F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, A-6 Intruder, A-7 Corsair and many more types, all done in LEGO bricks.
Last month, after publishing the article about the “Top Gun: Maverick” trailer recreated in LEGO bricks, I received a message that made me extremely curious. It came from Jason Camlic, from Chicago, Illinois, and read as follows: “Thought you would like to see my collection of LEGO naval aircraft from pre-WW2 to present. Some are or were available as kits, others I designed and built myself.” The message included a few photographs of some really crazy cool LEGO aircraft, both current and historical pieces. As a LEGO lover myself I just said “Wow!” and wanted to know more about Jason’s collection.
“Growing up I wanted to be a naval aviator,” he wrote me in a follow up email. “It didn’t work out but I eventually did become a professional pilot. LEGO was part of my childhood like most. I actually started this collection in 2017.”
“For years I’ve read about naval aviation and it’s something I love. LEGO has always been a part of my life but not really that important till later. The first kit I bought was the F-5 (MiG-28). Turns out minifig scale Lego aircraft is quite the niche hobby with many builders and sellers.”
The LEGO aircraft in the collection are all in the 1:35 scale, “the minifig scale”, and is partly made of kits that used to be available: the Tomcat, Super Hornet, Spad, F-35C, OV-10G+, MH-60S, MH-60T, AH-1Z, UH-1C and UH-1Z. The original kits are the Vigilante, SLUF, Intruder, Crusader, Skyhawk.
“I have an extensive home reference library so I do quite a bit of research on each aircraft and I get input from friends that have flown the platforms.”
Interestingly, each aircraft has decals and is named for aviator or NFO that Jason has some connection to or were POWs or KIAs. “The Vigilante is for Captain Jerry Coffee (POW) and CDR Robert Hanson (KIA) whom I sent pictures of and has seen it. I got a kind email from his wife. The Crusader is decals as Admiral Stockdale’s Crusader when he was CO of VF-51. Other aircraft, the Intruder, is decals for friend who’s dad was a CO of VA-35 and the BN is labeled for a friend who was an A-6 BN. The Spad is named for Captain Rosario Rausa whose son has seen it.”
“I’m currently working on an EKA-3B Whale, T-2 Buckeye. With the Whale I’ll have every US naval carrierborne attack aircraft but the Douglas Dauntless. I just bought the Grumman Wildcat from Brickmania so that’s a good addition to the US Naval fighter collection. I plan on building the remaining fighters as well as the Stoof, Hummer and War Hoover.”
I can’t wait to see more photos of this awesome collection, and you?
