Modular Pharmacy from the Lego Neighborhood book

[Faefrost]

I long ago promised I would post some pictures of the finished Modular Pharmacy and Soda shop, the directions for which are included in Brian and Jason Lyles "the Lego Neighborhood book. "

http://a.co/2vx79Na

Unfortunately after I bought all the parts, life happened, and I needed to step away from them for awhile. I finally got the creative bug again and worked through both the Brick Bank and sat down and completed my long unfinished Pharmacy. The results look quite impressive in my shelf city. (sorry about the picture quality, I just did some fast phone pictures when I finished around 2am. I will break out the real camera for some better shots later.)

The included plans are designed to make a nice old school Corner Pharmacy/Soda Fountain with an Apartment above. The basic building is largely a redress of Brickcity Depot's Corner Hardware Store (Brian and Lyle are Brickcity Depot.) The building and particularly the interiors have a nice period charm and fit in well with the official Modular series. 

There are a ton of wonderful micro builds in it such as the Apothecary Cabinet and the Soda Counter. Upstairs is a very nice bathroom, a living room with classic upright piano and old style console radio, kitchen and bedroom. And some well designed signage on the roof. 

pro's; It's just gorgeous. The colors have nome nice contrast and it has good distinct texturing. The signs in particular really draw the eye and make it pop.

con's; This is a non Lego build designed by and for AFOL's. So it is not as well engineered as some Lego tested stuff. Some of the details and structural points use minimal connections, which can make them fragile. Particularly the floor of the second floor by the stairwell is held together with a single stud. The colro scheme downstairs inside the Pharmacy itself is a bit...brown. If I were to it over I might mix it up a bit. 

This will be the third Modular Building I have built and Bricklinked from scratch using either third party plans or my own designs. Lessons Learned;

1. You always forget to order one crucial group of parts that will stall the whole thing at half finished for a week or two... ALWAYS!

2. You always seem to accidentally under order certain parts, such as tiles. I am not sure if this is a glitch when importing XML lists to Bricklink, or if I'm just a fool. I find it is easier just to slightly overorder most smaller items by a couple. This way when you lose that rare colored tile to the carpet monster, you know the one that you are positive you don't have any of packed away somewhere, you will have another. 

3. With third party instructions you will need to work a bit more than with normal Lego ones. Depending on what software the designer used they may or may not rotate to change angle of view, which can leave you struggling to work out what is on the backside of a wall. LCad designed stuff is notorious for this. You just need to map it all out. (Brickcity Depots instructions are probably the best of the third party ones in this regard. Very easy to follow.) 

4. You will always order some critical part in the wrong color, without realizing just how visible it will be. ALWAYS!

5. The damn thing will always cost more than you were planning. So never ever tell the wife. (And no, I honestly don't know what the final cost on this one was. I ordered most of the parts a year and a half ago. My Liberty Comics MOC and The Winchester were each somewhere in the $250-$300 range, but I was not using Bricklink as efficiently as I could, opting more for bulk expediency than price.) 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/faefrost/L510c8

 

Edited November 27, 2016 by Faefrost

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

4 hours ago, Faefrost said:

1. You always forget to order one crucial group of parts that will stall the whole thing at half finished for a week or two... ALWAYS!

Isn't this the truth!

I built this also and it's a great build and book! I just wish they posted some more instructions on their website.

[Faefrost]

3 minutes ago, The Jersey Brick Guy said:

Isn't this the truth!

I built this also and it's a great build and book! I just wish they posted some more instructions on their website.

I have a few of their other instructions. I am tempted to recolor their Police HQ and add that to my shelves. 

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

5 minutes ago, Faefrost said:

I have a few of their other instructions. I am tempted to recolor their Police HQ and add that to my shelves. 

I heavily moded their police precinct so it's now a double corner building and sits on 2 baseplates. 

I've been on the fence to get their architect building.  

[Faefrost]

The Architect Office is gorgeous. It just would not blend in with my setup. A bit too modern. I have the plans for the Speakeasy. That one has been calling my name as well. I've just held off because I find my city seems to be becoming a den of drunks and reprobates.

[Humdrum]

Lovely building, I'm glad to finally see it built 

question: did you have any issues with the door? I wanted to use the angled door technique in one of my own builds, but following the instructions in the book
I found that the whole construction leaned back slightly. I think I can see that on one of your pictures.

Nice build otherwise 

Edited November 28, 2016 by Humdrum

[Zork]

Thanks for the update.

Waiting for more (and better ) pictures!

By the way, as a newbie, I didn't know the book and I'm going to order it.

[AFOLguy1970]

It is a very nice corner modular and would be great as a stand in for the Cafe Corner for those of us who never acquired that one.  I am not sure about the large "Soda" sign on top of the structure, otherwise I like the colors and details.  A soda fountain seems like a good choice for a modular since they do bring back the feeling of days gone by.  We still have several smaller towns not too far that have them.  

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

13 hours ago, Faefrost said:

The Architect Office is gorgeous. It just would not blend in with my setup. A bit too modern. I have the plans for the Speakeasy. That one has been calling my name as well. I've just held off because I find my city seems to be becoming a den of drunks and reprobates.

Yeah, that's one of the issues I was having too. But since I just built a huge skyscraper, maybe I'll put it in that area of my city. (Make it the modern district)

[Faefrost]

8 hours ago, Humdrum said:

Lovely building, I'm glad to finally see it built 

question: did you have any issues with the door? I wanted to use the angled door technique in one of my own builds, but following the instructions in the book
I found that the whole construction leaned back slightly. I think I can see that on one of your pictures.

Nice build otherwise 

I hadn't noticed until you asked, but it may lean back very slightly. That angled door section really almost free floats in there. It is largely just connected by two turntables, and otherwise chocked in by trim on the sides. So it has a little play to it. I had used a vaguely similar strategy with my Comic Shop MOC to similar floatiness. and it is a bit of a bitch to get those turntables lined up and dogged in, let me tell you. 

[Humdrum]

19 hours ago, Faefrost said:

I hadn't noticed until you asked, but it may lean back very slightly. That angled door section really almost free floats in there. It is largely just connected by two turntables, and otherwise chocked in by trim on the sides. So it has a little play to it. I had used a vaguely similar strategy with my Comic Shop MOC to similar floatiness. and it is a bit of a bitch to get those turntables lined up and dogged in, let me tell you. 

I agree it's not easy to lign those turntables up. In LDD I can't even make it work at all. The technique used in the book seems to be a 'light' version of the 10182 Cafe Corner construction.
However, the Cafe Corner version works both in LDD and 'real life' without stressing the outer walls or making it all lean back. The downside of the CC version (imho) is that it uses (floating)
stairs/steps on both sides of the door.