Tag Archives: SHIPtember

This bowed ship cuts through space like an arrow

Another SHIPtember LEGO spaceship blasts its way through space! The bows from the Horizon game series serves as -soccerkid6‘s inspiration for this piercing craft. It comes in at 104 studs in length (or should we say height?) and weighs just over 3 pounds—the weight of such fine design! It’s nearly impossible to miss the bow influence in the design with the bend and curving bits at the top and bottom. Where an arrow could nock on a bow rests the central engine and the pointing bridge, giving a clue that it’s a microscale ship. I like the color choices of the build, with that yellow drawing you in to the middle with the teal highlights to balance it all out. The details of the ship stand out and work well together, allowing us to fully appreciate the look and feel of the clever craft.

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One Kooky Covenant

Throwing a Classic Space twist onto a concept design from Alien: Covenant sure is one way to do SHIPtember. Flickr Builder Space Kook brought their A-game this September with at least five different ships over 100-studs, either in length, width, or height. Jumping around between scales, Space Kook drew inspiration for their fourth build, the LSS Covenant. Taking design cues from early concept art of the USCSS Covenant Colony ship from the Alien movie, large solar panels flare out at the rear of the ship. Progressing further up the body, past the cargo holds, you’ll see a little fighter or drop ship peaking over the main hull of the colony vessel. Decked out in blue and yellow with white and black accents, the choice to craft this ship in Classic Space regalia allowed Space Kook a plethora of parts and design cues. Between the two references, it’s no wonder this creation has such a satisfying bow. The bumble bee stripes and yellow view screen complete the Classic Space homage while sensor arrays and directional boosters grab the eyes as satisfyingly accurate greebling.

This builder really went the extra mile during SHIPtember to accomplish the Herculean task of building not just one, but five massive 100-stud vessels. The techniques and parts used show off Space Kook’s ingenuity with the process across all five and it’s definitely worth checking out the other four ships that they created this year.

A silky frigate for those deep space patrols

Builder Red Spacecat serves up a silky smooth LEGO frigate for SHIPtember. Coming in at a length of 120 studs, this ship possesses the curves of a luxury liner and the firepower of a deep space frigate. The ship retains lovely definition for each section, despite having mostly white pieces. This allows the colors of the details to really pop and stand out, especially the black details against the stark white body. I particularly love the engine wings with their colorful banding and slick design. And check out that tower at the ship’s rear center–it has nice shaping and parts usage. Overall, I’d say this frigate wins both space battles and battles of style. It’s a great display piece and awesome design for a spaceship, no doubt in my mind.

The machines are coming to take our hobbies now

Ryan Olsen went meta for SHIPtember by building a ship that builds ships. The 128-stud long Hiigaran Support Cruiser is a beauty to behold, thanks in large part to its recessed bay, designed to act as a build and repair area for smaller ships.

Ryan executed a number of crafty angles to bring the Support Cruiser to life. The individual panels tend to be flat, without a lot of complicated greebling, but the sheer amount of brick-built striping and other details still create plenty of visual interest. One of my favorite details is the minifigure tools rising up as antenna from the ship’s hull – a clever reminder of the larger craft’s ultimate purpose.

100 studs? B.E.A.T. that!

LEGO’s Vidiyo theme may not have lasted terribly long on shelves, but it certainly left a big impression on builders. Julie van der Meulen has repaid that favour in a big way too – a seriously huge way, in fact! This Seriously Huge Investment in Parts (SHIP) isn’t a sprawling research station, or a space-faring man-o-war – it’s apparently owned by a DJ whose only purpose is to travel the stars giving free concerts. It looks resplendent in a typically Vidiyo colour scheme, with black, coral red, aqua, and everyone’s favourite, teal. Best of all, it has a backronym name that suits it down to the ground – the Big Engine Auxiliary Tug, or B.E.A.T. Vidiyo may be no more, but it seems like it’s in safe hands in the LEGO community!

A cool spaceship worthy of a cool name

It’s that time of year again. The leaves are turning orange, coffee mugs are filling up with pumpkin-spiced lattes, and enormous LEGO spaceships are cropping up all over the internet. That’s right, it’s SHIPtember! Scott Wilhelm‘s entry has us gobsmacked. It’s christened the Ockham’s Razor, which in itself is a wicked name. But this 140-stud wide behemoth looks truly alien. There aren’t any obvious signs of scale, so this could be an extraterrestrial hoverboard, but one gets the impression it’s a sprawling mega fortress shooting across the stars.

To get a perspective on its real-life scale, just look at this shot of the rear. Two halves of a Star Wars planet are used for detailing, and these are not small parts – but they look tiny here! The greebling work combined with the geometrical shapes and the colour scheme all combine to make a seriously impressive spaceship.

