Tag Archives: 3D-Printing

Only By the Night*

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From a tiny and beautifully packaged vehicle to… er, not that. The Ram 1500 is a ‘full-size’ (read ‘bloody massive’ for non-Americans) pick-up truck, marketed first as a Dodge, and today spun-off as an independent brand.

Now in its fifth generation, the 1500 is available with an array of enormous engines and – as pictured here – also as a ‘Night Edition’, which according to Ram’s own website means “Boasting a menacing monotone exterior and backed by equally intimidating capability”.

The words ‘menacing’ and ‘intimidating’ appear a few times on the first page in fact, which suggests both that Ram really need a thesaurus, and also that the 1500 ‘Night Edition’ is very much not our kind of vehicle.

Despite the real truck’s pointless dick-waving, this Model Team recreation of the Ram 1500 ‘Night Edition’ is rather excellent however, and comes from previous bloggee 3D supercarBricks.

Featuring working steering and suspension, plus opening doors, hood, load cover and tailgate, 3D’s creation also includes a few 3D-printed pieces and custom wheels. Presumably to enhance the truck’s menacing monotone exterior and intimidating capability.

There’s much more to see at 3D’s photostream, and you can click the link above to check out all of the superb imagery.

*The first track from today’s title album. It’s a good one.

Brick-Built Bugatti

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The Bugatti Veyron is, somewhat unbelievably, nearly twenty years old. Re-borne via Volkswagen back in the 2000s, Bugatti set out to build the fastest production car in the world. Just because they could. And we like that. After a painfully fraught development the 1,000bhp Veyron did indeed take the record in 2005, reaching a top speed of over 250mph.

However despite being a decade older than this site, and re-setting what was thought possible for a road car, the Veyron has only appeared here twice in TLCB’s history. We’ve featured three times more Lada Nivas, five times the number of Trabants, and even twice as many Zuks (What? Exactly). Although perhaps that says more about TLCB than it does the online Lego Community…

Anyway, today the Bugatti Veyron is finally making only its third appearance here at TLCB courtesy of previous bloggee 3D supercarBricks of Flickr. 3D’s brick-built Bugatti recreates the record-holding hypercar brilliantly in brick form, although to our eyes there may be a few mildly controversial 3D-printed pieces to assist with the visual accuracy.

Nevertheless it’s an excellent model, and there’s more of it to see at 3D’s album on Flickr via the link above. And if you’re wondering what the heck a ‘Zuk’ is, there’s a link in the text above for that too.

Paint my Porsche

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This incredible car is a Porsche 911.2 Speedster, and it’s been built as a commissioned piece by previous bloggee 3DsupercarBricks.

Consisting of around 1,000 parts, with opening doors, front trunk, engine cover, and flip roof, 3D’s commissioned Speedster has – purists look away now – been custom painted in the real Porsche ‘Azzuro Thetys’ metallic paint to create the amazing aesthetic you can see here.

Custom 3D-printed wheels add to the authenticity and there’s much more of the painted Porsche to see at 3D’s photostream.

Click the link in the text above to take a look at all of the fantastic images, whilst we ponder whether spraying a Lego model faded-red-and-rust to accurately recreate the office’s Rover 214 would deliver the same wow factor as 3D’s ‘Azzuro Thetys’ metallic…

I Want a Painted Mac*

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The McLaren F1, once the fastest production car in the world, a Le Mans 24 Hours winner, and – if you are very rich indeed – a default choice for the car collection.

3D supercarBricks, whose Le Mans winning McLaren appeared here earlier in the year, has now turned his very talented hands to the road car, building this stunning maroon Model Team version as a commissioned piece.

The spectacular detail is achieved via some ingenious building techniques, plus 3D-printed wheels and maroon spray-paint, which aren’t strictly purist, but we suspect the owner of the real McLaren F1 (and member of the Bin Laden family) is probably used to things being rather more tailored than us peasants.

There’s more of the model to see at 3D’s ‘McLaren F1’ album, and you can make the jump to an air-conditioned garage somewhere in Saudi Arabia via the link in the text above.

*Today’s (butchered) title song.

2000GT

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In this writer’s opinion, the most beautiful car ever made is not a Ferrari, Bugatti, or other exotic… it’s a Toyota. A white one.

This is the 2000GT, Toyota’s record-setting 1967 sports car built in conjunction with Yamaha, and surely one of the most perfect car designs of all time.

This lovely Speed Champions recreation of the bewitching 2000GT comes from Thomas Gion, apparently taking eight iterations before the shape was right. 3D-printed wheels and some inspired parts choices make this well worth a closer look, and you can make the jump to 1967 via the link in the text above.

