The Spitfire story, part I

We have covered Messerschmitts on the blog earlier (part I, part II), let's take a look at the other side, more precisely Britain.

The Supermarine Spitfire is probably the most well known British fighter from World War II. It was a protagonist of the Battle of Britain when the Royal Air Force defended British airspace in spite of being in numeric minority. According to statistics there were more aerial victories by Hurricane pilots, but still somehow the Spitfire emerged as the symbol of victory. It could have been be due to its slightly better performance, or simply because it is somehow more aesthetically pleasing to look at.

Hence it is no wonder that numerous LEGO versions have been built over the years. Let's start with the model of Exploded LEGO. This is one of the smallest one I have found on the net. It is less colorful than the others, but still has plenty of interesting details. For example the yellow leading edge of the wings, or the small "flag" on the tail. In spite of its size it even has a retractable retractable landing gear!

We have introduced Mattias Martenssonnal (alias eremms) already during the Messerschmitt coverage. His model is a bit more colorful, light gray and dark gray gives you the characteristic camouflage pattern of  Spitfires. Unlike most others, the insignia are built from bricks rather thank stickers. I think it looks really good.

Stefan Johansson has been missing from with his Messerschmitt, but he will not be missing from this one. He also uses a dark / light gray combination. (Maybe this is a Scandinavian thing?) The plane is graceful but still has the typical Spitfire contour:

Scott Peterson has chosen the more typical dark green - dark gray combination. Somewhat unusually though he chose to use the airbrush to reach the perfect color combination. This is a later Spitfire version with four-bladed propeller:

Today's last creation is from Lego Monster who should be familiar to our readers already. He took his fair share of Spitfire building too. Today we look at the 1:36 scale version that was built a couple of years ago. The plane is built from real dark green and dark gray, which looks pretty nice, just like other details: the yellow part of the wing and the flag.

To be continued next week!

The Messerschmitt story, part I.

After covering some trains last week let's take a look at an aircraft: the Messerschmitt Bf-109. This fighter is one of the most recognizable aircraft of WWII, the icon of German air superiority during the early years of war. It saw action during the Spanish Civil War and at the breakout of the "big" war it was already a battle-proven opponent.

It is well known and built many times from bricks as well, you can find quite a few variants on the net. Let's take a look at the best ones, starting with minifig-scale models and leave the more exotic ones for the next part.

For a start, let's look at LegoUli's model. In my opinion this is one of the best: the shape of the aircraft is excellent around the engine but also towards the rear of the airframe. The landing gear is fixed but looks very good. The 9-stud propeller is also an nice fit at this scale:

The plane of eremms was also built at a similar scale and it also has a minifig at the controls. The colors are similar but the details are quite different: the techniques used at the wing, the propeller and the cockpit differ quite a bit from the previous version:

Opëx Røver's plane is somewhat smaller: the wing is 14 studs compared to 16-17 studs on the previous ones above. Nonetheless the the details are finely crafted. My personal favorite is the tail section. I personally don't like the nose cone and the landing gear, but the color choice is slightly more interesting than on the planes above:

Last but not least let's see the creations of a real pro, Legohaulic. His models also illustrate the evolution of a build, how a rookie creation becomes a real masterpiece.

Frankly, the first model would not be part of this blog post without the subsequent ones. The model is recognizable but nothing special: it is large and does not have any particularly interesting details. The colors are not very interesting either and the photo is far from great. However it is a great basis for progress:

It is no wonder that the author tried a second time. The next one is a lot more sophisticated than the previous one: the engine, the cockpit and the plane overall are a lot nicer. Like the other planes above it also has enough room for a minifig piloting the stick. The most serious mistake is the green light on the port side. Looking at it more we can also realize that the plane is quite large: the wings are over 20 studs and the minifig at the stick looks a bit too small:

This is probably how Legohaulic has felt about it too because he decided to give it a third try as well. This is the result, probably one of the most well known LEGO variants of the famous Messerschmitt fighter:

Like the ones above it has a minifig inside, but it is more unusual than the others in several ways. First of all, this is the smallest of all models: the wing is just over 12 studs. The fuselage is only a little bit wider than 3 studs - I think it is quite an achievement to find room for a minifig inside. Another specialty is the choice of colors: unlike the other planes above the paint scheme makes heavy use of dark green, and it looks pretty awesome. The only strange thing is the small nose cone, it looks a bit smaller than it should.

And which one is the best? I will let you choose.

Next week we look at more special Messerschmitt variations.