Built in transparent blue over white and grey, the sparkling azure water in this scene by Sergeant Chipmunk looks incredibly inviting. The three watchtowers use fantastic color schemes and a not quite “legal” technique to create wonderful shapes, standing on rocks with nary a stud to be seen and dabs of color that bring life to the vibrant scene. But the stand-out feature for me is the organically curved sail made out of leaves.
Being unfamiliar with LEGO Ninjago universe, I had no idea that besides some majestic dragons the main characters also use traditional sailboats to travel around. Teen builder Robert4168 decided to recreate one from the Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu television show, and in my opinion it looks even more impressive than the dragons featured in the official sets.
Unlike most of the builds by designers from Billund, this ship looks truly solid, huge enough to fit a whole squadron of ninjas, and features some cool authentic sails. But the best part is the perfect use of long golden blades along its boards marking off the blue and brown areas. Topped off with an excellent red dragon head, this boat fits in with both the modern Ninjago adventures and the good old Ninja sets of late 90’s.
I’ll admit it: despite all the sci-fi that I build, my secret loves are castle and historical builds. Today Gabriel Thompson takes us out of medieval Europe, and heads north to Scandinavia and the land of the Vikings. The snow and ice in this scene are excellent, with undisturbed curves on the rocks, and studs in front of the hut to make it look a little more slushy after being stepped on. I’m also a fan of the marshy path left by the boat as it cuts through the thin ice. The only thing I don’t envy in this build are the minifigures’ short sleeves in such cold conditions.
Daniel Church takes a slick approach to future sea travel with this cool little skiff. My favorite part is how the wedge plates angling with one another make a striking visual motif that really brings this model together. The addition of the dock and particularly the style of the lamppost lend a bit of context to the craft and the world it inhabits.
The Volvo Ocean Race is a yacht race around the entire world. It is held every three years and generally takes approximately 9 months to complete. Each boat has a crew of 9, who race 24 hours a day for up to 20 days at a time, living off of freeze-dried food and raw courage. It isn’t a race for the weak or faint of heart.
This incredible LEGO model was built by Johan Sahlstrom, who works for Volvo, and Anders Christensen, who works for LEGO. After deciding to build a model of the Volvo Ocean Race boats, they chose Team SCA, the first all-female crew in over 10 years, because “Team SCA is definitely the coolest looking”, according to Sahlstrom.
The SCA boat is 2 1/2 meters long and 3 1/2 meters tall, using over 100,000 pieces. It includes fully functional halyards, winches, grinding pedestals and a canting keel. It is completely to scale, took over 1200 man-hours to build and uses no glue. Creating it was a quite the feat in and of itself!
Dane gives us a sweet triple play of great builds, with a bleak monochrome style perfectly suited to a dreary rainy Monday.
The unexpected star of the show is this twistedly twee whaling ship, chasing the last of the pygmy whales across the cold ocean.
On the other end of the grey spectrum is this sleek mech, a study in clean design and smooth lines, every inch exuding brutal intent.
It does seem like we’re obsessed with spacecraft today, so here’s a very different kind of vessel. Hoang Dang built this Vietnamese fishing boat to raise awareness of the complex political situation happening today in what westerners typically call the “East China Sea” (even the name of the geographic area is fraught with tension, thus my quotation marks). For a change, I’ll stay out of the politics, but Hoang’s LEGO model certainly deserves plenty of attention.
Hoang has built his model at the scale of the classic Technic figure, which gives him a bit more room to play with shapes and details than if he’d built it at the typical minifig scale. He captures the curves of the hull wonderfully, and details like the sea star on the Vietnamese flag, nets, fish in barrels, and lights all add realism. But my favorite aspect of this model is the color — it’s not often you see a bright blue boat built from LEGO!
And now for a SHIP of a different sort, a steam boat that never was by teen builder Stijn Oom (DutchLego) who makes his third appearance of 2013 on the Brothership. The hull has a very pleasing shape and the builder uses just the right amount of genre boilerplate with the brushed gold trim and wooden sections without things getting too out of hand. It’s great to see an engine that doesn’t seem woefully underpowered as so many Steampunk vehicles do. The string is a nice touch and so is the steam-pipe that curves around the side of the hull. My only gripe is with the stand, it sticks out in a bad way, but the rest of it is so well done that we’ll let it slide….this time…but you better watch yourself Stijn!
Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another rope-a-dope edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout features two maritime maestros dueling for the honor of Poseidon and of course, your voting pleasure. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:
Fighting out of the red corner, from the Land of the Rising Sun…”Dangerous” Dak yuki and his “Aegis Ship.”
And fighting out of the blue corner, from the digital side of the tracks, Matt “The Bomber” Bace and his “Mini Inland Ferry“.
As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the battle of the SHIPwrights, sky4walker disintegrated his opponent with a score of 7-4. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!
Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another no holds barred edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout is a struggle of military logistics featuring two young-guns of the hobby. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:
Fighting out of the red corner, from the great State of New York…Nathan (Ɲ.) and his Cowboy Beboats.
And fighting out of the blue corner, from Knuckleville Tennessee…Chris the Ironsniper and his Military Transport Unimog.
As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the so-called Mosaic Massacre, Tommy Williamson a.k.a. The Lompoc Lightning-bolt knocked out his opponent 5-1. Tune in next week for more action!
It is time to beat the heat, constant reader because the stupid sun has had it too good for too long. Inspired by a good friend who runs a dive-center in Thailand, TBB regular Alex Jones (Orion Pax) takes to the high seas with his latest build the Sunreef 100 TDS. The boat looks like something you’d see in a rap video, with scantily clad babes cavorting with gold-chain wearing shot-callers. Alex gives you unprecedented insider access to his build process with an extensive work-in-progress photos and commentary and it’s all available on his website Orion Pax Blog. This isn’t the first time the two pals have teamed up for some aquatic action, check out Alex’s tribute to Thailand’s Similan Islands.
Masahiro Yanagi builds wonderfully realistic vehicles and buildings, in addition to whimsical creations inspired by space and science fiction.
Recent updates to his Brickshelf gallery include a patrol craft for the Japan Coast Guard called Yukigumo:
Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It
