My first bigger MOC on my first exhibition

[Holodoc]

B-M-1A

Hi everybody!

After a working period of almost a year I finished my latest MOC just in time to show in on the yearly AFOL exhibition in Frechen last weekend (5.1.08 + 6.1.08).

This thread is made to show you my MOC :'-) and to incourage you to do the same. (No, you don�t have to come to Germany next January :-P , but you maybe able to show some of your work at a local exhibition ;-) ).

It was overwhelming to meet so many Lego oriented/interested people and to talk to them. Another experience everyone should make is talking to visitors. That�s quite fun, because the questions are mostly the same: How long did it take to build it? :-) How much money did you spend on it? 8-| And the good old classic: Can I buy this? :-D The visistors were all very kind and friendly and the are very thankful for the answers they get.

I never would have expected that so many NAFOL (not-AFOL :-D ) are still interested in Lego. A lot of people remember their childhood when seeing things on display. But some don�t even know that certain sets existed. The weblink that was given out most on these days was Bricklink.com. Many people are in need of just a few parts and never heard of the famous website before.

Here are more photos I made from the event.

To sum it up: One weekend of pure pleasure.

It was my first but definitely not the last show I attended.

(The next thing I�m working on is to organize a small Lego show with the ability to drive trains and do more stuff for little children at our local parish festival. So if you have ideas for me - let me know!)

But now to my MOC:

I always wanted to build a local building to scale. First I wanted to build the church, but I pretty fast abandoned that idea because of very difficult angles and the towers. :-|

Then I looked at the place I work in: The local hospital. Clear structure, no weird colours used - fine, that�s it!

I began thinking about it on march '07. I had NO plans of the building and started making photographs. In my BS-folder (see below) you can find a photo where I compared the stone colour with existing Lego colours. I made almost 100 photos to get as many details as possible. Later on I luckily got my hands on some ground plans.

I planned the whole thing digitally with LDD.

*image clickable*

That worked fine for the older part of the building (old brown walls, black roof), but when it came to the newer bigger part (white buildings, flat roof) where I had to put walls after walls without the possibility to edit them (at least I didn�t find a solution for this 8-| ) I quitted working virtually.

I bought the first bricks on our last event in G�nzburg. But in retrospect I had NO idea what amount of bricks I was looking for. It was a start, okay, but almost the same amount I had to buy later at Bricklink. Most of you know the story: Right after you have completed an order and went on building you realize, that some bricks are still missing. It took me about 10 orders to complete my shopping list (that never really existed). |-/ And you cannot blame anyone else with this! :-D

I started real-building in June with a long brake due to missing parts from September to November. You can see the building process in my BS-folder. Just follow the numbers. I added some photos of the hospital as well to show the real building in comparison.

I finished the hospital just in time on Friday, 4th of January at 1:30 a.m.

12 hours later I stowed it in my car and drove it to Frechen. In other words: If there hadn�t been this event, I still wouldn�t have finished it. :-D Fortunately I was able to seperate it in two parts and all went well on the transport.

The facts:

It�s about 4500 bricks (costs: 350 � - I had expected more) and the pure building time was around 50 hours.

I had to estimate the scale - it�s around 1:180 (please tell me, if I�m totally wrong). And - NO, I�m not going to do this in minifig scale, you know! :-P X-D

Right now it is stored in my house, but I plan to display it in the hospital as well - negotiations are running (maybe Copmike could help me with that ;-) ).

So enjoy and let me know what you think about it.

P.S.: On the second day we took our monorail and Santa-Fe to the exhibition as well to fill the left space. Kids (including mine) LOVE trains!

[Siegfried]

Thanks for sharing this. It looks great and very accurate. *wub* You mentioned making this earlier but I didn't know that you had been posting prgress shots the whole time. Silly me didn't check either. :-$ Thanks for sharing also your design process. I was wondering if you could get the floor plans. How far along were you when you got them? It would have been far harder building from just photos...

By the way, I know I have said this before, but I love your monorail! *wub*

[Holodoc]

Thank you Sinner for replying. I already wondered if I made a new topic nobody is interested in. :'-(

What did I do wrong? Or was my story all too long? :-D

How far along were you when you got them? It would have been far harder building from just photos...

Luckily I was able to make photos of a floor plan showing the whole hospital in the early design process. Otherwise it would have been really hard to make it accurate. But even with the plan it had some tricky corners.

One thing I forgot to mention about the event: All exhibitors got a free 1x8 brick in green with "Frechen 2008" engraved. It sticks to your t-shirt with two small but very strong magnets (not to be compared with the EB-event-07 magnet ;-) :-P ). This is really nice, so you can see where all the others had attended so far.

