7 FEBRUARY 2008:

The NEXT GENERATION of ISD-scale models!

Starfleet vessels from Star Trek are tough customers to build, at best. Most of these starships, known from tv-shows and movies, are really hard to build with LEGO, and usually allow for very little success. That's what I thought until now, anyway. And the small number of larger-scale LEGO models that are really good rather prove my point.
Starships in small scales were traditionally created by stacking plates. The results are, no surprise, square-edged and covered with studs, which doesn't improve the overall appearance of a model of this kind.Typically, a Starfleet vessel has a round or rounded saucer-section and two long, lanky warp engines, connected to a awkwardly shaped main hull by fragile, bent struts. Almost all ships are variations of this base model. Quite a challenge even for well-sorted LEGO builders. Especially if the models have to be created to a specific scale, down to the milimeter, if possible.

So, originally I only planned on building one single model from the Star Trek-universe to have one example to show at Micro Space. But the concept of building the saucer section of the Excelsior with sloped bricks turned out quite versatile and variable. There are certain drawbacks of course, especially with bigger types of ships, but building to such a small scale usually means accepting compromises anyway. This building technique worked for all other models too. Even though they all are CAD-only they are based on realistic SNOT-building techniques, meaning there shouldn't be any floating pieces. Or not too many, at least ;)
As usual there was no stopping me, and this is why today I can proudly present an as-good-as-complete collection of ISD-scale Starfleet vessels. Even die-hard fans should only miss the good old tv-Enterprise. But the movie version is similar enough I would think.

Granted, a couple of years ago it woudn't have been possible to build these model the way I did - simply because the necessary pieces didn't yet exist. Namely the tiny 1x1 slope, the 1x3 rounded slope and the 1x1 brick with studs on three sides, which are essential and which I used on virtually every model. Of course small-scale models can never be as detailed as larger ones, but I believe I did ok and got the dimensions and poportions right.
For a huge space battle scene I also wanted a gigantic Borg cube - in ISD-scale too, needess to say. And built on the computer - probably not surprising with a given edge length of more than 1.8 meters ... thanks to CAD I managed to create the cube in just about two hours. This was possible by creating one side of the cube with 64 "tiles" (each 28x28 studs wide), of which I only had to build three slightly different variants to achieve the desired effect, while avoiding unwanted patterns showing up.

And now I admit the floor to my special friend Legotus of Borg, who has a message for you guys :)

"WE ARE THE BORG! Lower your shields and surrender your ships! We will add your bricks and plates to our own. Your LEGO collection will be absorbed to serve us. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!"