Category Archives: Model Team

Super Skyline

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It’s the early-’80s, and everything is ‘turbocharged’; sunglasses, baseball caps, pens… plus, in rare cases, cars. This is one of them, the nuts Nissan Skyline KDR30 ‘Super Silhouette’.

First racing in 1982, the KDR30 was built on a tubular steel space-frame, with sort-of-Skyline sedan bodywork placed over the top, hence the moniker.

A 2.1 litre straight-4 engine was mounted upfront, attached to the mother and father of all turbos. The result was nearly 600 flame-splitting horses, powering the KDR30 to multiple race wins in Group 5 from 1982 to 1984. And many a Grand Turismo racer – as that’s how most readers will know this car – into the digital armco.

This spectacular brick-built replica of the Skyline KDR30 ‘Super Silhouette’ is the work of TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has recreated the formidable 1982 racer in astonishing detail.

Underneath the wonderfully accurate body – which wears the real car’s racing livery – is a fully remote controlled drivetrain, courtesy of a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery, an L Motor powering the rear wheels, and a Servo the steering.

A detailed working replica of the 4-cylinder engine, and the massive turbo that accompanied it, can be found up front, with it – as well as the trunk and hood – easily removable.

3D-printed wheels complete the incredible realism, and the car is available to build in both remote control and manual configurations via Nico’s excellent building instructions, which he’s released alongside full details and imagery.

You can find them and the complete specifications at Nico’s website, the full gallery on Brickshelf, and you can watch both the model and the real car in action (the real one spits considerably more flame) via the video below.

YouTube Video

Heavyweight Boxer

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This is the Boxer Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), a cross-European military project led by Germany and the Netherlands. In production since 2009, the 1,000bhp multi-role armoured truck has seen service in Afghanistan and forms part of the NATO Response Force, with around 700 units built to date. TLCB’s home nation is about to double that number, with Australia, Lithuania, Ukraine and various other countries also current or prospective customers.

This enormous brick-built replica of the Boxer comes from Rolands Kirpis, who has successfully recreated the IFV in spectacular fashion, despite the technical imagery and specifications of the real thing being rather secret!

Twin Power Functions XL Motors drive all eight fully-suspended wheels, the front two axles steer, and there’s a fully-kitted interior, gun turret, and cockpit too. It’s a spectacular build and there’s plenty more to see at Rolands’ ‘Boxer IVF’ album – take a look at all of the excellent on-location imagery via the link above.

Easter Egg Hunt

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We’re not sure how The Lego Car Blog Elves recreate (although we have ideas…), but recreate they must do, because despite the loses to dogs, seagulls, and one-another, we always seem to have around the same number. This means there is always a proportion of newer ones that are not yet office-trained, but that’s OK, they’re confined to their cage-room at night.

Except when someone [shoots daggers across the office at our intern], doesn’t lock their door. Thus now there are little Easter Eggs laid around the building, and we have to go on the most depressing of Easter Egg Hunts.

Luckily however, one of the older Elves discovered a creation that can help us, this spectacular – and utterly enormous – fully remote controlled Liebherr R964 tracked excavator.

Constructed by Master MOCer Dennis Bosman (aka legotrucks), this gargantuan creation is not only a perfect 1:17 visual replica of the 75 ton machine, it moves like the real thing too, with a suite of Control+ electronics hidden inside to recreate the movement of the tracks, superstructure, and the massive bucket-arm.

Of course being primarily a truck-builder, Dennis’s Liebherr R964C is transported on an equally brilliant Scania T143 truck and a huge low-loader trailer, each wearing the livery of the British transport firm H.C. Wilson.

It’s a monumental combination, measuring 175cm in length, and presented beautifully via nearly thirty stunning photos at Dennis’ ‘Liebherr R964C’ album on Flickr. Click on the link above to take a closer look at one of the most impressive vehicular creations you’ll see this year, whilst we use it to find, and dispose of, some Elven ‘Easter Eggs’…

Sweet Truck

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This delightful DAF FAS 2600 truck was found by one of our Elves today, and it comes complete with an equally satisfying drawbar trailer. The work of serial-bloggee Arian Janssens, this beautifully detailed classic combo was used to transport sugar beet, and there’s more to see of his confectionary carrying creation on Flickr. Click the link above for a taste, whilst we award the Elf that found it with an appropriately sweet treat.

[Insert Inevitable Crash]

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Regular readers of this site will be well aware of the Ford Mustang’s ability to stack it into a bus stop when leaving a car meet. There’s something about the combination of a V8 and a low entry price that draws in knuckle-dragging morons for owners.