This Octonauts Octoray is Octonuts

The LEGO fan community goes in deep with giant space vehicles in SHIPtember. Adam Dodge, however, has taken a couple of interesting twists on the theme by going with a ship that’s not only super-wide rather than super-long, but also super-underwater. Based on the adorable animated adventures of the Octonauts, this is one studly tribute to the Octoray craft. The lines are crisp and clean, the wing-based turbines are spot-on, and the transparent cylinders used for the front windows are a really nifty solution. Even better, this Adam build this vehicle as treat for his son. That adds a big dollop of “awww” on top of the “wow”.

Are you looking for more undersea adventures? Check out other featured submarines!

This spaceship is cool as shaved ice

Sometimes the motivation to build a SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) comes from a really cool part, like a Minifig boat, or a tooth-shaped shield. Other times, the inspiration comes from a pile of bright-colored parts. This ice-cream wrapper-looking SHIP by Don Wilson uses a whole bunch of azure and yellow parts that make it really stand out against the inky blackness of space. Like any decent SHIP, there is no shortage of greebly details along the sides of the main body, and the asymmetrical disk thingy (I’m not at all sure as to its purpose) attached to the starboard side has some mind-blowing LEGO geometry at work. One of my favorite parts, though, is the dark gray plate at the front top, which stands out in a ship with very few visible studs.

Rendezvous with this SHIP for all your refueling needs!

Back at it again with the SHIPtember fare, we have an intricate, industrial SHIP by builder Sunder_59. This model is the latest of Sunder’s giant spaceships and there was plenty of planning as usual. This tanker, the ORS Hinduan, features plenty of brick-built cylindrical and spherical elements within its asymmetrical design. The shape of the ship, especially with the elevated bridge, is reminiscent of naval freighters. Equipped to refuel ships large and small, this side of the ship has landing pads and refueling stations above each tank while two large, extended refueling rigs are attached to the bottom.

Sensor and communications arrays extend from the front of the ship, though I imagine the pill-shaped section jutting out from the base is a form of docking mechanism. On the other side, the detailed, exposed elements of its large engines fit into a near-future, “hard sci-fi” model, like the ships of The Expanse. Known as greeble amongst builders, the mechanical components that Sunder has built into the engines elevate the design to something more realistic. For example, the orange spheres held in the rigging are probably reactors which is a delight to see accounted for within a design. The left side of the ship includes (what I imagine to be) an extendable solar panel as well as different piping around the tanks.

Some close-up shots give you a chance to appreciate the various techniques that Sunder_59 used to sculpt this. The bridge and refueling platforms are wonderful details. The bright yellow is eyecatching but compliments the blue(s), grey, and white of the ship’s body.

This builder seems to really understand how to build a SHIP from design to the challenges and benefits of space. For example, note the dark grey booster sections on the front and back of the ship which help adjust its heading and orientation. I can’t wait to see what Sunder_59 brings us in SHIPtember 2022.

Tyler Clites’ SHIPtember entry is a shining star

LEGO Master Builder Tyler Clites has delivered a truly out of this world contribution to SHIPtember with the Zosma Starcruiser. The impressive shaping alone would make this a stand-out. The individual triangular sections, which make ample use of negative space, are gorgeous. And the way those sections sit askew on the larger frame evokes the sharp, elegant angles of a piece of jewelry. But, beyond the shape of the craft, Tyler’s gone the extra mile and used color to incredible effect. The way the thin lining on the ship moves from red to orange to yellow creates a gradient that almost tricks your eye.

It’s hard not to see these colors pulsing across the ship as it traverses through the night sky. Do the colors send a message? Is it an energy transfer that powers the ship along? Are we seeing some alien warp drive in action? Let your imagination run wild as you admire Tyler’s work here, or any of the other amazing ships from our SHIPtember coverage.

Out of the Mouth of Sauron

You ever ask yourself “what if Lord of the Rings was a space epic?” Well, builder Steven Wayne Howard certainly entertained the thought. Another SHIPtember contribution, this space citadel was named for the dreadful Mouth of Sauron. Commanded by the lieutenant of the Barad Dur system in the Middle Space galaxy, this terrifying craft laid waste to planets and systems in the name of Sauron’s dominion. With a face like that, it’s no wonder it’s rumored to be the remnants of the galactic tyrant himself. The mouth, spinal cord, and brain are now repurposed under the watch of the black hole known as the Eye of Sauron.

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A ship of rafts among the raft of SHIPs.

The annual LEGO fan celebration of SHIPtember has drawn to a close, and that means we get to revel in some really great, and huge, spaceships! My personal favorite this year is the B.O.A.T. by Julie vanderMeulen. This Blockade Out-runner Agricultural Transport is more than just 102-studs of streamlined goodness, it’s also a really clever way to make use of all those rubber rafts that pile up in your collection. Julie describes their use here as “24 individual bulk cargo pods…capable of delivering anything from apple pies to live zebras.” Also noteworthy is is the use of old Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze printed 12×3 wedges. It’s apt, as it’s also very cold…in space.

Spaceships come in all sizes, too. Check our our archive of awesome LEGO spaceships for even more out-of-this-world creativity.