Cheating with roads - has anyone tried printing them?

[Duck]

Hello there!

Now, I'm relatively unknown in this part of the forum - my usual haunt is the pirate area - yarr! However, I've recently developed an interest in the City range, and bought a good few sets (police chase, police prisoner transport, dog van and the small city car)to boost my police force at the weekend. My aim is that I'll make a brickflick (see sig for an example of my work) - possibly a slight pee-take out of GTA and Saints Row.

So, moving on to the actual point of the topic. Roads. I have none, bar the baseplate from the ooooooooolllld Police HQ ( 6398 Central Precinct HQ, 1993) which isn't really sufficient for a City. I've got a few bids in on ebay for some - but building up a decent road system from scratch is going to be mightily expensive and I simply dont have the money to go too mad on baseplates. So I was wondering if anyone had ever tried or come across printable versions - similar to all the many many torso-printouts in the minifig customisation workshop, I just wondered if this was a possibility?

Apologies if this is seen as a controversial idea, but just thought i'd ask!

Duck

Edited January 20, 2012 by Duck

[Rook]

Cool idea the main question would be stud location. Since the newer base plates have “bald spots” for the printed areas. I a lot of base plates but like wise I agree building a classic Lego City with printed base plates is the way to go. Personally I'd want about 54 base plates (6 quadrants of 9) to build a proper city and that would be pretty pricy.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Rook

[Hobbestimus]

I've never tried it, but the idea to do so is pretty genius.

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

Well, just my two cents here,

I think you should feel completely free about everythin you do

with the bricks and plates. Print them, paint them, have fun!

I sometimes thought about doing the road plates simply in cardboard.

That way it would be much cheaper, and i would have much more freedom

what to do with it.

Cheers,

JJ.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

I am currently drawing up new layout ideas, literally with pen and paper, and have thought about other ways of making roads. I have a good surplus, and yes it's very expensive to get these in bulk, as most were bought on eBay . However, there are big limits to using these plates. 4 lanes use twice the amount, and there is only one way to curve a road. Also, with the current plane sizes, the roads look to small.

All that said, I have been thinking of painting some of my roads. Gentle curves and definitely a runway for my newer planes. Same goes for some of the landscape. The only drawback is no studs. I say take the creative approach. At least you don't have to worry about throwing away money if you don't like it.

Best of luck

Edited January 20, 2012 by Leg Godt Gud

[Duck]

Thanks for the replies guys! From searching the net, the only real reference I can find for printable roads is here here - which I think was created with the intention of being used for planning road and train layouts. The images aren't of the correct size and so it would probably take a bit of trial and error to get them to print out correctly.

As stated by the previous poster, customisation and moving away from the standard lego roads might make for more unique layouts - I guess its how "pure" you wish for the city to feel.

An idea with relation to studs which I think would work for straight roads would be to have the road underneath two plain plates and leave a gap inbetween he plates for the road, allowing for a smooth middle and studded sides to the road. However this probably wont look half as good when it comes to corners, but its something of an idea in progress!

[tbroyd]

If you decide to go with Lego road baseplates then I would suggest looking at car boot sales. I've got lots from my local ones and never paid more than £1 each. They are usually the older style with the green studded area and if you decide you don't want them you can sell them on Ebay for a profit!

If you decide to stick with the idea of printing them then do let us know how you get on. It would certainly allow much more freedom in your design

[Duck]

As a point of interest I used printed roads in my latest brickflick. These were ones that I made myself but I think the effect was reasonable and therefore lego style roads might be possible if they follow a similar format. The roads became quite battered though through use so perhaps laminating them might work if the facilities were available!

For anyone interested the film is below - I must warn you however it does contain some strong language!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br8CDndjg5s&list=UU6s2O_EADRR47BeaGvBaLXw&index=1&feature=plcp