Diamondback

Think I saw it out here around Seattle recently. ---------------- Now playing: Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone via FoxyTunes

Gamer, you might check the LEGO Store, if there's one in your area. ---------------- Now playing: George Martin - Boat Chase via FoxyTunes

As the title notes, I've been working for several years on designing many of the great American passenger-trains of the '30s-'50s in ten-wide (1 stud=1'; more-detailed minifig-scale). Hopefully I'll have some pics next week, as soon as I can find info about interior colors... To put it mildly, each single car for these trains would have as many pieces as the UCS Star Destroyer and end up a little over 2' long assembled. Currently in progress: (most of these targets were selected because Model Railroader magazine did special features on them, so I have the plans and elevations I need for all except the UP) 1951 Santa Fe Super Chief: due respect to James Mathis and LEGO, I aim to show them how this one's done! Mine may not have full handrails, but they will have interior lights... 1938 & '48 New York Central 20th Century Limited: old family business, plus '38 used most of the "standard" prewar sleeper types from the Pullman catalog. 1938 & '49 Pennsylvania RR Broadway Limited: '38 sleepers mostly same as NYC '38 Century, plus you can't really do one of these archrivals justice without the other. 1941 NYC Empire State Express: the last streamliner to enter service before WWII killed non-war production. 1947 Great Northern Empire Builder: First complete postwar US passenger-train reequipped. 1948 CB&Q/D&RGW/WP California Zephyr: Two words. Dome cars. Lots of 'em. Union Pacific prewar City of Los Angeles/City of San Francisco: usually equipped near-identically, so what I can't reuse from the '38 NYC/PRR gigs I can leverage from one to the other. Not passenger related but still rail: "Double Diesels"--EMD DD35/DD35A/DDA40X, ALCo C855A/B, and GE U50/U50C, same scale. The DD40, probably the biggest of these, will be ~100 studs long... Anybody have particular requests for me to start queuing up on this? Note: As I can't get most of the bulk-parts I need through LEGO Factory or Pick-a-Brick (nor could I afford it even if they offered every different piece they make in every color), and am not now nor expected to become a Master Builder, this project is confined to CAD renderings--but I would be glad to post the completed files for perusal and critiquing once they're done.

Personally, I thought one of this set's highlights was having the most "real-world accurate" of any minifig plane ever--comparing it to old blueprints, it's a dead-on match for a Douglas DC-3, one of the staples of the series's "travel" scenes. I made some minor tweaks to mine, like red and green running-lights on the left and right wingtips respectively.

Firefly might be cool, maybe a line of Star Trek UCS's. Personally, I'd like to see these computer-games ported into LEGO: StarCraft. You know it, you love it... besides, just imagine finishing a $100 minifig Terran Behemoth and actually having reason to quote its ingame commander: "Battlecruiser operational." And a transforming Siege Tank would just plain rock... StarLancer/Freelancer. Old Microsoft space-sims, Freelancer being the newer and better. *dreaming of a UCS Battleship Osiris and a minifig-scale Anubis heavy-fighter* Unfortunately, even the smallest ships done right would be ~$30-50.:(

Right now, just down the two impulses and BB--and my mother, who's decided after seeing mine she's gotta have a set of her own, is only down the BB, and Loot Island and the S/W Hideout (she's getting the latter two for Christmas). 30-ish and 50-ish AFOLs... who says this isn't a "family" and/or "lifetime" hobby?lol UPDATE: Scratch the impulses--just waiting for a little more "ready cash" and the next sale to do the BB's...

Nice build! Now all we need is for LEGO to make the parts needed for your build into a "Brickbeard's Bounty Expansion Pack" accessory set... actually, looks like the 5-mast ships that were the biggest things in WizKids' Pirates game before they cheesed it out and cheesed off the fanbase--hmm... maybe upscale that game-engine and join it with the "Evil Stevie's Pirate Game" rules?