Andromeda Ascendant

This LEGO^® MOC is a replica of the Andromeda Ascendant from Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.

Quick Facts

Building time: One month
Parts count: Approximately 1000
Versions made: One
Dimensions: 58cm long, 32cm wide
Weight: 1.1kg / 2.4lb

The Design Process

At first I thought the Andromeda would be impossible. But then I remembered that nothing is impossible with LEGO^® bricks, and the Andromeda Ascendant is a sci-fi icon. It’s an epic ship with a unique design, and I wanted to do it justice with LEGO^®bricks.

I started with the easier section, the central core and main nose of the ship. And then I built the arms one by one – this is where it got tricky. It was challenging to work out what part connected to what, and I had to use a combination of schematic images and perspective images to work out where it all connected. The ship is an elegant mess of different arms that connect in different spots. And until I had that right, it just didn’t work.

In this image you can see the arms connect to the main body at four points on each side
In this image you can see the arms connect to the main body at four points on each side. While the smaller arms are fairly weak – the large ones support the ship

The next challenge was getting everything to hold together and be strong enough to not fall apart as a lot of the connection points were weak and it was a predominately SNOT (studs not on top) design. This was accomplished through ensuring the central column of the ship which took most of the weight was strong, and then ensuring the rest of the MOC had reasonable connections as well. It would get damaged if it was knocked, but it wouldn’t fall apart on its own or while on display.

Once the arms were all in the right spot, the ship came together quickly. It turned out to be a straightforward design as it used so few parts! Because of the different arms, it also turned out bigger than expected.