39 replies to this topic

[Edbrick]

Firstly I have done a search on building techniques and although I found lots of helpful information I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

After years of wanting to make my own Hoth base I have finally taken the plunge and bought a load of loose bricks.
I have built lots of sets over the last three years, from various themes (40+ at least) I am yet to make my own creation though.

I am going to purchase a 7666 Hoth base to give me the foundations, the plan is to modify it and, in the future, add the Echo base control room.

My question isn’t straight forward- I really don’t know where to start on the build, I have bought several lots of bricks:
2X http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1439.l2649
http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1439.l2649
http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1439.l2649

Also found some ice pieces (and a load of trans light blue 1x1 tiles) in this lot:
http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1439.l2649

My quandary is, do I build the base to a set size of base plate or build it to the vehicles I want to place inside? I was thinking about going 48 x 20 outside. I am hoping this will give enough room to place the blast doors and end wall on and for some trenches and gun turrets etc.
I haven’t given the inside much though as of yet, probably to include an x wing and two snowspeeders. My idea to make is different to any others I have seen it to put mezzanine floor at the rear of the set. I am hoping this will give the dio a bit more texture and not be quite so linear. Made up of these:
http://www.bricklink...86&itemID=64904

To summarise, I would love to hear some advice on the planning stage- I don’t want to spend a fortune on buying base boards (aren’t they expensive?!) and find they aren’t the right size for my build. Maybe sketching out my idea is the way forward?

Thanks in advance,

Edbrick

Edited by Fugazi, 04 February 2013 - 09:20 PM.
edited title

[Edbrick]

Can anyone give me any pointers?

[lightningtiger]

To take in all that you want to build, man you will be looking at least 96 wide as a minimum for the X-wing and snow speeders. Might I suggest you search Brickshelf for other peoples Echo Base's and Goggle Images for screen shot of the interior of Echo Base from ESB for inspiration.
You could ask in the Star Wars forum, we do have some SW experts there !   
Brick On 'Edbrick' !

[Fallenangel]

Edbrick, on 31 August 2011 - 12:46 PM, said:

My quandary is, do I build the base to a set size of base plate or build it to the vehicles I want to place inside? I was thinking about going 48 x 20 outside. I am hoping this will give enough room to place the blast doors and end wall on and for some trenches and gun turrets etc.
I haven’t given the inside much though as of yet, probably to include an x wing and two snowspeeders. My idea to make is different to any others I have seen it to put mezzanine floor at the rear of the set. I am hoping this will give the dio a bit more texture and not be quite so linear. Made up of these:
http://www.bricklink...86&itemID=64904

To summarise, I would love to hear some advice on the planning stage- I don’t want to spend a fortune on buying base boards (aren’t they expensive?!) and find they aren’t the right size for my build. Maybe sketching out my idea is the way forward?

You're already buying 7666 as a foundation, so my recommendation would be to find out how everything in Echo Base is laid out and then scale everything to the door. Depending on whether or not you want the base to be scaled to minifigures, that may or may not be big enough. I believe a diagram of Echo Base exists in The Art of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. In short, find some sources, then translate everything into bricks as best as possible.

[Edbrick]

Thank you for taking the time to reply  

My lego should be here any day now, so I will have a play and see just how big to make it. I think the 7666 wall is (*It has just dropped throught the postbox!*) 36 studs wide, I would like to make the blast doors wide enough to fit an x wing through, anyone know how many studs wide they are? I am guessing they are 30/32 studs in width?
I might do a plan on paint...
Hmm... I will have a play!

[Fallenangel]

Edbrick, on 02 September 2011 - 12:11 PM, said:

... I would like to make the blast doors wide enough to fit an x wing through, anyone know how many studs wide they are? I am guessing they are 30/32 studs in width?

Should be about 38 studs.

