Star Trek Fan Builds Klingon Warship Entirely From LEGO Bricks

Proving that nerdy interests don’t need to be mutually exclusive, io9 reports that a German man named Kevin J. Walter has built a miniature version of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey ship from the Star Trek saga, entirely from LEGO bricks.

Walter told io9 that the project is his way of paying tribute to the TV show’s recent 50th anniversary. From conception to finished product, the model took him around eight years to complete, including a year and a half or so to construct the final version.

The space ship's model is based on a virtual design, which the LEGO hobbyist tweaked from 2008 and 2010. As for its individual sections, the ship is built from a variety of LEGO parts that Walter ordered from BrickLink—some of which he repurposed in creative ways. (Example: Walter used Bilbo Baggins’s front door to make the ship’s guns.)

Initially, Walter wanted to make the wings moveable, but they proved to be too heavy and frail during the later stages of construction, CBR.com reports. Walter’s mock-up also called for more than 250,000 plastic bricks, but he ended up only using around 25,000. In its final state (including the stand), the ship is a little over two feet long, and ranges in width from 16 inches to nearly three feet.

Check out a photo below, or visit Walter’s Flickr page to view more images. And keep your eyes peeled for yet another LEGO project, courtesy of Walter: a 150,000-piece LEGO model of Barad-dûr, or “The Dark Tower,” from The Lord of the Rings franchise. It’s been in the works for more than six years, and Walter hopes to complete it by the end of the year, just in time for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers's 15th anniversary in December.

[h/t io9]