Eero Okkonen building a historic Italian seaplane racer feels almost unfair, because this is exactly the kind of subject where his sculptural LEGO brain gets to do barrel rolls. Macchi M.17 takes a real 1920s flying boat racer and gives it that slightly romantic, Porco Rosso-adjacent energy: all speed, varnish, spray, and probably one dramatic scarf.
Seaplanes are tricky little beasts in LEGO. You need the aircraft to look light enough to fly, but the hull still has to feel boat-like, and then you have to somehow make struts, floats, wings, and engine placement read cleanly instead of collapsing into a beautiful pile of angled spaghetti. Eero’s freely interpreted version leans into shape over strict blueprint worship, which is absolutely the right call at this scale.
The best part is the balance of curves and engineering clutter. Flying boats have such weirdly charming proportions: a proud little fuselage-hull, wings perched above like an idea that arrived late, and support struts doing a heroic amount of visual work. In brick form, those transitions can get chunky fast. Here, the model keeps that delicate racer feel, with enough structural detail to say “early aviation” without smothering the silhouette.
I also appreciate that Eero notes it was difficult to photograph, because yes, of course it was. LEGO aircraft with elevated wings and spindly supports are basically designed to torment cameras. But that same awkwardness is part of the charm. This is not just a plane; it is a machine from the era when flight still looked like a dare.
Build by Eero Okkonen on Flickr.
