23 replies to this topic

[alex54]

Edit : The update version can be seen here.

B-RM-3E

Hey !

It’s time for me to present you my second modular building. I just let you know that it’s not totally finished, but it has its definitive look.

So let’s go for the retrospective of the building!
This time, and after a 16x32 based sized yellow house, I decided to build a 32x32 based sized modular module. But I didn’t want to build a 32-wide building like GG. My way was to build 2 houses on a same 32x32 base-plate, to stay in the standard of modular buildings.
For this module, I decided, like I’ve done with my yellow house, to upscale two of my older houses.

My first choice was my brown building.



It was based on the 70’s style, which is visible near my home. Those houses were built during the expansion of the downtown, at the borders of suburbs.
After a small walk, equipped with my camera, I take this for a new inspiration, keeping the color scheme :



This is not the most beautiful architecture, but it has some characteristic gimmicks in terms of style, making this period recognizable between the others.

My second choice was inspired by this house, from Clermont-Ferrand (where I studied. It’s also the land of the tires Michelin) :


In my older layout, my LEGO version looks like that(and permit me to discover the metroliner set!... ):


Everybody (I hope) will find it : it’s the second left building.

So, without delay, the result of this always interesting and amusing works is… (sorry for the quality of the pictures, I just have my old camera with me…) :






The back now :


I don’t have put a lot of details in them not to use a lot of interesting pieces. I still put a sliding door to the grey house and made a small storeroom under the stairs (which could be very useful to store a lawnmower or whatever you want.

Here views showing all the floors parts :




As you can see, I don’t have enough brown bricks to make all the wall of my brown house brown.
In the ground floor, we have in the brown building a shop section and a stair to go to the apartments upstairs. The two apartments have their own mailboxes (in red, not really visible in the picture above).
I don’t put any stairs in the grey house because it will take a lot of space in this small interior.
As you can also see, I don’t have made any furniture yet…


The second floor:


The third floor :


the fourth floor of the grey building and the roof of the brown building :


The two roofs :


On the third floor of the brown building, there is a ladder attached to the wall. Why?


Because it’s very useful when you want to go to the terrace for the maintenance :


Now, my module inserted in a piece of street, with lamp, tree and minifigs :


Next to my yellow modular house :


And finally a shot with all my official and my own modular buildings :


The hardest thing to do was to hide the junctions of the different levels on the front of the buildings. I didn’t want to have some horizontal lines, I just wanted a smooth effect, from the first floor to the last.

[lightningtiger]

Just another AWESOME set of modulars from you 'alex54', the mix of art-deco and classic french stylng is fantastic.....any chances for interior's to go in both ?
The trans-clear brick built giant window is my favorite feature of it all !
Keep them coming 'alex54' and Brick On !

[L@go]

Great work, again. It looked great in your old layout, and the transition to modular hasn't made it any less wonderful. I like the colour combinations and the amount of detailing, especially on the gray building - and the bay window and sliding doors in the back look really nice. Well done!

[sonicstarlight]

Outstanding! The way the two play off each other is really great - it is difficult to make more modern designs fit in well with the rest of the modulars, but your brown building does it as well as any I've seen. Really nothing but praise from me! Blogged on Brick Town Talk!  

[streifen]

I thought your street layout looks good!

The facade of the white-blue house is very detailed and clean!

[Hinckley]

It's always nice to see an update from you, and blog it too. You're making progress and it looks really great! I particularly love the first floor of the grey building. Typically, I had a similar idea and have not gotten around to completing the MOC, so you've beat me to it! If I have any suggestion it would be to add a little detail between the first and second floor of the brown building. I know it's more of a modern building so fancy ledges aren't common. But the brown, to me, signifies brick and I would imagine there would be a nice brick detail in a brownstone like that. Just a little suggestion. It all looks fantastic anyway. Great work. Thanks for sharing your awesome skill with us!

[LegoDadRobb]

I lived in Clermont-Fd in the late nineties, so I enjoyed this build as it reminded me of the variety of styles in that town (and many other cities, of course). Wouldn't I love to see a LEGO version of the Place de Jaude in the center of town with the Vercingétorix statue.

Great work on both very different styles in this build. I was as impressed with the modern door overhang as I was with the delicate details on the white and blue building.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Simply wonderful!
There's nothing better than a great modular building, and this looks like a real one!  
I love the external architecture of the grey one whit all that curved slope  
Beautiful lanscape!  

[Tacitus]

Great buildings!  Thanks for reminding me just how slack I've been completing MOCs of my own.

[Bricky0]

Fantastic work on all of them!  

[Badsneaker]

Great work! Really lovely buildings. I really like the 16x32's even done on the 32x32 plate. I find doing these 16 wide MOC's too be a fun quick build compared to doing a full size 32x32 and you can really squeeze some cool details into the building small width.

The 1st photo of your "old version" town looks like it could on the back of an official LEGO box. Great street scene.

Please permit me to use some of your technique and building style for inspiration.  

[alex54]

Badsneaker, on 12 September 2011 - 12:49 AM, said:

Please permit me to use some of your technique and building style for inspiration.  

I permit you and others to do so, no problem on that!

LegoDadRobb, on 11 September 2011 - 02:55 AM, said:

I lived in Clermont-Fd in the late nineties, so I enjoyed this build as it reminded me of the variety of styles in that town (and many other cities, of course). Wouldn't I love to see a LEGO version of the Place de Jaude in the center of town with the Vercingétorix statue.

Great work on both very different styles in this build. I was as impressed with the modern door overhang as I was with the delicate details on the white and blue building.

