Bricks now Boarding part 2: Destinations

As promised, it’s time to look at the next set of models we created for American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum.

If you’re an AV-geek (aviation geek) then the first thing that comes to mind when discussing an airline are the planes. If you’re a off on your holidays though, then the first thing to come to mind is much more likely to be the destination! So, what could be better to build than the cities that American Airlines can fly you to?

A model of Philadelphia Hall of Independence. Through a 737 window!

The Idea

Isn’t it cool that when you fly over a city it all looks like it’s in miniature? Just like a LEGO model build in microscale? There’s an idea there!

Looking out of the airplane window gave us another idea too. I’m a nerd, and I watch a lot of TV. We have a show here in the UK, called ‘Plane Reclaimers’. They recycle entire airplanes into reusable parts or air pieces. So, how about we get an airplane window and turn it into a display case?

If you were in our office towards the end of 2024, you would have found a strange airplane interior panel lying around. We decided that this was such a good idea it was worth researching. We actually bought this panel and setup a few models behind it, to test sight lines and how it might function. The answer - really rather well!

Building out the plans

Once we’d settled on 5 cities, it was ‘simply’ necessary to decide which 5 cities! That turned out harder than we’d though as we all wanted a geographic spread, a mix of cultures and styles. In the end though, New York, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Sydney were chose. All of which have recognisable skylines, err, except Tokyo.

This sort of problem is one we encounter quite often actually. Just because something is iconic, that doesn’t mean it’s entirely iconic. You can imagine the Sydney harbourline - but can you imagine the skyline of Tokyo? It’s actually not all that different to many other cities. So for Tokyo, we took another nearby image - Mount Fuji. This is something that everyone will recognise.

So, for mount Fuji - I decided to stretch physics a little and imagine an airliner flyign at 10ft instead of 10,000! I would recreate the famous image of a Shinkansen traveling in front of Fount Fuji in the background. With a lot of cherry trees!

Now onto the models. Tiny models of things in the LEGO world are called micro scale. We knew that if were building micro scale models - then there is one person in the world that we have to talk too. ALL he does is micro scale architectural models. Welcome to the project Rocco Buttliere!

Having decided on the size and scale, we could start to create all the digital designs for each model. This was important, as we weren’t going to have an opportunity to check they fitted the cases until we arrived at the installation! The digital models also let us check the views that would actually be seen and how they could fit together. We could do this instagram post, but in advance and completely digitally!

All that (all?) was now left was to build the digital models. It’s at this point that you realise cut & paste in the real world is a lot harder than online! Remember, these models are glued so every single brick that’s put down needs to be glued individually. Not easy when you are dealing with very tiny bricks!

Finally, if you’d like a sneak peek at how these were installed, Rocco took this video which shows how they are mounted inside the custom built cases. Very cool! I’ll let you play spot the difference and see which model we decided to change the focal point on ;-)

One final coda. If you’d like to see more of Roccos’ work (and this is just the tip of the iceberg, believe me) then please do check out his Patreon page. Not only can you see more work like this, but you’ll be the first to see new content and even get some exclusives. Plus, there’s the warm and fuzzy feeling you get - knowing you’re supporting an artist to create his passion.

Next time…. the AA team itself.