[nemesis4670]

Hey guys.  I was a HUGE LEGO fan when I was a kid back in the 80s and now at 25 I've for some reason gotten heavily addicted to them again a few months ago for simply the building aspect of it.  It started with Star Wars sets, then the new Batman sets, then I started buying a crap load of the Minifigure series.   Finally I bought all of the LEGO Modular buildings and I am seriously and sadly addicted to the point where my house is now full of LEGO sets!!!  I can't stop! LOL.   One thing that really got me was remembering old sets out of nowhere that I remember playing with as a kid and being engulfed in my imagination while still living in that childish bubble.   Like the original pizza parlor with the delivery truck or the Wild West series with the huge barracks.

That's not what I need help with though.  I've been looking at all of these amazing MOCs that people have done here and on other sites and I really want to get into doing my own.  I have so many ideas that are brewing but I seriously just don't know where to start.  I've used Bricklink to find all of the parts to build my own Cafe Corner by parting out the set but my question is what to buy to build my own MOC modular building.

Do you guys use LEGO Digital Designer?  That seems like one good way to design a set and know what parts you'll need but it seems like not every part is in it.  I designed a simple Coca Cola vending machine using it and managed to export it to real life by buying bricks off bricklink.  It came out pretty good.  Nothing crazy...  I also only had regular sticker paper for shipping labels so its not the best quality stickers.  But if I replaced those with waterslide stickers it could be pretty cool.  Maybe I will someday.

Here some pics of the vending machine.  I dont know how to resize images on here and they are huge so didnt want to bloat the thread.
http://oi41.tinypic.com/17pbh2.jpg
http://oi42.tinypic.com/35c3gqt.jpg
http://oi39.tinypic.com/jhq0bn.jpg
http://oi44.tinypic.com/xo192f.jpg

Every time I look at some of these awesome MOCs it inspires me to build something similar but I just can't figure out how to get all the bricks.  I feel the best and most detailed mocs must be made by guys who have insanely large brick collections which are beyond what most can afford.   Which is nuts considering the increasingly outrageous price point per brick ratio of LEGO parts these days.  (they make millions of bricks an hour and yet charge about 10 cents a brick on average)

My only idea is to dismantle some of my modular buildings to build my own set but I kind of want to keep them because I like how they look.  So I'm curious how you know what parts you're going to need. Do you just keep placing new orders on Bricklink everytime you need a part and you have to stop your build everytime just to wait for new orders?  I notice some of the common parts are 1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, 2x3, 2x4 both regular and modified and then tile pieces for flooring and accenting the outer walls.  But what ratio of color and whatnot is beyond me.

So my questions are the following:

1) What are some tips you have for a person starting out with their own MOC?  (commonly used parts, best way to order, any tricks of the trade)
2) When you think up a MOC but aren't totally sure how it'll exactly be built...  how do you know what pieces to buy and what do you usually order in bulk?
3) Are there any sets that are good to buy in order to stock up on parts for a MOC build?  I've noticed that it's almost always cheaper to buy LEGO sets than to buy the exact parts in that set off of Bricklink seperately (unless it's a discontinued set that sells for inflated price because of supply/demand...  i got the parts for cafe corner on BL for $300 when people charge $800-1000 on eBay for the set even without the box or instructions.  Which is probably what they do... buy the parts off BL and then sell it as a set on eBay for profit).

Any help is appreciated.  I've tried searching some threads here but haven't found an all around tutorial for starting on MOCs unless I overlooked it.

Thanks guys and I look forward to being part of the community and showing off my future MOCs that I manage to build.

[rriggs]

nemesis4670, on 11 March 2012 - 07:01 AM, said:

0) Do you guys use LEGO Digital Designer?  That seems like one good way to design a set and know what parts you'll need but it seems like not every part is in it.  
1) What are some tips you have for a person starting out with their own MOC?  (commonly used parts, best way to order, any tricks of the trade)
2) When you think up a MOC but aren't totally sure how it'll exactly be built...  how do you know what pieces to buy and what do you usually order in bulk?
3) Are there any sets that are good to buy in order to stock up on parts for a MOC build?  I've noticed that it's almost always cheaper to buy LEGO sets than to buy the exact parts in that set off of Bricklink seperately

0) lots of us use LDD.  Most parts are there on the latest version although you may have to search for some of them!  
1) that's a difficult one until you know that kind of MOC you will build...
2) a mixture of using LDD and finding out as you go along!  If you look at threads on here there's often mention of waiting for parts deliveries during a build
3) buying anything as parts (not just LEGO) will often be more expensive than buying individual components.

