Tag Archives: Damien Labrousse

Aerospace LEGO enthusiast nails hammerhead aircraft design

Capturing the subtle curves of an aircraft’s wings and fuselage in LEGO takes incredible skill. Seeing the lines in Damien Labrousse‘s “Shark Fighter” aircraft, one can’t help but sit up and take notice. The ever-so slight tapering from 6 studs wide at the cockpit to 10 at the rear is masterfully done. The wings and flaps are also top gun design. Damien based his model on a piece of concept art from E Wo Kaku Peter, and the results perfectly capture the inspiration’s silhouette, while making a few creative deviations that help the model shine in LEGO. In a fitting callback for this nautically named work, it shares the same registry number as the LEGO City Seaplane.

Shark Fighter

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.

Baskingshark

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.

Baskingshark

Classic space station high in the Martian sky

A mix of spindly spires, smooth curves and hard angles floats above a red planet. Considering that orange and blue are complimentary colors, I’m surprised you don’t see more classic space themed ships around Mars – luckily for us Damien Labrousse has an artistic eye.

Classic space controler 15

What I really appreciate about this build is that it looks just as striking from the bottom as from the top. Instead of having to skimp on style for adding a stand, Damien hung the model so that the lower antennas and towers could stay tastefully uneven.

Classic space controler 15

Vaygr Minelayer Corvette is almost cute

Many of the LEGO spaceships inspired by Homeworld are huge carriers and cruisers, but this Vaygr minelayer corvette and escort ships are no less excellent in their striped glory. Damien Labrousse has captured the classic Homeworld aesthetic of bold colors, harsh angles, and exposed machinery in a wonderfully compact scale. The red brick-built V shape on the side of the corvette is a particularly nice touch.

Vaygr Minelayer corvette

Fly the friendly skies

Synchronicity is a funny thing, and in a hobby where we have a limited palette of parts but a near-infinite number of possible builds, surprisingly rarely seen.

However, Cagerrin and Damien Labrousse both had a similar idea recently, which they executed in strikingly different ways.

Cagerrin’s Kyusu A9W1 is a riveted piece of dieselpunk Sky-Fi, with smoothly curved angles and a plethora of real-world detailing, such as the complex night-fighting radar array in front.

Kyusu A9W1 Sōden(躁電) "Jess"

While keeping the same basic structure, Damien’s Space Wulf 190 is a spinier space-worthy fighter, similarly clad in a retro vibe but this time harking back to 70’s scifi.

Space wulf 190

Both builders credit anime as a primary source of inspiration; Sky Crawlers for Cagerrin and Captain Harlock for Damien. The design archetype also shows up in Wings of Honneamise, as built by Mike Psiaki with this classic.

Drone 25

France’s Damien Labrousse (legodrome) makes his third appearance of 2013 on the big blog with a nifty mobile rocket launcher he calls “Drone 25“. The bright colors and general style reminds me of nnenn, which is never a bad thing.

Drone 25

CNES Jupiter Control Room

Damien Labrousse (AKA Legodrome just posted pictures of a piece he built for CNES, the French Space Agency. Two control rooms were built for display and include a working screen and sound system. I just love the clean lines of this build but my favorite detail has to be those adorable little rocket models next to the speaker. Awesome!

Jupiter Control Room