paupadros Posted July 21, 2017 (edited) I've, for some time, been making modular buildings. But I feel they haven't ever been posted as a whole, so I thought, why not do it. I'll try to give to background information and all. This might be updated if I create more! Hope you enjoy! My Flickr, just in case!!: https://www.flickr.com/photos/138575523@N07/ 1. Magic Shop Magic Shop was my very first trial at a modular building, believe it or not. If you take a closer look, the first floor could be the base for any other building above, that's because I had no idea what to build on top of that first floor. About a month later, (while in Ikea for some reason) I remembered a trip to the Black Forest, Germany and all its houses, and that's the result. This Magic Shop is absolutely perfect and that's what I love about it. In my first attempt, I nailed shape, proportions and colour. And that triangular roof is incredibly iconic. Such a wonderful modular! Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Nov 2015 - Jan 2016 Pieces: 2598 on a 32x32 baseplate 2. Italian Villa Oh, god this one's exciting! The Italian Villa (or better said: The Tuscan Villa - that doesn't sound as catchy, does it?) is an ode to the highly underused Flame Yellow colour. The design for this beast mostly comes from a scale model of a Vineyard Villa I own - shape and colourwise, but the detailing and the whole rooftop is absolutely original and wonderful. As a fact, I had this design stopped for some weeks as I didn't know how to make the windows on the middle floor right. While visiting a univeristy campus, I found the solution! This has to be one of my two favourite modular buildings of mine, as a funny note, on a Chinese Lego enthusiasts fan page they marked it as Spanish Villa. As I am techinically from Spain I found this rather funny. And Unikitty's tail in white at the roof! Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Jan 2016 - Feb 2016 Pieces: 2148 on a 32x32 baseplate 3. The Iron Horse My dear Iron Horse... I totally adore this modular. After two highly-successful modulars, this had to at least match the others' quality. Not only I think I managed it, but I also created (again) a very unique modular. By the time I designed this thing, I had all the tools and techniques mastered (no weird bricks showing and all) and I could make this trully the result of my imagination. Although its name and basic structure comes from a restaurant in PortAventura theme park, I translated it to Lego and made the façade even more striking than it was in real life. I also took Brick Bank's colour scheme and exploited it at the max. Not many people know this, at the porch's roofline there are rollerskates used in sand green. A detail I've kept for myself for a long time. Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Mar 2016 - May 2016 Pieces: 1886 on a 32x32 baseplate 4. Old Ben's Gallery Old Ben's Gallery, the Lego version of Barcelona's Casa Amatller and Casa Batlló is my most bizarre approach to a modular. I tried to make the best of Pet Shop's concept, and this was the result. Although a great looking modular without a doubt, it still is my least favourite of them all, there's so much competition though! This was my first trial at making custom printed pieces for completing totally the façade. This was also my first attempt at making smaller windows with porticos, if you look closer at my previous modulars, they all have insanely huge windows. It's good for a change! Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Aug 2016 - Nov 2016 Pieces: 3148 on two 16x16 baseplates 5. Sweets & Co. Oh my!! This absolutely beautiful 45-degree corner modular is the favourite of mine. So many nice shapes, nice colours, nice piece usages. You can tell I adore this thing, don't you? The idea of a 45-degree building came from seeing the corner buildings in Barcelona, where two houses share the corner. The one on the left is inspired by Casa Batlló's patio (see that gradient going up in Aqua against Royal Blue background, so cool right!?) The building on the right went under four rebuilds. Initially is was supposed to be Venice's Palazzo Ducale. When I noticed it didn't fit, I built a white thingy which looked terrible. Next some sort of castle-like thingy, also terrible (thanks brother for pointing out is was terrible!). And finally I created this pattern, so good! Btw, yes, on the pattern the darker blue is the sorta discontinued Dark Turquoise <-Outdated!, why not!? On this modular, I snuck some nice part usages, for instance, Indy's whip as dragon tail on the right door's wrought iron fence. Also the dragon head is a discontinued piece from 2003 which only found its way in some Orient Expedition and Knights' Knigdom II sets! Btw, that fence is in copper, also a discontinued colour. I also got to experiment a lot with rooflines on this bad boy. The one on the right is directly inspired by Venice's Palazzo Ducale, a reference to what the building was supposed to be! I would love to build this thing one day, but you know it's hardly impossible with all the discontinued colours and non-exisiting parts in certain colours. Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Jan 2017 - Mar 2017 Pieces: 2994 on a 32x32 baseplate 6. Piazza San Marco Once I finished Sweets & Co., I went on a trip to Italy and one of the stops was Venice. The fact that I couldn't turn the Palazzo Ducale into a modular was still rattling my mind, so I set to build the most faithful recreation of the Campanile and the Palazzo in the modular form. Said and done. This is a huge over-the-top crazy piece of architecture. In fact the tower of the Campanile is 76'8 cm or 30' 2" tall! About the same as the Disney Castle for comparision. Although not my favourite modular it definetely is one of the dearest to my heart. All the details throughout the porch (something I'd wanted to revisit since I finished The Iron Horse, but with arches) are absolutely wonderful, in fact each capital is different from the other. As a reference to the original Italian Villa, the section inside the porch is Cool Yellow. Although hard to see in this picture, the whole façade is covered in a printed pattern (best seen in the section in-between the tower and the palace). Btw, two Sand Green gold ingots are there representing marble, so cool! The rooftop details are incredibly fun to build, surprisingly, and these were the best to build! Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Apr 2017 - May 2017 Pieces: 3700 on a 16x32 and a 32x32 baseplate (same as Assembly Square) 7. A Summer in Tuscany Summer holidays are long, the desire to build a model are high. But what? Something daring, interesting, but with a warm feel to it (the heat was striking hard then!). Heck, I like italian architecture (easy to say... erm... out of eight models, three are entirely dedicated to the country ). So off I went trying to build something in the lines of Assembly Square (that year's modular), but closer to my heart, and let's be honest, less of a mix-match. The model came together pretty quickly, but then DISASTER! While rendering, my computer stopped, and dumb me had not made a copy of the file! Summer was long gone then, but the high spirit made me plough on to finally have it all wrapped up by Februrary of 2018. Having to do the modular all over again obviously means I had extra time to snuck details even the most eagle-observers fans won't find. Has any of you seen a little statuette representing one of those little virigins on the streets? I bet not! (Checks if it's actually there in any of the pictures). Yes. Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Aug 2017 - Feb 2018 Pieces: 4434 on a 16x32 and a 32x32 baseplate (same as Assembly Square) 8. Klee Corner Klee Corner! Pop! A collage of hundreds of different buildings glued together by the man behind the keys (yup, me). If The Iron Horse was a result of my imagination over two years ago, this is me jumbling up together Berlin, Hundertwasser, Bilbao, Gaudí and the postmodern architects with him and U2. Can you turn music into architecture? Ermmm... Sure! No official 32x32 modular has ever had three buildings. Did that stop me? No. No official modular has ever had a curved façade. Did that stop me? Of course not! As a fun fact, I messed up the colouring of one brick of the model and realised the issue after rendering. I edited and covered it up in Photoshop. Can you even spot it? Very difficult, btw! Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Feb 2018 - May 2018 Pieces: 4481 on a 32x32 baseplate 9. Disco 2000 Vinyl Store It had never occurred to me that I hated how a model I made looked. After some hours of working on it, it would look wrong. This happened again and again and again. This was because the image in my mind of the final product kept on changing, an extremely dangerous thing to happen. I'm not sure if it's better than my two previous corner models, The Iron Horse and Sweets & Co., but I'm really happy that I managed to make three unique buildings (getting really tough after nine models and thirteen from Lego!) look awesome. I used some awesome colour combos, dark red and sand green; white, yellow and blue which are surprisingly unique. As for techniques, Disco 2000 is by a long shot the most complex model I've built. I have a library of techniques I might use (especially for cornices) and there's still many on the waiting list; one has been waiting for over half a year (didn't fit neither in KC nor in D2000) and I'm dying to use in a model. At least I have an exuse to start a new one Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Apr 2018 - Sep 2018 Pieces: 3743 on a 32x32 baseplate 10. Baseplate Alley