Cheers

Rog

[nemesis4670]

rriggs, on 11 March 2012 - 09:47 AM, said:

0) lots of us use LDD.  Most parts are there on the latest version although you may have to search for some of them!  
1) that's a difficult one until you know that kind of MOC you will build...
2) a mixture of using LDD and finding out as you go along!  If you look at threads on here there's often mention of waiting for parts deliveries during a build
3) buying anything as parts (not just LEGO) will often be more expensive than buying individual components.

Cheers

Rog

Thanks for the response.  Have you ever purchased a LEGO set specifically to pull parts and build a MOC out of it or do you usually just design something and then order specific parts in lots?   I'm looking to build a modular building that blends in with the current modular series.  Just was curious if there were any sets that people buy to get a good assortment of bricks either of a singular color or a good mixture of all colors primarily used in modular buildings. (Such as tans, dark tans, browns, white, etc;)

I notice the tower bridge comes with over 4000 tan bricks but most are tan cheese bricks that are double talls.  But it seems like a good price for that many parts.  Something along those lines was what I was referring to.  Where it would cost probably double the price to buy them individually you can get the tower bridge for $230.

Thanks

Edited by nemesis4670, 11 March 2012 - 01:24 PM.

[AndyC]

Creator sets are often really good parts packs, the houses in particular tend to provide a good source of suitable bricks in a single colour. Aside from that the big models like Tower Bridge and the modulars themselves (you could always buy a second copy!) are similarly good sources of parts.

As to planning something out, LDD comes in really handy but also sometimes it's just easier and more inspiring to have a few bricks in your hands and just play around with them a bit. If you're lucky enough to live within range of a Lego Store the Pick-A-Brick wall also seems like a great way of getting very cheap parts (sadly I don't).

[nemesis4670]

AndyC, on 11 March 2012 - 02:00 PM, said:

Creator sets are often really good parts packs, the houses in particular tend to provide a good source of suitable bricks in a single colour. Aside from that the big models like Tower Bridge and the modulars themselves (you could always buy a second copy!) are similarly good sources of parts.

As to planning something out, LDD comes in really handy but also sometimes it's just easier and more inspiring to have a few bricks in your hands and just play around with them a bit. If you're lucky enough to live within range of a Lego Store the Pick-A-Brick wall also seems like a great way of getting very cheap parts (sadly I don't).

Yea I don't either which is disappointing because I thought that would be a great way to do it.   The closest one is in city a few hours away.  Wish they would bring one here as it would probably be a good idea to begin with.

Thanks for all the help I'll definitely see what I can come up with and I will post any results here.

[JackJonespaw]

If you're willing to spend around $75, you could pick up 9385 Sceneries Set. That set includes a whole lot of pieces.
Check out these pictures. (Taken from the review.)






These might be among the most interesting parts of this set: a lot of Magenta 1x2 bricks, glittering dark pink 1x1 bricks and trans orange 1x1 bricks:


Lime, orange, pearl-gold etc



Yellow and light tan:


White:


Reddish Brown:


Red:


Pink and misc:

[Yucca Patrol]

Ask everyone you know that has teenage boys if they still have their old LEGO collection. Chances are that you can find someone willing to give up a big tub of bricks for a good price. You can even bribe these teenage boys with an offer to buy them the latest, most violent video game on the market. This will give you a good starting collection of bricks to begin making your own MOC's without having to raid your very nice modulars or other sets you want to keep together. I got really lucky last fall and bought 60 pounds of LEGO bricks for $100.