Have you seen the “new” Place de Jaude after all the works that have been done to receive the tram “Fleur de lave”?
I like the variety in towns, like in Clermont or in Nancy (where I lived). It reflects the history of the city and its evolution over time (Middle adge houses, Renaissance, post-war style, art nouveau, pop art, modern architecture...).
I like this heterogeneity, making the streets less boring, with some nice details to discover for those who take the time to observe their environ.

sonicstarlight, on 11 September 2011 - 01:45 AM, said:

Outstanding! The way the two play off each other is really great - it is difficult to make more modern designs fit in well with the rest of the modulars, but your brown building does it as well as any I've seen. Really nothing but praise from me! Blogged on Brick Town Talk!  

Building in a modern style is not that easy with LEGO. It's a little paradoxical because we can think that with smooth and square bricks, it's easy to make modern buidling, which are smooth and squarish. But in fact, it's not the fact. The LEGO bricks gives a kind of heaviness to the architecture.
For the different architecture, I like to have a great stand alone building but I imagine it in its street, with its neighbors. I go down the real street to see how it's done in our world and try to apply it in the LEGO world. I try to understand what make people not being chocked or surprised when they walk down the street with all its heterogeneity.
It's not that easy to explain in english, sorry. And I stop here, I will be boring!

Hinckley, on 11 September 2011 - 02:52 AM, said:

It's always nice to see an update from you, and blog it too. You're making progress and it looks really great! I particularly love the first floor of the grey building. Typically, I had a similar idea and have not gotten around to completing the MOC, so you've beat me to it! If I have any suggestion it would be to add a little detail between the first and second floor of the brown building. I know it's more of a modern building so fancy ledges aren't common. But the brown, to me, signifies brick and I would imagine there would be a nice brick detail in a brownstone like that. Just a little suggestion. It all looks fantastic anyway. Great work. Thanks for sharing your awesome skill with us!

I hope that you will let you see your building with this similar idea!
Thanks for your suggestion, I will take it into account, but if you have some pictures or other illustrations, don't hesitate to send them.

So, thanks for all the great comments, they make me glad!
And thanks for blogged my moc in Classic Town, Brick-town-talk and frontpaged it in EB!

[wednesdayware]

Wow. Very beautiful. I love the modular buildings, and am just starting on trying to build some. Very inspirational!

[Vincent Kessels]

Those are very beautiful buildings 'alex54'.  

The brown building is instantly recognizable as a seventies building. The balconies and the staircase window are perfectly done.

The facade of the grey/white building is very good. The only comment I have is that it might even be better as a corner building like the original.

[alex54]

Vincent Kessels, on 02 October 2011 - 05:33 PM, said:

The brown building is instantly recognizable as a seventies building. The balconies and the staircase window are perfectly done.

The facade of the grey/white building is very good. The only comment I have is that it might even be better as a corner building like the original.

Thanks for your nice comment! I have already thought to make the grey building a corner one before, but I don't know if the result will be that great. I mean, I prefer to make it a front house than a corner house like Café Corner for exemple. this 90° angle will not suit it that much, not more than a front building as I have made. Making a corner version like the real one would be great, but with this angle, it can't be integrated in a layout with other modular buildings.


I have made some minor modifications on this moc, but for me they are welcomed. I have changed the grey windows with some tan windows to have the same colours in the tan section. I have also put some rounded pieces on top of the grey windows, instead of the 1x4 tan tiles. This "iner" section looks more sleak, but also more sculpted. And we have a kind of echo to the studs from the balconies.







That's all!

[L@go]

Still wonderful, and yes, it looks better with tan windows.

I didn't notice the 'PUSH' signs on the rear windows before. A welcome message to burglars? :)

[alex54]

L@go, on 01 November 2011 - 06:14 PM, said:

I didn't notice the 'PUSH' signs on the rear windows before. A welcome message to burglars? :)

Yes it is! No, those windows come from the old worldcity train station. I have put the stickers on during those old days, and I don't put them of here... Thanks to remind me that I need to do so!

[retrorecycler]

Fsntastic work, on this Modular , Moc
Can I just ask one question what is the trans element you have used next to the trans clear 1x2 brick for the deco window?
I love this feature and it would look great on a deco cinema I am working on, if you could fire over the part number I shall add some to my bricklink wanted list straight away.

regards

Matthew

[gotoAndLego]

It looks like he stacked three 1x1 plates.

I always find it interesting to see how MOCs develop, and comparing your first photo to the last really shows how you refined the brown building. The shape of the balconies is particularly nice.

Edited by gotoAndLego, 29 June 2012 - 06:41 PM.

[retrorecycler]

gotoAndLego, on 29 June 2012 - 06:40 PM, said:

It looks like he stacked three 1x1 plates.

of course thanks I can see it so clearly now I am on a PC ;-)
I though it was like the trans screw elements when I looked on my phone, what a fantastic effect with the trsns 1x1 tile that creates and so simple :-)

[alex54]

retrorecycler, on 29 June 2012 - 06:33 PM, said:

Fsntastic work, on this Modular , Moc
Can I just ask one question what is the trans element you have used next to the trans clear 1x2 brick for the deco window?...

gotoAndLego, on 29 June 2012 - 06:40 PM, said:

It looks like he stacked three 1x1 plates.

I always find it interesting to see how MOCs develop, and comparing your first photo to the last really shows how you refined the brown building. The shape of the balconies is particularly nice.

You're Richter, they are 1x1trans withe plates. Firstly, I have used some 1x1 trans bricks but the result wasn't so great. The plates add a nice effect.

And thanks for the nice coments.

[The Player Nº1]

The right building it's gorgeous!

[Ferrik]

These buildings look great and so does your older layout.

[brickcitydepot]

nice, I really like the glass pattern on the brown building.