The 1940s to 1960s were not just the peak of American automotive design, but perhaps the peak of all automotive design. Even cheap American cars were penned with absolute joy, with fabulous curves, chrome highlights, and brilliant two-tone paint, as evidenced by this gorgeous 1940s Chevrolet Fleetline Fastback.
Powered by an inline-6 and built in half-a-dozen factories across the US, the Fleetline accounted for almost a third of all Chevrolets sold at the time, with this lovely Model Team recreation coming from Vibor Cavor of Flickr.
Working steering, opening doors, hood and trunk, and a wonderfully lifelike interior and engine all feature, and you can head back to when even base American cars were things of beauty via the link to Vibor’s ‘Chevrolet Fleetline Fastback’ album above.
This site is, admittedly, usually full of vehicles with stripes, spoilers, and V8s. But we’re actually rural bumpkins at heart, so we’re also rather fond of vehicles and scenes like this one.
Constructed by Andrew Tate (no, not that one), this lovely vintage vignette captures truck trading from decades gone by, and you can take a look at a quieter time rebuilt in brick via the link above.
As we type this, twenty cars are currently in a one-and-a-half-hour traffic jam in the streets of Monaco. Which is really boring. So here’s a more interesting F1; the first Ford F-Series pick-up, a vehicle that would became one of the most successful models in history.
Built by previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz, this lovely recreation of the 1948 Ford F1 includes working steering, opening doors, double-hinged hood and tailgate, plus a detailed engine and interior.
Building instructions are available and you can see more at Jakub’s ‘Ford F1 1948’ Flickr albumand at the Eurobricks forum, where there’s not an over-priced ticket nor procession masquerading as a motor race in sight.
It’s the 29th of December 1944, and RCAF Squadron 411 is in a battle with a group of Luftwaffe fighters over Osnabrück in western Germany.
At the controls of his Supermarine Spitfire IXe, Fight Lieutenant Dick Audet has an FW190 in his sights. The Spitfire’s guns tear into the enemy aircraft, until – after a moment – it rolls over and plunges downwards to destruction.
Audet watches for a few seconds, before snapping back to the fight raging around him, and turns his sights to the next German fighter. Over the next five to seven minutes Audet destroys a further four enemy aircraft, astonishingly becoming both an ‘Ace-in-a-Day’ and the only Spitfire pilot to achieve Ace status in a single sortie.
Audet would go on to fly over fifty sorties, claiming eleven enemy kills, before he too was killed in action, brought down in March of 1945 by the anti-aircraft defences of the German train he was strafing.
This spectacular homage to Fight Lieutenant Dick Audet was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr, and comes from crash_cramer, who has recreated Audet’s glorious Supermarine Spitfire IXe in massive 1:9 scale.
Measuring over a metre long and with a 120cm wingspan, this incredible brick-built replica doesn’t look like LEGO at all, such is its phenomenal realism. Admittedly, that might be because a few components are not in fact LEGO, with the propellor spinner, exhausts, wheel caps, guns, aerial, and outer-wing leading edges meticulously 3D-printed, whilst the cockpit canopy is vacuum-formed.
A green vinyl wrap recreates the Spitfire’s camouflage, with superb decals replicating the roundels and squadron markings of Audet’s fighter.
The result is very probably the most accurate aircraft that this site has ever featured, and you can find all of the stunning imagery, plus read more about the build and the amazing story of Fight Lieutenant Dick Audet, at crash_cramer’s photostream. Join us there via the link in the text above.
We run a tight ship here at The Lego Car Blog. Models need to be of the highest quality of course, but so does their presentation. We have a whole page explaining the need for clean uncluttered backgrounds, so, um… here’s a model with a messy cluttered background.
It looks fantastic though doesn’t it? Just look at that reflection. Martin Spunkt‘s Kübelwagen shows how outdoor photography should be done, and there’s more to see of the model that’s earned him his TLCB debut via the link above.
This beautiful creation is a Hawker tempest Mk.V, the last British piston-engined fighter, and one of the fastest aircraft to ever fly in the Second World War.
Able to shoot down V1 flying bombs as they made their way across the English Channel, the Tempest excelled at low altitude interception, and later evolved to become the carrier-based the Sea Fury.
This example wears the markings used for the 1944 Normandy landings, and was flown by ace Wing Commander Roland ‘Bee’ Beamont, who shot down nine enemy aircraft and thirty-one V1 flying bombs.
Constructed by Juliusz D., the incredible Tempest pictured here includes working landing gear, flaps, and vertical stabiliser, and joins his other spectacular Second World War aircraft including the Supermarine Spitfire and P-51 Mustang.
There’s much more of Juliusz’s beautiful Hawker Tempest to see at his photostream, and you can fly over Northern France in Britain’s last piston-engined fighter via the link above.
This is a Messerschmitt Bf 109F, the backbone of the Lufftwaffe’s fighter force throughout the entire of the Second World War.