Ferrari LaFerrari | Picture Special

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You might think Japan has the stupidest car names. The Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard, the Daihatsu Naked, the Mazda Bongo Friendee, and (most ironically) the Mitsubishi Carisma – to name a few – are all incredibly daft, but the most ludicrous car name of all is surely the Ferrari The Ferrari.

The Ferrari LaFerrari is stupid only in name though, as in all other respects the Ferrari Ferrari Ferrari is one of the greatest hypercars of the modern age.

The first production car to feature an F1 kinetic energy recovery system, the LaFerrariFerrari produced 950bhp from its combination of a 6.3 litre V12 and an electric motor, whilst – somewhat superfluously – improving fuel economy over past V12 Ferraris by around 40%.

This jaw-dropping Technic replica of the Ferrari FerrariLaFerrari comes from T Lego of Eurobricks, who has recreated the 2013 hybrid hypercar in astonishing detail.

An unbelievably accurate exterior, complete with opening butterfly doors, engine cover and  front trunk, hides a modular chassis equipped with a V12 engine hooked up to an 8-speed sequential paddle-shift gearbox, dynamic suspension with nose-lift connected to the working steering, a deployable spoiler and aero flaps, and bespoke 3D-printed wheels.

It’s an incredible Technic creation and one you can take a complete in-depth look at via the Eurobricks forum, where a wealth of incredible imagery and full build details can be found. Click the link above to check out T Lego’s amazing model of the car so good that Ferrari named it twice.

An F1 Car for the Road

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…is always a terrible idea. Every few years a new ‘F1 car for the road’ is announced, and it is inevitably an unreliable, undrivable, top-trumps card.

But then Mercedes-Benz AMG decided to have a go, and the result is… an unreliable, undrivable top-trumps card.

However perhaps that’s not as daft as it sounds. All 275 units of the AMG Project One – each powered by a 1,050bhp 1.6 litre hybrid Formula 1 engine and costing $2.72 million – were sold out years before the first car was finished, to customers who will park them in their garages alongside seventeen other unused hypercars.

Which means the fact that the AMG Project One doesn’t work is as relevant to the ownership experience as calorie information is to a KFC bucket meal customer.

Cue 3D supercarBricks‘ excellent recreation of Mercedes-AMG’s ‘F1 car for the road’, complete with opening butterfly doors, 3D-printed wheels, and as much likelihood of actually being driven as its full-size counterpart.

Top drawer building techniques and high quality presentation abound, and there’s lots more of the model to see at 3D’s photostream. Grab a KFC bucket meal, ignore the calorie information, and take a look via the link above.

Rim Job

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This is a Porsche 918 Spyder, a mid-2010s plug-in hybrid hypercar powered by the combination of a 4.6 litre V8 and two electric motors for a total output of 875bhp. And 12 miles of electric range. Which we suspect most 918 owners use about as much as the Brothers Brick do the gym.

Pointless green virtue signalling aside, the Porsche 918 is a seriously impressive car, as is this superb Model Team recreation by Flickr’s 3D supercarBricks, who has captured the 918 brilliantly in brick from.

3D’s 918 model includes an opening front trunk, removable engine cover, and some excellent 3D-printed rims, which accurately portray the items fitted to the real car and further enhance the model’s realism.

A wealth of imagery is available to view, and you can take a closer look at the both 918 and the 3D-printed rims upon which it rolls via the link in the text above.

Stick it to ’em

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The Lego Car Blog regularly chastises LEGO for their increasing and often unnecessary use of stickers in sets. Said sticky pictures have been dubiously deployed to create details that should be constructed from actual LEGO pieces, until that is, they inevitably peel off and you’re left with no details at all. We hate them.

So here’s a creation covered in a veritable butt-ton of stickers…

No, we’re not consistent. But nuno_g_teixeira’s be-stickered recreation of the 1981 Monte Carlo rally-winning Renault 5 Turbo is glorious.

Underneath the beautifully accurate decals, custom 3D-printed wheels, steering wheel and Recaro seats applied by Nuno is Lachlan Cameron’s brilliant Technic Renault 5 Turbo road car that appeared here last month.

Nuno’s fantastic rallyfication of Lachlan’s design replicates the rally-winning Renault in spectacular detail, largely thanks to the incredible period-correct livery of which you can see more at Lachlan’s photostream. Maybe stickers are alright after all…

Printed Discs

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3D printing has changed the way things are made forever. Prototypes, one-offs, and recreations of long-lost parts can now be produced at a fraction of their previous cost thanks to computer-aided-design and little plastic granules.

