The air force of DIetterr89

It does not happen very often that there is a post about a single person's creations, but it is worth making an exception today.

As I started to build war planes a while ago, my goal was to find a scale that is the smallest possible,  but still gives me enough room to incorporate many interesting details. I have settled at 1:48. This is the scale at which the MiG-15 and the Bf-109 has been built, and this will be the scale for the next few too. I have never dreamt that it would be worth going smaller.

But the planes of Dieterr89 prove that it is more than worth it. He built an entire air force at 1:70. This is a Messerschmitt 109. It represents the shape and colors of the original aircraft as truly as possible:

Its opponent from the Eastern front is a Lavochkin La-5. This is a truely unique build, you cannot find many Soviet WWII planes built from LEGO. To make it more special, it has a radial engine:

In the case of the desert Ju-87 Stuka it was an extra challenge to build the fixed landing gear and the angled wing:

Its "attacker" is a Spitfire, also in desert camouflage:

As the war progressed, Mustangs started to fly their long range escort missions with jettisonable external tanks:

Its opponent is one of the first jet fighters, a Messerschmitt Me-262. I think this looks even better than the other ones:

We left two modern planes to the end. This is an F-16 Fighting Falcon:

Its pair is a Soviet-build Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29. Notice the nose bending down a bit:

Excellent collection, let's hope there will be more soon!

Silver MiG reloaded

As I started building new aifcraft recently I wanted to choose a scale that fits an entire fleet, not just a single model. Finally I have settled with 1:48 which is smaller than most other similar planes, but still lets me add a considerable amount of detail.

When the Messerschmidt was ready, it was a no-brainer to start rebuilding my existing MiG-15 in a similar scale. This is how far I got.

It is quite similar to the original one. The underlying concept is the same: the fuselage is symmetric and the wing joins at a Pythagorean triangle. But this is a total rebuild from the ground up which is visible in some details.

I liked the previous variant quite a bit, but I like this one even more. Even though it is smaller in size, I managed to keep almost all characteristic features of the original. As it contains only about 200 bricks it is significantly lighter than its predecessor that contained over 600. The lighter weight means a considerably lighter load on the landing gears and the whole structure bends a lot less and sits more proudly on the runway.

You can find more photos on Flickr and in the Picasaweb album as well.

MiG-15

Around Easter I have managed to have some rest and even more importantly, away from my other hobbies. As this year's Lego Military Build Competition is currently running I thought I could give it a try.

The announcement of the competition

As I am a big fan of flying things I have tried the "Soviet Cold War Aircraft" category. I chose a MiG-15 as not many LEGO versions exist. The type has served in almost all Warsaw Pact countries including the Hungarian Air Force. Amongst all Soviet types probably this had the most advantage over its Western counterparts. (Does anyone remember Chuck Yeager's Air Combat?)

A Hungarian MiG-15 from the Museum of Hungarian Aviation in Szolnok

Brainstorming has started with the cigar-shaped body. It has a circular cross section with the diameter continuously changing from the front towards the aft. To make it more complicated, the shell gets thin towards the front an the end. The original inspiration was given by the sphere from legohaulic: it seemed that it may be possible to build the cigar from plates, with studs pointing outside.

This is the end result. I tried to build it in the smallest size possible, this corresponds to 1:35 scale approximately. The small size meant some compromises. For example the landing gear is not retractable into the body and the wings.

The model was built with Lego Digital Designerrel in Universe mode). The images were rendered with MegaPOV using Koyan's tutorial. But I already have the bricks underway, I am quite curious if I manage to build it like it is shown on these images.

Until this happens there are more images in the album. Because of the competition I have uploaded the images to Flickr as well.

The competition deadline is May 31st 2011, I am sure we will see lots of great entries.