lgorlando

1. castor-troy -1 2. cimddwc -1 10.RoxYourBlox -1 25.snaillad -1 27.Myko -1

This one is my favorite! Good Luck!

Greetings fellow builders! It has been many, MANY, months since I posted on Eurobricks but I am pleased to return with a new project based on the Super Stack Modular building technique I developed on my first project Downtown Metro. This second Set "5th and Main" is a new Super Stack engineered in a similar way to Downtown Metro but with less material and stronger features. The base is 4 buildings, 3 formal and 1 core unit in the rear (the core unit is not an actual building but rather a support block). The base units are placed on four 16 x 16 plates with technic bricks that allow for connecting. The two sides buildings are designed symmetrically to connect to the corner unit which is smaller than the other units. These four units serve as the base and since they all have 4 walls, the base is very strong. Due to the technic connection design, the building is easy to disassemble, move and transport as opposed to the original super stack, Downtown Metro, which was one unit built on a 32 x 32 baseplate; dense with bricks and difficult to move. The tower units are all the same proportion and scale. Each are built on 6x16 plates and are all modular from the base to the roof pieces. The only exception is the end tower (the dark orange building) It is 8x6. The key to the towers rising above the skyline is a series of base unites in the rear. The base units are composed of 1x5x6 panel pieces and 1x2x5 bricks. They are conservative, strong and light on parts. They give the Super Stack it's Faux proportions and save on windows and special colors. Design Work: There are some tricks to use when designing a city scene for a super stack: 1) Use strong details for the base and compliment your colors. Complimentary colors are pieces that look good together. e.g. dark red merges with brown merging with tan pulled together by light grey. This gives the city a realistic feel. 2) Use glass, windows and steel color parts for the towers. Keep it simple but repetitive thus you replicate a modern city look. You don't want your eye focused on a really detailed sky scraper which defeats the entire super stack project. Focus the detail on the base level and allow the eye to "travel the rest of the structure". 3) Use a transition tower so that you can merge with your existing Cafe Corner Style buildings. The transition building will contain masonry detail and windows similar to the official line of CC style buildings. This transition is important so that your city is consistent and progressive. Hope you enjoy (I will add additional photos soon). Cheers! EDIT: Per a request below, here are the two Super Modulars combined. Kind of cluttered since they are both corner units, and massive!

totally in love with this layout! Very nice!

Thanks all for the feedback and remarks! I would love to see TLC make a skyline type set with tall buildings. Perhaps it's in the forecast. In the meantime I'm going to add to this theme when I get a chance. Hopefully I'll have something before the end of summer. Brick on!

Brick count is about 3500 give or take a 100 or so.

Greetings! It's Summer Break so let the big building begin! How do you fit your entire city center on one 32 x 32 baseplate? I call it the "Super-Stack Modular"! Designed to bring a metropolis look and feel to the modular series, while maintaining limited real-estate, minimal brick count, broad yet realistic colorization, as well as "Lego Playability". This 8 story city center relies on clever frame work, mathematical proportions, strategic focal points and vertical distribution. There are 16 modular sections each proportioned carefully so that the taller buildings could reconfigure anywhere on the upper level. The base is actually one large "mantel", and it is the most complex of the design. The mantel design was proportioned in "3D" to achieve the magic of independent buildings collaborating beneath a rising city skyline. Because it needs to support the remaining 15 modular structures, the frame work is weaved with layers of intersecting beams throughout. There is a thick "mother" plate independent of the mantel that helps keep the top building flat and stable. Each of the top buildings is re-configurable so that you can customize the skyline. I focused on a corner center that would merge a residential building like the Green Grocer with a commercial building like the Emporium. The Dark Red Building blends into commercial, while the large gothic tower merges with residential. It was a very challenging design (6 months) tedious build (5 weeks) but the effect is most pleasing! Life's been busy but I am happy to share with you all when I can. Thanks so much! -lg

The Brown traditional minifig head was in the Slave 1 second edition set. There are quite a few brown heads on bricklink, I have quite a few of these and a few of the the pink flesh color; I like a diverse city as well! http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?P=3626bp01&colorID=88

I've been practicing my city photography for a few years now. I think this is a great topic!

Great, It wasn't just me then. I got a new computer recently and it has runtime 2010 and I haven't been able to use the export list for bricklink. Just a blank <inventory>. Doesn't paste in note pad either. There is hope...

This may have been "over tech-y-fied". Simply break up your model… I never let lego have any of my models...ASSEMBLED... Break up your LDD Model then save the new model as "SomeModelnameScrambled" You can then order the pieces in your model thru the LDD order link with no worries that TLG will "own your original design". Of course ordering through LDD is about $10 more expensive because you will get an instruction manual and box but you save time (and programming). I've done this lots in the past. It works like a charm! You will get a box image of a nasty disassembled model but it is indecipherable and you then use the pieces in your original, neat model. Good luck!

Hi: I keep a summary of my sets here. I have many more sets coming up this year. You can check the link often.

Hi Fredrik and welcome to town building! One of my favorite sites for inspiration is bricktowntalk.blogspot.com. They recently started featuring a regular posting of inspirational photos of city buidings. I am definatly inspired by their posts. Share your photos of your finished buildings when you get a chance!

I totally agree! If the large modulars are too much for your budget go for a small creator set like the log cabin, the apple tree house or the upcoming house on the hillside. I used to build really thin models with no back wall like the City Corner set. You can build up your city fast using this technique. I also google images of "town buildings". Don't worry about color (try to keep your buildings to 2 or 3 colors per building only, then focus on window distribution using a flat front and evolve into corner buildings and finally develop a cute but simple window /door accent and a realistic (but not overly dramatic) roof accent, most people mess up here. The story writes itself from there. Good Luck! Examples of buildings simple to complex using the same color scheme: Simple Medium Complex

Yeah, I think Vader11 officially has the longest street! Wow! And yep, the grand emporium (L@go's) over the street is wonderful!