Martin_B

My all-time favourite bargain was probably the 6399 "Airport Shuttle" monorail. When I was coming out of my Dark Ages around ten years ago, I paid what felt like a high-but-fair price for it - around £250 - but when I saw what good condition it was in, I didn't regret it at all. There were no missing pieces (only a couple of substitutions) and the functionality of the thing is so cool. Looking at how much that set goes for today on the used market, I'm glad that I got it when I did! Even back then, Ebay was hit-and-miss, so I got very, very lucky. The main issue I have right now is, it's a particularly tricky set to display. It looks amazing, but I haven't figured out the best way of showing it off to visitors!

I know that the old "ideas books" from the 80s and 90s have been discussed on here before, but I didn't want to resurrect a years-old thread. Besides, I think I have stumbled on a potentially fun exercise that I'd invite anyone to join in on if they want to. For those of you who aren't old enough to remember them: the "ideas books" contained alternate builds and accompanying photos that differed from the "official" sets or B-builds that were suggested on the backs of the boxes. These books were a roughly 50:50 mix of dioramas that looked a lot like the promotional photos used in the catalogues, and step-by-step instructions that showed you how to build some of the vehicles and buildings from those photos. The dioramas themselves were the best and the worst thing about these books for me. They looked spectacular, and the people who made them clearly had a lot of fun. They were also frustrating, because they required more pieces than most people were likely to have in their collections at home. The #200 book from 1985 for instance was one of my most prized possessions as a kid: the bustling town and the double-page castle siege scene were my favourites. Because my own collection consisted of sets from the late 80s to the mid 90s, I couldn't build much from it. That is, until now. Thanks to Bricklink and the advantages of being a working adult, I think it's possible - with a bit of detective work - to recreate some of those builds that my younger self never could. To start things off, I looked back at #200's Black Falcons castle gate/wall on pages 40-42. I recently treated myself to the old 6073 castle set, and the general look of the thing seemed familiar when it arrived. Sure enough, this "Ideas Book" makes use of pieces from that very set! You can build it exactly as shown without needing pieces from anywhere else. It's pretty much an extra "B-build" for 6073! [/url] After over thirty years: mission accomplished! [/url] Which led me to think: how many others in that book are like this? Could I build another one of them from just one set that was on sale during the first half of the 80s? I flicked through to the "Town" section, specifically the hairdresser/cafe on page 18. This build uses a distinctive 2x2 blue roof slope decorated with the number "73". A quick look on BL indicates that this brick was exclusive to set 6374. Sadly, I don't own this set, but the inventory suggests to me that the pieces can be used to finish most, if not all, of the build from the Ideas Book. So, at this point I'm seriously thinking about tracking down a second-hand 6374 and seeing whether I can build that hairdresser's shop afterwards. Who else owns, or has scans of, one of these ideas books? Have you tried to build anything from them? I'm not the only AFOL on here with a nostalgic streak, right?

Hi all! Long time, no post. I hope that you're all doing well. I think I went through a second "dark ages" since I last signed in here! Long story short, I changed jobs, saved up for a mortgage and moved out of my rental place. Now that I'm a homeowner with a spare room, I can finally complete my biggest project. I'd made a thread about this back when I started it, but that was many years ago now and I've made a bit of progress since then. Considering how it went through four(!) house moves I'm pleasantly surprised that it survived! The only job that I need to do before the final phase of building proper is to transfer the sections that are already completed onto a sturdier foundation than regular baseplates. I recently discovered the "MILS" plate concept that's apparently popular among the AFOL community, which seemed a good idea for a build as heavy and awkward to transport as this one. I've already built a MILS-style base for one section, which makes it 1. easier to carry and 2. gives the opportunity for a crypt underneath the main build, which is intended to give the impression of it resting on the foundations of an earlier, smaller building. It has three layers of bricks between the baseplate and top layer of plates rather than just one, but this thing really is very awkward and heavy! The "east" end with the choir and chevet is on its new base, so I'll do the same with the two transepts so they all match up and connect together. I'm now determined that early 2024 is going to be the time when I finally get this thing finished!