The lack of physical time to build this model (it took me over a year to complete fully) was on one hand frustrating but at the same time inspiring. I have a visual dictionary in my mind of concepts and ideas I like and want to try out; one that was fed slowly but surely all those days without building. In the meantime, I discovered many inspiring designs and my inspiration became rougher, broader. Both a Rothko and Art Nouveau cornices would sit next to the sausage Lego piece as things I wanted to find a way for in in this model. I struggled quite a bit trying to find the layout of the building. The idea of the two angular façades poking out came to me in a Basque town near Bilbao. I already had the one in the right in place and was finding it hard to complete the model. I tried curved designs, not dissimilar to those in Klee Corner of Disco 2000 but just seemed to make the already-complete right building worse. It was around then that I realised I could use what I now call the "School of Athens" effect (surely other people call it different things). I could duplicate the existing design, keep the structure and change the details and colours. The same thing goes for Raphael's School of Athens: it's structurally symmetric (the architecture and the patterns on the floor marble are so) but the figures and the details on the façades differ. That's where the building on the left came from. You can see the different details differ between both façades. I'm very passionate about colour. I find it fascinating how two or more colours can transform one another to create strakingly different effects. Matisse is undobtedly a (or the) big name in the history of colour in art. His daring colour choices are extremely appealing to me. The orange-on-blue colour scheme is one I had wanted to use for a while and I'm glad that I found its home here; and on my tenth finished modular, something super special! Side note: when I began with Magic Shop in November of 2015 (jeez, 4 years ago) I thought I would completely run out of ideas before ariving here. Truth is, I've become a much more cultured man in the process of coming to where I am and all that knowledge I now have is what has allowed me not only to keep going but to bring real innovation to the table. I feel like I'm breaking new ground with every model. Ideas that I hope you'll want to further explore yourselves. I most of the times work from what my gut induces me to work in. I find it particularly interesting that thanks to this odd "mental visual dictionary", I barely look up actual architecture for inspiration. Most of what is shown here is a mix of the real-world architecture knowledge I've acquired over time and other arts: painting, filmmaking and music, among others. It's hard to explain; it feels like I'm building a façade I'm reminiscent of while looking at the building from a Fauvist point of veiw, for instance. Weird, I know. Anyway, I feel like I'm guided by something bizarre when designing. The eyes of experience, I guess. Eurobricks Topic: Building Period: Sep 2018 - Sep 2019 Pieces: 3581 on a 32x32 baseplate Why Am I Writing This? I've always wanted to have my modulars be seen as a unit, as something that one builds upon the other. They're on a Flickr album all together, but I want to use this space as more of a personal diary of what makes a design of mine come to life. Hope to hear from you guys! Leave your comments, please note this is the work of almost 4 years, so take this into consideration! Thanks!! Pau Edited November 1, 2019 by paupadros added Baseplate Alley Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trekkie99 Posted July 21, 2017 Beautiful modulars!!! My favorites would definitely have to be the magic shop and the sweets & co.! I love German tutor style homes, and all the colors on the sweets & co. works great for the feeling of the building. The old apple tree is a great touch as well! I guess the sweets shop would actually have to be my all time favorite because it brings back memories of being younger and reading Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory! Great book! More thumbs up than I have! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted July 21, 2017 (edited) On 7/21/2017 at 2:41 PM, LegoMonorailFan said: Beautiful modulars!!! My favorites would definitely have to be the magic shop and the sweets & co.! I love German tutor style homes, and all the colors on the sweets & co. works great for the feeling of the building. The old apple tree is a great touch as well! I guess the sweets shop would actually have to be my all time favorite because it brings back memories of being younger and reading Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory! Great book! More thumbs up than I have! Totally right! In fact the minifigs have 1x2 Wonka bar tiles on their hands! I adore Sweets & Co. Edited October 8, 2018 by paupadros Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brickenberg Posted September 4, 2017 Absolutely great modulars! I want to see interior of Venice set. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted September 5, 2017 Oh, it's true I haven't done any pics for its interior. It's not that mindblowing though... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bricksmith Posted September 5, 2017 Amazing! Love the colors you've packed into it. My favorite would have to be the magic shop :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted September 5, 2017 Thanks Bricksmith! Magic Shop is the most "classy" to say it some way. The others are a bit more daring, a bit less Lego-ish to say it some way, but still fun. My favourite definetly is Sweets & Co for the moment being. Byw, wonderful train you do in your Flickr. Can't resist adoring that Flying Scotsman, always reminds me of Train Simulator 2002, I think it was. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bricksmith Posted September 5, 2017 1 hour ago, paupadros said: Thanks Bricksmith! Magic Shop is the most "classy" to say it some way. The others are a bit more daring, a bit less Lego-ish to say it some way, but still fun. My favourite definetly is Sweets & Co for the moment being. Byw, wonderful train you do in your Flickr. Can't resist adoring that Flying Scotsman, always reminds me of Train Simulator 2002, I think it was. Thanks! You're right it is the 'classiest', but hey, it's fun to dare when you build. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EvilBlackSheep Posted September 8, 2017 Wow, that Sweets & co is just stunning, and I love the final result of the look for the walls, it really achieves the effect well. (I'm also in love with the roof aspect of Old ben's gallery, it really does look like it). I've been trying to MOC a modular-ish Casa Batllo for my city and I've never quite found a way that statisfied me to render the outside walls sadly, but your roof is on the spot! Really cool work! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted September 8, 2017 3 hours ago, EvilBlackSheep said: Wow, that Sweets & co is just stunning, and I love the final result of the look for the walls, it really achieves the effect well. (I'm also in love with the roof aspect of Old ben's gallery, it really does look like it). I've been trying to MOC a modular-ish Casa Batllo for my city and I've never quite found a way that statisfied me to render the outside walls sadly, but your roof is on the spot! Really cool work! Thanks a lot! Sweets & Co really shows that it's not compulsory or obligatory for a building to be based on a single colour. In fact, the mosaic face on the right building gives it different personalities depending on how you look at it. Also, you wouldn't say it is white, right? It is mostly white, but not exactly! It has a tint of other colours. About Casa Batlló, it's extremely tough to build its walls. They're phenomenal pieces of art in real life, but even the most colourful print doesn't do it justice. And you'd say the closest colour to the wall in Lego is either white, tan or dark tan, but none look that brilliant. I still like that roof a lot, it's very nice. Glad you like it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EvilBlackSheep Posted September 8, 2017 10 hours ago, paupadros said: Thanks a lot! Sweets & Co really shows that it's not compulsory or obligatory for a building to be based on a single colour. In fact, the mosaic face on the right building gives it different personalities depending on how you look at it. Also, you wouldn't say it is white, right? It is mostly white, but not exactly! It has a tint of other colours. About Casa Batlló, it's extremely tough to build its walls. They're phenomenal pieces of art in real life, but even the most colourful print doesn't do it justice. And you'd say the closest colour to the wall in Lego is either white, tan or dark tan, but none look that brilliant. I still like that roof a lot, it's very nice. Glad you like it. Yes, I've never found a satisfying way to reproduce the rainbowy mosaics on the front walls, hence my constant postponing on the project, yet I always find myself thinking back to it because it would be my dream peace to achieve to MOC and stuff in my modular street. There was a pretty cool moc for it here but it's nowhere close to modular scale, plus I think the technic you used for the roof gives a better result. Oh well, I'll keep trying. PS: Nice sagrada familia too ;) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted February 6, 2018 (edited) "Stud Times", On Sale Outside My Newest Modular by Pau Padrós, en Flickr On sale on a little stand outside my newest modular, coming in the next couple days. References to many many modulars to love. Can you spot all of them!? Minifigure also part of newest modular, with a custom printed shirt as well. Short sleeves...? It must be sunny outside... No more clues! Just wondering, should I open a new topic for the modular or plop it in here? I feel I should open up a new one. Edited February 6, 2018 by paupadros Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SassQueen Posted February 6, 2018 I agree - Sweets & Co is far and away my favorite one. Great work on all of them! