Tag Archives: Ships

NCS Aries-K – SHIPtember – SHIP in a day

There’s been a lot of large spaceships or SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) building this month as part of SHIPtember – the build a 100 stud SHIP in a month contest. Some people feel that a month is slightly more time than necessary, and there have been several SHIP in a day builds over the years – with varying results.

So I wasn’t surprised to see someone attempt this again this year, but I was surprised to see FOUR master builders: Jason Allemann, Michael Gale, Kristal Dubois, Lucie Filteau join together in an amazing 24 hour build (or does this really make it a 96 hour man build?)

I don’t care, cause the end result makes my own personal month long SHIP build kind of small, and lacking in coolness…

Not only does this clock in at the bigger side of the SHIPs built this month, the multiple functions and delightful spinning mechanisms makes this stellar build, regardless of the time spent:

Oh, and yes, there’s a time lapse:

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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.

Homeworld-inspired Vaygr battlecruiser by Dorian Glacet

Even though I’ve mainly been building military models over the last couple of years, I appreciate a good spaceship. And I’ve always been disappointed that I haven’t been able to play the iconic and influential Homeworld games. French builder Dorian Glacet has been playing Homeworld 2 lately, and built this great ship (actually a true SHIP at 105 studs long) with classic colors and stripes.

Dorian’s SHIP may look a lot like many of the other Homeworld-inspired spaceships we’ve featured over the years, but when I looked at his photostream, I was struck by the rather innovative approach to the ship’s core, which is entirely “studs-out”:

Dorian then attached greebles and the ship’s skin to this core:

Check out Dorian’s photostream on Flickr for more, including preliminary digital designs and work-in-progress shots.

She belongs to Davy Jones, at the bottom of the sea

As is the fate of many, many vessels, The Carmen rests at the bottom of the ocean. Her builder, Sebeus, doesn’t give us any indication of what took her there, but the fact remains she’s been buried for years.

This completely caught my eye. I do love seeing decay done right in LEGO, and this totally fits the bill. The ship is clearly overgrown and becoming an excellent habitat, and you can still make out the details of the ship (LOVE the figurehead!) while getting a sense of just how long she’s been there.

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.

An elegant vessel for a more civilized age

We see our fair share of big spaceships at the Brothers Brick, but the Crimson Pilgrim by Bob De Quatre is something special. Not only is it a beauty to behold, but it’s also built to minifig scale and fully playable, featuring a complete interior with living quarters and many other details.

But that’s not all, there’s even a cool back story to this creation: Bob has set his ship and its crew in the universe of the online game Star Wars: The Old Republic. And he’s chosen to make them Jedi Hunters, which I assume means they’re the bad guys (yeah!).

Check out the Flickr album for more images, including close-ups of the interior (which features some rather ‘Falcon-like’ details) and of course all that wonderful exterior sculpting:

Life’s a beach

When a certain young naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin joined the HMS Beagle on it’s historic 2nd voyage in 1831, camera photography was still something of an experimental science. So capturing a visual record of the trip was the responsibility of a ship’s artist, like Conrad Martens.

Historical LEGO scene builder James Pegrum has recreated one of Martens’ more unusual sketches from the trip, showing the Beagle beached for repairs at a spot near the mouth of the Rio Santa Cruz (Argentina).

Yes, everything in the picture – including the distant cliffs – is LEGO. James manages to combine his particular building and photographic skills to create a very life-like scene. If the trip had taken place 175 or so years later, I’m sure Martens would have tweeted an image just like this!

Super-detailed LEGO USS Missouri model over 4 feet long

Matt Bace spent about about 45 days creating this highly-detailed model of the World War II American battleship USS Missouri. Matt’s model is 1/200th scale, and comes in about 170 studs long (that’s about 4 and a half feet!). The real USS Missouri was commissioned in 1944, and served on and off of active duty until 1992. She served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Gulf War, making her one of America’s most historied battleships. Matt’s model is one of the best LEGO ships I’ve ever seen. The sculpting for the curved hull is notoriously difficult to achieve with LEGO, and the wood planking around the details of the superstructure is quite challenging. All in all, this is a stunning model excellently built.

Micro-scale 18th Century Flotilla

These are just the cutest ships I’ve seen in a while. balthazar gives us a full micro-scale flotilla, complete with full sized Galleons, Brigs, Schooners, and Sloops, giving you all the firepower and speed you could possible want. Also, fire.

Between the Hammer and the Anvil

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.

Rock you like a Hurricane

Tim Schwalf brings us the Hurricane Battlecruiser, a 155 stud behemoth made of equal parts smooth paneling and fantastic greebling. The smaller fighters and overall presentation kick the whole thing up to 11.

And if you’re beginning to see a trend in our coverage this month, head on over to the SHIPtember group to see these leviathans being built.

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