52 replies to this topic

[danthaman11]

I've been asked a few times to share my layout and I finally got around to taking some pics of my Lego city. I started building my city when the Cafe Corner set came out. It was more of a street back then just the Cafe Corner and Market Street sitting on my shelf with a couple of cars in front of it. From then as more sets have come out I've expanded the city to take up a whole table.  My layout currently consists of an oval of train track with the town part inside of it. The streets are layed out in an H format with two main roads and one main cross street. All the buildings are modular style and all the vehicles are 6 studs or wider. No classic open backed buildings or 4 studs car in my city.


  

The back consists of a row of modular buildings grand emporium, green grocer, market street and fire brigade. There is a side road that runs in front of the grand emporium.







Behind the row of modulars are 2 of the wind turbines from 7747 Wind Turbine and Transport. They have been made taller and modified to fit M-motors in the turbine body. A Power Functions wire run down the towers where each wire connects to an I.R. Reciever. The speed of the turbine can be controlled with the power function train controller. It looks the most realistic at the slowest setting but at high speeds it makes a decent fan.




Across from the grand emporium is my modular city hall. This is the city hall building from Town Plan. I've seen a couple version where they modularized the buidling but kept the 32 stud width so it could fit in a row of modulars. The city hall in my real life city is free standing, so I expanded mine and made it wider, the building is built on 3 16 stud wide baseplates. In front of the city hall is a courtyard area with benches and the fountain from town plan.




On the main cross street is another row of modulars, Cafe corner and the Pet shop.




This is the other side of the city hall building. There is a parking lot in front of it with spaces for 4 cars. The blue car in the parking lot is a 6 stud version of the blue car from town plan.  






Across from city hall is the Octan gas station.




Behind the gas station is a small park area. Currently a catered lunch is going on for all public works employees. Wouldn't want them to work too hard.






Next to the park is the train station. Its a modular version of 7997. Currently have the passenger train on the layout. My emerald night looks better but the passenger train goes way faster and is more enjoyable to run.  




This is the front of the train station. There is parking next to it for 2 cars.




Across from the train station and next to the Cafe Corner is the movie theatre from Town Plan it's been modularized too. Most of my minifigs are here waiting to get into the next showing.





This is my open space area. Waiting for the next expansion.




Here's almost the whole layout minus the open space. Thanks for looking.

[henrylego]

Very nice town layout, very inspirational.
I wanna change my town layout just like yours, though I have missed out Cafe Corner, Market Street and Green Grocer :(

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Awesome layout 'DtM11'. It's great to finally see your layout! I love the double versions of of some of the sets. I've been hoping to see a a larger version of the Town Hall from 10184. A very nice collection and great setup

[Legocrazy81]

Very nice layout. Gave me a few ideas.

[streifen]

Great city layout! i like the tile-built carpark lots at the Town Hall!

the police car is waiting in ambush? though it will be of more use at the cinema where there seems to be chaos in the queue.  

[lightningtiger]

Very nice city 'danthaman11', fantastic modified service station and that yellow taxi is the bomb !
Brick On 'danthaman11' !

[Nightshroud99]

This makes me want to have a LEGO town   If only I had room.

You have a stunning layout there.  

[weltall1028]

Wow! Looks awesome!

[danthaman11]

 henrylego, on 11 October 2011 - 02:42 AM, said:

Very nice town layout, very inspirational.
I wanna change my town layout just like yours, though I have missed out Cafe Corner, Market Street and Green Grocer :(

Thanks henrylego. Sorry you missed out on Cafe Corner, Market Street and Green Grocer. Hopefully you picked up Fire Brigade before it goes out of production.

 Leg Godt Gud, on 11 October 2011 - 02:55 AM, said:

Awesome layout 'DtM11'. It's great to finally see your layout! I love the double versions of of some of the sets. I've been hoping to see a a larger version of the Town Hall from 10184. A very nice collection and great setup

Thanks Leg Godt Gud. Glad you liked the layout especially the town hall. It's one of my favorite buildings and was a fun build.

 Legocrazy81, on 11 October 2011 - 03:13 AM, said:

Very nice layout. Gave me a few ideas.

Thanks Legocrazy81. Glad you were able to get a few ideas.

 streifen, on 11 October 2011 - 03:20 AM, said:

Great city layout! i like the tile-built carpark lots at the Town Hall!

the police car is waiting in ambush? though it will be of more use at the cinema where there seems to be chaos in the queue.  

