Tag Archives: Tanks

Tank Man immortalised in ABS

Singaporean LEGO builder Jeffrey Kong‘s latest composition is a simple yet moving piece marking the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident. Kong’s work, both with the brick and with the public, has inspired me many times, and this time its a combination of the two. The scale he’s chosen has brought out a well crafted yet ominous tank and unknown protester, with the large Chinese character 点, imposing its presence. Translated to “a small amount, a dot or a drop”, this character is censored annually on China’s internet. You can read more on Kong’s Instagram. Every part within this build is a common element, leaving a stark example that you don’t need countless complex combinations to achieve an elegant creation. I find the impressive compositions here relate more to the contrasting colour use and symbolism of what it represents. I do thoroughly enjoy the 2×2 round plate with Rounded Bottom that he’s employed inversely as the tank hatch though.

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A tank head full of ideas

Kelvin Low’s latest LEGO creation brings to life a turret-headed mech based on original artwork by Emerson Tung. Taking inspiration from a number of classic tank elements, the Kaiserian Grunt Tankhead has a tough militaristic feel. It manages to achieve this aesthetic by balancing its heavy cannon-toting head and meaty body on top of substantial spread-toed feet.

To fully appreciate this type of build, you need to get under the skin of the mechanical beast. Luckily, Kelvin has supplied us with a video showing off his ingenious construction techniques. In it, he records in detail how the various components of the mech’s armoured body are applied to its Technic skeleton.

Care for a bit of apocalypse with your tea?

The mind of Andy Baumgart must be a very interesting place. Somewhere in that chaotic cranial coolness, there was a collision between the neurons responsible for housing the military schematics repositories, the hot rod files, and 90s girl LEGO themes. Thus, out popped the T-42 “Sugarcube” MLRS, which has got to be one of the most insane (and insanely awesome) military vehicles to ever grace our site.

Studded with nearly every chrome silver element LEGO has ever produced, and jazzed up even more with a generous dose of immaculately applied custom decals, this red rocket launcher houses a single Belville figure. As we’d expect with Andy, there’s no shortage of fantastic and unusual parts usages. The most obvious, of course, are rockets sprouting from the back which hail from the Series 17 Rocket Boy. The roof is a piece that isn’t seen often, but is actually being used for its intended purpose, having been a Fabuland vehicle top. Look closely, and along the side you’ll spot a well-disguised derrick arm, while Belville crowns and classic gates line the front. Of course, you wouldn’t want to miss tea time, so there’s a set just in reach of the driver.

Steampunk behemoth

If you’re a Ninjago fan, this vehicle may look familiar. After all, it was inspired by the official set 70654 Dieselnaut, which we covered in our news roundup of summer wave Ninjago sets. But there is a lot more to this steampunk behemoth by Mishima than a black paint job. Every detail from the official set has been re-built to fit the steampunk aesthetic, from brass and steel pipes throughout the tank, to the side and top mounted turrets. Even the crew have been custom fitted to the steampunk theme. Two smokestacks in front of the top turret look like they might have come straight off an old steam locomotive, along with the curved side panels that lift up to reveal more guns.

LEGO Nexo Knights meets Warhammer 40k

Although I have never played the tabletop games, I have always admired the aesthetic of the Warhammer 40k universe, particularly the vibrantly colored hardsuits and tanks. Simon Crocker has created an excellent Warhammer-Nexo Knights mashup with his razorback tank, which is based on a heavily armored variant of the Rhino APC from the Warhammer games.

Although the build may initially appear straightforward, closer inspection reveals the complex shaping and techniques used to make the front and back of the APC look so smooth, and to achieve the light bluish gray accents in just the perfect places. Although I overlooked it at first, the use of dark bluish gray panel pieces sticking out by 1/2 plates distance on the front viewports of the tank is particularly clever. As a finishing touch, custom stickers are used to add the fine details and make it especially accurate to the source material.

Your bricks will travel wherever they want in this little tank [Instructions]

While we can all gaze in wonder at a huge LEGO diorama, there’s also a lot of joy that comes from building fun little models with interesting techniques. GolPlaysWithLEGO has built this fun little tank that has 61 parts and a lot of character.

Click to see the parts and instructions

Fully motorized M4 Sherman Crab tank

As fun as building something from your own imagination always is, recreating something from history can be particularly challenging. On top of creating a great-looking LEGO M4A2 Sherman tank from World War II at 1/18th scale, Tommy Styrvoky has added a mine flail, and then motorized the whole thing. Watch the video here to see it in action.

Tommy’s Sherman includes the following features, powered by LEGO Power Functions:

Turret with full 360-degree traverse
Elevating gun in turret
Two-gear transmission with electronic braking
Torsion bar suspension
Elevating flail arms
Spinning flail chains on drum

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;

Party on, Victorian dudes

Serbian builder Milan Sekiz created this fearsome trio of steampunk hardware entitled Steam Party. Individually each piece stands out on its own. But with the addition of some greenery, wreckage and tire tracks, the whole ensemble is definitely greater that the sum of its parts.

I particularly love the tank (aka “Mr. Rust and two smoking barrels”) with it’s earthy color scheme, brick-heavy studs-hidden design, aggressive details, and of course those tracks! Check out Milan’s Flickr stream for lots of hero shots and closeups…

One Monotank to Rule Them All

Here’s a creative take on a tank by Luke (LukeClarenceVan). You don’t see white tanks every day, and especially not monotracked ones. I particularly love the way the armor sits all the way down on the sides, and all those little antennae make me think of a caterpillar. Luke also makes great use of stickered and printed pieces on the sides.

Tiny tank chaser

Before I hand things over to Keith for the weekend, I think I owe our readers a somewhat more adorable chaser to follow all the super-serious discussions about LEGO and the military this week. This “MK45-Toad” is brought to you by Eero Okkonen (Pate-keetongu).

The use of binoculars for the tank treads is brilliant, and even the minifig includes some interesting part combinations, like the modern/space visor on the LEGO Castle helmet.

T-72 Main Battle Tank

For a long time, the T-72 was the Soviet Union’s main battle tank and it was widely exported, basically to whoever could afford it, including wonderful holiday destinations such as Iraq and Syria. The T-72AV, which is the version modelled by Chris Lee(Babalas Shipyards), is an upgraded version fitted with explosive reactive armour to defeat shaped charges.

You can’t hold the base upside-down without bits falling off, which may not be to everyone’s liking, but I like the effect. Iraqi T-72 units got comprehensively clobbered in the Gulf War of 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 at the hands of American tankers and British tankers, with their far superior M1 Abrams and Challenger II tanks, but this model is a winner in my book.

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