Tag Archives: Spaceships

Blaze the stars in the Space Battleship Yamato

Resurrected from its ocean grave after an apocalyptic event in the year 2199, Japan’s famous WWII battleship became an unlikely spaceship in the classic anime Star Blazers. Builder marchetti36 has masterfully recreated it in microscale, giving it a nifty display base and a fleet of smaller craft.Despite the relatively small scale, there are lots of great touches of detail. One of the best is the design for the space battleship’s bridge, which consist of trans-neon green 1×1 plates turned sideways and set on an angle.

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Take time to smell the orchids

I guess there aren’t many orchids in space, but the ones out there would probably look like the StarOrkyD by F@bz. Its floral inspiration with thin, curved surfaces is highly visible, and the spaceship seems to have a bit of a Star Wars’ B-wing fighter look to it.

There is a lot of detail to love here, from obvious things like the bulbous cockpit and nicely flowing curves, but there are some more subtle ones too. Light gray antenna pieces have their tips hidden within the bottom side of a brick to look like very thin tubes. The use of flag pieces at the transition into the large engine makes the shape flow very smoothly.

Head into space battles aboard the Andromeda

Large spaceships are a flagship of LEGO space creations, where “large” is generally accepted to be 100 studs in length (or honestly any other spatial dimension) — these are called capital ships or SHIPs (Super Huge Investment in Parts). For the past few years, it’s seemed like there might be fewer built throughout the year, because many people rather concentrate their efforts in the annual SHIPtember community challenge in September. So in a way, Lysander Chau‘s Battleship Andromeda is like a Christmas gift in May, and I hope your big spaceship lust is as satisfied as mine.

Click to see more of the Andromeda

I say, I think you’ve spilled some Guardians of the Galaxy in my Star Wars!

Builder aido k says he just liked the colors on this wonderful LEGO rendition of a Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-2400, but I like to think this is what the Guardians of the Galaxy’s Milano would look like if they lived in a different galaxy.

The YT-2400’s design may look familiar, as it’s a cousin to the YT-1300, whose most famous example is the Millennium Falcon. In fact, Aido was inspired by the recent UCS Millennium Falcon, and has even whipped up a lovely information plaque to accompany the ship. Although the model is still just a digitally rendered version, Aido has plans to build the model with real bricks, and it looks as if he’s been careful to use only part/color combinations that exist. Now where’s our Jedi Groot?

Incredible minifigure-scale LEGO model of Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced is probably the most accurate ever

LEGO builder Jarek is pretty much the undisputed king of Star Wars ships, routinely making the most accurate and gorgeously intricate vehicles from a galaxy far, far away ever to be built of bricks. He’s been on a roll lately with the Imperial Navy, starting with a TIE Fighter and TIE Interceptor, then upgrading to the heavy TIE Bomber. But now Jarek’s moved up the chain even further, to Darth Vader’s personal spacecraft, the prototype TIE Advanced.

Click to see more of this incredible TIE Advanced

A beautiful hunk of bulk hanging out in outer space

This bulky spaceship by Nick Trotta, called Ataraxis has caught me completely off guard. I am used to seeing unique LEGO spaceships with a handful of unique ideas and shapes associated with them, but this one is in a completely different class. Of course Nick is one of the best space builders out there, but even so his latest work is incredible. No wonder, as the builder has spent the past four months worth of weekends on it.

There are countless angles and lines all around the spaceship that just a list of them would be too long to be read in a reasonable time. Nick seems to be able to capture any shape and detail that would cross his mind, to a degree that it looks as if he was designing LEGO bricks specifically for this creation. This effect might also originate from the disproportionate amount of newer elements, of which most builders only have a handful and can not use in ways Nick did. My all-around favourite part is the most subtle detail in the build though; on a few spots, you can see jagged edges of grill 1×2 bricks showing, which just seems to make sense.

For an even greater appreciation of the build, you can see the pictures that inspired it.

Microscale multi-purpose cargo shuttle

LEGO dropships are a favorite subject for many sci-fi fans of both movies and video games. While this particular model by Oscar Cederwall is original, it does seem to take some inspiration from the dropship featured in Aliens, which also includes a deployable vehicle.

The craft features some heavy-duty thrusters, along with great color accents like the orange stripes. A mini-drone, cargo, and a vehicle with some nice details like steering, round out the scene. Some Modulex pieces make great stand-ins for cargo pods.

To the moon and back again

Giving a fresh new twist on the classic LEGO grey-and-blue space theme, this shuttle by Horcik Designs is a perfect example of what fans like to call Neo-Classic Space. Despite its relatively small size, the shuttle seats two minifigures abreast in the trans-yellow clad cockpit, and the addition of lots of stickers adds a bit of extra flair that makes this spacecraft feel more industrial.

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UCS-scale LEGO Cylon Raider from Battlestar Galactica

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

Flying this ship is as easy as Aurek, Besh, Cresh

Aurebesh is the writing system in Star Wars used to transcribe Galactic Basic, one of the most used languages in the galaxy. It first appeared in the 1983 movie Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, but it was expanded into an alphabet by Stephen Crane of West End Games for gamers to use when playing Star Wars video games. Jake RF has created a starfighter that resembles the letter Enth (shaped like a backwards E and pronounced /Æ/) in the Aurebesh alphabet. There’s a lot of nice textures going on here, and the colour scheme works well to make this a believable Star Wars ship.

Jake RF shared some work-in-progress views and the original concept artwork. It’s not often we are able to get insights into the design process of a model and it is interesting to see.

Float like a dragonfly, sting like a viper

We are over halfway through Novvember, but there’s still plenty of time to build a Vic Viper and honour the late Nate “Nnenn” Nielsen. This particular Vic Viper by Andreas Lenander not only depicts a beautifully futuristic craft, but also manages to highlight one of my favourite colours. The use of Medium Azure really makes this an eye-catching build and those double lateral wings at the rear are definitely sending dragonfly vibes my way.

As always, it’s the little extras that make a build really stand out and in this build the greebled pipes plus the use of hockey sticks on the prongs are fantastic additions.

Harvesting the worlds of space

The end of the annual SHIPtember build challenge need not portend the end to excellent large-scale LEGO spaceships. Rat Dude also proves that gray need not be the only utilitarian color for LEGO spaceships with the Yaga Ni’Kurwa in gorgeous blue and brown. The spots of red, orange, and yellow certainly add visual interest, but the designs are actually quite complex — particularly the sheaf of wheat indicating the vessel’s role in interstellar agribusiness.

It’s unfortunate that the builder has only posted this one photo — I want to see the massive engines on the back that power this grain freighter through the stars.