Another good way to get a lot of bricks is to seek out discounted sets on the clearance aisle of Target/Walmart/etc that have desirable bricks for the sort of MOC you are planning. The best time to do this is after Christmas and there is probably not a lot left at this point, but remember this tip for next year. If you are lucky, you can find Harry Potter or POTC sets that include very desirable minifigures that you can resell on ebay to further decrease the cost of your bricks.

I am planning my second custom modular building and want to build it using an unusual color scheme. I was able to find three of the Harry Potter "The Burrow" sets at 50% off. This gives me a bunch of architectural details like windows, roof slopes, etc. The nice thing about this particular set is that the rare minifigures are worth as much on ebay as I paid for the entire set, so now I have about 1500 free bricks in awesome colors to work with. To ensure that I have enough bricks to build this MOC, I made a bricklink order to get a lot more of the medium dark flesh colored bricks in whatever assorted shapes and sizes I could find at a good price. So after selling the minifigs, I've paid about $50 for over 2000 really nice bricks.

[nicoga3000]

nemesis4670, on 11 March 2012 - 01:22 PM, said:

I notice the tower bridge comes with over 4000 tan bricks but most are tan cheese bricks that are double talls.  But it seems like a good price for that many parts.  Something along those lines was what I was referring to.  Where it would cost probably double the price to buy them individually you can get the tower bridge for $230.

Well, the Tower Bridge is an amazing model and worth owning on it's own.      That being said, of all the tan bricks, I can assure you that most are NOT wedges or double talls.  I don't know where you got that info from, but you would be sorely mistaken!  There are a LOT of tan bricks and a lot of variety within them.  The price per piece of the Tower Bridge is also one of the best.

If you're looking at doing MOCs, the modular buildings are the obvious place to start.  They include all the pieces you'll need to start creating MOCs of your own.  Pair that with a few Bricklink orders of flat plates and you'll be building and tiling in no time!

[LEGOman273]

When MOCing, make small, but detailed MOCs. (Check out my 17th Combat Engineering Squad MOCs on the SW forum, or my entry for the Collectable Minifigs Contest in Special Themes)
I have a lot of pieces, but often not enough in the right shapes or colors. Building small MOCs enables you to work on the details, so that as you get more bricks, you can build better and better MOCs.

[nemesis4670]

Awesome thanks for all the tips guys.  My primary goal with building MOCs is to build my own modular buildings.  I've been inspired by some really cool custom modular MOCs I've seen for sale on eBay like this one guy who builds a bunch of fast food places with awesome detail.  That got me thinking that it would be really fun to look online for photos of certain buildings I think are cool and to just try and replicate them to add to my modular town and share with a community like this one.

Here's some examples of his work








But you can see in order to make whatever you want you seem to need a collection as ridiculous as that guys.  As you can see in the background his collection of bricks is an entire wall full of organized parts.  If I wanted I could drop my live savings on LEGO bricks but this is just a hobby for me and not my lifestyle so I'd like to find the best and cheapest ways to get just bricks I would need for modular buildings.

I currently have all the modular buildings now except Market Street which I don't consider part of the series.  I have Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Pet Shop, Grand Emporium, Fire Brigade, and I just got the Town Hall (which is beautiful).  Town Hall seems to have a lot of bricks that would be universal with other modular buildings.  But the other sets have specific colors that probably wouldn't work well with any other buildings unless you just pulled the windows and the bricks that aren't sandgreen/sand blue bricks.  Each modular building is so uniquely detailed that really only the windows and bricks used for the walls would be most useful but that's only if you're going to create a building that looks pretty much the same color as the modular building you're buying for the parts.

I was hoping there was a set that just like the one someone posted above for $75 that has like a lot of tan, dark tan, brown, white, light bluish gray, and dark bluish gray bricks in the standard sizes.  It seems that LEGO sets these days come with so many custom pieces that you really don't get that many of the standard bricks in sets anymore.

