This Ford Model A flatbed, or ‘ute’ for our Australian readers, is the work of Aussie builder Parrington Levens. Mr. Levens has utilised* some very old parts for his very old truck, and they look rather nice in this context. You can see more of this beautiful ute on MOCpages.
*Sorry.
The very best Lego vehicles in the world feature here at The Lego Car Blog. But the quality isn’t limited to just the build – the standard of presentation must be exceptional too. If you’re here wondering ‘How do I get my stuff to look that good?’, Flickr’s Konajra gives us an insight into the easiest and most accessible way to make your creations look the business.
Konajra’s behind-the-scenes shot above reveals the secret. Simple huh? A plain coloured background – often white but any contrasting colour will do – and curved to remove the shadows in the corners, is all you need to make your Lego creation look like something from The LEGO Group themselves.
Some builders add proper photography lighting to their set-up, but natural light is actually the best way to illuminate your model – so wait for sunny day!
Once you’ve got your shots upload them into any one of the variety of image editing tools, such as Gimp, Photoshop, iPhoto and even Microsoft Paint. Many builders will spend days perfecting their images, but a quick crop, auto-enhance and watermark (if you’re protective) is all that it takes to make a big difference.
Once you’re happy with how your images look you’re ready to upload them to your chosen creation-sharing website, however it’s worth noting that the quality of your images can be constrained by the site uploader. As such we recommend uploading to Flickr, and then using the embed function to transfer your images to your other online accounts.
Follow the above steps and you should end up with photos like Konajra’s ‘Zwarte Zee’ below, and they’ll be good enough to appear on one of the major Lego blogs, maybe even this one!
If you’ve discovered a creation that you think qualifies to appear here at The Lego Car Blog you can check its suitability by visiting our Submission Guidelines page – if it meets our requirements then let us know!
…or Herbie goes to Classic Space.
One of the Elves is the happy recipient of a red Smartie today, having returned from MOCpages with a happy red spaceman and this Lunar Surface Hopper. Its creator, Gerald F, has made our job easier by including his name and the MOC’s title on his photo. Anything that can help with our confusion over sci-fi posts is very welcome, especially as it’s just a couple of weeks away from the ever perplexing Ma.Ktober. Hop on over to see more of this little Classic Space vehicle by clicking this link to MOCpages.
It’s that time of year again when a crack team of The Lego Car Blog Elves is catapulted over the wall of The LEGO Group HQ in the hope of scooping next years’ LEGO line-up. Not all return (we’re pretty sure the guard dogs have learned it’s a tasty time of year), but for those that do fame and glory* await! We’re lucky enough to have sent a (mostly) successful Elf Team this year, and the photos they’ve returned with make for interesting viewing.
Unfortunately all of the images are under embargo at the moment, so it would be wrong of us to publish them just yet, but to whet your appetite here are some early details that we can share of what will be coming to stores in 2015;
Technic: Several small to medium sized Technic sets, some with wheels, some with tracks, and a few with pull-back motors. And a motorbike.
City: Construction equipment galore, a few things swampy and the usual array of emergency services. And a Unimog.
Pirates: Yaarr! They’re back!
Bionicle: (Sigh)
We’ll bring you further details** of the official 2015 LEGO line-up as we get nearer to Christmas; watch out for our 2015 set previews! In the meantime of course you can check out all our reviews of the current and past set line-ups by visiting the ever-expanding Set Review Library. Stay tuned!…
*OK, a meal token and a Smartie.
**Except Bionicle.
Uh oh. Our previous post today didn’t end well. Luckily Lego-vehicle-building legend Lino M has recreated real-vehicle-building legend Tom Daniels’ 1974 show rod ‘Vanbulance’, enabling us to patch up the Elves. OK, that’s a lie – the Vanbulance is completely useless for anything medical, but it looks cool and has a huge engine so the Elves are a little less grumpy now. See more on Flickr.
