I’m continuing to expand my microscale space universe. Last time I checked in with a lunar launch diorama, as my home-brew theme shot into deep space from the moon. Now the Interplanetary Expedition Alliance, or I.E.A., has set up a large mining facility out in the asteroid belt.
The facility consists of a large space station as the hub, and two captured asteroids being mined for their mineral wealth.
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For the past few years, I haven’t had as much time to build as I once did. That’s a tale that’s no doubt familiar to many of our readers with careers and families. That also means that when I do find time to build, I’m working through the backlog of ideas that have been piling up in my brain. And so lately I’ve found myself returning over and over to microscale space, because my brain has a logjam of sci-fi scenes I want to translate to bricks before moving on to pirates or castle or any of the other myriad themes I enjoy.
Set in the same universe as my previous large spaceships Vanguard and Discovery, this simple diorama depicts a launch facility on the moon with an attached habitat. I built the rocket first as a standalone model, but I wanted a better way to display it, and what better way to display a rocket than with a huge burst of engine exhaust? And of course, any facility on the moon worth its salt needs a habitat.
Recently while playing around with the new triple clip bars and the Ninjago aeroblade centers I made a dodecahedron, intending some microscale scifi purpose for it. However, everyone I showed it to immediately pointed out the resemblance to a certain pathogen, so I decided to run with it and create a LEGO Covid-19 virus. I inverted the clips from my original inward-facing orientation to create the distinctive spike proteins and then used radar dishes to fill in the virus’s membrane envelope. For a quick 20-minute build, I’m pretty happy with the results, even if it is a bit creepy.
Here’s a look at the underlying structure of the dodecahedron if you want to build one yourself. The basic structure uses just two element types.
Building phenom porschecm2 has done it again, bringing us another splendid LEGO creation that shows his mastery of complex building techniques with this 1:1 scale replica of one of my favorite foods, macaroni and cheese. The use of the macaroni element is inspired and looks perfect for its role as macaroni here, and the choice of yellow helps sell the illusion. It’s unclear if the fork and bowl are brick-built, but even if this isn’t quite a purist creation we can all agree it’s a feast for the eyes.