Yucca Patrol, on 12 March 2012 - 02:33 PM, said:

Ask everyone you know that has teenage boys if they still have their old LEGO collection. Chances are that you can find someone willing to give up a big tub of bricks for a good price. You can even bribe these teenage boys with an offer to buy them the latest, most violent video game on the market.

Not to insinuate anything but this sounded really weird. lol.  Bribing teenage boys and all.  I did actually look on craigslist to see if anyone was selling their LEGO collection but since parents are usually the ones who buy the LEGO for their kids they are also the ones who are usually selling them.   So the parents know that LEGO is expensive as heck since they were the ones who bought them and so all the giant lots I've found are overpriced or they've been snatched up by other LEGO hunters doing the same thing.

I DID find one parent who was completely clueless and was selling the original Batman sets like Arkham Asylum, the original bat cave, and Mr. Freeze sets for like $20.   Arkham Aslyum alone is worth a few hundred on eBay and the Bat cave is worth even more.   Unfortunately someone else stole that deal before I got in contact with the person.  That would of been a good score to gain some disposable funds to put towards buying bricks.   Oh well.

[fyrmedhatt]

Seriously, if you give it time, bricks will come. You should already have a good starting point if you're willing to part out your sets, but if not there's plenty of ways to get bricks. I assume you are in the US based on the modulars you linked to, so if you have a nearby Lego store you should spend some time on the Pick-a-Brick wall. They will give you lots of useful bricks in the colors you mentioned, my local wall has been stocked with lots of bley, tan and black lately. For more hard to find pieces use Bricklink, and don't discount buying extra modulars to get pieces, they are full of windows, tiles and 1x bricks and plates. Look at the MOC index for this board and you'll see several modulars built from the pieces of one or several existing sets.

I have to second asking neighbors or colleagues if they have kids that are willing to sell you their Lego, in an effort to save up for a car or a bike or whatever they might be very willing to sell you lots of stuff for cheap, and seeing how the sets probably are a few years old, if you don't like them you could be able to make a bit of money on selling them off, which you could then use to buy the pieces you need.


Using LDD is an ok way to figure out which pieces to use for an MOC, but personally I feel the building experience to be a bit awkward, and it can be hard to assess which parts are cheaply available and which parts are expensive/non-existent. It can be just as well to sketch out the building you are making and then order in approximately the pieces you need to complete it.

[mrklaw]

I find LDD a little complex to prototype and visualise things. I just like to jump in with a pile of bricks and play.

Don't worry about having the right colour, or not quite the right shape - if you make a great looking Dunkin Donuts but its rainbow coloured, you can at least perfect the design, then figure out what colours you're missing, rather than ordering adhoc based on what you think you might need. Likewise with shapes - maybe you'll have a few lumps sticking out, or you'll be missing a couple of finishing touches - by building/prototyping you'll get a good idea what you're missing and you can change it up until you're happy with it.

You say you have a bunch of modulars already. Why not break some down into parts and just start playing? Once you're happy with the results, you can see what parts you've used and order them on bricklink and then rebuild your modulars again. They don't have to be cannibalized permanently.

[Hrw-Amen]

I have to agree that I find LDD a bit difficult to get into. I think it is much better to just start building.

I would say that I have recently (Over the last couple of years.) built up quite a collection of bricks. I have a massive amount in my parents attic but it is hard for me to get at them, so pretty much started from scratch at my current home.

To begin with I bought a few smaller creator sets and that was great to get back into it, but I soon realised that if I wanted to make larger things like modular buildings which I did, then that would not be anything like enough. I have found that Bricklink is the best place followed by Shop at Home and then PAB walls, although these are quite rare so it depends where you are.

At the end of the day if you want to make modulars you are going to need enough basic bricks to make walls and plates for floors. I made a few larger orders on Bricklink and Shop at Home just concentrating on getting supplies of basic bricks to make those things before getting little detailed parts that you can then pick up in smaller orders once you have an idea of what youn are going to build.

