Jason from JK Brickworks never ceases to impress us with his animated skills of using motors and moving parts to bring a build to life. This time he’s got a Sopwith Camel and Fokker Dr.1 all tuned up and ready for an endless chase.
Tag Archives: Airplanes
Porco Rosso’s racing plane takes to the skies
We’ve featured half a dozen or so Savoia S.21 flying boat from Porco Rosso over the years, but it remains one of my favorite LEGO aircraft whenever I run across a new version. This latest incarnation of the racing plane from the 1992 Hayao Miyazaki film is brought to us by Volker Brodkorb. The airplane’s huge engine mounted forward of the cockpit makes this plane instantly recognizable, as do the striping on the angled wings.
Volker uses curved slopes attached studs out to achieve the sloping shape of the boat-plane’s hull, and the pop of yellow on the front of the propeller is a lovely touch.
Flying submarine – top gun of the sea
When it comes to building a great LEGO narrative, the right signature element can really set the scene. Take this delightful flying submarine scene by Yang Wang for example. The tall, skinny, chibi-style fuselage with that perfectly rounded canopy creates a unique and fun vehicle. The working tilt rotors make this airship/submersible complete.
See more detailed pics of this submersible after the jump
Is it a bird, a plane or a butterfly?
You would be forgiven for thinking that this was a huge LEGO butterfly. It certainly seems to have the key features of one; four wings, clubbed antennae and a segmented body. In fact, Milan Sekiz has called this beastie a Leption, the combination of the Serbian words ‘leptir’ meaning butterfly and ‘avion’ meaning airplane. I love those shapely wings, Milan must have used some LEGO mathematics to work out how best to fill their centres with decorative, coloured parts.
You will notice that there is a pilot at the helm, holding on to some handlebars – is he steering or just along for the ride?
Fans of butterflies may enjoy revisiting these two previous butterflies we have highlighted; a colourful glass-like butterfly and a larger, realistic butterfly.
A flying fortress of LEGO bricks
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft that played a key role for the Allies in World War II. When the prototype B-17 first flew in 1935, a reporter for the Seattle Times was watching and coined the name “Flying Fortress” with his comment, “Why, it’s a flying fortress!” The B-17 was mainly used in the strategic bombing campaign of World War II. PlaneBricks has built a fantastic LEGO version of this famous bomber, complete with the machine guns poking out of clear ‘blisters’ to allow bombardiers and gunners to visualise their targets.
See more images of this classic LEGO aircraft
Giant LEGO F4U Corsair
One of the latest and greatest propeller-driven aircraft of WW2 is surely the F4U Corsair. The American fighter is instantly recognizable with its inverted gull wing. Brought to life in LEGO by Patrick MAGO this monster of a model is built at a scale of roughly 1:10. It has a wingspan of 1 meter and weighs in at a hefty 6 kg (13 pounds).
It took Patrick approximately 10 months to build the model, and he had to redesign it no less than 3 times during the process to deal with the weight. Beyond the structure itself, a big challenge in such a build is the limited selection of dark blue parts available.
Check out the video to see the wings unfolding, and more details like the cockpit interior…
Microscale A-10 Warthog [Instructions]
For the enjoyment of his fellow military aviation buffs, builder ama77what has beautifully reverse-engineered this microscale A-10 “Warthog” fighter jet from a knock-off brand of building block, recreating it using bona-fide LEGO pieces and presenting it in the form of this handy single-page building guide. There really is nothing more to say here than go build it and SWOOOSH it!
Durable flying machine sweeps the skies
Gerald Cacas brings us a well-shaped LEGO version of the turboprop Fokker 50. There’s a lot of grey going on, but that’s because the build is modelled on the Royal Singapore Air Force version. This old warhorse of an aircraft is still in service with the RSAF in a Utility Transport and Maritime Patrol role. Aside from its realism, the muted tones of the model create an uncluttered feel, really showcasing the builder’s skill.
Nice innovative parts use with the claw element forming the six-bladed propeller on each side. Aviation fans will also notice the attempt to shape the cockpit window as close as possible to the real McCoy.
Wide-mouthed fighter will make you smile
A flying cement truck doesn’t sound like a great idea, yet Damien Labrousse has used LEGO’s concrete mixer parts to great effect in his Basking Shark Fighter. The gaping air intakes might grab your initial attention, but you’ll linger over the whip-smart colour scheme, and the wonderful angles of the rest of the fuselage.
The angular styling reminds me of the funky geometry of the fictional MiG-31 “Firefox”, from the Clint Eastwood movie of the same name, but it’s those massive engines which lend this little fighter a big character all of its own.
Harassing your local LEGO farm
Ciamosław Ciamek today brings us simple but very effective, with a small “Barnstomer” plane rudely flying low on a farmer’s land. Take a few seconds to look at this build. There are no complex techniques nor an overwhelming amount of parts — it’s just the right amount of bricks used in the right places.
What I also love about this build is the small scale of the plane. It’s absolutely minute, and there was some cheating done with the build. I assume the minifig head is just stuck on a brick, or one of the 2X2 driver’s bodies that have a minifig head peg. They were popular with the Drome Racers theme in the early 2000’s, and it’s a good way to simulate a full minifig in a small space. Also check out this alternate view, which shows off more of the plane.
Born to fly ...and submerge
Soviet engineers were people with great imagination. Of course, at that time they didn’t have access to LEGO bricks, but even today their peculiar projects look awesome in plastic. Polish builder Ciamosław Ciamek presents Ushakov’s Flying Submarine — a hybrid of a military airplane and a submarine. Not only does it sound cool, it also looks cool. It’s gray, cold and bizarre even for an ambitious Soviet project.
For bricks, they flew pretty good
Take a look into the brick-built airplane cockpit built by kosbrick. With carefully selected printed LEGO elements and clever use of minifigure paint rollers as the throttle and steering wheels, the scene looks authentic and ready for takeoff.
