If you are well immersed in the LEGO hobby you have likely participated in at least a few LEGO fan exhibits and conventions. These events are an excellent opportunity to see what other people are building, and depending on the nature of the event, you might even be able to display your own creations. Most of the LEGO models you will see at public events are very large, as they look the most impressive in large spaces. LEGO fans refer to big LEGO models and dioramas as S.H.I.P. projects, which stands for “Seriously Huge Investment in Parts”. Today I thought to discuss some of the basics of building very large models while keeping them strong, stable, and also easy to transport (which is very important if you want to display them publicly). And we will also address how to keep down the cost of large projects that could otherwise eat up your bank account. 🙂
➡ HOW TO SOURCE PARTS FOR A LEGO S.H.I.P.
To build large models you will need lots of parts. You can get individual pieces from the LEGO Pick-A-Brick section of the Online LEGO Shop, but at around 13 cents per piece on average, this method is expensive. You can also buy parts on BrickLink, a website similar to eBay but only for LEGO, with sellers from all over the world. While you can get good deals on BrickLink, if you need a lot of parts you will still find that the average will be at around 10 cents a piece. For regular LEGO elements the Pick-A-Brick Wall available at LEGO stores is one of the best options – if you are lucky enough to have one near you. The challenge with this method is that the Pick-A-Brick cups are tubular, which is not the most compatible shape with LEGO bricks. In the video below you can learn some neat techniques about how to fill your Pick-A-Brick cups with 2×4 bricks the most efficient way, which will bring the price down to less than 10 cents a piece.
There are other ways to save money on large LEGO projects. Many LEGO fans use LEGO DUPLO bricks to build up the interior of their models. DUPLO is inexpensive, and due to their large size, they can quickly create a strong framework. DUPLO is compatible with regular LEGO bricks, so you can easily transition over for creating the outer coverings of your model with standard LEGO elements. The interior of large LEGO projects can also be built up with “filler bricks”. These are LEGO pieces that are acquired cheaply from garage-sales and second-hand stores and may be discolored, badly scratched, or damaged in some other ways, but they are still good for building. Some people even like to use damaged bricks on the exterior of their model as an interesting feature (i.e. representing battle damage or aging).
➡ HOW TO MAKE A LEGO S.H.I.P. STRONG
Once you spend a fortune on parts, and start building your awesome S.H.I.P., you need to pay attention to making it strong enough, so it doesn’t crumble due to its size and weight. The most basic technique of stacking LEGO bricks is to lay them like real bricks. However if your project is very large, this technique may not be enough. LEGO Technic pieces are known for their strength, but it can be hard to connect them with regular LEGO elements. So you need to use a combination of LEGO Technic bricks and LEGO plates in order to build strong cross-section beams (see picture). This technique can support very heavy loads, as long as you use them throughout your LEGO model. Also, you can use LEGO Technic beams to connect brick walls together and give them more stability, as you can see in the picture below.
➡ HOW TO TRANSPORT A LEGO S.H.I.P.
If you want to transport your large LEGO project to a LEGO convention, or you just want to keep it mobile enough in case you need to move it in the future, it is a good idea to plan ahead. LEGO models can be very heavy and bulky, and they are also fragile, so moving them around can be difficult, or even impossible. However if you design mobility right into the project from the very beginning, moving it won’t be any harder than handling a regular size LEGO set. The key is to keep the model modular – meaning that it is built up of chunks that can easily connect and be taken apart. For buildings, this is usually achieved by covering each section with a layer of tiles to keep the surface smooth, with a lip around it to slide in the next section. The same thing can be achieved by using just a few studs to connect sections (you can see this style used in the LEGO floors of the LEGO Modular Buildings).
For large landscapes, you can simply build sections on baseplates that you can easily separate and connect, and hide the seams with strategically placed buildings and vegetation. For large shapeships, breaking them up in to modular chunks is a bit more complex, but if you plan ahead, you should be able to design some seams into them that allows them to be taken apart into manageable sections.
These are just some of the basics you need to keep in mind when planning for very large LEGO projects. They should give you a good foundation to get you started. You can learn other tips and tricks by talking with other LEGO fans at various LEGO shows and conventions. Collaborating with other LEGO fans on large projects can be part of the fun!
