Here’s proof that you don’t need a lot of colors to build an exciting and dynamic model. Simple grays and white convey the power of the water and the feat of engineering in this vignette of a Russian dam by vir-a-cocha. This model is also notable for its excellent mix of studs and tiles, conveying both industrial realism and naturalistic landscaping simultaneously. I’d love to see an Architecture set like this.
NASA Engineer and LEGO fan Nicholas Mastramico has brought us a most excellent follow up to the shuttle, launch pad, and SLS rocket we featured last week. Nicholas’s microscale version is eye-catching with the great detail he’s packed into such a small model. What makes his version particularly special is his relationship with the rocket: Nicholas is a structural design engineer for NASA, and is currently working on the real SLS rocket.
This means his micro-SLS has a unique opportunity to stand in the shadows of its ancestors, like the Saturn V rocket pictured here.
Nicholas says he’s always been a huge sci-fi fan – but it was the early pictures of Mars from Sojourner that truly hooked him on space travel. He decided then he would build rockets for NASA one day, and that goal guided him through school to where he is now. He was recently involved in a test with a weather balloon, for which he provided a passenger. The experiment took the minifig up to 120,000 feet!
There are more shots of some of the features of the mobile launch platform and payload capsules, as well as an itty-bitty adorable crawler!
Following his awe-inspiring Arc Hammer earlier this summer, Pierre E Fieschi has posted another massive, ground-based vehicle. Standing at over a meter tall, Pierre’s shipyard gantry has all the intricate detail we’ve come to expect from him, combined with a truly impressive size for a microscale LEGO model.
The model’s large photo is worth exploring. Can you spot the tiny LEGO man?
Looking over their photostream, I think we’ve blogged everything Sean & Steph Mayo have built over the past several months, so why stop now? This is the smallest NASA Space shuttle built from LEGO that I’ve run across, but it may be my favorite.
The LEGO Castle helmet standing in for the top of the External Tank is pure genius.
According to flickr user Tikitikitembo, there’s a whole city in there. This awesome microscale municipality fits neatly into the bowels of a brick-built 2×4. The blue lining on the box is a touch that works magnificently, and there are lots of neat pieces in the structures, ranging from the super old-school to the brand new.
I try to avoid posting creations based on the Halo games. There are simply too many of them around, and I don’t really think anyone wants to see another attempt at a Warthog. This diorama by legomocs. forced my hand, though. The micro scale frigate is nicely rendered, as is the accompanying Covenant spire, but neither is what caught my attention. The shape of the diorama and the angle of the ship combine to give this creation a great sense of motion. It’s difficult not to imagine the continuing flight path of the frigate, after seeing this one moment caught in time.
When I first saw this bookend by Deborah Higdon I was suitably delighted by the cute design and well-crafted microscale train. And then I noticed the book.
The Eurobricks Architecture contest seems to be drawing out quite a few fantastic entries, including this notable depiction by Spencer R of one of the world’s most high-class hotels, the Burj Al Arab. With a design inspired by a ship’s billowing sails, the seventy floor Burj Al Arab is located in Dubai, which is also home to the real-life counterpart of an official LEGO Architecture set, the Burj Khalifa.
Mike Yoder has his own corporate entity reminiscent of Black Mesa from the Half-Life universe and Weyland-Yutani from the Alien franchise. North Central Positronics is a shadowy, semi-military organization with heavily defended bases on earth and a full-fledged fleet in space. Mike’s latest addition includes a pair of cargo barges, a pilot ship, and several heavy fighters.
Flickr user lisqr has built this wonderful microscale model of one of the most impressive architectural feats in mankind’s history, the Great Wall of China. While the real Great Wall was several thousand miles long, lisqr employs a nifty series of connected vignettes to capture the wall’s serpentine path.
