Family photo

I still have pretty ambitious plans to build, but not so much time recently. Until I manage to carve out more, this is a family photo of two of the planes built so far.

Ikarus in all quantities

Although many years old, the Ikarus buses are still one of the most recognizable products from Hungary. The KLIKK blog has recently published a nice summary of the LEGO versions (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4). The text is in Hungarian, but the models are international :)

Although it exist on computer only, my personal favorite is this Ikarus 280 articulated bus created by gabor1980 alkotása. It looks simply fantastic:

It is worth checking out the other ones too.

Messerschmitt uncovered

I am happy to start the New Year with something fresh and take a look at why I have bothered with various Messerschmitts so much.

Several years ago I have already tried to build one. The 2009 model was a heavy compromise: it was built in Lego Digital Designer and the bricks were chosen from the limited selection of DesignByMe that still existed. As a result most of the plane was black because this color had the largest selection of bricks.

It was already time to try again and build a fresh plane for the Puma squadron.

This is a Messerschmitt Bf-109 G6 "Gustav" of the Royal Hungarian Air Force from 1944, using the black and white roundel from WWII. The legendary "Puma" have accomplished many missions against American and Soviet planes.

As I plan to build other planes at the same scale it was important to pick a size in which the others will look good as well. I am a big fan of "micro" aircraft, but that would not allow me to build a lot of details. So I have chosen a different scale, 1:48. This is still somewhat smaller than other Messerschmitts, only Legohaulic's fighter coming close. My plan was to add as many shape and color details as possible. Hence, there are no other features: the landing gear is not retractable (although it is easy to remove) and there is not enough room for a minifig pilot either (although at this scale it would be still doable with some compromises). 

Another important point is the wing. I like building wings as thin as possible, I am not a big fan of thick and blocky wings. The current wing is built of two layers of plates, I think it would have been impossible to make it any thinner. The shape is just a bit blocky, but overall I am quite happy with the shape of the wings and the tail.

I am pretty happy with the outcome. At this scale the plane has pretty recongnisable shape and colors as well.

Please take a look at the Flickr album for more photos. As usual they can be found on Picasa as well.

2012

We still have a few days left of 2012, it is the perfect chance to look at what we got this year.

In 2012 had only 21 new posts, fewer than what I would have liked. But as some of you may have noticed, I try to post a fresh post every week. I hope to keep the momentum going into 2013 as well.

But instead of spending too much time on what has or has not happened here, let me look at another important event from my own perspective: kockagyar.blog.hu used to be the most popular LEGO blog in Hungary but it has closed its doors in May 2012. Since I have co-authored the blog, I have written about 60 blog posts.

I am most proud of the interviews - I managed to get in touch with two well respected LEGO builders. Mad Physicist is one of the most influential car and aircraft builders, you can clearly notice his influence on this blog as well. You can read part one and part two of the interview here.

Legomonster was interviewed by Lehi in person. I think this is interview is probably the peak of my blogger journalist career. Thanks kockagyar and thanks Lehi, we could not have done this without you!

These would probably have never been created without kockagyar.blog.hu and its single-person engine, tutuka.

Without kockagyar I will probably have to keep a lower profile. But bricksngears will continue well into 2013 with the weekly posts. Also, we have new builds ready to be shown, stay tuned!

Happy and LEGO-rich 2013 to all our readers!

Hungarian train collection

It was not until recently that I have discovered this blog (in Hungarian). While the trains are most recognizable to locals, the build quality may appeal to everyone. Most of them are built with Lego Digitial Designer, which is understandable - I certainly would not have enough bricks to build all of them. Let's go through the best ones.

We start with the M28 shunter, I think it looks awesome:

There are larger engines as well. The NOHAB has Swedish origins. In Hungary it has been known as the M61. It may be familiar to everyone who travelled around Lake Balaton:

There are electrical engines too. This is the V43:

We can see interesting trains in the capital as well. This is the Cogwheel train that brings you up to the closest hill:

Once you are up, you can take the Children's railway to take a trip amongst the hills:

As the image shows the minifigs are all well. But I am sure they get tired in the fresh air. The way home is quick and comfortable in this Combino:

I am totally flattered. Each one of these has been built in LDD but they are all original: the details are right and they are instantly recognizable, full of happy minifigs. On the blog you can find other engines too: there is a V63, an M41, and M62 "Sergey" as well.

Congratulations to depi for the cool creations!

The Parliament Building, Budapest

I have finally managed to finish the Parliament Building. It was a long wait, I know, but it served its purpose: I have nominated it to a building contest! Keep fingers crossed.

One of the iconic buildings of Budapest, the Hungarian Parliament Building stands by the Danube giving visitors a perfect view from the Castle Hill on the other side of the river.

After Budapest was united from three cities in 1873, an international competition was held to establish a new, representative Parliament Building. Imre Steindl emerged as the victor. Construction was started in 1885 and the building was inaugurated on the 1000th anniversary of the country in 1896, and completed in 1904. During the communist regime a red star perched on the top of the dome, but was removed in 1990. The Hungarian Republic was declared from the balcony facing Lajos Kossuth Square on 23d October in 1989.

I chose the Parliament because it has a distinct shape that is easy to recognize. The original building has plenty of small details. To keep it all in LEGO I would have had to build in at a much larger scale. Instead I opted to keep it simple and manageable: I wanted to keep the distinct shape of the building but simplify many of the details so that it can be built at a reasonable scale. Even so it is larger than the typical buildings from the Landmark series: 36 studs wide, 19 studs deep and built from about 660 bricks.

More photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bricksngears/ParliamentOfHungary02
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=500138

Buildings and scenes from Hungary

It is well known that I like LEGO Architecture sets. Not so long ago I posted a review of the 21011 Brandenburg Gate on kockagyar.blog.hu (in Hungarian) that triggered some of the fans to build several famous buildings and scenes from around the country. Many of them sent me the model they created so that I can render them in nice quality. Let me show you the result, click on the images to see them in large:

The Hungarian Parliament, Budapest (Sárkányapu)	The Parliament from another angle (Sárkányapu)
Heroes square, Budapest (Könyvtároslány / Haynau)	"Truncated" church, Debrecen (Yooha)
The Great Church, Debrecen (Yooha)	The University of Debrecen (Yooha)
The Dome of Eger (Yooha)	The Dome in microscale (Yooha)
A kilenclyukú híd, Hortobágy (Mnarko)	The puszta (Mnarko)

Lego Shop in new countries!

As of yesterday shop.lego.com accept orders to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway and Poland. This means that besides the full selection one can order models designed in Digital Designer, hard to find exclusives and even bricks by the piece through Pick-a-Brick.