Thanks Sigolf and fumpy - I'll try to do a rough estimate of the piece count by adding up how much goes into each window, buttress etc and multiply it up. The results may well scare me. This update was later than planned, due to a house move. One transept is pretty much done, with another trip to Bricklink needed to get some plain grey minifigs to serve as statues: The inside view of that section: Moving it isn't quite as bad as it sounds, fortunately. The towers are removable, and the sections are just the right size to fit onto a shelving unit (which is in the garage while I sort out where I'm moving to next). The only issue really is with the upper part of the windows: the cheese slopes drop out if you bump or tip it. In the next two or three weeks, the other transept will be finished so it'll be (almost) three-quarters complete!

The south transept is almost done - I have the two side towers to finish and then I can do the same on the opposite side. The south window, with its random Gerhard Richter-inspired colour pattern, looks okay but the fine tracery is really hard to recreate at minifig scale, even with 1x1 plates: After a few days playing around with it, I decided this was as good as it was going to look and left it at that!

thanks! :) Re: keeping it on the floor. I don't have much choice but to keep it there because I don't have a table in my flat large enough! It can break down into sections though, and I do have a table large enough to hold one of those at a time. I can work on it easily that way, but displaying the thing when it's finished will be a different matter entirely!

A quick topic bump with up-to-date pics before I take a quick break for Christmas. The apsidal end, with revised buttresses, is virtually finished save a few roof tiles and panes of stained glass: The south transept needs its towers, the last of the roof tiles and its main window. I've made a start on that, using a random pattern of coloured pieces as a tribute of sorts to Gerhard Richter's design for Koln's south transept stained glass. Unfortunately for me, there's no real-life building that has the sort of transept towers I'm planning, so I'm going on this bit of wishful thinking drawn up by Viollet-le-Duc. How much is still to do when I get back onto Bricklink in January? Rather a lot, I'm afraid: Happy Christmas, everyone!

The details you've included in this are staggering...I hope enough people notice them! Indiana Jones and the conspiracy theory crates are a nice touch, but the Fake Moon Landing and functional Stargate are superb. Very well done! Getting the texures and ageing on the buildings are the icing on the cake.

I'm not sure which forum this topic belongs in, but the 'licenced' section sprung to mind first. I spotted this fellow literally lying in the street - he'd either fallen out of a bag/box on the way to a nearby charity shop, or was dropped by some local kid who happened to be passing by. I checked Bricklink because he looked sort-of familiar, and it turns out that the head doesn't match the rest...excuse the blurriness: I'm a little unsure how to feel about this. What if his original owner is upset about losing him, especially if it's a PotC-obsessed child? I couldn't see anyone around, sadly (it was a quiet bit of town off the high street, close to 5pm), and a minifig just lying in the street would only get rained on and/or broken. He's a cool-looking design, although I'm not a collector of PotC (or any other licenced stuff, really). Fortunately, I do have a few 'classic'-era Pirates sets, so he can always be press-ganged into old Redbeard's crew aboard the BSB! So yeah. If anyone in the North Yorkshire region is missing a Jack Sparrow with Jake Raines' head and wants him back, he's safe and well!

Thanks again for the advice and kind words! The buttresses are all altered to the 'single' flier shape, and I must admit they look just fine. That's how they'll stay I think. Assuming there are no Real Life things interfering this should be done within the next year(!) or so. I'm onto the transept now and the nave will be pretty straightforward. The towers will be where the fun starts, because I plan to have a total of seven: a central spire at the crossing, two western towers and a smaller one at each corner of the transept. I threw together a couple of floor plans on an LDD-type program this afternoon, because I may change the transept gable ends to allow for larger towers. Planning ahead is becoming more important as the Bricklink invoice costs mount up... Version 1: Version 2: Either could work out okay, but while I'm waiting until I can afford to order more pieces I'll decide which one to go for. The CAD program doesn't allow for the 'in-between' angles of the apse that I've actually used, so the messy sections on the far left hand side don't actually look quite as bad as this!

