Building the Avengers Helicarrier

Ladies and Gentlemen, WELCOME to SHIELD

The big arrival of the first half of 2015, the UCS (Ultimate Collector Series) Helicarrier is upon us... 

This beast of a set went available online for us europeans the 19th, so the 20th it was on my doorstep, and after building on it for 7.5 hours spread over the friday night and saturday afternoon, it now graces my shelves with it`s huge mass and heavy weight, going in around 5 kilo`s spread over almost 3000 elements.

And I love it!  I loved the way the Avengers movie tackled the looks of Nick Fury`s famous flying command ship, and it is just great to have it in Lego now.

I normally do my build reports from this year on on thursdays, but I`m adding this one early and inbetween the planned ones, as I`m already down into July with the sets I`ve been putting together lately...

The set comes with about 30 polybags of parts, a sticker sheet and a manual hefty enough to smack someone seriously around, going in at just under 500 pages of instructions.

We start the journey on this set with building the SHIELD logo display base, on which the five included minifigs will be posted.

Build up in overlapping layers, we get a good idea of the eagle style of the symbol.

As we make the foot of the display base,

both sides are added together and now we can start putting up the figures as we come along them in the various bags.

The next thing we are going to make is the display base for the big boat to rest on.  This is made mostly by Technic beams and pins for additional support without turning into a huge stack of bricks.

Once the pillars have been raised, the decal with the tech specs of the mighty vessel is added, and the Helicarrier can be displayed in it`s 'cloaked' mode ;-)

But then we are off.  The first thing is going to be the nose of the vessel containing the command bridge with it`s lines of computer screens.

And we also get the first of our figures now, Hawkeye, in the same style of suit he will be in for the new Avengers line coming out next month.

The walkway of the bridge is being build up

The technique here is like of a sort of pirate ship `deluxe`, as due to the fact that it is a heavier vessel that will be lifted of the ground to display, it will need a very solid base to build on.

The computer screens are added to the bridge.

As we start work on the main inside hull section where the mechanics are going to be installed, the SHIELD logo is featured behind Fury`s observation platform.

The whole inner section is filled with Technic beams and axles, as these will allow the rotors of the engines to function, and provides place afterwards for the incorporation of the Lego Power Functions should you choose to.

The whole build uses intresting SNOT and inverted techniques.

The turning handle.  This will allow you to manually spin all four engine rotors in concert.

Next up are the armoured side plates to the hull, with the decals showing it`s serial number.

As you can see, the inner workings of the set are starting to look complex.

The second minifigure we come across is Maria Hill, unique to the set and with the SHIELD logo awesomely printed on her uniform arm as well.

Next up are the engines, we start by one and then afterwards we will be making a mirrored build for the one on the other side.

Now, this how you should have them installed in sequence of the instructions, but I left off the dark blue ring until the large transparent rotor assembly was actually connected in, giving you more finger space.  And I personally even have long sleek fingers, and found it already very hard.

The mirrorred front fans.

Third up is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.  Though I do not remember he actually had a 'soul patch' in the movies so far?

The hind engines are up next, once again coming with a mirrored build for the other side.

Here you can see how exactly the ring is added on top of the rotors.

With all four engines installed, if you turn the handle at the back, they spin around.

Nick Fury is next to our collection of Minifigures, coming in the Ultimate version like in MCU, and sporting his long black trenchcoat.

Black plating is used to cover up the mechanical inner workings and start working on the landing deck.

The engines are then build, again using some nifty techniques and mirrorring each other.

And then attached to the back side of the vessel... not the simplest of jobs though, as it is already getting weight by now and you need to lift it up a bit to click them in place.  I just hung it`s butt over the table edge.

The main flightdeck and base of the command tower is the next part on the list.

We extend the deck by adding an additional lane to the nose, together with the necessary sensor arrays.

The whole deck is covered up then, but the SHIELD printed plate can be taken off to show the bridge of the vessel.

We then finish up the nose section by adding armoured plating here as well.

The final minifigure of the set is Scarlett Johansssssgrrrrlllg... I mean, Black Widow.  This puts our rather nice division of `SHIELD agents` from the movies nicely together.  Still no Coulson though...

We continue with the second runway as the next part of the build.

Again, this uses a mostly Technic frame covered up by the printed plates (which where specially made for this set, so expect them to cost a dot for the moment on the secondary markets...)

Once covered, this is added to the main body and really bulks and lenghtens out the whole ship now.

To get an idea, here she is next to Benny`s Spaceship, whom is a rather long set in her own...

Now, these are ubercool.  They are the `award sized` figures minifigs sometimes carry, and now they come printed!  I especcially like micro Iron Man, so I put him on the front antenna to be `flying` in front of the carrier.

The final bag is all about the details.

We get the road barriers to mark of landing lanes and such.

Microscale cargo loaders and tanker truck

Jet fighters

Aaaand... no less then 3 pretty cool looking Microscale Quinnjets.

The final part of the actual ship build is the viewing tower.

With a set this big, you get quite a few additional pieces of course...

And then she is concluded, and berthed on one of my Lego shelves on display now!

This was just such a great set, and I found it worth it`s 350 euros for one. 

But... there is more.

Not only did you get the Demolition Drill for City this second half of the month if you spend more then 30 euros on the store, the Helicarrier also came with his own, not advertised before you see it added to your online shopping bag, Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier minifigure!

I doubt I`ll ever bother about the drill as City isn`t really my thing and it`ll end up sorted out in my boxes, but Bucky is a great addition to the superheroes collection for sure!