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.

Mini Me?

Working in a theme requires walking a fine line. Repetition of forms and thematic elements is necessary to tie all the creations together, but it’s easy to go overboard and be duplicative. I’m not sure whether I found the right balance with my new tank or not. You can see it below with its big brother.

When I started building this little thing, I intended it to be a comically tiny scout tank, like this. As I worked on it, though, it became clear that this would be too small that it would be too absurd even for this theme. I changed the tank to a remote tank, and that seems to work OK, even if it is a cop-out.

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Building decay

For those builders of post-apoc, military, or realist city, here’s a technique shown on a creation by Marin Stipkovic that shows a nice effect of building decay. The multi-shades of plates mimics the exposed bricks while the gray simulates broken concrete. Looks useful!

LEGO D-Day on Omaha Beach: Liberating France, one brick at a time

Occasionally, I take a break from blogging and actually build something. For my most ambitious creation to date, I present “Fox Red: Omaha Beach”.

My D-Day diorama features the following vehicles and weapons:

Yes, that’s dark blue water. (I do believe I’ve mentioned before that I like LEGO Agents…)

Naturally, I couldn’t resist the urge to turn a few photos into black and white Robert Capa-esque shots.

See my full photoset of Fox Red: Omaha Beach pics on Flickr.

Ugly!

This pair of vehicles by Carter Baldwin may be the ugliest we’ve featured here. Carter’s new NATO “Jackal” LRV is a chunkified slice of awesome, but that troop transport is just plain wicked.

Makoto Zero – Sky Fighter

This is micro-scale at its absolute best. When I saw a thumbnail of this build by Fredoichi, I thought that it was minifigure scale. I can’t think of a more impressive feat for a creation at this scale than to read as bigger and more detailed than it is.

Red Zephyr

Is the Crimson Skies fad coming back? If the Red Zephyr by Jonhall18 is the start of the comeback, sign me up.

This plane has a great feel of bulk in all the right places. I like the airfoil shape of the wings, and the bubble up at the front of the fuselage adds a great touch of the fantastic.

Remote Armor Team

I was lucky enough to catch a foul and evil virus while at BrickCon last weekend. I was sick all week, but I’m finally feeling well enough to do some blogging. Several of the things that caught my eye during my illness have already been covered by other contributors here, but at least one is still unblogged. Tyler Clites’s (legohaulic) Remote Armor Team.

Some people (like Tyler himself) may think that I like this just because of my well-known soft spot for the combination of tan and dark gray. While that’s certainly a part of it, the hover tank has a great look to it. In fact, it reminds me of some concept art that I’ve been wanting to build for months. Whether or not the same inspiration was there, I’m glad someone has built a hovertank in this style.

Compartmentalised geeks

Making a good mecha is hard. Making a good carrier is hard. Making a good carrier that carries a good mecha all snugly folded is really hard. Fortunately Aran (Cole Blaq) managed to pull it off.

In defense of Polish independence

Our Polish friends over at Klocki remind us that Poland is currently observing the 70th anniversary of the September Campaign, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union both invaded, divided, and annexed the country between them.

Ciamek (Piglet on MOCpages) recreates a German propaganda photo that implied how weak and ineffectual Polish resistance was, as a group of German soldiers easily swats aside the border barrier.

In truth, the entire scene was staged, taken two weeks after the invasion — an attempt to illustrate the Third Reich’s easy dominance over Poland.

Ciamek sets the record straight in his LEGO diorama. Fierce, valiant Polish resistance prevented any such easy scene until well after the beginning of hostilities.

See more photos on Ciamek’s website and on MOCpages, where he has several other LEGO creations related to World War II and the September Campaign.

What’s wrong with Wensleydale?

Nothing, it’s lovely, as is this Shaun the Sheep from “Wallace & Gromit” by Piotr (Pepik), via the Living Brick — welcome back, OJ.

Nearly as cute is Pepik’s Polish “tankette”.

Obscurance’s M808B Grizzly tank

I finally bought an Xbox 360, and not having an original Xbox either, I’m catching up on about eight years of games. And you know what? Halo doesn’t suck (though I could do without the chorus of 11-year-old fanboys).

Stephen Chao (obscurance) demonstrates that LEGO Halo creations can be pretty cool too, with this great M808B “Grizzly” Main Battle Tank Advanced.

“Hummel” Self-Propelled 150mm Howitzer

Legotron has been making some excellent WWII German tanks and artillery. My favorite so far is the Hummel. I’ve seen a lot of nice tanks, but this self-propelled howitzer is unique. Loaded with just the right about of detail, this build is spot on.