’s more, the use of ample pentagonal tiles on the wings and the tubing on either side of the cockpit call to mind the keys and pipes of an organ. Imagine flying through the rain in this bad boy with a little Iron Butterfly playing. Yeah, that’s the life for me…

ThunderGlide

Taking a dreamflight

Simplicity is often bold and striking, but in this LEGO aviation scene from Nikita Sukhodolov it also creates a dream-like feel. The little plane and the clouds are relatively simple designs, but the choice to go all-white and contrast against the bright blue backdrop makes for a strong composition. I love the way the monochrome models pull you out of the ordinary and up into that big blue sky. This is a great example of when less can most definitely be more.

LEGO dreamflight

Behold! The mighty C-130 Hercules

It’s big. It’s clean. And it’s a life-saving machine. This is builder Evan M‘s LEGO creation of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, as flown by the U.S. Air Force’s 75th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. Evan himself is a military veteran, having flown with the C-130 on several occasions. This particular aircraft performs services such as disaster relief, humanitarian operations, and medical evacuations near the Horn of Africa.

C-130J Super Hercules (5)

I don’t see a lot of official LEGO sets of actual airplanes, so it’s up to people like Evan to make sure they’re represented. From the pointed propeller tips to the near-perfection roundness of the fuselage, this aircraft stands out as a solid tribute to the C-130.

C-130J Super Hercules (3)