Inevitably we’re now seeing 3D printed pieces appear in Lego creations too, including this one by regular bloggee Horcik Designs. Horcik’s cafe racer motorcycle uses a (very cool looking ) 3D printed front brake disc, which fits perfectly to the front wheel.

Steering, suspension, a piston engine, and a foot-peg operated two-speed transmission also feature, with these all built from standard LEGO pieces.

With LEGO themselves regularly creating new and bespoke pieces for official sets, we’re taking the stance that a model using a custom part doesn’t preclude it from appearing here.

You can see more of Horcik’s cafe racer at both Bricksafe and Eurobricks, the latter of which shows another of his creations that’s has gone (quite a long way) further down the 3D printing route…

By the Hammer of Thor

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The wise words of Ron Burgundy there, as today we have a recreation of one of the final two Koenigsegg Ageras built before production ended, the FE Thor.

Built by the aptly-named 3D supercarBricks of Flickr, this incredible recreation of one the worlds rarest, fastest, and most expensive hypercars includes opening front and rear clamshells, a removable roof, and custom LEGO-compatible 3D-printed wheels and windshield surround pieces.

There’s more to see of the Agera FE Thor at 3D’s photostream via the link above, plus you can buy the building instructions and the custom pieces used to create it at 3Dsupercarbricks.com here.

Perfect Porsche

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Lego Porsche 911

We quite like the current Porsche 911. In world of Audis with huge wheels, factory bodykits and privacy glass, Porsche’s supercar for the people is actually looking quite understated in comparison. However we like this one even more; Senator Chinchilla‘s beautiful classic 911 modified with 3D-printed wheels, a ducktail spoiler and a huge exhaust. So understated it isn’t, but for reasons that confuse us we want it so badly we might even send some Elves out on a mission of thievery. Senator’s superb modified Porsche was suggested to us by a reader and you can see all of the images at the link above.

Not a Car…

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Lego German Baureihe 41-241 Polarstern

It is in fact a Baureihe 41-241 Polarstern steam locomotive operated by Deutsche Reichsbahn, and, if we’re being honest, we only know that from the builder’s description. But we are a car blog so European railways of the 1930s are a bit outside of our (admittedly limited) skill set.

This stunning model is the work of previous bloggee, TLCB favourite, and Master MOCer BricksonWheels, and it’s a beautifully thought-out build. With exquisite custom 3D printed wheels and valve train (see the image below), plus two Power Functions XL motors and in-built IR receivers driving it, the Polarstern locomotive demonstrates an incredible attention to detail.

Lego 3D Printed Steam Train Parts

You can read further details of both the build and the real train, and see the full gallery of stunning imagery, at BricksonWheels’ photostream – click here to buy a ticket.

Lego Steam Locomotive BricksonWheels

Print-a-Buggy!

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Lego Dune Buggy 3D Printed Parts

Well, parts of one…

We usually only publish posts that feature genuine LEGO pieces here at TLCB (in fact it’s one of our submission criteria), however today’s creation warranted a closer look.

Built by TLCB regular Sariel, this Technic dune buggy features a few parts that you won’t find with an official LEGO logo on. That’s because they’ve been created using the relatively new phenomenon of 3D printing, which enables a Computer Aided Design (CAD) to be realised for real via plastic moulding.

Over the past few years the price of 3D printing has tumbled, meaning unique parts production is now within reach of many amateur designers and engineers (or morally-bankrupt individuals who think that the ability to print-your-own firearm is something the world needs…).

Fellow previous TLCB bloggee Efferman has put his design skills to use and created a range of custom components that LEGO themselves have yet to officially produce. These include a 5 stud long steering arm (vs. LEGO’s 6 stud long version), a heavy-duty differential, and some wonderfully bouncy suspension springs, all of which Sariel has fitted to his excellent remote controlled dune buggy.

Lego Buggy Custom Suspension Springs

The custom components appear to work beautifully with the standard LEGO Technic used in the rest of Sariel’s creation – especially the springs, which we’d love to test out ourselves (hint!) – and Efferman has designed a wide variety of other custom LEGO-compatible components that are available to purchase online. These include suspension and steering parts, pneumatic tanks, custom wheels, excavator buckets, plus a lot more that we’re not clever enough to understand.

You can view Efferman’s extensive range of unofficial 3D printed Lego components by visiting the Shapeways Store, plus you can see more of Sariel’s dune buggy demonstrating some of these parts in action via MOCpages at the link above, or by watching the ace video below.

YouTube Video: