Tag Archives: Ralph Savelsberg

Battling Atlantic waves

During WWII, Britain could only continue fighting Nazi Germany thanks to constant foreign imports and weapons shipments from the US. To stem this flow, the German “Kriegsmarine” employed hundreds of submarines, that sank 3,500 Allied merchant ships and 175 Allied warships. Besides enemy action, ships, the submarines, and their crews they also had to deal with atrocious weather, particularly in wintertime.

My latest model, for a Battle of the Atlantic display at BrickFair Virginia this summer, represents a German submarine riding the waves. Originally I was going to build just the conning tower, but that left me with a problem: visible lines are running from the conning tower to the front and aft of the boat’s hull. By building more of the boat and the waves thrown up by its passage, I could attach them. As a result, I spent more time building the waves than the model of the boat itself. This was far from the easiest thing I have ever done, but I hope you agree it was well worth the trouble.

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This sleek fighter jet will answer your need for speed

Fighter jet aerodynamics are tricky to render in brick form, but this LEGO F-14A Tomcat by our own Ralph Savelsberg pulls it off with a variety of sloped and angled elements, including the trans-clear bricks that form the cockpit.  The Tomcat’s characteristic swept-back wings are represented with meticulously chosen angled plates. Adding to the authenticity are the missiles stowed beneath the wings and the antenna pieces used for the airspeed sensor probe beneath the cockpit. Not pictured: a highway to the danger zone.

VF-41 Black Aces F-14A Tomcat with a few tweaks

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A complicated combine combination

A while ago I wrote that I feel that my Lego models keep getting more complicated due to new parts and new techniques, while building something small and simple can be a lot more fun. The flip side is that those parts and techniques allow building things I could not have built years ago. Case in point: my new combine harvester transport. For years I mainly built larger-scale models, in part because I struggled to build a recognizable make and model of the vehicle at a scale suitable for Lego minifigures.

Despite new parts, it still is not particularly easy. This is one of the reasons why even Lego’s own designers resort to using stickers for the cars in the Speed Champions range, for instance. And those are pretty complicated, certainly for sets. Furthermore, their scale really stretches the definition of what is suitable for minifigures. Of course, I could have built a truck carrying a combine years ago. It would have looked like a generic European truck, though, while this model is recognizably a Dutch DAF truck, thanks to parts such as brackets. Obviously, I did use some stickers, but only for the company livery. What kept building this fun and relaxing, despite its complexity, was looking at it as a combination of smaller projects.
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Just a simple construction site

At the start of a new year I am always looking forward to new Lego sets. They usually include new parts that I can use in my own models. What is possible now is amazing, especially compared to a few years ago, thanks to various brackets, curved elements and new colors. However, there is a drawback. I find that my models get more and more complicated. And as a result, building them becomes more time-consuming and less relaxing than it used to be.

In March, I am due to display some of my models at a show for cranes, heavy haulage and earthmoving equipment. Rather than another crane or mega windmill transporter, I decided to build a few small items typical for a construction site. I built the portable toilet and trailer last year, together with the white Iveco. The mini digger, matching trailer and blue pickup truck are new. Especially the truck isn’t all that complicated. I used old-school studs-up building and a few half-stud offsets. Sometimes building something small and a bit simpler can be a lot more fun.

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Military spaceplanes: Dyna-Soar and the Orbital Test Vehicle

Usually I don’t build space-themed models, but my latest two models are exceptions. Then again, they aren’t exactly your everyday space builds, representing real-world spaceplanes developed for the US military. The first is the X-20 Dyna-Soar (for “dynamic soarer”). This was an ambitious program to build a reusable manned spaceplane. It started within weeks of the Soviet Union’s first Sputnik launch. It never came to fruition, though. A few years later, with the first prototype already under construction, escalating costs and an unclear mission resulted in its cancellation.

The second is the much more recent and successful X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. This is an unmanned reusable spaceplane currently in service with the US Space Force. So far, two vehicles have flown six missions. The latest was the longest, with almost 909 days spent in orbit. Its official role is to demonstrate reusable space technologies. However, there has been speculation that it carries reconnaissance equipment and may even be intended for anti-satellite missions or to test space-based weapons.

In less than two weeks, both of these models will be on display at BrickFair Northern Virginia, as part of the “eXperimental Military Collaboration”.

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Scandinavian power, with a Dutch twist

Lego is not Denmark’s only market-leading company; Vestas, the world’s largest builder of wind turbines, is also Danish. After I built my mega-windmill trailer with a Vestas wind turbine nacelle, I seriously considered building a truck carrying one of the wind turbine’s blades. However, these blades are so big that, even at minifig scale, the model would have to be more than a meter long. This did not strike me as a particularly fun build, but I found a suitable alternative. It is a truck that carries the wind turbine’s hub. The tractor unit is a Volvo FM; another powerhouse from Scandinavia.

Volvo FM Van der Vlist

There’s a Dutch twist too. It is in the largely orange livery of Dutch heavy haulage specialists Van Der Vlist. And the trailer represents a semi-low loader built by Nooteboom, which is also Dutch. Its load is a lot more manageable than a turbine blade, but it is still a fairly substantial piece of equipment. It is wider than the trailer and so tall that its nose cap is transported separately on the trailer. It tapers and it has a complicated geometry because of the holes for the three blades in the sides. I built three identical sections, with angled panels between them. These all attach to a six-section bottom ring. There is a smaller ring and a separate truncated cone on top. Building all of this did turn out to be a fun challenge.