Thanks streifen. It's pretty crazy over at the cinema. Most of my minifigs are there. I'll just say the police car is on it's way over there.  

 lightningtiger, on 11 October 2011 - 04:22 AM, said:

Very nice city 'danthaman11', fantastic modified service station and that yellow taxi is the bomb !
Brick On 'danthaman11' !

Thanks lightningtiger.

 Nightshroud99, on 11 October 2011 - 05:02 AM, said:

This makes me want to have a LEGO town   If only I had room.

You have a stunning layout there.  

Thanks Nightshroud99. Sorry you don't have room for a Lego town. Hopefully you will have room someday.  

 weltall1028, on 11 October 2011 - 05:51 AM, said:

Wow! Looks awesome!

Thanks weltall1028.

[Kryne]

:O omg wow is all i can say. Makes me want to run out and rebuild my town plan as modulars now, they look amazing. Excellent work

[cimddwc]

Really a nice layout you got there, with lots of busy citizens.    
I just think that the black parking lot is a bit too dark and I would have used dark gray, but that's just my personal taste.

[Creator]

Wow, I love your town. Nice modification to the Town Plan Town Hall. Perhaps the cinema may look a little small next to the CC.. I guess that's why it's so busy in front: there are only a few seats left ;)

[Dr. Steve]

one word..."AMAZING"

[L@go]

Great layout - I think what I like most about it is the fact that it's not too crowded. Many layouts suffer from people wanting to cram as many sets or houses or vehicles into them as possible - yours is just about right, you managed to make it look busy, but not too much. And your trees - especially those outside the Pet Shop - are very nice additions, to top the whole thing off. I'd love to do something like this with my stuff at some point when I have the available space for it.

[Vicmackey80]

Love it, beautiful in essential..like the double train station and town hall..great idea for the hole on the back..very very good!
I look in some place this TAXI!!!!!

[ale8oneboy]

Awesome layout. I like how you integrated the palm trees for the California look! The cars fit well too. Excellent job!

[tedbeard]

I have to compliment you on the successful integration of road plates with the MHS buildings. The sidewalks with trees are very nice and I really love the parking spaces in front of City Hall and in the odd-shaped space by the train station.

This will be what I point people towards when they start trying to tell me that the only option is brick-built roads.

If I had one tiny suggestion it would be to add ballast to the railway tracks. Every other detail is so wonderful that the bare track sitting on top of the baseplates don't quite do it justice.

[Jedi master Brick]

This is stunning, I love the town hall and the petrol station.  The parkings spaces seem really good too.  My one bit of adivce is add a few houses for the people

[danthaman11]

 Kryne, on 11 October 2011 - 07:56 AM, said:

:O omg wow is all i can say. Makes me want to run out and rebuild my town plan as modulars now, they look amazing. Excellent work

Thanks Kryne. You should definately convert your town plan to modulars. I really enjoyed making the conversion and they look good with the official modulars.

 cimddwc, on 11 October 2011 - 08:59 AM, said:

Really a nice layout you got there, with lots of busy citizens.    
I just think that the black parking lot is a bit too dark and I would have used dark gray, but that's just my personal taste.

Thanks cimddwc. I debated between going with black and dark bluish gray for the parking lot but I had a lot of spare black 2 x 2 tiles so that is how I went with black.

 Creator, on 11 October 2011 - 10:28 AM, said:

Wow, I love your town. Nice modification to the Town Plan Town Hall. Perhaps the cinema may look a little small next to the CC.. I guess that's why it's so busy in front: there are only a few seats left ;)

Thanks creator. The cinema was my first attempt and modular conversion. I've been thinking about doing a remodel. Making the building taller and adding another story. I have a lot of medium blue bricks but just haven't got around to it.

 Dr. Steve, on 11 October 2011 - 12:02 PM, said:

one word..."AMAZING"

Thanks Dr. Steve.

 L@go, on 11 October 2011 - 12:24 PM, said:

Great layout - I think what I like most about it is the fact that it's not too crowded. Many layouts suffer from people wanting to cram as many sets or houses or vehicles into them as possible - yours is just about right, you managed to make it look busy, but not too much. And your trees - especially those outside the Pet Shop - are very nice additions, to top the whole thing off. I'd love to do something like this with my stuff at some point when I have the available space for it.

