It can be built by anyone

I had a plan was to share some of my own creations. In my opinion Rebrickable is a really great site to do this, so I started uploading. Luckily the past few days gave them just enough time do review all the stuff, so here they come.

First, I have the classic Mustang about which I even made a Youtube video a long ago. I was surprised to find out recently that someone else has downloaded it to make another one too :)

I managed to publish the micro MiG-15 and MiG-21 too:

Finally I have completed the upload of the MiG-15 too:

The instructions have been made with Digital Designer so they are not the best of my artistic career, but they contain just enough to build the models.

Happy building and don't forget to let me know if you build one of them, or you use them in a YouTube video! :)

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.

Planes, as small as they can be

I hope by now everyone has built his LEGO sets from Christmas. To make January more exciting, Mainman has organized his own microscale build competition for plane builders. The deadline was last week, it is a good time to look at the best nominees.

tbone_tbl was the most productive one, he has built no less than seven planes. My personal favorite is this AV-8 Harrier. All details are in place: the wing is excellent, but I also like the canopy and its surroundings, not to mention the tail section.

The most grandiose plane was built by John Lamarck: this B-17 is definitely the biggest in the field - if this makes sense for a microscale aircraft:

It also has two P-51 Mustangs as escorts:

You are probably not surprised to hear that I have built something too. These two projects have been half done for a long time and the competition has finally gave me the final push to finish them. I already built a MiG-15 at a different scale, but I wanted to build a smaller one too. This is the end result:

All in all, I am not 100% happy with it. The overall shape is ok, but I think the final impression is a bit blocky. I am like this MiG-21 a bit more:

This plane is the most produced supersonic aircraft in the world. Compared to this it has hardly any versions built from bricks. I like how this turned out at this scale.

The field is strong, I am already happy just to be able to participate. It is worth looking at the others too, there are really good ones.

And if you would like to have more LEGO reading for the week, I recommend the newest issue of BrickJournal - the downloadable version is available for $3.95.

MiG-15 details

There is a new rendering in the MiG-15 album that shows how the wing is attached to the body:

This render shows the internals of the body, with the outer shell removed. The bricks that are not normally visible are in blue.

The real MiG-15 has a sweep angle of 35 degrees. I approximated that with the typical LEGO Pythagoras layout at 3-4-5 stud offsets. This gives an angle of atan(3/4) = 36.8 degrees.

You can see the triangle at the wing root (large yellow). The studs marked with yellow circles are attached to the body, from the bottom and from the top as well. Even so the structure is far from rigid.

The wing-fences are attached similarly, but the triangle is half the size, at 1.5, 2 and 2.5 stud offsets.

Silver MiG

I have two piece of news.

First of all, we have the results of the LegoMilitary Build Competition. And I got second prize in the "Warsaw Pact Aircraft" category! I am very happy, I never managed to achieve anything like that in a competition. Mad Physicist was the judge and it was quite competitive... The other finalists are quite impressive too. The An-225 is quite a beast even at 1:100 scale. The Su-9 from John Lamarck is also very nice, for example it has a retractable landing gear. I am proud to be a member of the club.

The second thing is, that of course I was quite curious whether the bricks I have put together on the screen can be actually built together in real life. Executive summary: they can.

In fact the wing was the only place that needed some redesign because the original was incredibly weak. The contour is the same but now it is a little bit stronger. It is not quite like a rock yet, but I am not afraid to hold it in my hands any more. The body is actually quite rigid, it is easy to hold there.

The plane itself is surprisingly heavy. The body consists of many small plates and its interior is quite packed too so that it holds the airplane together. The landing gear is very weak, it can hardly support the vast weight. This can be seen on the photos too. I am still thinking of another design but so far I did not find anything satisfactory.

Also, the rear is quite heavy so I had to put in some extra weight to keep the balance at the front. Inside the plane there are two metal screws that prevent it from "sitting down".

One more thing, the aft of the cabin roof. This is made of a transparent 2x3 slope brick. The last time such a brick was manufactured was in the seventies. I managed to get one, but it is a bit yellowish.

I am happy to have the real plane after all. I have uploaded many photos to the album and of course to Flickr too. One more extra: for hardcore readers I have uploaded the LXF file to this page so that you can try it on Lego Digital Designer.

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.