Take a journey back before the launch of humans, robots, and Tesla Roadsters to space with a LEGO 1950s retro rocketship built by Jason Hlavenka. Slick transitions from the cone shape on top to the cylindrical body and quad fins at the bottom make his model pop.
The Guardians of the Galaxy (film or comics) have brought many unique and interesting spaceship designs to light, most notably the protagonists’ personal way of transport, the Milano. LEGO has released some of its own versions of the spaceship as official sets but none to nearly the scale or amount of detail as BenFifteenTheChicken‘s recent build. The photography is top-notch, the lighting is amazing and the shadows compliment the shape very well.
The model sports more studs on its surface than is usual, which gives somewhat of a UCS kind of feel to it. Additionally, I think that the angles Ben has used would not work nearly as well if the whole creation was tiled or if he had hidden studs in a different way.
Fans of this model may also enjoy this minifigure scale Guardians of the Galaxy Milano we featured last year.
Polish builder Marcin Grabowski is no stranger to large spacecraft. We featured his DragonFLY-class dropship last year, and he’s recently completed this wonderfully angular starfighter set against the planet Mars. The heavily armed, predominantly white fighter fighter is complemented by technical components in shades of gray. The lines of yellow make the vehicle look like a racing ship, and I love it.
You can see the top and rear of the spacecraft better in this multi-angle collage.
Sometimes the visions of the future put forth by LEGO builders can be a little grim — bleak technologically-dystopian vistas, often rendered in shades of dark grey. Here’s an altogether brighter view of the future from Tammo S. — one where we’ll be zipping around the skies in pastel-coloured hovercars. The shaping on this thing is great — all retro curves and smoothness. But it’s the colour scheme which really makes it pop — the white and light blue is distinctive and striking, and the isolated golden highlights add a touch of class.
Building the lunar lander module from the Apollo 11 mission presents a unique challenge: to create the base of the lander in gold, which traditionally has not been a very common color for LEGO elements. However, with the help of some newer pearl gold elements, tankm has accomplished this very nicely. The model almost feels like minifig scale, considering just how cramped the lander was. Some flower parts in light gray make perfect thruster nozzles (just like on the official LEGO Saturn V moon rocket), and I love the use of black roller skates as ladder rungs. Maybe we will get a rover to go with it?
These two spacecrafts by ZCerberus are geared up for intergalactic war. The missile corvette appears to be an armored and mobile unit with cannons mounted on the top capable of dismantling the enemy from multiple angles.
The battle frigate is a much larger and formidable vessel capable of dishing out a serious beating. Both spacecrafts feature a striking orange hull with white ID numbers. The white box pattern along with the dark orange stripes are subtle but well-incorporated design features. Prepare to be annihilated in style!
The first steps on the surface of Mars will be those of explorers and scientists. But how long until there are soldiers stomping around on the red planet? That’s the question put by David Zambito with his latest microscale LEGO scene. David has tackled the colonisation of Mars in the brick previously, but this neat model sees the addition of a pair of appropriately sleek-and-sinister-looking fighter craft (fashioned from minifigure ice skates no less). The little fighters might grab the initial attention, but don’t miss the excellent landscaping within the compact footprint, and the use of a minifigure helmet as a cool biodome structure.
While not the most iconic imagery originating from the Stargate universe, Tim Schwalfenberg‘s latest creation still oozes with the aesthetic of the series. Growing up with this show, I have acquired quite the taste for contemporary explorers (and/or soldiers) interacting with alien technology in the shape of ancient artifacts and architecture.
Tim’s cute little build has that in heaps. The geometric shape of the doorways is simultaneously futuristic and ancient in some ways, especially with their edges that look like they are made of stone bricks. The translucent bridge is just inspired, but for those who are wondering, the glowing portals seem to be added digitally.
Growing up, my brother and I used to pull out all our gray and blue LEGO and build sprawling space bases on our bedroom floor. We couldn’t imagine more than thirty years ago how much bigger and better future LEGO creations would be, like this amazing diorama by ZCerberus. The base has landing pads for ten ships and incorporates over a hundred lights.
The ships and vehicles are also excellent, and the builder spares no detail — just take a look at that gorgeous brick-built Classic Space logo on the side of the main building! My favorite vehicle is the large gray vehicle on the right, pumping some kind of mineral from a great big hole in the planet’s surface.
In the 2003 re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, the Cylon Raider is the main attack fighter used by the Cylons. One of the most striking differences between the original model from the 1998 series and the newer model is the crescent shape with forward leading wings and the large eye slit with a red light going across in the cockpit position. David Duperron has built his second UCS-scale ship from Battlestar Galactica with this hugely impressive Cyclon Raider based on the newer version and captured in LEGO form. The model is made of 3253 LEGO pieces, with a total length of 66,5cm (~83 studs) and a width of 45,0cm (~56 studs).
Click here to see more views of this amazing model
We’ve featured some of Jon Blackford‘s Neo-Classic LEGO Space creations before, but his latest model — a huge maintenace hangar — takes things to a whole new level. The stellar work on the hangar walls manages to avoid this being a “big grey box” — they’re a triumph of sci-fi flavoured texture, with every corner and surface decorated with delicious greebly bits or cool-looking structural elements. The brick-built floor is excellent too — check out those floor markings…
Click to see more of this amazing LEGO Space scene
If you think about it, it is absurd that spaceship designs are very long 99% of the time and in the worst case, not very high or wide. It is logical that people have associations with naval ships and aeroplanes, even contemporary spacecraft – but even the latter are designed as they are because they need to launch into space through atmosphere. It is 2018 and it is about time we start living in the future and open our minds to more ways to think of a spaceship – like this vertical design by Daniel Church.
Besides the obvious main feature of the unique vertical design, I love the translucent sections, from the gently curved lines spanning across the whole spacecraft. to the three hollow hexagonal constructions. The blue is balanced by larger less detailed sections of gray and black. If you do not look at it closely enough, you just might miss the grilled ends at the top and bottom, which look great and finish off the creation beautifully. The builder also reveals that photography was a great challenge; so great in fact, that even though the spaceship was built and completed for the SHIPtember project four months ago, but the pictures were only done recently. Well worth the wait, if you ask me!