[snaillad]

I also cannot get into LDD. I much prefer to freestyle the build but I end up having a very messy desk which can be a nightmare.  

When I build a modular (of which I have just completed 3) the building always end up being for a different purpose or looks different to what I imagined when I started. Usually its becasue I run out of bricks in a certain size of colour and have to change the build to accomodate. But if I did have many many more bricks I think I would just build it bigger and have the same issue - Too ambitious!

When I first started building modulars I refused to mix sets and tried to see what I could make using just that set. For e.g the Cafe Corner I made into 2 separate buildings, a bar and an architechts office. With the limited bricks it made me think much more about what I could and could not do and was a good learning curve.

Creator and Modular builings come with a decent parts selection and ratio of pieces/price. You can sometimes end up getting some great parts in discounted sets.

For example I purchased POP 7573 battle of Alamut which was about 1/3 of the price off and came with some great pieces in interesting colours. Diagon Alley - 10217 was expensive but worth it for again interesting pieces - Windows, round grill bricks etc. I sold the figs separately as I did not want them and got half the money back I spent on the set so I got 2000 pieces for about 70 GBP!

Ive used bricklink several times and it always been a good experience but what I would say is that if Lego S@H has free shipping or for a small amount its good value for some smaller bricks such as plates and tiles.

Good luck!

[nemesis4670]

snaillad, on 29 March 2012 - 09:30 AM, said:

I also cannot get into LDD. I much prefer to freestyle the build but I end up having a very messy desk which can be a nightmare.  

When I build a modular (of which I have just completed 3) the building always end up being for a different purpose or looks different to what I imagined when I started. Usually its becasue I run out of bricks in a certain size of colour and have to change the build to accomodate. But if I did have many many more bricks I think I would just build it bigger and have the same issue - Too ambitious!

When I first started building modulars I refused to mix sets and tried to see what I could make using just that set. For e.g the Cafe Corner I made into 2 separate buildings, a bar and an architechts office. With the limited bricks it made me think much more about what I could and could not do and was a good learning curve.

Creator and Modular builings come with a decent parts selection and ratio of pieces/price. You can sometimes end up getting some great parts in discounted sets.

For example I purchased POP 7573 battle of Alamut which was about 1/3 of the price off and came with some great pieces in interesting colours. Diagon Alley - 10217 was expensive but worth it for again interesting pieces - Windows, round grill bricks etc. I sold the figs separately as I did not want them and got half the money back I spent on the set so I got 2000 pieces for about 70 GBP!

Ive used bricklink several times and it always been a good experience but what I would say is that if Lego S@H has free shipping or for a small amount its good value for some smaller bricks such as plates and tiles.

Good luck!

Best advice yet.  Thanks for actually naming some sets that you found were good for adding to your collection.   I really like your modular buildings by the way.  Very clean and impressive artwork with those bricks you've done.  I am still re-inserting myself into this LEGO hobby and I haven't played with LEGO since I was a kid so it's all so overwhelming still.  I quickly became obsessed with them again and the nostalgia factor coupled with the euphoria of making your creations come to life is a great distraction from the 9-5 grind of everyday life.

I have been having hours and hours of fun just sitting with a pile of bricks building or customizing my existing modular buildings.  What I have done so far is I am furnishing my Cafe Corner and turning the stale bland and empty interior into an actual Cafe and Hotel.  I furnished the floors with tiled bricks to make them look nice and made a really cool Cafe and hotel rooms with beds and book shelves and stuff.  I will take some pictures when I'm finished as it's looking pretty cool.  This is a good start for me until I feel comfortable taking on an entire building.

The thing is like I said I don't want to break down my official modular buildings because I like them so much.  Seems that the only course of action is to buy one of the modular buildings again just to part it out although this can be expensive once I build a MOC and want to do another one and run out of bricks.   LEGO seems to overprice their sets these days anyway.  I remember when I was a kid the LEGOs were expensive by that time period's standards but even with inflation in mind they have gotten way more expensive.   I feel that LEGO is cashing in rather than spreading their creation so everyone can afford it.  They make millions of bricks every hour and for some reason still charge an average of 11 cents a brick or more.  Not to mention their factory is entirely robotic so they don't have to pay many staff salaries.  It should be 1 cent a brick.  

