Tag Archives: Military

Tanks and fighter planes, dioramas of World War II battles, dreadnoughts and battleships — LEGO builders have an obvious fascination with the arms and armor of the military-industrial complex. Find all these LEGO weapons of mass destruction right here on The Brothers Brick.

Reminder: “Battle of Bricksburg” American Civil War display at BrickCon 2015

Each year except 2013 (we needed a break!), The Brothers Brick organizes a collaborative display at BrickCon in Seattle, the first weekend in October. We’ve mentioned this a few times and set up the official group on Flickr a while back, but with just under two months left until BrickCon, it’s time to share more details!

“Picket’s Charge” by Sean Edmison

After zombie outbreaks, space colonization, and time-traveling dinosaurs, “The Battle of Bricksburg” will be TBB’s first historically themed collaborative display. All TBB readers who attend BrickCon are welcome to participate. (Please note that we cannot accept drop-offs during the public hours on Saturday and Sunday.)

Following the custom sonic screwdrivers he made for ChronoCon last year, we’re incredibly grateful to Will Chapman from BrickArms for collaborating with us on a number of specially designed custom accessories for our display. Planned accessories (pending finalization) include:

Stackable cannonballs
Caplock musket
Cavalry saber

To start getting your minifigs properly equipped, you can pick up the BrickArms Caplock Musket from Brickmania (where you can also buy a really excellent M1857 cannon used by both sides during the war). Both US and Confederate flags are available from our friend Dave Ingraham over at Cape Madness (along with other cloth accessories, like great coats).

Even though we’re targeting a certain level of historical accuracy, the display isn’t trying to reproduce a specific battle or a specific location. To help make this a success for everyone, we’ve designed the layout so that it can be as large or as small as it needs to be, and can accommodate nearly whatever you build. Whether you bring just a few infantry, a squadron of cavalry, big hulking ironclads, houses for the town, or a full section of landscaping, we’ll do our best to incorporate your hard work.

Nevertheless, BrickCon organizers need to have a sense of how much space the display will need, so please register your MOC(s) — after you register yourself, of course! — and please also let us know in the Flickr group and/or here in the comments on this post.

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“Strength for Freedom” – the battleship USS Missouri

Dan Siskind has been designing a microscale USS Missouri, and he and his Brickmania crew have recently completed a full minifig-scale version that they’re hauling around the country to various events. I’m really looking forward to the micro-scale kit myself, but Eínon couldn’t wait, and built himself his own WW2-era “Mighty Mo.” It’s unusual to see ship models without a big block of bold red under the ship’s waterline. But the subtler dark blue with a range of gray hues suits the venerable and historic battleship — now a museum ship on display in Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i — rather nicely.

Defense of La Haye Sainte Farm at the Battle of Waterloo

Gary^The^Procrastinator captured a defining moment in the Battle of Waterloo in this scene depicting the defense of La Haye Sainte Farm where 400 British and German troops held against overwhelming waves of French forces. Check out more photos on Flickr and see this diorama in person as part of the Battle of Waterloo collaboration that will be on display at Brickfair Virginia in August.

VTOL is the future for beachheads

Here’s a smart-looking craft by Joe and Will Merzlak, a near-future vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) transport. Besides being packed with some really wonderful building techniques, the Merzlak brothers’ par excellance presentation skills are worth pointing out in their own right.
A really fantastic photo-editing job can make a great model like this really stand out. Of course, we realize that not everyone has the time, skills, or tools to make this happen, but remember: the presentation of your model is the only thing everyone else online will get to see. It’s worth spending some extra time to ensure good lighting and an interesting and relevant (or at least clean) background.

Avro Arrow

The Avro Arrow is steeped in Canadian History as it was once the leader in advanced aviation, and to this day is still regarded with special heart in many Canadians. So today as we were setting up for Canada’s largest LEGO convention, Brickfete, I spotted this amazing recreation of this fabled fighter by Bill Kernohan (CapitalBricks):

Usually known for his Starwars MaxiFigs, Bill’s use of stickers for both cockpit as well as the details on the wings shows that he can build just as well at minifig scale.

If you’re in Toronto this weekend, you can check out Bill’s MaxiFigs and his Avro Arrow, and a host of other builds this Saturday and Sunday at Brickfete.

