A title so cunning you could brush your teeth with it. You see, this wonderfully liveried aircraft is a Lockheed Martin LC-130H ‘Hercules’, only it’s fitted with skis instead of wheels.
We presume this means it’ll talk incessantly about its gap year in Val-d’Isère with other ski-planes at dinner, and spend most of each February drunk in a cabin at the bottom of a mountain.
It looks great though, and there’s more of the Hercul-skis to see at Evan M’s photostream. Click the link above to join us being drunk at apres-ski. Did we tell you about our gap year in Val-d’Isere?
This blueish greyish entity is a McDonnel Douglas F-15C Eagle, constructed rather neatly by Dornbi. Detailed landing gear, an array of exploding thingies under the wings, and custom decals are all included, and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link.
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 experimental fighter probably caused a few UFO sightings during its fifty secret test flights. Two YF-23s were built during the early ’90s for evaluation as the USAF’s next stealth fighter, nicknamed ‘Black Widow II’ and ‘Gray Ghost’ owing to their paint schemes.
Despite being faster and more agile than the competitor YF-22, it was the YF-22 that won the contract to be produced due to superior agility, becoming the Lockheed F-22 Raptor. Now de-classified (apart from top speed), the two experimental YF-23s reside in museums, meaning Ralph Savelsberg can talk about them.
His recreation of the ‘Gray Ghost’ includes an opening mini-figure scale cockpit, folding landing gear, and more ingenious building techniques in one build than this TLCB writer has used in his entire building career.
Head to Ralph’s photostream by the link above to see all the images. Just don’t talk to anyone about it.
Is there a more ironically named aircraft than this? The Corvair B-36 ‘Peacemaker’ was introduced in 1948 as an intercontinental strategic nuclear bomber, originally conceived to bomb Germany from the U.S should Britain fall during the Second World War.
With the largest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built (a truly enormous 230ft), the B-36 could travel for 10,000 miles carrying a nearly 40,000kg payload and is still the largest mass-produced piston engined aircraft in history, a title it will likely always hold.
Those piston engines were often not sufficient however, and four turbojets were later added to help the giant bomber get airborne. They didn’t help enough though, and the arrival of the jet age meant the Peacemaker was phased out just ten years after its introduction, replaced by the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress with all bar five of the nearly four-hundred aircraft built scrapped.
This amazing recreation of the short-lived yet still slightly terrifying nuclear-carrying monstrosity is the work of previous bloggee BigPlanes, whose magnificent Boeing 747 Air Force One appeared here last week. BigPlanes’ astonishing B-36D measures 6ft across, includes a complete mini-figure scale cockpit, and features functioning bomb bays, and there’s loads more to see at Big’s photostream via the link above.
This might be the most beautiful recreation of a butt-ugly vehicle we’ve yet published. The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed the ‘Warthog’, is a close air support aircraft – effectively providing air cover for front-line troops – that has served the USAF since the late ’70s.
Its, er… ‘unique’ appearance is dictated by the need for a short take-off and landing ability, significant firepower, and heavy armouring – due to the aircraft’s high likelihood of coming into contact with enemy forces.
This utterly brilliant Lego recreation of the A-10 Thunderbolt II comes from previous bloggee Plane Bricks of Flickr, who has nailed the challenging aesthetic thanks to a range of expertly deployed advanced building techniques, particularly evident in the engines and cockpit.
A huge gallery of images is available to view at Plane Bricks’ photostream – take a look via the link above.
This isn’t Henrik Jensen’s first Vought F4E Corsair. In fact he built one way back in 2014, which didn’t feature here as it didn’t quite meet our standards. Or we weren’t paying attention. One of those two anyway. Henrik’s second iteration updates his previous design with LEGO’s latest dark blue parts and folding wingtips, and adds a gloriously cool brick-built checkerboard engine cowling that frankly every plane should have. Custom decals complete the aesthetic accuracy and there’s more of Henrik’s superbly realistic F4E Corsair to see at his Flickr album by clicking these words.
We’re linking to that childish Austin Powers sketch today for good reason. Firstly because penis jokes are funny. Secondly because this Atlas-F inter-continental ballistic missile looks like one. And thirdly because it, and all the other fantastically pointless atomic weaponry developed during the Cold War, amounted to little more than chillingly dangerous willy waving.
The SM-65 Atlas was one of the USA’s numerous ‘my dick’s bigger than yours’ taunts, and being 85ft high and weighing 260,000 lbs it was admittedly pretty massive. But still completely pointless.
The Atlas-Fs were the first ICBM’s able to be deployed from underground silos, taking just ten minutes to launch. Six squadrons were armed with the F, with seventy-two of the things deployable at their peak (plus another fifty-seven of other variants), each armed with a warhead over a hundred times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.
This marvellous recreation of a horrendous machine comes from Flickr’s Ralph Savelsberg (aka Mad Physicist, who is perhaps living up to his name with this build), and is – somewhat unbelievably – mini-figure scale. A neat launch pad, silo, and two mini-figure missile boffins are included and there’s more to see at his photostream. Click the link above to wave your willy.
This is an F-82F Twin Mustang long-range fighter, and it really did look like this. Effectively two P-51 Mustangs bolted together (only apparently the USAF couldn’t do math), the F-82F wasn’t ready during the Second World War, but it did see service in the Korean War before the rapid advancements in jet engine technology ended its career. This excellent Lego recreation of one of America’s weirder aircraft comes from John Lamarck and there’s more to see on both Flickr and MOCpages. Click the links to view the full photo set, and for more double horse goodness click this secret link.
Neither Brains nor Lady Penelope but the United States’ Airforce aerobatic display team feature in this model from Jme Wheeler. Whilst other militaries use lightweight trainer aircraft to equip their teams, the USAF and the US Navy have traditionally used front-line fighters. At one point, both teams displayed using the large, heavy McDonnel Douglas Phantom II, a machine not exactly noted for its manoeuvrability.
This model is neatly chibi version of the current mount of the Thunderbirds: the Lockheed-Martin F-16. Jme Wheeler has captured the shape of the Viper in compact form, including its chines. He’s made a good choice in the big, bubble canopy that has allowed him to squeeze a minifigure into the cockpit too. It’s all topped off with a suitably abbreviated version of the Thunderbirds’ distinctive markings. Sadly, a group of Elves has got hold of the model and are busily trying to fly it across the TLCB offices by launching it from a high shelf. To get a view of the ‘plane when it was still in one piece, click this link to Flickr, where you can see more of Jme Wheeler’s Lego cars and ‘planes.
