I’ve been having great fun building micro for the last few months, and got out my bins of orange and medium-blue (yes, I sort some of my LEGO by color) because, well, they’re complementary and I hadn’t built anything with them yet.

I loved my tiny science vessel (right), but wanted to do something slightly bigger, in the same scale.

Instead, what came together was a futuristic submersible, which I’ve decided is an Underwater Autonomous Vehicle like ENDURANCE, designed to explore the icy depths of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. In honor of the composer-astronomer who discovered this moon (as well as the planet Uranus) and the explorer who discovered Antarctica, I’m calling it Herschel-Lazerev.

Pierre’s bombardment platform uses the new 1×1 round tiles, and incorporates some interesting polygonal shapes. I love the way the yellow spans the underlying dark gray.

See more pictures on Flickr, and read Christer’s write-up on Eurobricks.

Cole also posted this variation — more squat, and still somehow more brutish, despite the lack of a massive chin gun.

See more photos in the photoset on Flickr.

Thanks to everyone who sent us the link!

My U.E.F. Ship Recovery Vessel was inspired by equal parts Chris Foss and pseudoephedrine.

As eye-bleedingly garish as it is, I like the idea behind it:

The U.E.F. Kudu-class SRV enters battle zones to recover and transport damaged or disabled combat vessels.

Aboard their unarmed and lightly armored ships, SRV crews have a motto: “Jump In, Jump Out.” SRVs have the highest-precision FTL jump computers in the U.E.F. fleet, able to jump in behind the disabled ship, extend a shield for temporary protection, secure the ship for transport, and jump out of the system in under 90 seconds.

For less dangerous cargo than that carried by my Pit Viper fuel tanker, I built this Octan “multitanker”.

Finally, I revisited the idea behind the cargo container ship I’d built nearly five years ago, resulting in this interplanetary transport.

I can’t wait to feel better, but it’s been nice having something to distract myself from feeling miserable in the meantime.

Graffiti covers the underside of the central tank. After all, the lower surface is where planet-bound delinquents would be able to reach when the Pit Viper lands, right? Both the fore and aft sections use old X-Pod parts, for a “greeble sandwich” effect.

Via twee affect. ;-)

All of Mike’s ships have a consistent design that visually places them within the same faction, while each vessel has a unique style of its own. I just love the little fighters!

There’s a certain challenge in trying to recreate somebody else’s design (including historical vehicles and vessels), but I feel most creative when I build something completely my own. After poring over Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss a couple of times, I set it aside for a few weeks before trying to build anything inspired by the artist’s unique aesthetic. The little cargo ship below is what emerged on New Year’s Day.

Next, I set myself a challenge to build something less vertically oriented — bricks stacked on bricks. Even though the build was much more complicated, I prefer my finished spaceships safely swooshable, and just don’t feel like the gunship below would be safe to hand to the nine-year-old who lives in my head.

Nevertheless, the gunship was a fun build, and I may reuse the front part for something different (more in line with my existing microscale fleet).