LEGO TRAWLER ...named LEGO BRIXSA ( corny I know!! )


(Click on photo)
Also seen in Marine Modeller International magazine ....

 I built her back in 1996/97. She's approximately  1 :20 scale or as near as the bricks will allow using a total of 12,000 individual parts ( give or take a few) no need for painting ! 60 hrs build time, good sturdy model , powered by car fan motor , very efficient with 22hrs run between charges.

Lego Brixsa is based on photos taken of a vessel in Esberg, the photos were enlarged on a photocopier and then a graph paper was overlaid and the hull lines in LEGO drawn onto the graph paper , each square is the same size as each brick.....so we draw up our own plans....

The model is made from standard LEGO bricks, all the parts used in the build are from the range of sets you can buy in the shops, I used no special parts, no parts were cut or shaped or forced to fit, they all interlock and clip together, as LEGO does. The LEGO parts are all pre- coloured so there is no need for painting , and the spares are easily obtainable ! We do have some special colours such as the tan colour used for the decks.

The motor, rudder and shaft/ prop are the only non LEGO items. The hull is built bread and butter fashion with '3 slices of bread' every 8mm up the hull. All parts are then solvent bonded to the surrounding parts, so if you stick a part in the wrong place you have to use a chisel to get it out, once the full hull was built a layer of glass fibre tissue and resin was added on the inside to waterproof the
model.

The model is 53 inches long and 14 inches in beam when the model is fully ballasted ready for the water she weighs in at 27 kgs, this brings her down to the correct waterline and also allows long run times....it also makes a very heavy stable model, the model copes well in all waters and has been run extensively on the Thames, and in salt water at the Weymouth model boat events.

We had fun in summer 1999 when I towed myself in a dinghy down a 4 mile stretch of the river Thames near Windsor for charity, the model has plenty of ' grunt '....

Power is from a car heater fan motor spinning a 3 bladed coarse pitch 55mm prop. There are 2x 12volt 17ah gell cells which provide all the power for motor, radio, lights, and radar. Radio is a 2 channel cheap 27mhz Futaba set , the ESC is a Digifleet unit... The 'serrated' appearance of the hull has no detrimental effect on the sailing characteristics of the model at all, the only possible downside is if you have a collision you leave multiple parallel scratches ! ( its only a downside for the other model !!!!!)

This model was built as a suggestion was made to develop Radio Controlled boats for use in the LEGOLAND parks, the 'management' at that time decided that boats produced entirely of LEGO would not float well, would not be robust enough or would not fit the bill.......needless to say I took this as a personal challenge, and as a keen boat modeller I took on the task of producing a working model, Brixsa was the outcome of the development work.

We do have RC boats at Legoland Windsor, the standard 'coin op style GRP ( fibreglass ) hulls' with LEGO tops... the kids love 'em and it's a good way of getting youngsters into our hobby.....

I have since built 2 other RC LEGO boats, a smaller shelterdeck trawler and a Dutch Barge, both are smaller and have a shallow draught, these were produced to allow the models to be run on small temporary pools at shows/events, allowing children to get experience in the hobby of RC boats.  Model Boat Mayhem