Zio Chao built a 4 1/2-foot model of the SHIELD Helicarrier from "The Avengers" with his friends, using about 15,000 Lego pieces. Photo by Zio Chao/Flickr

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A Taiwanese man built a 4 1/2-foot long replica of the SHIELD Helicarrier from the Marvel superhero film The Avengers.

Zio Chaou shared photos of the massive model that he and his friends built over a period of a month and a half only using reference photos from the film as guidance.


"Before I started to build it, the most annoying thing was collecting parts and classifying them," Chao told The Brothers Brick. "Then we used Technic beams to sketch out the skeleton of the carrier, which needed to be strong enough to hold everything together. Technic beams were also a great solution for the supporting yellow columns, the front of the carrier and the four turbine engines."

Lego released an official set depicting the ship that represented one of its largest with 2,996 pieces. Chao's model is more than twice its size and contains about 15,000 pieces.

The model is so large that Chao had to construct it in 14 separate parts so it could be transported and placed on display at a local store in Taipei.

"For large creations, transportation is always an big issue. Therefore I built it in modules," he said. "For example, the body of carrier can be separated into three separate sections. The entire carrier is made up of 14 sections."