Lego World Bridge

November 23, 2013

New Project

My recent project that I have been working on (digitally that is) has been a bridge that I saw in photos from the Lego show in Copenhagen earlier this year. I really liked the concept and reverse engineered what I wanted from a few photos while adding to it. I am calling it the Lego World Bridge. I posted a thread on Eurobricks for some feedback but unfortunately only a few people commented. In any case I will go ahead with my plans however at the moment I was trying to assess just how much it would cost. It looks to be around $220-250 depending on whether I can get the parts at a good price. Even though technically Bricklink does have what I would need the shipping costs and fees are really outweighing any savings I could make. I will likely buy the parts from Lego with the exception of the Light Bluish Grey x2x4 slopes. According to Lego they are discontinued...

A close up of the bridge. The colour for the profile 1x2 bricks is not available which fathoms me as in the photos it is the same colour they used. I can only surmise they made a limited run for the show. I really wanted it in this colour. The closest colour (I use that term loosely) is Medium Nougat. 

The door frame window is suppose to have a sticker for train times. There are also two bike rakes for bicycles. 

All in all I can't wait to be able to build this even if its the only section I create. I can always convert the rail tracks to a highway but I am interested in trying to slope rail tracks up to this level and maintaining it as a railway. 

Update - Hermes Sellier, Train station revamp 7997 and more

October 31st, 2013

It's not like me to leave this blog without any updates at all for so many months...so here we go.

Well the gas station is nearly complete. Just need 5 pieces to finish it off properly which I will do once I get some more money to invest in my Cafe Corner and Green Grocer. I have about $200 or less to spend with the parts. I had to make a few compromises to ensure completion. I will discuss those once they are finally put together.

I've had to do a rethink of my grand scheme as I currently lack the space (my own place) and frankly a job to achieve my plans. I am thinking now I should start smaller and work on a scheme that is more achievable and requires less space. Richard Hayes over at Brickfanatics.co.uk has the idea I would like to aspire to. A few buildings and an small area with the potential to grow.

I have been designing these past months with LDD. Mainly my newest design has been a Hermes Sellier store in Paris. Pay no attention to the lamp on the ground... :P

At the moment I am not too keen on the way I've done the interior floors. Certain things I do like are my lion head columns. I was thinking about placing a posh cafe on the top floor with seating on the top. As I've never really designed a modular building I am uncertain as to what I want. I suppose that is the problem. The roof will have a garden.

The other thing I have been attempting recently is rendering my designs.

This is my revamp of set 7997 Train Station. I will have to try more rendered images but I still find the process somewhat clunky switching between two programs. However the results I think are fantastic! If I tried to render my Hermes store it would take all day I think...at 3000 pieces and counting...

I have been analysing some of the Lego commercials too. I would love to recreate the scenes they make. As a kid I always wanted to do that! I've noticed that some of the background buildings at the Copenhagen Lego world show (2013) were the same buildings used from some of the commercials and vice versa. For instance two buildings like the one with the 'bakery' shop windows (red window frames) and also the Wharf Shop building I was inspired by (in Sand Green brick colour). 

Coast Guard Commercial

In the above photo it is one the top left. Below is the same 'bakery' shop. Also the big light blue building and some of the others you will see move around in the shots.

Elite Police Commercial

The Elite Police commercial has base plates that have been cut to form the little curb in the centre! Cheeky but I wish they would make similar base plates.

 This is from the Coast Guard commerical, (bottom photo) and the building has spun around!

Coast Guard Commercial

Cargo Plane Commercial

Wouldn't any serious MOCer want to build an real airport like this? I know I would. :) In this commercial there are about 3 different designs of the 'wharf shop' surrounding the airstrip.

In a behind the scenes of one of the commericals I found out that the 'child's hand' is actually a woman's hand! Just a little factoid for you readers. 

Sets Cafe Corner 10182 and Green Grocer 10185 buildings from scratch!

