Tag Archives: Ships

Take to the stars with ice trawler Polynya.

sioka sculpting makes his first appearance in the ivy covered halls of TBB with a S.H.I.P. that has just about everything you could ask for: great color control, fine details like hangar bays and life-boats, powerful engines and that hard to define cool factor. One of the reason’s I was attracted to this model was that it simultaneously looks modern and old-school, like the handsome love-child of Dasnewten and Dan Jassim.

For you trivia fans, the name polynya refers to an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is a Russian term полынья which refers to a natural ice hole, and was adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable portions of the sea.

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The Coast Guard is Always Ready

Semper Paratus, the US Coast Guard’s motto, means “Always Ready” and this gorgeous render of a Reliance class Coast Guard cutter by Matt Bace (mmbace) indeed looks ready for anything. The helicopter on the back is particularly cool, and the ship looks fantastic in white with the iconic red stripe.

Gothic SHIP Ahoy

Giving a whole new meaning to “flying buttresses,” Awesome O’Saurus provides us with this stunning rendering of a Gothic-architecture inspired space battleship. After seeing dozens of space tankers and flying boxes with striping (which are cool, to be sure), this spaceship is a welcome new style. Already I want to go design my own space-worthy cathedral of doom.

ULTARAN CUSTOMS OFFICER CORVETTE

As Chris mentioned in the previous post, there have been numerous high quality SHIPs built for the SHIPtember challenge. One such example is this stunning model by TBB regular Pierre E Fieschi. As per Pierre’s usual repertoire, there are plenty of wondrous details to find when you view the creation in full size. My particular favourite is the repetitive use of minifig headgear throughout.

SHIPtember is over; SHIPs abound, get swooshed

As some of you may be aware, a group of fans dubbed the month of September “SHIPtember” and challenged builders around the world to create SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts, aka a spaceship over 100 studs in length). We’ve been highlighting a few of the best SHIPs as they’ve come out, and we’ll continue to do so as we see ones that catch our fancy. Some builders, however, decided that mere photographs couldn’t suffice to show the awesomeness of their SHIPs, and just had to swoosh them around. Swooshing is the science of picking up your creation and zooming it around making engine noises. It’s a highly technical and very serious business, and serves the purpose of demonstrating how sturdy your construction is. Laser sound effects are optional. SHIPs, due to their size, require extraordinary engineering to be lifted in such a manner. Check out these great demonstrations by Jacob Unterreiner (4estFeller) and our very own Tromas. You can also browse through the 95 SHIPs built by fans in the last month–a ridiculous number of top-notch models.

(don’t try this at home, kids)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65992320@N05/10022597675/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tromas/9928883514/

SHIP in a day

With SHIPtember underway, I am going to steal a quote from Tyler Clites as flickr is being inundated with photos of “long skinny technic frames”. Throughout the next month I am sure we can expect many of those long skinny technic frames to transform into wondrous spaceships of all shapes, sizes (provided they are 100+ studs long) and colours. However, for the impatient ones among us, Pascal (pasukaru76) was nice enough to whip up a little SHIP in the first day of SHIPtember for our viewing pleasure…12 hours only in fact.

With Pascal I have come expect minimalist clean styling, and the Lucky Dragon No. 7 certainly delivers on those points. But the addition of those solar sails results in a brilliant juxtaposition of organic and mechanical design features. I love it.

“I have been a stranger in a strange land.”

Presenting the Exodus, a colony ship by TBB first-timer Tim Clark (Tim C76). A SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment In Parts) is a milestone accomplishment for any serious sci-fi builder, but mere length is not enough to grace the ivy covered halls of The Brothers Brick. Fortunately Tim has created an interstellar behemoth that fits the nerdy and somewhat arbitrary specifications of the genre and looks great too. The Exodus has all the boilerplate features you’ve come to expect from a starship: powerful engines, pointy antenna cluster and non specific pieces of technology so often called “greebles“. As if our hobby isn’t dorky enough, we embrace words like “greebles“. Yes I realize the word existed before the hobby but it doesn’t make it any more acceptable. As a “spacer” I feel confident bashing my own kind. Back to the Exodus…it even has the final requirement for all great SHIPs; some celestial eye-candy in the background. Welcome to the SHIPwrights club, Tim.

