Everyone has a different process for building. Some people start with a piece of reference art they find inspiring, or a drawing they’ve made. Some people start with a technique, or a combination of parts and just keeping adding pieces until something takes shape, which is the route I took in designing this small starfighter, which I call the Wyvern.

I knew I wanted to build something dark green, so I sat down with the dark green bin and looked for interesting elements. What I found were a surprising number of minifigure chairs, so I began stacking them.

They look a bit like a vent when stacked with jumper tiles, so that became the spine of the ship. Next came the arched windows, which looked like engine intakes.

But how to connect the intakes smoothly into the craft? I don’t have any other dark green elements with a smoothly rounded top like the window arch. But I do have dark grey 3 x 2 plates with a rounded end. By employing a little-known technique sometimes referred to as “haphazard construction,” I stacked the plates to have them curve back into the body. I’m pleased with the finished result, though it certainly would not withstand rigorous swooshing.

I used the pearl dark silver egg element from the new Ninjago Vermillion Attack set combined with the transparent purple egg from a Galaxy Squad set for the cockpit, and I was elated to discover that the transparent purple boat tile I needed to make the nose smooth is available for the first time in the new Batmobile. I finished it up with a Hero Factory chest piece for the cowling between the cockpit and body, which fits nicely. Going back to the bin of dark green, some sideways doors make for nice vents on the wings.