The workhorses of the Commonwealth Navies

Julie Vandermeulen has recently completed a 1/38 scale model of HMCS Haida, the world’s last surviving Tribal class destroyer, which is currently a museum ship in Ontario. Its beautifully sculpted hull is an impressive 377 studs long and the model took 9 months to complete.

Between 1936 and the end of WW2 a grand total of 27 Tribal class ships were built for the Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and (British) Royal Navy. Many of these ships fought with distinction. In British service, in particular, they were used in a number of high-risk operations and consequently sustained heavy losses, with 12 out of 16 ships sunk. Most Canadian and Australian ships survived the war and continued to serve into the fifties and sixties. The model represents Haida as she appeared in the Korean War. Her sister ship, HMCS Iroquois, was even deployed in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tribal class destroyers may not be as well-known as the larger and more glamorous cruisers and battleships that served during WW2, but they were true workhorses. I very much appreciate seeing one of these fine ships in LEGO.

10-foot-long LEGO Model of 1930s Danish Ship MS Jutlandia

Some builds just put me at a loss for words, and this is one of them. The real MS Jutlandia was launched in 1934, and is an impressive 461 feet long. She started her life as a passenger vessel and served time during both WWII and the Korean War. She spent some time as a royal vessel, and was scrapped in 1965.

Arjan Oude Kotte (Konajra) has created this absolutely stunning minifig scale version of this lovely ship. This beautiful build ultimately took 11 months, with 5 months to design and 6 months to build. The ship itself is over 10 feet (3.25 meters) long, and stands nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) high. He estimates 90,000-100,000 pieces total, bringing this ship to life.

I encourage you to pour over the details in the flickr gallery, which includes some WIP photos.

Bricktrix will make you jump, jump

The history of aviation is littered with failed attempts at building an aircraft that can fly like a jet but take-off and land like a helicopter. One of the few successful exceptions is the British Harrier ‘jump jet’, recreated by Carl Greatrix (Bricktrix)

Key to the jet’s ability to take-off vertically is that its thrust can be vectored by rotating the four engine exhaust nozzles vertically down. These are present on the model, of course, and it is finished in Carl’s typical style, with finely crafted lines, a few custom working lighting elements and expert sticker work to recreate the camouflage pattern. The only thing missing, really, is that it can’t actually fly.

Hawker Sea Fury roams the skies

Put into service with the RAF in 1947, just after the close of WWII, the Hawker Sea Fury isn’t quite as well known as its older sibling, the Hawker Hurricane, but it went on to see service as a carrier-based fighter in the Korean War. Building good minifig-scale fighter aircraft is a notoriously tricky thing, particularly sculpting a decent looking cockpit. Maelven has done an admirable bit of work here, though, and this plane looks ready for action.

Merry Christmas from London, 1941

I have a personal tradition of watching a depressing movie on Christmas Eve; I find it has a nice effect of tempering the holiday festivities with some sobering reality.

Apparently Gabe Umland is similarly inclined. This depiction of London during the Blitz has some gorgeously detailed rubble, with just the right touch of Christmas spirit.

It’s a good weekend for tanks

Christmas is in the air, colored lights and holiday shoppers everywhere… It just makes me want to jump into a 60 ton tracked vehicle and go defend Poland. Forget nativity scenes; all I want for Christmas is a massive diorama of the North African Campaign.

Marin Stipkovic posts this beefy Eastern Bloc design, based on a 1948 prototype;

From the same time period but opposite weight class, Intense Potato shares this teensy M3 Stuart;

The East comes roaring back with Nick’s slightly futurized T-90;

But he runs headlong into Alex Zelov‘s Somers-style Abrams;

And finally, a blast from the past, Jeffrey Mille shares this adorably twee FT 17 from the Great War;

Warhammer 40K tank on a roll

In the spirit of that old Imperial saying, Victory is achieved through mettle. Glory is achieved through metal, comes this beast of a tank. The Vindicator will stop at nothing to crush its opponents, and flickr user Slnine has done a bang-up job with this LEGO version. While the builder is careful to point out that he took inspiration from some previous models, his version is still super cool and quite a feat.

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