February 26th, 2014

My final order came in today. I now own the Market Street Mini-figures. 100% authentic and new. My Green Grocer is now complete. I've managed to only make three changes from what the original set would be. The 1x8 Sand Green Bricks, 1x2x3 Train windows and the 1x4 Bright Blue bows. I think that is an excellent achievement.

My Cafe Corner as well has only minor changes. The windows are the new style, new style skis and the lack of a new side door. I was thinking the Cafe does look nice without the door.

Considering that I have had to only make 3 changes to the parts on each set to the original. I am extremely proud of what I achieved. Two years ago I did not think it was possible to ever own these sets. Now I have both! I've completed these sets for far less than the asking price on either ebay or bricklink. All in all I think I spent about $700 CDN or so on the sets combined.

I am still planning on decorating the interior of Cafe Corner. I made the bartender mini-fig for it. Just need to order the parts when I am ready.

February 9th, 2014

Well as of January 30th, I received my final order of parts to build the Care Corner and Green Grocer. I was very eager after waiting 5 months to build them. It took me the whole afternoon and well into the morning to build them. The instructions were downloaded from Lego.com and I found the colours or shapes on them hard to discern at times. Naturally this reduced my pace to build it. I have a few parts to replace on Green Grocer but its pretty much complete. Anyhow, onto the results!

If you'd like to see more photos they can be found on my flickr page. There is a thread on EuroBricksForum that was started by a few of us trying to achieve our own CC and GG. Click on the links below.  

Wodanis's Flickr Page

Bricklinking CC, GG and MS

Update: July 6th, 2013

Well its been a while since I've updated this. After a dozen or so orders off BrickLink my Green Grocer and Cafe Corner are off to a good start. I've been utterly consumed this week with trying to find deals for unique or discontinued parts. It has been a significant challenge with some pitfalls. Seems to me every time I managed to find cheap parts the shipping costs have been overstated by the seller. It really is frustrating at times. Lately sellers in the US have been the ones over charging due to US Postal Service changing their pricing for smaller packages. I can understand this as a factor but it only goes so far. I've checked out the rates myself and it seems to me some people are gouging and finding a convenient excuse. The US dollar is up to which makes buying from there harder. I've noted that Denmark, Netherlands, and Germany to a lesser extent seems to have good offers at reasonable pricing with shipping prices fairly constant. Even here in Canada its up and down. I am leery of ordering anything from Asian markets as I do not know if they have knock off in circulations. Seems too convenient to possess discontinued parts in high quantities...

As for the actual orders, so far so good. I'm awaiting them as I write this and hoping they all reach me intact without issue. I would say about 70% of the discontinued/unique parts are out of the way and it is just some of the more niche parts now. I am still debating about what to do with the x50 1x8 sand green bricks needed for the Green Grocer. At $3 per piece that is a hard pill to swallow and I am on a budget. I really hate to use other colours as I am trying to make an exact set. $15 for a earth blue 1x8 arch is also an issue. I know I will not use an alternative colour so I will have to swallow that cost eventually. Most of the remaining parts I was thinking of purchasing directly from Lego. I surmise its just easier and less costly on shipping to order through them. In meantime I'd best get back to completing some of my designs.

June 30th, 2013

I've decided to start my own sourced Cafe Corner (10182) and Green Grocer (10185 see below). I would love to just buy them outright but I do not have the funds to spend $800 or better on an after market set, let alone two. So I will buy up the parts necessary and build them from scratch. Should be much more satisfying that way (and cheaper).

I've taken some time and put together two excel spreadsheets for a cost analysis. I think other could benefit from using them but I seem to be unable to post just the files the way they are...sigh...

So far I have acquired a far amount of the unique parts for cafe corner including the Red 1x3x2 slopes. Really expensive in my opinion! About a dollar US a piece. Saw some cheaper ones in the EU but with the person's shipping costs and other charges it made it about equal to the US supplier. Go figure. Just one outstanding piece to Cafe Corner remains, the dreaded 1x8 Earth Blue Arch. Really? $15 for just that piece!  What's worse was seeing that Market Street (10190) uses 5 of them!! So I decided I won't be building Market Street in any time in the near future.