I’m a TFOL (Teen-Fan-of-LEGO), and run my ownYouTube channel where I share videos of some of my own LEGO creations, including some pretty large ones. Feel free to check them out. Thanks for reading! Feedback is welcome and also feel free to share your own tips and tricks for building very large LEGO projects! 😉
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As we have discussed recently, the long-awaited#21307 LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R is going to be released in just a few days (October 1st) You can read the full announcement, see pictures and watch a video-review here: LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R revealed! The project was submitted to LEGO Ideas by LEGO and Caterham fan Carl Geatrix back in 2014. Carl’s model was beautiful, and his enthusiasm contagious, so the project quickly gained many excited followers. Once the manufacturer of the real car (Caterham Cars) got behind the idea, it didn’t take long for it to reach the required 10,000 supporters to get LEGO’s attention. The project was approved, perfected by LEGO’s own designer, and now we have the final model, the #21307 LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R. I got an early copy of the set and had a chance to build it and tinker with it already, so today I thought to share with you my own experiences with this interesting car. 🙂
I’m going to start out with the very helpful introduction from the booklet that comes with the set. In case you are not familiar with the Caterham Seven, this will give you a good idea what kind of vehicle we are dealing with, so here we go: “Created by visionary Formula One designer, Colin Chapman, the Lotus Seven was a road-going sports car based on racing car principles and supplied to the customer as a build-it-yourself kit. A Lotus dealer in the Surrey town of Caterham saw a great potential for the tiny sports car, and in 1973 Caterham Cars bought the rights from Lotus and started to build the third generation ‘Series 3’ version, which remains in production today.”
So as you can see, the Caterham was developed as a built-it-yourself car kit, which already makes this car a perfect match for LEGO, another very much build-it-yourself hobby. Because the real-life vehicle was specifically made for tinkerers, there are many different versions and variations. When Carl originally proposed the project on LEGO Ideas, he knew he wanted a Caterham Seven, but wasn’t really settled on the exact model, configuration and color-scheme. I highly recommend checking out Carl’s LEGO Ideas page and flickr gallery for the different versions he built. It is also worth checking out the Caterham website for all the gorgeous cars they offer.
Okay, let’s read the introduction further:“Put side by side, an original Lotus Seven Series 3 from 1968 would look very similar to the cars being built nearly fifty years later. However, under the skin, Caterham has continued to refine and develop the car, ensuring that its overall racing performance is always highly competitive. The most powerful Caterham car to date, the Seven 620R, was revealed in 2013. With a 310BHP supercharged Ford engine developed by Caterham, coupled to a six-speed sequential racing gearbox; the 1261 lbs (572 kg) car accelerates from 0-63 mph (0-100 km) in just 2.8 seconds and has a top speed of 155 mp (250 kph). It also utilizes the latest in material engineering, with lightweight carbon-fiber used for the wings, interior panels, dashboard and seats, whilst the wheels and tires have been developed especially for the car.”
Based on what I knew about the car, and on Carl’s submission on LEGO Ideas, when I heard that LEGO approved the project, I thought they will release a set that will be very much like a build-it-yourself car kit with various customization options, including some interchangeable colors and parts. It seems however that at some point in the design process Carl, the car manufacturer, and LEGO’s own designer Henrik Andersen decided to settle for the Caterham Seven 620R in yellow and black. I find this disappointing. As you will see in my review of the set below, LEGO did put effort into making the car modular with easily removable sections, but I was expecting it to be more like the #21305 LEGO Ideas Maze, with at least some interchangeable and rebuildable areas. After all, the whole concept of this vehicle is that it’s customizable.
The last part of the introduction reads: “It is estimated that there are as many as 1,000 Sevens competing on any given weekend, with championships all over the world from Colombia to Taiwan. The Caterham factory in Dartford, Kent, continues to build 500 cars each year, with well over half of the cars being exported around the world. Although all export cars are now fully built like any other regular road car, customers in the UK still have the option to build their car from a kit, just like the original, and more than 100 do so each year.”
At the back of the booklet there is a bit of info about Carl Geatrix, who put so much energy, passion and enthusiasm into manifesting a LEGO Caterham set, and Henrik Andersen, the LEGO designer who turned Carl’s ideas into solid reality. The rest of the 170+ page booklet contains the instructions for building the #21307 LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R. The box itself is similar to the other LEGO Ideas boxes with a flip-up lid. The size of the box is the same as the #21305 LEGO Ideas Maze, but more shallow.
