I made this model over a year ago.

First I built it physically with real Legos (I'm a Lego freak). Then I built it on the computer using LDraw (http://www.ldraw.org, http://bricksmith.sf.net). Then I converted it to POV-Ray format using Anton Raves' brick library (http://www.antonraves.nl). Then I hacked up that file adding the engine flame and stars using public macros, and then I came up with a fancy dancy explosion animation macro. I rendered about 6000 frames with POV-Ray and distributed the jobs to about 180 computers using Xgrid (http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/xgrid.html) and then averaged 30 frames to 1 to create this animation:

http://james.magnusviri.com/lego/gallery/moth.html

(you can get all the source files used to create it there as well)

I named it moth because it kinda looks like a moth... yes, very imaginative.

This is just one project in my quest to build enough animation code to make an animation with a story line. The other animations I am building are at (none of the following are *my* physical Lego models though, just my animations):

http://james.magnusviri.com/lego/gallery/at_stp.html
http://james.magnusviri.com/lego/articles/animatable_models/marine.html
http://james.magnusviri.com/lego/downloads/povray_library.html