First flying in 1937, the Bf-109 was one of the most advanced fighters in the world, with an all-metal monocoque, fully enclosed canopy, retractable landing gear, and a liquid-cooled inverted-V12 providing 700bhp.
Over 30,000 units were produced for use in the Luftwaffe and the air forces of Nazi Germany’s allies, making it the most numerous fighter aircraft in history, with final units eventually retiring from the Spanish Air Force in 1965.
This incredible brick-built example of the Messerschmitt Bf 109F is the work of previous bloggee JuliusZ D., who has recreated the aircraft in stunning 1:33 detail.
Beautifully constructed in North Africa colours, there’s lots more gorgeous imagery to view at Juliusz’s ‘Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4/trop’ album on Flickr, where the model is also pictured alongside his fantastic Supermarine Spitfire that appeared here a few weeks ago.
And fortunately for TLCB’s home nation (and the rest of the world), good as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 was, it was that Spitfire that won in the end.
This TLCB Writer can think of little more terrifying in the Second World War than being part of an Atlantic Convoy, traversing the frigid waters all the while knowing that death lurked beneath at any moment. Little more that is, other than being on the aforementioned submerged death itself.
Nazi Germany built around 1,100 U-Boats during World War 2, of which almost 800 – or 2/3 of the fleet – were sunk.
This superb diorama of one of those 1,100 ships, depicted here breaking the waves of a choppy Atlantic, is the work of Ralph Savelsberg, who has captured not just the U-Boat but also the ocean in which it operates in spectacular realism.
Built as part of a display for the Brickfair Virginia show, there’s more to see of Ralph’s beautifully presented model at his ‘U-Boot Diorama’ album, and you can head out onto the waters of World War 2 via the link above.
The phenomenal Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is surely one of the reasons that Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers were eventually defeated, bringing World War 2 to its end. Fitted to a huge array of aircraft, including JuliusZ D.’s recently blogged P-51B Mustang, the 27-litre British V12 is perhaps most famous for one particular application; the beautiful Supermarine Spitfire fighter.
Joining his P-51B Mustang, Juliusz has updated his Supermarine Spitfire model, photographing the two Allied fighters together (as shown in the image above), and refining the design much like the British engineers did during the conflict, with this variant being a Mk.XVIe as operated by the Polish Air Force.
Juliusz’s stunning build quality and presentation are immediately evident, and you can see more of his spectacular Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVIe, plus the North American P-51B Mustang which shared the Spitfire’s iconic Merlin engine, at his photostream; click these words to take a look.
The Lego Car Blog has published dozens of Mustangs over the years. But not all of them are the four-wheeled variety.
This is the North American P-51B Mustang III, built to bolster Allied fighter number numbers over Europe during World War Two.
Outfitted with the British Rolls-Royce Merlin supercharged engine, the P-51 Mustang scored an incredible 6,000 kills, many delivered by the Polish Air Force as they battled for air superiority over Germany in the final two years of the war.
This astonishing Lego version of the British-engined, American-designed, Polish-operated North American P-51B Mustang III is the work of JuliusZ D. of Flickr, who has captured the iconic fighter in magnificent fashion.
Accurate brick-built camouflage, an authentic livery, working control surfaces, and retractable landing gear all feature, and there’s more to see of JuliusZ’s phenomenal P-51B Mustang model at his Flickr album. Click the link above to fly over hostile Germany in 1944.
Humanity still enjoys a good war every now and then. And, because it’s been five minutes since the last conflict in the Middle East, a new one is pulling more and more nations, factions and regions towards it.
Of course for those caught within its gravity the conflict is a necessity, a fight for justice, freedom, and the will of God. Whichever side they are on.
The Second World War was perhaps a clearer fight between, perhaps not Good, but certainly against Evil. The Nazis’ ideology, with all of its death, pain and dehumanisation, was eventually defeated, and – whilst countless nations made enormous sacrifices – had the U.S remained neutral an Allied victory would have been all-but-impossible.
Hitler never sought to invade the Unites States, yet over 16 million Americans served during the conflict, of which 300,000 never returned home, and financing the war cost almost 40% of America’s GDP by 1945.
Capturing one tiny moment amongst the thousands in which the U.S contributed, previous bloggee Nicholas Goodman is here depicting the U.S push across Europe in the summer of 1944. A Willys Jeep, Sherman tank, and custom mini-figures pause to regroup, all carefully and accurately recreated in brick-form.
There’s more of Nicholas’ beautiful wartime builds to see on Flickr; take a look via the link above, and you can click here to see one way you can help today, as war spirals out of control once again.
The Lego Car Blog Elves, who are effectively mythical toddlers, like eye-searing colours. Yellow. Orange. Pink. A combination of all of them. If they could choose a car’s colour scheme it would probably look like this.