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There is no substitute for a big Diesel

In the Netherlands, wind turbines are a big part of the transition to renewable energy. With the turbines getting bigger, moving their components to wind farms requires ever larger vehicles. My latest LEGO model represents such a vehicle: a Volvo FH16 with a so-called mega-windmill trailer, in the livery of Dutch heavy haulage company Van Der Vlist.

The real truck has a six-cylinder engine that produces 750 HP. It needs all that power because the Vestas wind turbine nacelle that it carries weighs a whopping 70 tons. And the nacelle’s transport frames add another four tons. This also explains the combination’s large number of axles. They distribute the weight to protect the road surface. As a result, this is a big model. Even on a small scale suitable for LEGO minifigures it has a total length of 93 cm (about 3ft).

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Optimus Prime Combat Deck, ready to roll out

For me, as long-time fan of the Transformers and having built LEGO Transformers myself, LEGO releasing LEGO Transformers 10302 Optimus Prime was a pleasant surprise. It looks great as a robot, decent as a truck and the transformation sequence is fantastic. Its look is also largely faithful to the original Optimus Prime toy from the eighties. In my book, the one thing that could make it even better was for Optimus to have his trailer or Combat Deck. So, I built one myself.

LEGO set 10302 with a custom trailer

Click to see inside!

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Hooked on minifigure-scale cranes

Hot on the heels of my Mammoet mobile crane, I decided to build another minifigure-scale crane. This time it is a truck-based crane: a Liebherr LTF 1060.

Unlike the Mammoet crane, this one uses a commercial truck chassis built by Scania. This type of cranes typically has better on-road mobility than those that use dedicated chassis. I primarily liked it because it was different and, when I found a yellow one operated by the Dutch company “Kuiphuis” pulling a trailer with accessories, I was hooked.

LEGO’s long history and the quality of the elements mean that there is a vast collection of parts suitable for this type of build. For instance, among the real crane’s accessories are a crane crab and a concrete bucket. And LEGO made a crane grab in yellow. And there is a suitable handle for the bucket, in yellow too. These parts are thirty and twenty years old, respectively.

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Every construction job needs a set of these

Even LEGO construction workers need a portable toilet and a trailer for a temporary office while on a job site. Coming from builder Ralph Savelsberg, these two items are no doubt appreciated by the construction worker minifigures, despite their moods. The portable toilet features the ever lovely orange LEGO pieces for that classic look–just don’t be inside it when it comes time to move it…. The trailer itself is small, but there’s enough room inside to have a coffee break away from the elements. There’s a cute little window with shutters to watch the site and a nice step-up so no one has to jump in or out. To keep the trailer steady, since it’s only on two wheels, there are four supports. Between the two items, the color choices are spot on and the designs are keen.

Construction site accessories

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A small-scale crane for mammoth tasks

A fair few of the Dutch builders that I occasionally hang out with are very much into building heavy-duty trucks and construction equipment, such as cranes or mining excavators. And they tend to like to build them BIG. I’ve dabbled a bit in the genre, but I’ve always been somewhat the odd one out in our little group, mainly building smaller models. And I’ve gone progressively smaller: in recent years more and more of my models are scaled for minifigures. I rarely have the time or patience to build really big things. I am also running out of space to display large models.

If you take a big crane and build it to a small scale, you still end up with a fairly substantial model, though. Case in point: my Liebherr LTM-1350 mobile crane, as operated by the Dutch company Mammoet (Mammoth). Despite its relatively small scale, there is just enough room for some functionality. For instance, the crane’s outriggers and boom can extend and it has working steering on five of its six axles. When fully extended, its boom reaches a height of close to a metre (about three feet). Furthermore, cranes like this may be mobile, but they do require a fleet of support vehicles. This includes a separate truck to carry its counter-weights. The crane’s crew also tends to have a small “pool car” to drive around. If the crane is in transit, an escort van usually accompanies the convoy. The small scale meant I could build all of them.

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A North Korean train with surprising cargo

After President Trump’s failed attempt to broker peace on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea resumed ballistic missile tests in 2019. They have done so many since, it has become quite hard to keep track of them all. However, two tests, in September 2021 and in January of this year, stand out because the missiles were launched from a train. Putting missiles on a train makes some sense. If it were to come under attack, North Korea needs to ensure it can still launch its missiles. Mobile launchers make it much harder for an adversary to find and destroy them on the ground. And North Korea has poor roads but a fairly well-developed train network. Finding the launchers becomes a shell game; just about any box car in the country can house an unpleasant surprise.

The train in September consisted of a single Soviet-built M62 diesel locomotive; a very common type in communist countries. This pulled two freight cars. The first was a regular Chinese-built P61 box car. The second was externally similar, but it had an opening roof, extra doors in its side and launchers for two ballistic missiles inside. I admire the skill that goes into building a LEGO train, but the last time I built one was in 2014. And the one before that was in 2009, so it is fair to say that I rarely build trains. But North Korean missiles on a train definitely piqued my interest. I have built number of other missile launchers recently, including a Soviet MAZ-547 transporter erector launcher for an SS-20 ballistic missile and a Cold-War cruise missile launcher. This fits that theme perfectly.

Furthermore, I also happen to write professionally about missiles from North Korea and I write computer models to predict their trajectories. So, the research that went into building this model is directly linked to what I do for a living. Over the years I have found that quite a few people in similar lines of work are actually LEGO builders.

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