Tag Archives: Airship

Sailing the skies aboard Luis’s other-worldly Volare Onerariis

Airships with houses on them are just plain fun — implying a life of endless adventure among the clouds. Luis Baixinho has created this delightful vessel for his own OutroMundo theme. I love the nets tying down the cargo, but my favorite detail is the tile roof of the cabin.

Volare Onerariis (1)

Luis has been creating the people, places, and vehicles of OutroMundo since 2004, so be sure to check out lots more good stuff on Flickr.

Evo’s steampunk airship Heracles slices through the clouds

This steampunk airship by Daniel García (Evo) may have the most unique shape I’ve seen in quite a while.

LEGO steampunk airship

As cool as the airships that look like, well, ships are, there’s nothing to say that they have to look like ocean-going vessels with propellors or balloons tacked on. With underslung cannons and a prow that goes on forever, Heracles looks like it was designed to ply the clouds (nice touch, by the way) of an unrealized steampunk past.

Rod has a blue cat

Steampunk master, Rod Gillies, just posted a very sleek airship, which he has christened The Blue Cat. I really like that hull design…

LEGO steampunk airship

Pirate steampunk airship Hermes

According to Daniel Garcia (Evo), the airship Hermes was the first to be built by the Royal Navy, but was promptly stolen by pirates.

LEGO steampunk airship

Most steampunk airships look like, well, flying ships, but Daniel’s ship has an unusual shape like an enormous flying catamaran.

The Pony Express goes airborne

Brent (thwaak) has built what looks like a flying submarine for the Pony Express. I love the sort of whimsy that can go into a steampunk creation, and this is a great example. It even has a periscope! The mix of colors on the hull is a nice touch too, it looks like a mix of wood and metal.

Brent's Airship

The Iron Guppy pacifies the unruly West

Victor Vitale takes steampunk into the Old West with this teeny tiny airship airboat piloted by a pair of U.S. cavalry soldiers.

High above the airships of the Deutsches Reich aboard Obenwolken

Linking to Jamie “Morgan19” Spencer‘s Brickshelf gallery in my last post, I realized that I’d never blogged his fighter/reconnaissance craft, the Obenwolken:

Obenwolken has a “state of the art onboard photographic recording system” to survey the steampunk battlefields of 1862, and is armed with a pair of repeating cannons. The always-excellent schematics reveal even more details (click for full resolution):

Spacey christmas presents – Thomas E. Dewey By Adrian Drake

Hey all! There have been a pretty good output of nice models during the holidays – in addition to spending time with family and friends, it seems people are taking the time to finish old projects. A good thing! Lets start by taking a look at Adrian Drake’s Thomas E. Dewey, the steam powered airship:

 Thomas E. Dewey

The Dewey has been under construction for a long time – the earliest pictures (depicting the starting construction of the hangar bay) came up on Adrian’s flickr in May 2006. Heck, the smaller crafts this beast carries were finished in April! With a unique, sculpted exterior and a deliciously detailed interior, this ship is nothing but a work of art.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s space! It’s castle! It’s steampunk!

Wow, I’m still here. I’m sorry I haven’t contributed for the last month or so. I blame my new part-time job, college classes, and brickfilms.com, roughly in that order. Anyway, to jumpstart my comeback, I’m going to invade Linus’ domain (please forgive me!) and feature this extremely cool airship by Felix Greco:

I especially like the use of the Jabba’s Sailbarge sails and the bubble canopies as magical air balloons. I only wish there were more pictures.

Dave DeGobbi’s Goliath Steampunk Airship

First, the video:

Dave DeGobbi of Burnaby, B.C., Canada attended NWBrickCon 2006 over this past weekend, and stole the show (well, at least the steampunk section) with his Goliath airship:

Naturally, the Goliath won the Best Steampunk prize for the show! Inspired by my favorite movie of all time, Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky, the airship includes many cool features:

  • Dual, counter-rotating props
  • Four vertical props
  • Dual, motorized bomb bays with a payload of sixteen bombs
  • Ten three-blade props
  • Steam engine with working crank shafts and light-up boiler fire
  • Two main air-to-surface artillary guns
  • Two anti-aircraft guns
  • Nine small turrets
  • Four tail guns
  • Dave says it took him about eighty hours to build, based on three years of parts collecting. The movement is powered by seven regular LEGO motors and one micro-motor. He estimates that Goliath includes over 7000 LEGO elements, which he spent more than $1000 CDN to purchase. (Multiple Yoda sets on clearance helped with the tan.)

    Those of you who transport large LEGO creations may also be interested to learn that Dave included a 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ x 4′ Brazilian cherry beam in the Goliath, which makes it strong enough to survive long trips. As an added bonus, it makes the airship strong enough to hang from the ceiling. Here’s a picture of the DUPLO cradle and straps he uses to secure the Goliath:

    Be sure to check out the full photoset on Flickr for lots of detailed shots. Dave’s awesome airship has been showing up in lots of Flickr photostreams, so you might see some new details in other people’s photos as well. Thanks for sharing this info and sending me the video, Dave!

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    The steamy world of Bartholomew Crank

    Still playing catch up. The often blogged Legohaulic has gone on a steampunk building spree lately. He has invented an inventor named Bartholomew Crank. First up is Crank’s personal airship, the Boistrous Maiden. Note the patchy balloon!

    And to his mailman, Mr. Basil, Bartholomew Crank built the aptly named Postal Gyro:

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    Nothin’ worse than havin’ your pigtails shot off!

    Inspired by anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Horace Cheng presents a great set of “flappters” with excellent minifig passengers:

    Horace has a fleet of four flappters, so be sure to check out the gallery to see them flying in formation!

    And here’s the crew of the air-pirate zeppelin Tigermoth (inspiration for all steampunk airships since):


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