Thanks L@go for kind comments. I agree with your analysis, it's easy to get a layout too crowded with too many cars or with the buildings all jammed together instead of properly spaced. To me spacing is very important, everything has to look right and fit together. I try to rotate the cars I have so the town doesn't end up looking like a used car lot and only allow one or two service vehicles at a time. I try to budget some of my Lego money for infrastructure and landscaping. It's easy for me to get carried away with buying sets, but it's the trees, stoplights, tiled sidewalks that give a lego city a greater sense of realism and detail.    

 Vicmackey80, on 11 October 2011 - 12:59 PM, said:

Love it, beautiful in essential..like the double train station and town hall..great idea for the hole on the back..very very good!
I look in some place this TAXI!!!!!

Thanks Vickmackey80. I am glad you like it, I know you were waiting to see pics for a while.

 ale8oneboy, on 11 October 2011 - 01:22 PM, said:

Awesome layout. I like how you integrated the palm trees for the California look! The cars fit well too. Excellent job!

Thanks ale80oneboy.

 tedbeard, on 11 October 2011 - 04:25 PM, said:

I have to compliment you on the successful integration of road plates with the MHS buildings. The sidewalks with trees are very nice and I really love the parking spaces in front of City Hall and in the odd-shaped space by the train station.

This will be what I point people towards when they start trying to tell me that the only option is brick-built roads.

If I had one tiny suggestion it would be to add ballast to the railway tracks. Every other detail is so wonderful that the bare track sitting on top of the baseplates don't quite do it justice.

Thanks for the kind comments tedbeard. I think the newer road plates can work well with the modular buildings if done right and they are relatively affordable.  As long as the sidewalks are tiled and have a little landscaping they can look good. I like the way brick built roads look but to build them especially for a larger layout can be expensive.
Thanks for the suggestion of ballast for the track. I've seen that on some of the train show layouts and it looks great. I will have to look into that.

 Jedi master Brick, on 11 October 2011 - 05:13 PM, said:

This is stunning, I love the town hall and the petrol station.  The parkings spaces seem really good too.  My one bit of adivce is add a few houses for the people

Thanks Jedi master Brick. I would love to add a suburban area to my layout with some houses but with the limited space I have it's more of a downtown focus. One day when I got more room I will have a massive layout with some houses.

[ACCURATEin]

I love your city.  You did a great job.

One of the things i've considered building is a Honda dealership.  You should build one for your S2000s!  

[Ouchkabibbles]

Beautiful layout. Here in Australia it is difficult to justify the cost of bricks for a brick built road but your solution to the boring sidewalks is very inspiring.

[Ralph_S]

Some of the cars do look , which is one of the drawbacks of wanting to have minifig cars that seat two figures side-by side. They look alright on their own, but as part of a town with pedestrians and other vehicles, they look far too big IMO. Smaller cars would be a better option.

However, it's a nice looking mix of sets and MOCs and overall very well integrated.

Cheers,
RAlph

[danthaman11]

 ACCURATEin, on 13 October 2011 - 06:05 AM, said:

I love your city.  You did a great job.

One of the things i've considered building is a Honda dealership.  You should build one for your S2000s!  

Thanks ACCURATEin. Great suggestion on the Honda Delearship. I've actually been thinking of building a car dealership myself. Whenever I think about trying to build a modular that idea seems to come up.    

 Ouchkabibbles, on 13 October 2011 - 06:25 AM, said:

Beautiful layout. Here in Australia it is difficult to justify the cost of bricks for a brick built road but your solution to the boring sidewalks is very inspiring.

Thanks Ouchkabibbles. Glad you like the sidewalk improvements on the road plates.  Austrailians definately pay a premium on Lego compared to those in the U.S. and a road plate solution might be more affordable for a city layout.  

 Ralph_S, on 13 October 2011 - 06:47 AM, said:

Some of the cars do look , which is one of the drawbacks of wanting to have minifig cars that seat two figures side-by side. They look alright on their own, but as part of a town with pedestrians and other vehicles, they look far too big IMO. Smaller cars would be a better option.

However, it's a nice looking mix of sets and MOCs and overall very well integrated.

Cheers,
RAlph

Thanks Ralph_S.

[HighFlyer]

Awesome town, love the various MOCs/MODs you have done. Great job!  

[President of Brick Town]

A great layout!