As we approach Christmas here’s a build totally unsuited to the season of love and joy. But it is properly excellent.

The Mikoyan MiG-29 entered service in 1982 as one of the most competent fighters in the world. Designed for air-to-air combat against American fighters during the Cold War, the MiG-29 quickly adapted to become a multi-role aircraft, including air-to-surface and naval operations. It was also widely exported to a range of scummy dictatorships, with Iran, Cuba, Myanmar, Bulgaria, North Korea, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Iraq, Romania, Syria, and Yugoslavia all making purchases*. The fall of the Soviet Union has also meant that Russia is now openly hostile to some of the current operators of the MiG-29, which is a little odd.

The MiG-29 is also still in production today, making it one of the most successful fighter designs in history. Flickr’s Lennart C (aka Everblack) has added another to Mikoyan’s impressive production numbers with his superb Lego recreation of the MiG-29, complete with armaments and ground equipment.

Lennart’s replica of the iconic fighter captures the design brilliantly, with a multitude of cunning building techniques deployed to do so. Several further (and excellent) images of Lennart’s creation are available to see how he’s done it, and you can do just that at his MiG-29 album on Flickr via the link in the text above.

*Many of these are no longer scummy dictatorships.