Eero Okkonen built this dreamy scene for the Finnish LEGO club Palikkatakomo‘s summer building contest, themed “Finding, Discovering.” Featuring a lovely twisted tower and an underwater walker, the scene defies categorization into the conventions of “steampunk” or “dieselpunk.” Then again, the hats worn by the divers are rather hilariously twee.
You can read more of the backstory for this scene on Eero’s blog, Cyclopic Bricks.
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.
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.
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.
Jon Hall built five incredible planes this year. To commemorate that, he just posted this montage. Somehow we dropped the ball and only posted one of them here. That lapse has now been rectified. Here they are, all together in their breath-taking awesomeness.
Jon’s planes are truly works of art. So smooth, so seamless, so beautiful. He does paint some of them and uses custom stickers, which probably irritates somebody, somewhere. But he does it so well, I feel it just adds to the “realism” and makes the suspension of disbelief that much easier.
Crimson Storm
R-16 Vindicator
F49A Patriot
S-15 Vulture
He-98 Halberd
Oddly perhaps, one of the things I enjoyed most about the Maschinen Krieger models I built myself a couple years ago was not the hardsuits and vehicles themselves but the little bases I made to display them. Matthew Oh takes this to a whole new level with the highly detailed ruins with which he surrounds his SAFS “Wolverine” hardsuit.
Many LEGO builders take our inspiration for Ma.K models from the creations of plastic modelers both working with the original kits and scratch-building in the Ma.K universe inspired by nothing more than their imagination. The cross-section profile of Matthew’s LEGO diorama beautifully matches the aesthetic of what plastic modelers do, while retaining enough visible studs to ensure it’s abundantly evident that the model is built from LEGO. Oh, and that roof!
Probably the biggest hurdle when it comes to creating Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K) inspired builds with LEGO is the loss of the fine details. The amount of realism that real Ma.K modellers put in to their creations are second to none. But LEGO is a bit trickier medium to achieve gritty realism in. However, Andy Baumgart (D-Town Cracka) proves once again that going to a larger scale makes that much easier to achieve it.
Not only is this build incredibly detailed, the presentation and inclusion of the little girls just screams Ma.K. Much of the vibe of Maschinen Krieger dioramas is the juxtaposition of mechanical death machines and innocence.
Leave it to Pascal (Pasukaru76) to see Bioshock when someone says Ma.K. (a popular mecha style with a unique visual characteristics). This Big-Daddy inspired mech is uuber cool, and is even accompanied by a miniature mechanized Little Sister.
The stakes for SHIPtember just keep getting higher, as Stijn Oom sets the bar up another notch. His Hammerfall GunSHIP is an instant classic; a brutally utilitarian dropship in bulkhead grey, all screaming metal and monstrous engines.
Like all the best SHIPwrights, Stijn sucks you in with the initial enormity inherent to every SHIP, but it’s the details that count and the Hammerfall has those in spades. There are too many to list, so here’s a beauty shot of some of the best.
As if this build wasn’t cool enough, it was based on artwork by the frequently featured Pierre Fieschi. This sort of exchange of ideas between builders is, to me, one of the greatest parts of the FOL community.
Whether on our Facebook page, Twitter, or requests to each of our contributors individually, I’d guess that fully 99% of the LEGO Ideas projects we’re asked to throw our weight behind are not original ideas born of the project owner’s own imagination, built in LEGO with their own talent and skill. This is why we, along with many of our readers, were so excited about the LEGO Ideas Exo Suit — it’s a truly original design by a talented LEGO builder. We’d like to see more ideas like that succeed.
I’ve always said that Jon Hall is one of my favorite builders, and I’m happy to see that he’s posted one of his stellar sky-fi planes to LEGO Ideas.
The project already has over a thousand votes, which means it’s gaining a bit of momentum. Join me in supporting this great original idea and see if we can get it to 10,000 supporters.
(Thanks for making sure we saw this project, Curtis!)
Everything Jon Hall builds is blogworthy. But it’s not often that I run across one of his builds while looking for something to post and I have my breath taken away. The beautiful use of olive green, bulbous shape, and signature custom decals all combine for a strong impression.
legorobo:waka shares this awesome armored train carrying a squad of tough looking mecha. The train’s brutal lines and tank turrets evoke a dieselpunk style, with just the right amount of detail mixed in alongside the solid slab-like surfaces.
Once again Jon Hall proves that he is truly the master of building beautiful airplanes. He has only posted one photo so far, but I am looking forward to more shots of that gorgeous light-aqua coloured underside.
