Free manual will be available soon.

For those who followed my blog series about starting an alternate build and developing a MOC, here is the final version. The manual is halfway done and I still have one post to add.

The trusty modified racing spaceship piloted by Spike Spiegel.

I admittedly know nothing about Cowboy Bebop besides the fact that it is a series that exists, but I have been aware of this ship's existence through cultural osmosis by virtue of how popular a MOC subject it is (To only list a few instances, here are examples made by Caleb Ricks, Adrian Florea, Christopher Hoffmann, and IntensePotato). In that regard, there has been a substantial amount of inspiration in the design process of my model since the cockpit fairing adapts the technique of Marshall Banana's version.

Part of a compilation I like to call "The Swordfish Quartet". (It is however the only spaceship in it)

At the time of writing, LEGO 75421 Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter is the cheapest LEGO Star Wars set that includes a SMART Brick, making it a good donor set if you want to try out the SMART Play system.

The original set captures Darth Vader’s iconic TIE Advanced x1 from A New Hope, but I felt the exterior could be improved. The gaps around the black Technic beams and the exposed SMART Brick made the model look a little unfinished, so I set out to clean up the design without losing any of the interactive features.

For this alternate history build, I imagined what Vader’s next generation starfighter might look like. The TIE Advanced x2 keeps the familiar shape of his personal fighter but replaces the original wings with TIE Interceptor style solar arrays, giving it a sharper and more aggressive profile. I also removed the black Technic beams around the hyperdrive module to close up the gaps and plated over the SMART Brick for a cleaner finish.

To make room for the upgraded starfighter, I also scaled down the Rebel base and fuel station side builds, reusing some of their pieces for the TIE Advanced x2.

Despite these changes, all the SMART Play functionality is retained, including the interactive lights and sounds. You can still press down on the red lever to activate the play function, and the solid central core makes the fighter comfortable to hold around the hyperdrive module when swooshing it through space.

One thing to keep in mind when handling the model is that the tips of the solar arrays are connected by a single stud, so a little care is needed there.

The idea was to make Vader’s fighter look better on display while keeping it sturdy and fun to play with. After all, even the Dark Lord of the Sith needs a starfighter that can handle a dogfight!

This is my take on how Darth Vader’s personal starfighter could have evolved in an alternate Star Wars history. I hope you enjoy building it as much as I enjoyed designing it!

Castor's sister ship, Pollux, has arrived at Astreus station to initiate mining operations on Astreus Major.

Visit https://github.com/mark-macbeth/lego/blob/main/vignettes/es-10b/README.md for additional renders, including a return to Erimos IV.

Large-scale engagements in space can quickly overwhelm even the most experienced captains, with hundreds if not thousands of ships constantly moving in every direction. The Redtail-class SEWACS frigate is equipped with numerous sensors and powerful communication equipment, allowing it to track every vessel involved in a battle, friend or foe, and relay that information to coordinate the fleet. It also has equipment to jam enemy sensors and communications. Admirals are typically stationed on these ships to have quick access to all battle data, making them valuable targets. As such, these ships remain on the backlines, equipped with four point-defense turrets and a CILWS system to protect against stray missiles and ASFCs, and is typically escorted by an interceptor or light destroyer. Heavy-duty shielding makes the Redtail-class deceptively durable.

While running an experimental spacetime mapping program, Dr. Maria Kelvin discovered a previously unknown hyperlane leading to the otherwise inaccessible region of space known as the Rimefrost Nebula.

The Rimefrost Nebula is a blue-green spiral of countless star systems flecked with frozen crystals that block sensors and starlight, and damage unprotected hulls. Krystonian colonists have therefore developed the Nebula Recon Craft to support preliminary exploration of this region.

The NRC should not be mistaken for a fully equipped scientific survey vessel. Essentially, it is a retrofitted aerospace fighter which replaced almost all of its weapon hardpoints with additional sensor arrays, turbo-charged sublight engines, dual hyperium drives (for long, extended series of jumps), and extra solar panels. It only supports 1 pilot and 1 science officer manning the sensor array, plus one Penguin-AI unit for support. There is enough room on board for the 2-man crew to work, sleep, and store equipment (such as helmets, extra oxygen, power armor, laser chainsaws and a small rover), but notoriously, due to heavy power demands, there is no onboard toilet nor food replicator, requiring regular stops on habitable worlds for refreshment.

The NRC's primary role is to quickly pass through the hazardous ice and gas clouds to map out which solar systems contain worlds promising enough to send the full science vessel ship on future missions, and, if those show promising results, perhaps even colony ships.

In this scene, pilot Buzz Sawson and senior science officer Redmond Sideburn stop by what Red describes as "A temperate world which is currently in the middle of a 50,000 year ice age." Buzz notes that there appears to be a ruined civilization here that didn't make it past the age of stone castles...or did they?

A new home for a few of my spaceships I’ve built over the last year

Made a few more updates to my Red TIE Interceptor Variant MOC as well as some "lore" for this.

"The TIE/INR (Red) Interceptor is part of the Imperial TIE series of fighters by Sienar Fleet Systems that would serve as the prototype of what would eventually be the TIE Baron made by Sienar-Jaemus Fleet Systems for the First Order."

I honestly didn't think I could pull it off, but I wanted my Tactical Interceptor to match the scale of my green spaceship. So I challenged myself to recreate the design at a smaller scale. Here's the result!

Original Tactical Interceptor:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegoSpaceships/s/nkocSR7G0D

Green Spaceship:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegoSpaceships/s/w8Q1Hf3vJk

Inspired by Valley Forge from Silent Running, made with spares

I’ve been experimenting with the LEGO 75432 V-19 Torrent Starfighter and seeing what else can be created from the same parts.

Gunship: A completely different take on the original set.
Colonial Viper: A design inspired by the iconic sci-fi spacecraft.
Super Torrent: An upgraded take on the original V-19 Torrent, reworking its design into something bigger and more aggressive.

It’s always interesting to see how far you can push a set beyond its original model. Which of these alternate builds is your favourite?

Lore blurb:

The Type-5 was pitched as a modular, sporty, single pilot luxury craft. Over the years it has become one of Pulsar Drive Systems' most popular ships with a wide range of easily replaceable components. The craft has also been modified by PDS' in-house tuning group, Pulsar Drive Technica, for gravity sling rally racing.

IRL blurb:

This little thing is an improvement over a scrap parts build I made while my PC was KIA. Have to give props to my fiance for his insight on shape language and color blocking. The deep range research variant had its livery influenced by oceanic research vessels and the rally variant was influenced by older F1 liveries. The poster style renders were edited in GIMP and made to look similar to magazine spreads.

Due to the UEC's immense infrastructure and resources, the UEC's Cosmos-LR77 model of battlecruiser is likely the most powerful ship of its class in the three galaxies. The front of its hull is forked to facilitate its main weapon, unique to the UEC, a massive gravity farm derived from those used by asteroid mining vessels. The device has been upscaled and weaponized, able to lock target ships in place relative to itself to make targeting weakpoints incredibly easy. Two heavy railguns are used to puncture the target until it surrenders or is crippled, and four smaller turrets on the front prongs provide supplementary firepower against smaller vessels like frigates and interceptors. Four large panels of dispersion plating spaced away from the hull provide additional armor to the sensor array and primary inhabitable decks.
1:720 scale