Another issue is that I notice a lot of sets nowadays have customized parts whereas the essence of LEGO was building with the same standard blocks.  It's great that they've expanded the parts but at the same time it makes it harder and harder to get just simple bricks for when you're doing your own build.  I just wish that LEGO created one of those sets where they have an array of bricks except more geared towards AFOLs than children.  If LEGO produced a set that had a few of every single brick in every single color they could make a fortune.   Maybe a 5000 piece set for a few hundred dollars where even if you just bought one set you would know for sure that you had at least a few bricks of a certain part and in any color you can imagine.

Then to build up your collection you can just buy another one and another and another until you have one of these massive collections you see people having.   My brick collection is pretty big at the moment but I'm still at that point where during a MOC build I constantly find myself compromising and having to do things a different way because I'm missing a single brick either in a certain color or type which ends up halting my entire idea.   So I have to change it up or do it differently just to make it work.

I just wish I had access to every brick at any time that way all of my ideas can come to life with no boundaries and I could create whatever I wanted.  But we can't always get what we want unfortunately.   I would spend more time building and less time searching for pieces.  I envy these people who have the money to afford gigantic collections with towers of LEGO bricks all sorted and separated into bins.

Maybe some day...  and thanks for all the great advice guys.  Really impressed with the responses.

Edited by nemesis4670, 29 April 2012 - 10:06 AM.

[Gory51]

I too also recently took the plunge back into Lego, and yes it is a big plunge. I also am a huge star wars fan with a few of the new sets, but I am really interested in the MOC buildings as well. So I am in a very similar situation and reading this thread now has given me a lot of insight too.


There seems to be some solid advice here, something that is never lacking on these forums from what I have seen in my short time here.

Just a quick note to the OP. Those pictures of your vending machine are excellent. I love how you created that and how you have applied individual stickers to each can. It has blown my mind as I would have never thought to do that. And that is the beauty of Lego, infinite possibilities. :)
Well done there

[nemesis4670]

Gory51, on 29 April 2012 - 10:17 AM, said:

I too also recently took the plunge back into Lego, and yes it is a big plunge. I also am a huge star wars fan with a few of the new sets, but I am really interested in the MOC buildings as well. So I am in a very similar situation and reading this thread now has given me a lot of insight too.


There seems to be some solid advice here, something that is never lacking on these forums from what I have seen in my short time here.

Just a quick note to the OP. Those pictures of your vending machine are excellent. I love how you created that and how you have applied individual stickers to each can. It has blown my mind as I would have never thought to do that. And that is the beauty of Lego, infinite possibilities. :)
Well done there

Thanks that was actually the first MOC I did when I got back into LEGO.  I didn't have the high quality decal paper so I just used regular stickers.  It would have came out better with maybe waterslide decals... and maybe I will go back and redo them when I get my hands on some and learn how to use it properly.

As promised I finished my custom cafe corner interior... although all my photos are large and don't know where to host them and resize them so they fit on here within the guidelines of the forum.

Any suggestions on photo host?

[LEGO Guy Bri]

nemesis4670, on 31 May 2012 - 08:56 PM, said:

Any suggestions on photo host?

I have always used PicResize, as it's really simple. I do recommend using the "multi-pic" option, even when only resizing one pic. It seems to be a little quicker. Make sure you keep a copy of the original. It only resizes smaller. As for a hosting site, Brickshelf or Flikr. Both are free and easy, although Brickshelf is easier to ink photos from IMO  

Edited by Lego Guy Bri, 01 June 2012 - 06:37 AM.

[50missioncap]

I just start with a basic concept - truck, plane, apc... Then build until you are satisfied. I think that's the beauty of Lego... Just follow your own creativity man.