Tristan made this beautiful scene as a tribute to two friends who recently passed away. I was struck by the realism of the sun’s burning disk and the great use of forced perspective, and I think it makes a lovely memorial.
Tag Archives: Microscale
Massive 5-foot LEGO model of USS Kitty Hawk
This 1:200 scale model of the USS Kitty Hawk isn’t the first large-scale LEGO ship model Matt Bace has built, but it just might be his best yet. While his model of the USS Missouri is impressive at over 4 feet in length, the Kitty Hawk dwarfs it, coming at 5 feet, 3 inches long, and boasts an astonishing complement of aircraft, with over 40 helicopters, fighter jets, and support aircraft adorning its flight deck. This model was built digitally, but anyone who doubts the skill and time required by a model like this has clearly never built a large, detailed digital model.
Spacefair Fleet Week & Rancorbait Galactic Celebration
It’s Seafair Fleet Week here in Seattle, and the annual “Parade of Ships” went past my downtown office window this afternoon. Inspired by all those big boats on Elliott Bay, I went looking for a nice set of cool LEGO ships, and quickly found these beauties by Rancorbait.
First up, the “Nova” Medium Assault Cruiser incorporates great brick-built striping and a sporty red fin.
The “Eclipse” Heavy Assault Cruiser is very obviously part of the same fleet, with a consistent design aesthetic, though the Eclipse is a bit larger and has significantly more greebles. The bridge overhanging the white section is an excellent touch.
Finally, though it’s a different scale and certainly isn’t part of the same fleet, I can’t help but love this big red “Warthog” gunship. There are just so many non-right angles all over this thing!
Under the watchful eye of the Moai
Contrary to what many casual observers may think, building small is the true challenge for a skilled LEGO builder. Letranger Absurde (aka vitroleum) shows he’s up to that challenge, though, with this wonderfully tiny Rapa Nui replete with Moai overseeing the arrival of a European sailing vessel.
The Moai themselves are the “Nice Parts Usage” standout in this little creation, using the new blaster guns as the famous stone statues.
Microscale Jurassic Park
Maybe a T. rex chasing after you won’t be as scary if it’s only 2 inches tall. That’s what’s going on in Sami Mustonen‘s mini Jurassic Park. The rendering of the models look so real you probably didn’t think it was all digital Lego.
Massive LEGO StarCraft display has more pylons than you’ll ever need
Gaming fans, get ready to reattach your socks once you’ve marveled at this 14 foot long microscale LEGO StarCraft diorama, unveiled at Brickworld Chicago last week:
Whether you identify as Protoss, Terran or Zerg, there is so much detail to enjoy in this monstrous display, built over the course of 3 years by 9 builders in 4 different countries. How many bricks were used? We don’t know – the team lost count! I’m guessing “quite a lot”.
Huge props to the amazing team of Cecilie Fritzvold, Tim Schwalfenburg, Matt De Lanoy, Chris Perron, John Moffat, Bart De Dobbelaer, Sean and Steph Mayo and our very own Simon Liu. And rumor has it parts of this epic layout may be appearing at other LEGO fan conventions in the not-too-distant future.
Meanwhile, check out their cool fly-through video, or pore over dozens of closeup images of the layout and it’s many individual units on their Flickr group:
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School masterpiece in LEGO
The post title says it all, both the original design by Frank Lloyd Wright and this LEGO model by Jameson Gagnepain (Jameson42) are absolute masterpieces. I’m no expert on architecture, but according to the builder, this building is called “Wingspread” and was built in 1937. Jameson has captured not just the architecture of the building, but also the surrounding landscape, and even a period appropriate little car. Make sure you check out the entire gallery, to see all the details!
And the Blips have it
Some time ago, Peter Reid inflicted the cutest little robots on the universe and things have never been the same. Christened “Blips”, they have covered the galaxy in a widespread epidemic of love, hate and rampant insomnia. This picture is a collection of their vehicles and it’s a thing of beauty. I could see this as a poster on the wall in my LEGO room. Hmmmm.
Okole maluna and hipahipa!
After a long day of microscale bustling about, I imagine the residents of any micropolis diorama would enjoy unwinding in this unashamedly wooden 60’s Tiki restaurant by eyescream54:
Denmark, the land of LEGO, in LEGO, featuring LEGOLAND
Danish builder Lasse Vestergård has created this gigantic microscale map of Denmark, featuring tiny versions of many of its landmarks. Not as much Viking stuff as I’d expected – but they sure have a lot of cathedrals! And of course, LEGOLAND Billund is in there too – can you locate it?
Check out the entire album for closeups and explanations of all the landmarks, including Roskilde Cathedral, which Lasse has created in LEGO before…
Bizarre brick beasts from beyond: Cthulhu and the Mammoth
Flickr user Letranger Absurde has been churning out brilliant beasties for Iron Builder, and his two newest creations are awesome. First up, there’s this insanity-inducing Cthulhu crouching over a greyscale cityscape, ready to unleash his indescribable horror upon the helpless denizens.
Next is a creature of eons past, that great wooly beast of the north, the Mammoth. The remains of which are still occasionally discovered intact, Mammoths ranged our planet during the last Ice Age, and while likely no more aggressive than modern pachyderms, would have been terrifying nonetheless for their enormity. This example, however, ranges more to the cute end of the spectrum, with large docile eyes and derpy stare.
The Aurora Australis icebreaker chugs to Antarctica
We know and love Australian builder Shannon Sproule here on TBB for his many realistic and retro-futuristic space creations, but he also demonstrates once again (following his amazing Sulaco) that he’s quite an accomplished microscale builder. The Aurora Australis is an icebreaker frequently used by the Australian Antarctic Division for research.
Shannon uses quite a few interesting parts in his build, particularly the car doors on the bow. My eye was immediately drawn to the little orange piece with holes in it, which makes a perfect lifeboat, but Shannon informs me that it’s a Kre-O piece from a Transformers kit — making this a “mixed media” model.