sonicstarlight

Jewelry Store, Pizzeria, and Bricklyn Bike

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Hello all!

I'll admit that I have been missing in action lately. I ended up taking a little bit of a hiatus from all things Lego for a bit longer than was originally planned, but am pleased to say that I am back again with not one, not two, but three new modulars (well, more like two and a half, as you will soon see). I needed something fairly simple to ease back into things, and like always things grew more ambitious as time progresses. I saw 31026 Bike Shop in the Lego Store and knew it had a ton of potential to convert into a modular, as several posters here have also done. I loved the idea of doing a bike shop (it has been on my list of buildings to make for a while), but I didn't think either building stylistically looked right for a bike shop so I ended up doing a new 16-wide that was not based on the set in any way, shape or form. Enough talk - here they are.

This is actually the seventh time I have used an official non-modular set as a starting point for a modular MOC, but I think this is the most literal I have been in terms of keeping the details. I liked the original and felt very little needed to be done to make them fit with the official series. The building on the left is a jewelry store while the one on the right is a pizzeria. Apartments are above both shops.

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I was drawn to the idea of keeping them two buildings with a connector in-between them. This makes each building 14-wide rather than the usual 16-wide, which I felt was actually easier to design facades for (16 studs is an awkward number to space out windows in my experience). To get to the apartment level, you walk through the passageway and take a set of stairs up.

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Here is the ground floor of the jewelry store. To some, the interiors will look awfully familiar - I took them from my Winter Village Jewelry Store I did for a contest on this site (I think I came in 4th or 5th). I cannibalized some other parts of that set elsewhere, but the interiors were lifted almost as-is and fit in the new space very well.

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Here is the apartment above the jewelry store. I'll admit to losing some steam with designing these, plus I wanted to try and use parts I had as much as possible. Nothing thrilling, although I do like my little treadmill.

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Moving on to the pizzeria. This is based on the little hole-in-the-wall places you'll find all over New York City. In fact, this is a mirror image of my old place in Brooklyn (I miss you Ginos!). There is a standard NY-style pizza oven as well as a fridge with soda and a little place to sit. I still need to invest in a couple of the pizza guy minifigures from the latest series to replace the worker and the blank pizza boxes.

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Above, more apartments. Again, I think I am a little tired of making furniture, so not my best work.

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And now, finally, the bike shop. I wanted something more industrial looking, and early on decided to go with a large, centered window. It's a very simple facade, but I think it gets across the look I wanted. The back is quite plain, as a building like this should be. I almost never use primary colors in my builds, but I thought a couple stripes of red worked here as you often see old buildings repurposed over the years and adding a splash of color is common.

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Inside, the first floor has helmets, skateboards, and a little space where workers can do repairs.

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Upstairs are more bikes, of course. If you want to have something with a little more muscle than your own legs, go up one more floor to find the scooters and motorcycles.

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And here they are together.

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Despite being known more for my larger buildings (my diner/theater and courthouse), I've now done six 16-wides. Here they all are together, plus the official sets.

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More photos in my flickr account in my signature, but I can't imagine anyone needing more after that :laugh: ! Thanks for looking, and please ask questions if you have any.

Edited by sonicstarlight

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Being a huge fan of your movie theater / diner, it's great to see some new work from you. I think the modularized 31026 looks really nice. In particular I like the fact that you have created two buildings but placed them on one baseplate with an alley in the middle. Since a 4-wide alley looks this nice I now wonder whether this is what we'll get with the detective agency as well – two 14-wide buildings and a 4-wide alley. Both buildings look nice, not too narrow, and they fit in well with the Pet Shop 16-wides.

I'm also impressed by the pizzeria interior. Reminds me of so many small pizzerias on Manhattan.

I have been thinking about maybe getting two more 31026s to create another MOD, and you've basically talked me into it with this topic! Thanks!

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Excellent work on the first two, but AWESOME is that bike shop.....very realistic frontage indeed. :thumbup:

Brick On 'sonicstarlight' ! :grin:

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Very nice buildings, thanks a lot for sharing :)

Since a 4-wide alley looks this nice I now wonder whether this is what we'll get with the detective agency as well – two 14-wide buildings and a 4-wide alley. Both buildings look nice, not too narrow, and they fit in well with the Pet Shop 16-wides.

Yep. This would be a solution I could definitely live with.

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If the rumor that the next modular will have an alley in the middle is true, I hope it looks like what you've done here. Your 14 wide buildings look great and add a pleasing visual variation in your modular street.

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Totally digging the Bike Shop. Excellent facade with a effective color scheme. It's definitely got an industrial conversion vibe.

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I'm loving the back side of the bike shop. And wouldn't it be tough getting the motorbikes on and off the third floor?

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I like that you've used signs that represent what they sell. I am not a huge fan of brick built lettering and am debating using some acid free decals used for scrap booking on my pet shop and palace cinema.

Bill

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Excellent stuff! The detailing on the first floor facades is great. The alley is a wonderfull idea. My only nitpick would be the scooters on the third floor of the bike shop; that is some heave lifting for minifigs :-)

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I love the bike shop, too. My only comment is that I find it odd that the merchandise gets heavier and bulkier as you ascend the building.

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Fantastic work. May I know how many sets of the bike shop official set you used in this project? Do you require lots of extra bricks over than from the set to do up this project? Many thanks and boy I love the bike shop the most!

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This is just beautiful, both on the outside and inside. All those nice details and colours. Amazing work. :thumbup:

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I'm loving the back side of the bike shop. And wouldn't it be tough getting the motorbikes on and off the third floor?

Excellent stuff! The detailing on the first floor facades is great. The alley is a wonderfull idea. My only nitpick would be the scooters on the third floor of the bike shop; that is some heave lifting for minifigs :-)

I love the bike shop, too. My only comment is that I find it odd that the merchandise gets heavier and bulkier as you ascend the building.

I'm noticing a trend :laugh: . I did think about this while building, but decided to put the more "impulse" items on the bottom and work my way up to the big ticket stuff. Think of it like a car dealership - they are floor models for close inspection, but if you want to buy one you don't drive it out of the store. Besides, since my entire modular town has about 4 toilets total, taking a scooter down two flights of stairs are the least of my citizen's worries.

I like that you've used signs that represent what they sell. I am not a huge fan of brick built lettering and am debating using some acid free decals used for scrap booking on my pet shop and palace cinema.

I do like brick built lettering, but admit I am getting tired of the technique used on the Pet Shop and dates on the FB and TH. Since I am hardcore anti-sticker, this forces me to think of other ways to say what a building's purpose is without spelling it out.

Fantastic work. May I know how many sets of the bike shop official set you used in this project? Do you require lots of extra bricks over than from the set to do up this project? Many thanks and boy I love the bike shop the most!

I only used one set, but I have a decent collection of bricks now and needed another $100 on Bricklink to finish the three buildings. I did start with just using the parts from the Bike Shop and was honestly surprised how far they went. I was a few windows short as well as a few other odds and ends, but the bulk of the bricks I needed were for the walls and interiors.

Thank you all for your comments!

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Great work, once again!

I especially love the facade on the bike shop and all the ground floor interiors, and the alley really works well with these buildings.

Keep clicking those bricks together!

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Well, it looks like I shall have to look into "fixing" my 31026 buildings ... a great idea! They are excellent!

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