Emergency Response Rescue Vessel Grampian Don

Arjan Oude Kotte (konajra) is one of those rare builders who only seem to build and post brilliant stuff and we have blogged most of it. His latest masterpiece is a minifig scale model (1/40) of an offshore support vessel, the ERRV Grampian Don, which is operated by the Craig Group based in Aberdeen, Scotland.

An ERRV is an Emergency Response Rescue Vessel, which is a type of ship that constantly patrols a zone around offshore installations, to ensure that other ships don’t stray into the zone, thereby preventing collisions, and in case of an emergency, to rescue platform crews and coordinate the response. Arjan started designing this model in November last year. It’s a proper SHIP, with a length of 125 cm (more than 4 ft) a height of 74 cm (more than 2 ft) and a width of 32 cm (about 1 ft). His ships seem to be getting more and more complicated. The wonderfully sculpted bulbous bow is a novelty and check out the angles on the bridge windows.

Starship ISIS (or) Manifest Cronyism

What is the point of being a Brother Brick with the all privilege and status that goes along with it, if you can’t abuse the power to promote the agendas of your closest associates? That was the question I asked myself when deciding whether or not to blog the latest massive S.H.I.P. by professional percussionist and raconteur Iain (~Ara~). I can hear the cries of the disenfranchised now…

“Goldman, this is outrageous, TBB always tells us we must have flawless photography on eye-burning white backgrounds! This photo doesn’t qualify at all: there is non LEGO clutter in the background, some kind of barbecue and is that an ashtray with butts in it? Butts on TBB!.”

Relax my excitable friends, this is Iain, and if you’d ever met him you’d realize that his inherent coolness allows him to supersede those concerns.

Sure, the SHIP is great, especially the bridge, but this post is less about how cool the model is and more about how cool the builder is. However, Iain cannot quite escape unpunished for his unwillingness to bow to the conventions of this site and the hobby in general.

How do you tell if the stage is level? The drummer is drooling from both sides of his mouth.

How can you tell a drummer’s at the door? The knocking speeds up.

What’s the last thing a drummer says in a band? “Hey guys, why don’t we try one of my songs?”

What do you call a drummer that breaks up with his girlfriend? Homeless.

How can you tell when a drummer’s at the door? He doesn’t know when to come in.

So please add your favorite drummer joke in the comments if you are motivated to take the piss out of Iain too.

Dutch Coaster ‘Fiona’

Since about three years I’ve been living in a port city. I’m enjoying the fresh sea breeze (although we’re having a bit too much of that at the moment, both in terms of quantity and freshness, but that’s another story) and the scenery. For instance, my route to work takes me through the inner harbour, which means I get to see some of the ships moored there. Among them is a coaster, complete with bearded skipper wearing a cap and a wooly turtleneck jumper.

The Dutch Coaster built by Arjan Oude Kotte (Konajra) doesn’t seem to have a skipper with a wooly jumper, but all the other details are there. I can now go stare at it without the windchill.

This Ship Goes to Eleven

Or, at least, it has the number “11” on the side… Unless those are Ls. Regardless, this ship by Nate Daly makes an impression. It’s his first attempt at build a space ship in the coveted 100+ stud class, and I think he’s done a great job.

There are plenty of nice details throughout, and the color blocking is well done. My favorite thing about it, though, is the crew. Many builders, when building a ship this long, declare it to be a battleship, or drednaught, or something else with a huge crew. Not Nate, though, he calls it a frigate, and gives it a tiny crew. Bravo, Nate.

Beamtrawler VLI-8 and Tyr Viking

It’s time to double-down with Arjan Oude Kotte (Konajra) and this pair of outstanding vessels. First up is a highly detailed Beamtrawler, shown here in fishing mode:

Now feast your eyes on the majestic Tyr Viking, complete with bold colors and working tow winches. Are you not entertained?

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