I was never quite really happy with the look of this set. So unless I can get it by chance for really cheap, it can wait. The other two look quite nice, admittedly I would have to decorate the interior of Cafe Corner as there is nothing on the inside. That will be fun. :) Once this one side project is complete I will have a decent grocer and cafe. Hurray!

Octan Gas Station - Update

February 9th, 2014

In my bid to finish up my project for building a Cafe Corner and Green Grocer from scratch. I was finally able to order the remaining parts I needed to finish off my Octan Gas Station. I also took the liberty of taking some new photos of the project. Most of these images you can find on my Flickr account or on the EuroBrick Forums.

Octan Gas Station

Wodanis's Flickr Page

Update July 7, 2013

So the Octan Gas Station is just about complete. I lack about 6 parts in various quantities. I was going to make a small purchase through Lego S@H but have been completely sidetracked by trying to build from scratch a Green Grocer and Cafe Corner. I've used alternative colours just to build it for the moment. Then I can FINALLY take some really nice photos to post up. I made a few alterations to the overall look of it. Added a street light, redid the tree and took away the weeds and put in a simple bush. It looks quite good! I can't wait to have it nestled in with my other buildings. I ordered a few extra mini-figures and realised I had an extra Octan oil attendant. So there is a win!

Thrusday, June 20th, 2013

So after receiving 4 of my shipments this week I have put together my project for the most part. I realized when I was constructing it I had tried to swap a part out for another one during my orders but when I went to put it together found that the roofing pieces would not work correctly. Can you see the yellow bricks on the structure? I had tried to be quite careful with my orders by ordering the exact amount of parts. However once I put it together I find I still require more.

Mainly what I need now is astonishingly white standard 2x4 bricks! Talk about basic parts! I also need my dark bluish grey tiles, a few more plates, white 1x1 and 1x2 bricks, and some tree branches for weeds.

The angled plates I used on the base of the gas pump roof also met with one problematic issue. The gas truck fits but has a hard time getting past the focal point where they meet. I am impressed with the overall look though. It will be quite nice to see it nestled in with my other buildings when I rebuild them.

I improved from my design for the green plates around the structure too. It just became more practical to use some green 1x4 tiles, I had from a Pick a Brick trip, outside the windows and side door as well as on either side of the entrance pavement tiles.

All in all my design has come along nicely. I realized though I will have to strengthen the design better next time I go to use shelves on a back wall. The way I did it made it more complicated than it needed to be. I was thinking perhaps I should have used another 1x6 wall instead of bricks but maybe not as I can place a movie poster sticker on the wall which will enhance the look.

I am having an issue with the lighting and trying to photograph my creation. I was trying to place it on a white background but because the model has an awkward shape it was hard to photograph. I know Huw from Brickset.com has a tutorial on what he uses to make photos. He uses a wooden box with white paper on all sides with one to two stuido lights which I would like to do in the future. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my photos but for the moment until I have a better set up I will have to make do.

Once I have this project completed I will post some more photos. I am now thinking I would like to create from scratch the Cafe Corner set. It looks promising but I have no idea about the cost...

Wharf Shop

Since my Octan Gas Station is in the process of being built and with the Mechanic's Garage designed, I moved onto my next creation, The Wharf Shop.

I saw some buildings designed in one of the new Lego Commercials for the Cargo Airplane. (Awesome sets which are a must buy for me) One had caught my eye initially from the Coast Guard commercial. Upon examination I discovered that the buildings in the commercials were being reused. Its also interesting to analyse the shots used in the commercials. Each commercial is only 30-40 seconds so it is amusing to see how the product placements jump around. 

This building that I am reconstructing, and will figure out what I want on the inside as I have to place multiple staircases and floors, was originally sand green I believe. Its a toss up really could have been lime green. However when I checked on the prices of Sand Green I recalled that only one set to date uses such pieces, the Green Grocer. At prices varying from $1-2 per pieces it is not practical to use that colour. My blue colour choice however I think will also pose problems as its from the Market Street. We shall see. 