TLCB staff however, prefer far more muted hues. As do 95% human adults, judging the almost universally monochrome cars on the roads of our home nation. If a car isn’t black, silver, grey or white, it’s because the owner must be an obnoxious show-off.
Previous bloggee K P certainly shares this school of thought, creating this rather beautiful Jaguar-ish / Bentley-esque classic car from three monochrome colours, which are neatly reflected in the driver’s attire too.
The dog remains light brown though. The obnoxious show-off.
Inventive parts usage and excellent building techniques abound, and there’s more to see of K P’s lovely classic luxury car on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look, whilst we ponder why colour adventurism fades as we age, and consider if we should paint the office Rover 200 orange. And pink.
After decades of peace, Europe is once more at war, thanks to an under-endowed dictator intent on re-colonisation. However the last time war raged along Russia’s borders, it was defending against, rather than fighting for, a maniacal despot.
This wonderful diorama depicts a small part of that fight, when in 1942 German ace Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was shot down by a Soviet Air Forces Hawker Hurricane, crash landing on an icy lake.
His Messerschmitt Bf 109 slipped through the ice to the bottom of the water, but Wolf-Dietrich survived to continue his service in the Luftwaffe, before finally being killed in action in March of 1944, with a scarcely believable 162 victories to his name.
Constructed by Jonah Padberg, this beautiful creation captures the moment of Wolf-Dietrich’s crash, and you can visit the frozen lake on which he landed, before it claimed his Messerschmitt Bf 109 but not his life, via the link above.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we are definitely petrol-heads. And electric-heads perhaps too. We like cars is what we’re trying to say.
Because of this, we prefer our cars with rear-wheel-drive and manual gearboxes, for reasons of steering feel, the ability to go sideways a bit, and other nerdy car things that normal people couldn’t care less about. Which is why front-wheel-drive matters.
Creating safer, more predictable (understeery) handling, greater interior room, and better refinement, front-wheel-drive has been the absolute norm for anything that isn’t sporty for the past four decades.
Even brands famed for their rear-wheel-drive chassis like BMW have switched to front-wheel-drive for their smaller models, after learning their customers had no idea that their 1-Series was rear-wheel-drive, or even what being rear-wheel-drive means. Sigh.
Front-wheel-drive was dabbled with in the early years of motoring, but this is the car that proved the layout, decades before it became mainstream. It is the fabulous Citroen Traction Avant.
Possessing not just front-wheel-drive, but also the first mass-produced monocoque body and early rack-and-pinion steering, the Traction Avant was so advanced it was produced for two decades, something that was needed as its development bankrupted the Citroen company in the mid 1930s.
Today the Traction Avant is seen as the father of front-wheel-drive, and therefore most new cars on sale today (even if your car is all-wheel-drive, it’s still almost always only front-driven).
It’s surprising then that the Traction Avant has only featured here twice in a decade of publishing Lego vehicles. Cue this wonderful and much overdue Technic recreation of one of the world’s most innovative cars, as built by the very talented Nico71.
Beautifully replicating the Traction Avant’s ’30s styling, Nico’s model includes a working four-cylinder engine under the split-folding hood, four opening doors and an opening trunk, working steering, and – of course – front-wheel-drive.
The complexities of front-wheel-drive mean that – much like cars before about 1980 – very few Lego models adopt it, favouring the simplicity of a rear-driven axle. Nico’s model successfully incorporates it however, and he’s released building instructions so you can see how to create front-driven Lego models for yourself.
There’s much more to see at Nico’s Brickshelf gallery, you can watch the model in action via the video below, plus you can find out how Nico creates beautifully engineered models like this one via his Master MOCers interview. Understeer your way to all the additional content via the links above.
This beautiful aircraft is a CANT Z.506 Airone floatplane, one of the fastest, most-advanced, and highest flying aircraft of the 1930s. Powered by three Alfa Romeo radial engines, the Z.506 was first developed as a luxury airliner, wherein it set numerous aeronautical world records.
Such success inevitably led to the development of military versions, with the design used by the Italian Airforce for maritime patrol, bombing and torpedo operations, first in the Spanish Civil War (leading to the Franco dictatorship) and then by Italy’s own dictator Mussolini in the Second World War, where it played a significant role in Italy’s invasion of Greece, and bombing French North Africa. Yay fascisim.
Anyway, 1930s and ’40s Dictator willy-waving wasn’t really the CANT Z.506’s fault, and the aircraft continued to fly long after Mussolini was deposed and Italy switched sides, operating in search and rescue until 1959, which is far more noble.
This one is isn’t a search and rescue aircraft though, instead being an early example from the Spanish Civil War, thusly equipped with four machine guns and a 1200kg bomb payload. Flickr’s Eínon is the builder behind it, and there’s more to see of their brilliant Lego version of the CANT Z.506 Airone at their photostream. Click the link above to join the 1930s fight for fascism…