Resulting in Jan Beyer almost having back pain:

*click to enlarge*

As it was my first event, I started with my badge:

Needless to say I

[Norro]

Congrats on displaying (I still haven't). And a beautiful MOC as well! I am jealous of the experience and will have to get to a lego event one of these years... Now interviewing sponsors... ;-)

God Bless,

Nathan

[Hinckley]

What's up with Brickshelf? Your folder still isn't public. I have to say I also love your monorail! I didn't realize that was yours until just now. I've had pics of that in my inspiration folder for quite some time. How old is that at this point?

I think your hospital is beautiful. I have to admit right off that I'm not a fan of micro-scale. I mean, what a cruel trick to play on an injured mini-fig: "We're at the hospital! Ha! Fooled you. It's just an elaborate sculpture." :-$ Okay, so you get it. But I do love this model you've built here. I'm sure the cost to have built it mini-fig scale would've been astronomical. :-D

I love the building itself how itself how the modern building is built off of the original hospital. Buildings like this are all over the place and I've always wanted to incorporate that into one of my City MOCs but it doesn't always look right. You captured it beautifully here. The first thing that caught my attention was the duct work. I love the little details and you got so many great details in here even in such a small scale. It really looks great.

Congratulations on displaying it in public! That's one thing I don't think I'd ever have the courage to do. Having moved around Chicago a lot with my LEGO and having spilled boxes in stairwells, easements and crosswalks :'-( I'm not a big fan of taking my creations out of the house. And I would probably be a bulldog on the "touch it and die" factor. Anyway, it looks like you had a great time and thanks for sharing the experience with us. *sweet*

[Asuka]

Thank you for that interesting story and the fine pictures from that event, it

[CopMike]

Late, who

[mutley777]

A wonderfull re-creation of your place of work holodoc. The detail you have managed to fit in is excellent! *y*

I can really simpathize with the bricklink buying, after a couple of orders arrive and i start building i always have to stop and wait for more orders to come :-D .

I don't think i would ever have the courage to show my MOC's in public (it's much easier to be a faceless soul on the internet :-D ), so congrats on taking what i think is a big step. Keep up the great work and i look forward to seeing your next MOC for public show! :-)

[Jipay]

*bangs his head on the wall* How could have I missed out this thread ?! That's a great creation you've got here ! I see most of the basic questions have been covered, so i'll try to be original : you said you didn't do the church cause it was too complicated, but I assume that this model also presents some peculiars. What was the hardest things to modelize ?

[Holodoc]

Aaah - a little movement due to house advertising... :-$ ;-)

Thank you all guys for your kind requests. A special thank you to the multicoloured guy. You know green and yellow are a part of the rainbow ;-)

I

[alex54]

Thank you Sinner for replying. I already wondered if I made a new topic nobody is interested in. :'-(

What did I do wrong? Or was my story all too long? :-D

Or maybe good topics are hidden by a lot of not so interesting topics...

Anyway.

Showing my moc in an exhibition is a thing that I would like to do. But I know that I'm Hinckley :-D

And I would probably be a bulldog on the "touch it and die" factor.

It seems to be a very nice experience. Personnaly, I've got some familly members who want to see my layout after seeing my room with LEGO everywhere. I will organize a private exhibition. But there will be some VIP pass for EB members :-P !

I would like to see how the people who come are, looking at those mocs everywhere. I can imagine that it's a real pleasure when they look at your work, with the eyes full of stars...

I finished the hospital just in time on Friday, 4th of January at 1:30 a.m.

... In other words: If there hadn

[Quarryman]

I would like to see how the people who come are, looking at those mocs everywhere. I can imagine that it's a real pleasure when they look at your work, with the eyes full of stars...

Then there is the mental breakdown after getting asked the same questions over and over and over again.. ("How many bricks? How long did it take to build? What did it cost?"). Illustrated very good in a comic in some issue of BrickJournal, I'll see if I can dig it up. ;-)

[Brickadier General]

Very nice mini-scale MOC, Holodoc. And I use the term mini lightly for this one. :-D Very nice recreation of the real buildings too.

[Holodoc]

Or maybe good topics are hidden by a lot of not so interesting topics...

Anyway.

Yep - it

[Holodoc]

The hospital MOC reached it´s final destination.

I was allowed to place it in the entrance hall.

When the director saw it he told me: "Well, there´s a construction site at one side of the hospital. Can you place a matchbox digger or something like that there?"

Matchbox?

This is what I came up with:

This is the smallest MOC I ever built.

I´ll post pictures of the whole scenery tomorrow.

[DJ Force]

Excellent digger!

[Holodoc]

Excellent digger!

Thank you!

Actually I´m thinking of adding more cars or people to the scenery.

It won´t be too detailed, though.

The promised last two pics:

[alex54]

This is the smallest MOC I ever built.

And it's very cute! The proportions are really good for such a small digger!

Micro scale looks really interesting in the way of how to use the pieces the best...

I will try one day...