This is a really interesting thread! I recall back in my childhood days the most fun thing was building town layouts. It was great, because one of my sisters was a Lego fan too and we often took turns to design buildings and vehicles using my 'classic' Town and her 'girly' Paradisa sets (you'll be as pleased to know as I was she has kept hers boxed up somewhere and has no intention of getting rid of it!). Even back then - in the late 80s and early 90s - I was frustrated at the lack of 'building materials' found in the Lego range overall. Mostly it was the shortage of windows and doors! I started with one of those Basic sets that came in a blue 'briefcase' with one minifig, car wheels, a few windows and a door as well as a few colourful bricks and plates. Between that and the 'Weetabix' house (two doors, four windows, two minifigs) that's more or less all I had to work with for years. The problem is still the same now by the sounds of things. I'm not sure, statistics-wise, how many kids have this problem, but that Basic set hints at a potential solution: get back to the box/bucket of bricks. Specifically, a box/bucket full of roofing slopes, windows, doors, and the standard sized bricks that you can use to build walls, totalling enough to make a couple of separate houses or shops. The 'Creator' line does offer smaller-than-modular scale, but a 'box of building-specific' bricks that makes more than one building at a time might be a good middle ground.

It's nice to see so many people who want an Arthurian-themed Castle set. I love the idea too! The legends are a bit vague in that the stories seem to vary throughout history, but there's a strong 'moral' theme and there are really memorable characters. A re-imagining of Camelot would be a sight to see! My only reservation is that it's a very localised thing, being an English legend. But the same could be said of the Wild West and Vikings! I don't think that this would be a problem. Given the high profile of Arthur's legend in film, TV and literature, it's a great candidate for an historical hero-themed line. I'm sure there have been some really good MOCs that follow the theme...before checking the Search function, I do remember a 'Lady of the Lake' posted here somewhere... EDIT: yep, there is indeed a 'Lady of the Lake' MOC, and several threads where members here have suggested a King Arthur-themed theme in the past. Hopefully TLG will take the hint...

Apologies for the lack of recent updates - true to the historical reality of medieval construction, progress has been in fits and starts, depending on cashflow! There haven't been many major changes to my original plan so far, apart from the vault being slightly taller. The nave and main facade are still unbuilt at the far left of the photo, but in the foreground, you can just make out the corners of the transept where the towers will go: I finally solved the problem of the semicircular end to the building by 'borrowing' the idea of a rigid hose piece from the Grand Emporium set that I picked up a while back. Attach the tops of the columns to the hose, shape it around, and with a bit (by which I mean: a LOT) of patience it's fairly secure: I'm now really getting a clear idea of what a huge challenge I've set for myself: SHIPs require an enormous amount of patience and forward planning, and by the end of this I don't think I'll want to lay my hands on another light bley brick again! I have just one problem, and that's the shape of the buttresses outside. It's a minor tech detail, but the 'double' arrangement of both inner and outer supports isn't accurate: they're are only found on buildings with double aisles (this has a central span with single aisles). Right now there are a huge stacks of masonry that rest on the 'point' of each arch, which in a real building would collapse! At first glance it's not noticeable and because it's built in Lego it won't fall down, but I've rebuilt one of the buttresses for comparison purposes: The simpler 'single' pier design is in the left of the photo, and the incorrect 'double' is on the right. Although the one on the left is more accurate from an architectural POV, I'm still undecided about which version looks better. Thoughts?

A small bump to post my progress so far. Link to Flickr set Progress will have to slow down a bit while I juggle this and saving up for a holiday abroad in May. The latest challenge is finding a way of securing the semicircle of buttresses that make up the chevet of the choir. Right now my plan is to have a hose curving around the shape of the chevet, with 1 x 1 claw plates attaching the butresses to the hose at regular intervals. I was struggling with this part of the build, then noticed how the letters of the SHOP sign on the modular Grand Emporium follow the curve that makes up the corner of the building. The trick will be finding a hose of the correct length, but something needs to be done because at the moment the buttresses just wobble about! When that hurdle's overcome, I should be able to take on the half-conical shape of the chevet roof. Everything else so far is just a matter of time and finding the right pieces in sufficient quantities on Bricklink. This project needs lots of certain pieces: dark bley tiles for the roof, light bley 1 x 3 and 2 x 3 bricks for the buttresses, transparent bricks and plates of various shades for the stained glass...and tan inverted slopes for the arches of internal vaults.

That's an awesome design. There are some 'modern' touches to the details, but the overall structure and shape really does appeal to 'old-school' fans. The best of both really. If it's a conscious decision to pay homage to the classic Space designs while utilising up-to-date pieces, I'd call it a roaring success. I kinda want one!