Giant Lego Aircraft Carrier Finished

[garygnu]

I've seen pics of the work-in-progress linked here before, but now it's finished (http://www.megabunny.com/massive-lego-aircraft-carrier/).
Made by Malle Hawking, it's a scale model of the USS Harry S Truman. It includes electric lights and motors, too.

On a side note, what's this about Brickshelf shutting down (http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=126969)?

[Muffin]

I hear it is being deployed to the Horn of Africa for use in surface and air surveillance in Operation Enduring Freedom.

[Terrifel]

Give 'em hell, Harry!

Ahh man, and it's to mini-figure scale too! That is a thing of beauty.

[Quartz]

Bloody hell!

[Sitnam]

Just......how?

[garius]

thats wicked.

I like the comments at the bottom:

(In reply to two people saying that the guy who did was a loser)

Neon and TekGuy - Get a life. What did you two accomplish in a year that is so awesome. 2 level 70 character in WOW don't count.

[Pushkin]

The lego person scale is the nicest touch to it all :)

Makes me want to dig up all those old bricks and make something out of them all. Sadly most of them seem to be red, precluding me from building an Enterprise :smack:

[Hypno-Toad]

Sure the ship is impressive, but the aircraft look like they took more skill to figure out.

[garygnu]

How: He built it in sections, kinda slicing the ship up. You can see the seams here (http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1812420). It has accurate detail on the inside (http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1405858), too.

[Terrifel]

How: He built it in sections, kinda slicing the ship up. You can see the seams here (http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1812420). It has accurate detail on the inside (http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1405858), too.Now I'm confused. Why does the process of building the thing in sections leave visible seams behind? I mean, they're LEGOS! Why would the finished product display larger seams than the relatively tiny one between any two bricks? I would have thought that, even if the sections don't actually interlock, it should be possible to snug them up together neatly so that the seams don't show.

[Sunrazor]

My inner child is jumping up and down and clapping it's chubby little hands with glee! "Can I play with it? Can I, please?"

[gotpasswords]

Now I'm confused. Why does the process of building the thing in sections leave visible seams behind? I mean, they're LEGOS! Why would the finished product display larger seams than the relatively tiny one between any two bricks? I would have thought that, even if the sections don't actually interlock, it should be possible to snug them up together neatly so that the seams don't show.
Evidently, the ship was built in sections so it's transportable. As for why gaps are visible between them, if you look at the left side ofthe hull in this pic (http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1405858), (especially to the immediate left of the upper blue section) you can see that the bricks don't stay together perfectly, so it's understandable that there's some accumulated error in something this big, and the mating surfaces are a bit bowed, preventing them from sitting side by side perfectly.

[Terrifel]

gotpasswords: that makes a good deal of sense. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I myself have never attempted anything of this magnitude, but I can see how tiny differences could accumulate like that.

I can't get over how cute the little tableaux are. Medic! (http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1298145)

[Sitnam]

But how'd he get so many grey legos?

[Pushkin]

Yeah, does anyone else seem to end up with an awful lot of red Lego bricks from the basic buckets of bricks?

[N9IWP]

It is possible to order plates / bricks / whathaveyou from the Lego group.
http://us.factory.lego.com/pab/

Or better yet, check out
http://www.bricklink.com/index.asp
(Like eBay for Lego pieces)

Brian

[FlyingDragonFan]

Very impressive. I also like the added touch of the accompanying half-submerged submarine.

[Elendil's Heir]

I am awestruck. I hope it will visit both Annapolis and the Truman itself on its worldwide tour.