➡ LEGO IDEAS CATERHAM SEVEN – PARTS:The #21307 LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R comes with 771 pieces, in three set of numbered bags. While that’s not a very high piece-count, the set is full of very useful pieces, new pieces, and re-colors of old pieces. Some of the most noteworthy elements are the brand new 2×3 tiles (4 black, and 2 yellow), the resurrected macaroni tubes (2 black and 5 light-gray), the various small clip and bar pieces, inverted 1×2 curved slopes in black, balloon bottom in light-gray, a new 2×4 plate with center hole in light-gray, and the small bar with towball that has been used as a projectile in the LEGO Nexo Knights sets is now available in dark-gray! You also get 3 pink lipsticks. Yes, the Caterham is powered by lipstick! You weren’t expecting that, did you?! 🙄
The set also comes with an insane amount of printed pieces. All decorated pieces you see are printed – there are zero stickers. This includes white and bright-light-orange 1×4 plates with the Caterham logo (one for the front, one for the back of the vehicle), and a 1×4 black tile with silver and red printing for the engine. There are also various sizes of yellow tiles with black stripes that run through the hood all the way to the back, and printed bricks for the side. The nose-cone gets a beautiful Caterham Seven logo, and the back two small printed logos (you get an extra of the 1×1 round plate, which I have added to the steering wheel). The four break-disks are printed as well, which you don’t see at all in the assembled model – you have to remove the wheels to see how nice they are.
➡ LEGO IDEAS CATERHAM SEVEN – BUILDING EXPERIENCE: From the #1 bags you first build the four red and silver jacks to prop of the vehicle for repair and tinkering (you can store them in the trunk when not in use). You then build the very sturdy chassis for the car with mostly LEGO Technic elements. This assures that the vehicle has a strong frame that doesn’t fall apart. And you also build the fenders for the back wheels. I breezed through this section in a half an hour, and thought the rest of the vehicle will be easy too.
However the #2 bags is where the real fun begins and where you have to slow down to build the more intricate details. The engine is fantastic and fully removable. I think a little bit of color would have made it even better, but based on pictures I have seen, it is very accurate. Then you build the seats, the sides, and that big old exhaust pipe. I don’t want to spoil the experience for you, so I will just say that building all of these sections is very interesting. Even though I had to slow down to get everything right, it was never boring or repetitive. I was very impressed by all the clever solutions and how everything came together.
The design of the front fenders and how they attach to the main body is inspired (“bloody brilliant” as our British friends would say). Because the construction relies on various clips and bars there is a lot of play in the fenders, but once they are attached, and you adjust them just right, they are very sturdy and stay in place. Please note that while on the original LEGO Ideas submission the front wheels were posable (there was no attachment between the steering wheel and the front wheels, but the front wheels could turn), in the final model the front wheels are completely fixed. I believe this was done to make the car more sturdy.
The first thing you build from the #3 bags is nose-cone. While the assembly captures the iconic sloping front of the Caterham perfectly, and in general it looks very nice, it is also extremely problematic. Whenever you touch the car the nose-cone tends to fall off. LEGO did design this section to be removable, as you can see in the picture above. However there are three main problems here. One is that instead of breaking off from the two 1×4 dark-gray modified plates with two studs as intended, the assembly falls off one level below, where there is a slightly slanted red 2×2 hinge-plate. This plate is simply not strong enough to hold the nose-cone. The second problem is that the nose-cone is built using sideways building techniques with pieces that are not solidly connected. Once the nose-cone falls off and you attempt to reattach it to the car, the nose-cone itself starts to crumble in your hands due to the weak connections. And because the parts are assembled from several directions, there is no easy way to just push them together. And here comes the third problem; the nose-cone has four very detailed printed parts, including silver printing. With all that pushing, the oil from your fingers will eventually rub off the print. Silver printing is particularly prone to rubbing off, so this is definitely a problem.
I did find a solution to the nose-cone crumbling by inserting four small red axles into the top and bottom assembly and pushing them together. This stops the nose-cone from falling apart as you keep having to reattach it to the vehicle. This at least stops two of the problems; the nose-cone crumbling, and having to excessively handle the nose-cone and rubbing off the printing. I also intend to fix the problem with the hinge-plate connection, but with the nose-cone being much more solid now, it is not as urgent of a problem.
The next thing you build is the hood, which is really nicely done, using some clever techniques, printed tiles, and elegant texturing. Then you build the console – the second problematic area. It is not as annoying as the nose-cone, but still an issue. The console itself is quite solid so no problems there, however it is connected by only a single Technic axle to the engine section. The Technic axle is pushed into one of those ratcheting finger-hinges, which in turn is attached to a hinge-plate. All these connections are strong, so nothing will fall apart, but the finger-hinge can’t really lock into a solid position flush against the hood, and therefore it tends to fall forward. This leaves an unsightly gap between the hood and the console, and also makes the console feel wobbly because it is not resting against the hood.