LEGO, keen to target said demographic, have introduced their own officially-licensed Ford Mustang Dark Horse set to the Speed Champions line for 2024, so you can recreate your very own Mustang crashes at home.

But what if you’d like a slightly larger crash? Well then you’ll need a slightly larger Mustang, and previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks) has just the car!

50% wider than the 76920 Speed Champions set at 12-studs, Szunyogh’s Mustang Dark Horse features a corresponding increase in detail, with a beautifully executed exterior including opening doors and hood, and some very clever SNOT-work to replicate the latest Mustang’s creases. Before the owner inevitably adds some more.

Better yet, the model includes fully-detailed running-gear too, with a brick-built engine, drivetrain, suspension, exhaust, steering, and even brakes (not that the average Mustang owner will use the last two).

There’s loads more to see at Szunyogh’s ‘Mustang Dark Horse’ album on Flickr, and you can head to the side of the road outside a car meet to await the inexorable accident via the link above.

Trucking Tuesday

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It’s a trucky sort of day here at The Lego Car Blog. Today’s second classic lorry comes from previous bloggee Martin Nespor, who has elected not to tell us what it is. No matter, because it’s still a lovely build, with a removable cab and ‘wooden’ load bed, a beautifully detailed chassis and engine, and there’s a matching drawbar trailer too. There’s more to see at Martin’s photostream, and you can check out all of the top-quality images via the link above.

Do As The Romans Do

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Or, in this case, do as everyone else does. This a Roman SR 113/114 truck, built in Romania in the 1960s, using – as many Communist manufacturers did – designs licensed from Western companies.

Early Roman trucks were clones of Soviet ZIL designs, however by the late ’50s Roman looked west for their engineering sources. Launched in 1958 the SR 113/114 truck used a Ford-designed engine mounted ahead of a French cab, and was available in a tipper, crane, military specifications.

Mercedes-Benz and Perkins engines powered export versions, and the model was built for around a decade before being superseded by designs licensed from West Germany’s MAN.

This excellent recreation of the Roman SR113/114 is the work of newcomer Pufarine, who has captured the classic Romanian truck beautifully. Fitted with Power Functions remote control drive and steering, Pufarine’s model also features opening doors, a raising hood, and a dropping tailgate, and there’s more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks.

Click the links above to do as the Romans did. Which, as it turns out, was whatever the Soviet Union, America, France, and West Germany were doing.

Golfing Blues

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This TLCB Writer thinks it must be hard being a golfist.

Walking around a boring field with terminally uninteresting people, the requirement to wear stupid trousers at all times, pretending to be a company director, the extortionate price of golf bats, permanently chasing an unreachable handicap…

Nope, this writer prefers the wheeled version of the word, particularly in subtly-modified Mark 1 form, as we have here courtesy of ZetoVince of Flickr.

Cunningly constructed to recreate the angular ’70s Giugiaro styling, Zeto’s Golf is a fantastic homage to the definitive European hatchback, and there’s more to see of his superbly-presented model on Flickr. Click the link above to go golfing, without having to talk to a ‘director of sales’ or wear stupid trousers at all.

Magic Mazda

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Modifications are an integral part of the automotive scene. Mostly for the worse of course, as Brad in his garage is not going to better the five years and $billions in development completed by the world’s best engineers before each model to hits the market*.

Sometimes though, modifications do work – particularly when the aforementioned engineers embrace this likelihood – and no-one does that better than Japan.

Cue the wild Mazda RX-7 we have here today, which is not only depicting modifications to the real car, it’s also a model modifying another… well, model.

Constructed by builtbydave_, this ‘TCP Magic’ RX-7 is loosely based on a design by fellow bloggee 3D supercarBricks, and features significant aero enhancements, opening doors, and a beautifully detailed 20B 3-rotor engine underneath the raising hood.

There are more superb images of builtbydave_’s modified Mazda to see at his ‘TCP Magic Rx7’ album on Flickr, and you can magic your way there via the link above.

*Not including anything American from the 1990s of course. Or Fiat.

Bubbly Chocolate

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Volvo’s newly announced FH Aero truck has got this TLCB Writer thinking about bubbly chocolate. Because he’s very distractible. And he likes Aeros. But do the bubbles mean there’s less actual chocolate?

Whatever, back on task, this splendid brick-built replica of the new Volvo FH Aero 62 comes from Stefan Eeckman, who had some insider knowledge in order to create his model so swiftly after the actual truck’s reveal.

A tilting cab, Powered-Up remote control drive and steering, and some really very tricksy building techniques are available to view on both Flickr and Eurobricks, and you can take a look via the links above whilst this Writer hunts down some bubbly chocolate.

