Help with base for large MOC

[Rospokadu]

Hello, im designing a rather large MOC (diablo II themed), and im having trouble with the base. It’s a 44x66 studs, and it needs to be 7 bricks high. The problems is, I don’t have the bricks to build and test this, so I would love some suggestions/takes on it

 

Here`s the current setup

The base is a mix of 4x4, 4x6 and 4x8 plates.

Outer walls 7 bricks high

 2x2 bricks stacked on the inside

 

 

Would this be sturdy? too expensive? possible alternatives??

[AmperZand]

If the inside of the base won’t be seen, you can fill it cheaply and strongly with Duplo bricks.

You can get them second hand on Ebay and elsewhere for not much money. Just make sure you wash and dry them thoroughly first. You can build on top of them using System bricks. The two are compatible.

[Rospokadu]

1 minute ago, AmperZand said:

If the inside of the base won’t be seen, you can fill it cheaply and strongly with Duplo bricks.

You can get them second hand on Ebay and elsewhere for not much money. Just make sure you wash and dry them thoroughly first. You can build on top of them using System bricks. The two are compatible.

Interesting idea. The interior wont be visible, so DUPLO could be an alternative

[AmperZand]

@Rospokadu, Duplo bricks are exactly twice the size of System bricks, so if the space to be filled is seven System bricks high, you’ll need three Duplo layers plus a layer of System. 

[Rospokadu]

9 minutes ago, AmperZand said:

@Rospokadu, Duplo bricks are exactly twice the size of System bricks, so if the space to be filled is seven System bricks high, you’ll need three Duplo layers plus a layer of System. 

Any other suggestion other than DUPLO? You think the current setup would be sturdy?

[AmperZand]

Depends how you intend to cover it and what you’re building on top. You want to avoid small plates across stacked bricks that only span a few columns. They can move too easily. Larger plates provide greater stability. If you can anchor the plates to the perimeter wall, even better.

[Rospokadu]

Just now, AmperZand said:

Depends how you intend to cover it and what you’re building on top. You want to avoid small plates across stacked bricks that only span a few columns. They can move too easily. Larger plates provide greater stability. If you can anchor the plates to the perimeter wall, even better.

The cover is the same setup of 4x4 4x6 and 4x8 plates. The building itself is not that big. The 4x4 plates is where the brick load is higher, and 4x8 is where is lighter. Heres a pick of it (its the back part, above the stairs)

https://imgur.com/UpoOkTZ

[AmperZand]

Your creation is not as big and heavy as I feared. If you use the approach in the first minute of this video to fill the void in the baseplate, you should be fine.

[evancelt]

I second the use of DUPLO. In the US you can usually find big bags of DUPLO in thrift shops for very cheap prices.

Here is a recent build I made on DUPLO:

Spoiler

I've tried using stacks or arches of system bricks on the interior and it just isn't as strong! If you stick with system bricks, the sturdiest thing I've found is mixing large plates with shorter stacks of the brick - the large plates and shorter stacks help with the lateral forces.

[MAB]

I'd also go with duplo, using 8x16 duplo plates for the top layer covered in 2x4 regular bricks.

An even cheaper non lego solution is a piece of wood or MDF or similar flat plinth on short legs, with the edges / rocks cascading down the sides.It doesn't even need to be cut too accurately, so long as a large area is supported so gaps near the edges don't matter.

[Toastie]

3 hours ago, MAB said:

is a piece of wood or MDF or similar flat plinth on short legs

That is my favorite as well.

Fun fact: TLG is doing that as well in Legoland Billund, the center of the TLG Universe. They use non-LEGO plastics, wood, stainless steel, aluminum ... as supports. When they do it, we should all consider doing it

Best,
Thorsten 

[AmperZand]

@Toastie, At Legoland Billund, the bricks in the models are glued together. There are good reasons why they are, but just because LEGO does something doesn’t mean we should too!

[Toastie]

16 hours ago, AmperZand said:

There are good reasons why they are, but just because LEGO does something doesn’t mean we should too!

Oh sure - as I am visiting that place regularly, I have spotted some nice non-LEGO supports as well ;)

What? Maybe we should not, but in case the going gets tough (e.g., bad weather - or simply not enough money for myriads of hidden supports) I tend to spy on what The LEGO Gods do ...

Best
Thorsten

[Johnny1360]

On 5/17/2022 at 2:48 PM, Toastie said:

That is my favorite as well.

Fun fact: TLG is doing that as well in Legoland Billund, the center of the TLG Universe. They use non-LEGO plastics, wood, stainless steel, aluminum ... as supports. When they do it, we should all consider doing it

Best,
Thorsten 

I tried a similar thing, some time ago, cut some semi-large wooden blocks to fit dimensionally with the brick and even drilled a few holes in them, to accommodate a Technic pin, so I could link them together. Sadly even though I am a skilled carpenter, the tolerances just weren't close enough for a sturdy enough base, so I scrapped the idea. However I may try it again, if I could just borrow a cabinet makers work shop.

[MAB]

4 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

I tried a similar thing, some time ago, cut some semi-large wooden blocks to fit dimensionally with the brick and even drilled a few holes in them, to accommodate a Technic pin, so I could link them together. Sadly even though I am a skilled carpenter, the tolerances just weren't close enough for a sturdy enough base, so I scrapped the idea. However I may try it again, if I could just borrow a cabinet makers work shop.

One thing with the model here is that there is a large flat area with just a little hanging down from the edges. The flat area does not have to be a perfect size, just slightly smaller than the flat area of the build. Being a few mm smaller is not an issue. Same with the height, so long as the plinth is very slightly higher than the overhang parts then it will take the weight and the overhang parts can be supported through their attachments to whatever is on the plinth rather than by the ground. Again if they a 1mm out they will just float above the ground surface and that will barely notice on something this size. The real issue is when you want to join supported sections together at different heights. That is when tolerances become more important.

[Toastie]

11 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

cut some semi-large wooden blocks to fit dimensionally with the brick and even drilled a few holes in them, to accommodate a Technic pin, so I could link them together.

Oh well - I never even came close to manage that.

But as @MAB said - I was talking about supports. What I do occasionally is to roughly fit the supports and when going nuts I am trying to bridge the last microns with either plates adjusted to height/width/depth by locally sanding the wooden support - or using baseplates cut to pieces (yes, no worries, I am still alive). They have this "minimum" height for studs. Then do a "dry run" with plates attached to the LEGO structure resting on the support, and then doing a "wet run" with slowly settling 2 component super glue below the LEGO pieces resting on the support. This way, you just lose the "anchors" glued to the support when taking it apart again.

Purists can use clone plates for that and still remain purists, as they just sacrificed evil stuff to the Gods of LEGO.

Best,
Thorsten

 

[Johnny1360]

3 hours ago, Toastie said:

Oh well - I never even came close to manage that.

 

Lol, as I said it failed miserably and was just an idea I had while throwing some rather expensive scrap wood into the dumpster at work.

However I do see a small table like structure working just fine and would certainly use one, if it helped.