It is a challenge to reconstruct something from blurry and vague images. I have a sharp eye so I do not think I am off the mark too much. I had thought of using Brick Yellow (Tan) and light grey to emulate the Museum Break In set (60008). I wanted to back the museum onto the front of this building (the portion I have not filled in yet) but upon seeing how tall the building actually is, which is about 4 floors, I decided to leave it as a stand alone building. 

I was designing one other building I saw which I may use a government building is this:

Just an initial façade at the moment but will see how it goes. I did want to try my hand at a real bank building in downtown Toronto but that is another project.

Update: July 9th, 2013

So I was struggling with my design for the Wharf shop. I basically wanted to reproduce a building I saw in a Lego commercial. In order to improve upon it I would have to convert it into a modular. No easy task as essentially the original design is a brick building with no back and the amount of floor space to board over is quite a bit. However I think for the time being I will shelve the idea until I have some epiphany on how to convert it.

 I have not polished it off but this is essentially how it would look. I wanted to have a spiral or grand stairwell on the bottom to the upper floors. Also thought about an elevator. However a grand stairwell will only serve to take away from the space of the shop on the first floor whereas a spiral staircase utilises the space more efficiently. I was thinking of having an artist studio on the second floor and then 3 apartments on the third and fourth floors. The colour is also an issue as this was originally in Sand Green and as any AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) knows, that is expensive! I honestly do not know why TLG (The Lego Group) does not produce more sets or extra bricks in this colour. New Dark Red, Earth Blue, Sand Green, Earth Green are all popular colours for builders out there and also hard to come by. How amazing would it be if they just made a bucket of bricks in these colours to use?

The Mechanic's Garage

The Garage is based on a design I saw in a photo at the back of Lego manuals. As I kid I always like the giant photo spreads they did and wanted to recreate one of my own. Obviously between that and seeing the commercials which have very complex cityscapes I am more determined to make one of my own. I have a background in the arts and specifically film so seeing how they produced these commercials was a real treat. It's just unfortunate I was not able to turn my love of arts into a solid career.

Viola! The initial version and the subsequent one:

To the right side of it I installed a bunch of windows to open it up. On the left side I have put in a mini office just like it mechanics garages. I placed a pallet outside for whatnot and have some tires to lounge about too. It has a register, water cooler and filing cabinet complete with a ceiling fan that can be turned from the top. That is what I like about these projects, trying to achieve a balance between realism and playability just like what the Lego designers would do. The one thing missing from this is of course a car. I will design one eventually. My focus at the moment is on buildings. However having said that I would like to show what I have done for some traffic lights and street lights. My street light is the standard with the Lego modular. Nothing fancy but will be used in the downtown core and I have twenty. 

This is my traffic light creation. Its simple but I like it. Right now I have 4 of them for two intersections. Believe it or not the lights are spare pieces from my Lego sets. I've been getting so many of them that I was able to make four of them. Coincidently I found out why there are extra bits in each set. Firstly, to register the weight properly for the packaging sensors and secondly, for the play factor. Kids tends to lose the smallest pieces first. 

Octan Gas Station

So I've been busy designing some buildings on my computer and hoping to turn them into reality eventually. Let me start with my Octan Gas Station.

Originally I saw a design for one I liked by another AFOL. Me being me, I reversed engineered it and redid it to my specifications while also adding a design I liked from the Lego World convention in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is the creation by Danthaman:

This is my creation:

Currently I have all the parts minus a few white bricks and dark grey tiles on order and will be arriving in the coming weeks. In the second screenshot I decided to change the colour of the bus benches to red. I just may keep the design for bus stops for the whole city. I also modified from a simple tree to one of my designs which is in the next photo.

Forgive the quality of the shots as I do not have a proper studio set up yet. But you can see how I have changed it. I will have to watch out for how the tree interacts with the Gas platform. This is a sample of the trees I will be using for my city. I have completed almost ten of them. I raised the base so as to allow vehicles to pass under it.

 As for the roofing:

With the other pieces slowly coming in my station is going to be shaping up real soon. 

Next update: The Mechanics Garage