There is actually a really simple solution to this. As you can see on the picture, underneath the red Technic axle/finger-hinge assembly there is a 1×2 light-gray cheese-slope. You simply need to put a standard 1×2 plate below this cheese-slope to elevate it a little bit. This will prevent the console from falling forward. I’m not sure why this wasn’t included in the first place, but ironically I got two extra dark-gray 1×2 plates with my set.
Next you build the roll-over bar, which uses more of those delicious macaroni tubes. I’m very happy with this section. In fact, I’m thrilled with the whole back part of the vehicle. Everything just comes together perfectly and the final result looks really nice. The trunk cover is built separately, and is held in place by friction – a simple and elegant solution that works quite well. Oh, and you also attach the wheels, of course, and you are done!
➡ LEGO IDEAS CATERHAM SEVEN – LIKES: The final vehicle is a gorgeous display model, just a tad shorter than the #10252 LEGO Creator Volkswagen Beetle. And as you can see on the pictures above, it is also very accurate compared to the original. The sloping nose-cone, the long narrowing hood, the big exhaust pipe on the side, the large fenders, the roll-over bar, the trunk… this is unmistakably a Caterham Seven 620R, no doubt about it. The printed pieces are all beautiful and are aligned just right. The parts-selection is excellent, and the building techniques are very clever. The nose-cone, the front fenders, the wheels, the hood, the engine, the seats, and the cover of the trunk are all removable to mimic a build-it-yourself car kit. A lovely model in every way.
➡ LEGO IDEAS CATERHAM SEVEN – DISLIKES: The nose-cone, and the console are problematic, but the solutions to both are quite simple, as I mentioned above. There are a few other small things I don’t like and I have adjusted in my vehicle. The steering wheel is unnaturally close to the dashboard, but this can be fixed with just one plate. There are two gaps at the back of the seats, which makes the curved slopes fall off easily, because they are only attached by a single stud. I simply filled this section with standard plates, or you can just use 1×1 round plates if you want to keep the texture created by the gaps. The clutch is in a weird position, almost under the steering wheel, so I made it more centered with a jumper-plate. Interestingly, on one of the promotional images, the clutch is in a different place, attached to the jumper-plate in front of the hand-break (see below).
I know that the LEGO version is an authentic recreation of the yellow and black Caterham Seven 620R, but I really wish a more colorful variant of the real vehicle was chosen, or at least a bit of color was added in some places. Some blue and red inside the engine, and a bit more silver on the outside, would have really made this model shine. The wheels, in particular, would have looked better with silver hubcaps. I’m definitely going to tinker with this car further to make it to my liking. Here is my current version with red stripes on the seats, a bit of silver on the hood, plus some other small changes.
➡ LEGO IDEAS CATERHAM SEVEN – VIDEO-REVIEWS: I’m including a couple of video-review of the set so you can check out in more detail. The first video is by JANGBRiCKS, and the second is by Sariel. Both go into great detail about the set.
➡ LEGO IDEAS CATERHAM SEVEN – PRICE: The price of the #21307 LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R is $79.99. With 771 pieces that’s 10 cents, a piece, so pretty normal for a LEGO set. Comparing the size and price to the #10252 LEGO Creator Volkswagen Beetle (1,167 pieces – $99.99), the #10242 LEGO Creator MINI Cooper (1,077 pieces – $99.99) and the#10248 LEGO Creator Ferrari F40 (1,158 pieces – $99.99), the #21307 LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R is a tad pricier, but it comes with a very large number of unique printed pieces, and this is a limited LEGO Ideas set – so overall I think the price is right.
If you own or planning to own a real-life Caterham, or you just like fast little sports cars, the #21307 LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R is a beautiful and accurate display model. While it has no steering, it does have a good number of removable sections to mimic the customizability of the real vehicle. The LEGO Ideas Caterham is also a great kit for rare and unusual elements, so even if you don’t care for the car itself, you might consider it. I’m thinking that LEGO Classic Space fans would be particularly interested in all those printed bumblebee stripes. It will be available on October first under the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R? Is this a set you have been waiting for and planning to buy? Do you like the final model, and do you wish that some other colors and features were used from the original LEGO Ideas submission? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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