Tag Archives: Nicolas van Grootveld

The latest in interstellar LEGO tech-quila

LEGO builder Pico van Grootveld toasts the end of SHIPtember (a month of creating spacecraft that are 100 studs or longer) with an agave-inspired hauler clad in an appropriate shade of green. Including features like a warp drive, anti-asteroid lasers, and fuel extension vats, this 139-stud starship is the preferred method for hauling limes, salt, and spirits from one side of the solar system to the other. The shaping here is beautiful, with well-crafted stabilizing fins along the sides and a technical-looking front hatch for quick loading and unloading. It’s just the thing for those late night runs to the triple sec nebula!

Tequilatron Trans-stellar hauler - SHIPtember 2023

See you, Stratomaxx Cowboy

With the live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop just over the horizon, it’s nice to see builds inspired by the show. The unique ships of the Bebop universe are iconic and it’s easy to see echoes of the Swordfish in this design. Builder Nicolas van Grootveld used an aftermarket chromed windscreen to create this big-nosed fighter called the Stratomaxx Acer. Let’s take a look at the schematics.

Stratomaxx Acer

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One spaceship built in two different scales.

This is an interesting challenge of a kind that I hadn’t seen before – the same spaceship, built at two different scales, by two different builders. Oscar Cederwall got inspired by the train light prism, and used two of them to create the cockpit of an original microscale spaceship. The Hornbill Deep Space Reconnaissance Frigate has an upright stance that might remind you of Boba Fett’s trademark ship, but it’s got plenty of its own flair. It may be small, but this is no mere advent calendar creation. The multiple offset angles show there’s a lot of technique at work in this tiny space.

Hornbill Deep Space Reconnaissance Frigate

And here’s where it gets even more fun – in a challenge worthy of a LEGO Masters episode, Nicolas van Grootveld was tasked with recreating the Hornbill in minifigure scale. And, boy, did he deliver. This larger Hornbill translates all the angles and colors of its little brother, but with plenty of embellishment worthy of its larger scale. I especially love how you can see how certain individual pieces translated, like the microscale ship’s dark grey 1×3 inverted slope at the very bottom.