How many The Lego Car Blog Elves can you fit in the back of a Lego truck? We’re a bit drunk tonight so we’re going to find out with some ‘volunteers’ and Arian Janssens‘ GINAF 10×8 dump truck. For those outside the Netherlands – us included – GINAF are sort of re-badged DAF trucks. No, we’re not sure why either. Anyway, you can see more of this one via the link to Flickr above whilst we squash some Elves.
Being a car blog we best know the Messerschmitt company for stuff like this, but first and foremost they were an aviation manufacturer. This particular aircraft is probably the peak of the company’s achievements; The world’s first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262.
The 262 arrived too late in the Second World War to have an affect on its outcome, but it did change the course of aviation for ever, instantly making conventionally powered fighters obsolete. Today several examples of the 262 survive in museums, but sadly none that we know of are airworthy. We’ll make do with this one then, a wonderful recreation of the Luftwaffe’s finest aircraft by MOCpages’ Henrik Jensen. You can see more of the 262 and his other historic aircraft at the link.
Our Elves tend to favour big creations, with which they can run down their colleagues and smush them into the carpet. But here in TLCB office we like small creations too, showing what skill and clever parts usage can achieve over big budgets and unlimited bricks. Here are three of the best uploaded to the interweb this week. From left to right;
All are proof you don’t need access to a Legoland-sized pile of pieces to build something great. If you’ve found a small creation that you think should appear here you can let us know – just drop us a comment at the Feedback page.
This incredible gunship is the work of TLCB newcomer [Stijn Oom], who has realised the artwork of previous TLCB bloggee Pierre E Fieschi in three dimensional form. Stijn’s Lego recreation of Pierre’s ‘Hammerfall Gunship’ design is one of our favourite entries into this year’s Flickr SHIPtember competition. We won’t pretend to know anything about what this craft does, how it flies or who pilots it, but we do know awesome when we see it. Expect to see more of the Hammerfall on all the main Lego blogs very shortly, but to get in early take a visit to Stijn’s photostream via the link above.
After nailing* a sci-fi post yesterday we’re back to what we know; cars. These two will be instantly recognisable to many of you, they are of course the legendary Audi Quattro S2 and Lancia Delta S4 from the monstrous Group B era of the World Rally Championship. Flickr’s Dario Minisini is the builder, and you can see more of his recreations of the fastest and most dangerous racing cars ever built at his photostream.
*Er… yeah. Space.
Today we bring you what Drome Racers would’ve looked like if it were a series about Tiny Turbo supercars. Count Sepulchure’s pint-sized racecars, numbers 3 and 18, use some early 2000s printed pieces to create a very retro-feeling pair of supercar-esque creations that you should definitely check out. You can see more of the Count’s work over on Flickr (no relation to the Sesame Street character, though how we wish there could be).
This enormous black truck was unearthed by one of our Elves on Brickshelf. Built by Havoc it’s a Scania Topline and it features some simply incredible detailing. Havoc’s enabled this by building big; those wheels are from the official (and huge) LEGO Technic 8110 Unimog set. The full Brickshelf gallery is well worth your time – check it out via the link above.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we’re even more amateurish than usual when it comes to blogging space builds. But we heard your Mom likes a big rocket so we’re going to give it a go.
First up is Ryan Olsen’s lovely green spaceship. It features lots of great spacey things and is shown in space for added spaceness.
Below is this lovely blue spaceship, built by Flickr’s Tim Schwalf. It also features many excellent spacey things, so many in fact that it doesn’t even need to be pictured in space as it’s so spacey already.
Both spaceships are available to view on Flickr via the links above, where you can find lots more space-related information, spacey pictures, and general spacicity.
Explosions. Megan Fox. Product Placement. Explosions. More Megan Fox. And Explosions. That summarises the first instalment of the Transformers movie franchise, and it also explains why our workforce of horrible little Elves love the films so much.
As you’d expect the Elves are delighted with today’s Transformers find. Ralph Savelsberg is the builder, and you can see more of his brilliant transforming Bumblebee Camaro on Flickr.
Stephan N makes his second appearance here with this delightfully retro classic space rocket. We’re pretty sure those green classic spacemen are pleased with it. You can see all the images at both MOCpages and Flickr.