It spins. I had to redesign the hub to remove the technic turntables and replace them with a series of "bearings". There's little wheels all around the inside that turn against 2x4 round pieces with a square central hole. The the drive system now uses two motors in an over-under configuration. It's not perfect, but it should be good enough.

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With the conclusion of the Dominion war and the dissipation of the Borg threat, Starfleet were finally able to return to their primary mission of exploring the galaxy. The Iowa class had been conceived as a heavily armed rescue vessel, but was redesigned as the Utah class survey vessel. Such ships were designed to orbit promising planets and use their expanded sensor capabilities to extensively map the surface, while the large shuttle bay allowed extensive logistical support of survey teams on the ground.

Having built a number of smaller Star Trek models I wanted to build something larger where I could go to town on the smaller details and colouring rather than just get the overall shape. This fantastic concept design by Ryan Dening had been in my ideas folder for years, and I thought the faceted hull looked eminently buildable.

I had also wanted to build a large microscale shuttlebay into a model for some time, so I photoshopped the one in the concept really quickly and this became my main guide. I ended up following that quite closely, tweaking the details mainly and eliminating the raised area behind the bridge.

I was really pleased with the angles of the hull and used some neat techniques to build them. I also worked really hard to get the dark grey section to carry seamlessly onto the warp “wings” - the sand blue inset was just an added bonus! I posted a WIP online and did a final round of changes following some great feedback, making the hull more predominantly white and changing the lower weapons pods to sensor pods, with gold dishes as a throwback to 60’s Trek.

It’s surprisingly sturdy and the central core means the entire model can stand on a single rod of technic beams. I also designed a new stand that angles the model on two axes so it’s artfully presented at a swoopy angle. My previous model took 10 months to build, but I knocked this out in four; and the process has been surprisingly straightforward and very enjoyable!

Tags:   LEGO spaceship Startrek MOC

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A heavy space fighter in service with the Rigelian Space Navy. Interchangeable payload compartment allows vehicles to fulfil a variety of roles including planetary bombardment, long range reconnaissance and battlefield logistics.
I wanted to build an asymmetrical ship inspired by the B-Wing from Star Wars. It started out intended to be more of a bounty hunter type ship but kind of drifted to this. I wanted it to be big enough that I could really go to town with a particular style of greebly detailing and I think that came out really well. I also worked a lot on the colour blocking and really like the way the blue sections snake around the ship.
I worked on this for a long time and by the end I’d kind of lost the plot a little. It’s taken me over 6 months to get around to shooting these pics, but looking at them now I feel quite satisfied with the completed model. Maybe I’ll find time to make some different cargo pods and dust down the landing pad I already made for it.

Tags:   LEGO spaceship asymettric

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Phew. For various reasons I'm starting a bit late and kind of rushing to get this update together. In this picture are a) a crazy amount of painstakingly sorted LEGO b) some cool stickers including these gundam decals I might use c) a small bit of the core of the ship.

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Progress. I’ve built out most of the top engine block at the rear and the black conduit thingy that joins it to the body. Thankfully the cap of pieces at the back forces the hinging section of the engine down so it doesn’t move and fits snugly down over the cheese graters to get the right angle.

The big ungainly thing sticking out the front is the technic support for the neck which is joined to the central core via a frankly bonkers array of brackets. Thankfully this seems fairly sturdy and I’ve started to add some of the details and supports that hold other bits on.

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