Extra! Extra!

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This is a Dressta 530R Extra wheel loader, and seeing as we know less about wheel loaders than The Brothers Brick do about talking to girls, we have absolutely no idea what the ‘Extra’ bit means. Or the ‘530R’ bit…

Anyway, our incompetence aside, the model is rather good, coming from Bricksley of Flickr, featuring pendular suspension, a posable arm and bucket, and an articulated frame. There’s more to see at Bricksley’s ‘Dressta 530R Extra’ album and you can head there via the link above if you’re wheelie diggin’ it*.

*No we don’t know how to talk to girls either.

Jesse’s Escape

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Breaking Bad, aka The Best Thing That’s Ever Been On Television, nailed its car choices. Walter White’s Aztek, the Fleetwood RV meth lab, Mike Ehrmantraut’s old sedans, Gus Fring’s understated Volvo… each was perfectly cast.

The final vehicle in the series was this, a 1981 Chevrolet El Camino, its owner recently deceased, used in Jesse Pinkman’s escape and subsequent movie of the same name.

Constructed by previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz, this Model Team recreation of Breaking Bad’s last car includes opening doors and hood, working steering, a detailed interior, and a realistic engine, with lots more to see on Flickr.

Building instructions are available, you can click the link above to take a look, and here to see that final scene.

Insert Balding Divorcee

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Whilst the Trans-Am is driven by shady gamblers, the Mustang by jocks who crash almost immediately, and the Challenger by morons, the Corvette has a rather different consumer base.

Despite on the face of it being a rather similar vehicle to the aforementioned threats to public safety, the Chevrolet Corvette is owned exclusively by balding recently-divorced golf enthusiasts, who spend more time polishing them than they do behind the wheel.

Which perhaps makes the Corvette, along with the Lexus ES, the safest car in America.

This splendid example is a 1970s ‘C3’ generation, as constructed beautifully by previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs. There’s an opening hood, opening doors, and a detailed drivetrain, with much more to see on Flickr. Click here to get polishing before you head to the golf club.

Bygone Motorsport Win

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Endurance racing is about to get properly exciting. After years of single team dominance due to limited competition, this year nineteen entrants across nine manufacturers will compete for the outright win.

One of several new or returning manufacturers, BMW will rejoin the top tier of endurance racing nearly a quarter of a century since they competed with this, the wild V12 LMR.

Using the same the engine as the Le Mans winning McLaren F1 GTR, the BMW V12 LM was developed with then-Formula 1 World Champions Williams, and deployed the new open-cockpit prototype rules against the old-school sports car designs in use by other teams. And it was… rubbish.

Slow, unreliable, and retiring after just a few dozen laps, the 1998 car was a disaster. So BMW and Williams started again, and returned in 1999 with this, the radically re-designed V12 LMR.

The all-new bodywork transformed the car, with it qualifying on pole and winning the first race it entered, at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The big prize however was Le Mans, and despite fierce competition from Audi, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and others, it was a BMW V12 LMR that took (perhaps thanks to a little bit of luck) the overall win. Quite a turnaround from the embarrassment of the year before.

The team entered again in 2000, but a decade-long period of total Audi dominance had begun, and thus BMW withdrew the V12 LMR before the season was up.

BMW turned their attention instead to Formula 1, where the team continued their successful partnership with Williams. Thus without the V12 LMR, a BMW engine may never again have powered a race-winning Formula 1 car.

Suggested to us by a reader, PROTOTYP. of Flickr remembers BMW’s Le Mans glory with his fantastic V12 LMR model, riding atop 3D-printed replica wheels and with stunning period-correct vinyl decals.

Superbly presented, there’s more of the model to see at PROTOTYP.’s ‘BMW LMR LMP Le Mans 1999’ album, and you can click the link above to jump back to Le Mans 1999. BMW will sure be remembering it too, as they return to Le Mans later this year, some 25 years on…

Case Study

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Whilst we are predominantly a Car Blog, we do like a Big Red Tractor. Because we’re children. And this one is excellent.

Constructed by newcomer Jacob Sitzberger it’s a Case IH 395, the smallest of Case’s 1990s 95-series tractors.

No only is Jacob’s model beautifully detailed, it also includes a working three-cylinder engine, a steered front axle with pendulum suspension, a rear power-take-off and three-point-hitch, and it comes with a variety of attachments.

An extensive gallery of images is available to view at Jacob’s ‘Case IH 395’ album on Flickr, where a link to its LEGO Ideas page can also be found. Click the link above to make the jump if you like Big Red Tractors as much as we do.