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted February 6, 2018 Just now, SassQueen said: I agree - Sweets & Co is far and away my favorite one. Great work on all of them! Thanks a lot! Sweets & Co and Magic Shop are my favourites. Hoping you'll like my next Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LegoModularFan Posted February 6, 2018 4 hours ago, paupadros said: On sale on a little stand outside my newest modular, coming in the next couple days. Great, can’t wait to see it! 4 hours ago, paupadros said: References to many many modulars to love. Can you spot all of them!? You have a good sense of humour 4 hours ago, paupadros said: Minifigure also part of newest modular, with a custom printed shirt as well. Glad to see you still use the good old smiley faces! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted February 7, 2018 15 hours ago, LegoModularFan said: Great, can’t wait to see it! Cool! 15 hours ago, LegoModularFan said: You have a good sense of humour Nah! Just plain horrible 15 hours ago, LegoModularFan said: Glad to see you still use the good old smiley faces! Just couldn't change to regular faces. First, I have enough trouble searching for torsos to even bother about the faces and second, they give modulars that extra touch of classiness that always plays in their favour. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted May 21, 2018 Now finally up to date! Heck, I hadn't updated this since before ASIT! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bricked1980 Posted May 21, 2018 Great to see all your mocs together. My favourite is the latest klee corner closely followed by sweets and Co and summer in Tuscany. Klee corner is one of the most attractive and original mocs I've seen in ages. I am puzzled as to why it hasn't attracted more comments on EB. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Littleworlds Posted May 22, 2018 A big compliment to your builds, Pau. The sheer inventiveness in shaping and creating surfaces is simply stunning. The play with patterns and colours - so much to discover and see. A shame I haven't found this thread earlier. Just awesome work! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted May 22, 2018 18 hours ago, Bricked1980 said: Great to see all your mocs together. My favourite is the latest klee corner closely followed by sweets and Co and summer in Tuscany. Klee corner is one of the most attractive and original mocs I've seen in ages. I am puzzled as to why it hasn't attracted more comments on EB. Thanks! It's hard to say being the creator, but I'd say my top three would be the same as yours plus an honorable mention for Magic Shop on third place. EB sometimes works weirdly. For instance, there's certain MOCs that don't really call my attention that much but get plenty of love, but others just dig straight down to the second page. Oh well, might have to do something to pump it up a little. Big thanks anyway. 5 hours ago, Littleworlds said: A big compliment to your builds, Pau. The sheer inventiveness in shaping and creating surfaces is simply stunning. The play with patterns and colours - so much to discover and see. A shame I haven't found this thread earlier. Just awesome work! Thanks a lot! I just love playing with textures, shapes and colours and mixing and matching them in the oddest ways I can think of. If a façade can be four colours at a time and work... Heck, why not do it, right!? Like @Bricked1980 said above, the last one, Klee Corner, kind of slipped the top page and recieved (relatively) little attention and comments. Which one would you say is your favourite? Btw, the topic for Klee Corner is this one: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/161599-moc-klee-corner/&tab=comments#comment-2966166. Just in case you may want to check it out ;D Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Littleworlds Posted May 22, 2018 6 minutes ago, paupadros said: Thanks a lot! I just love playing with textures, shapes and colours and mixing and matching them in the oddest ways I can think of. If a façade can be four colours at a time and work... Heck, why not do it, right!? Like @Bricked1980 said above, the last one, Klee Corner, kind of slipped the top page and recieved (relatively) little attention and comments. Which one would you say is your favourite? Absolutely! There is no need to limit colours, as long as it works out in the end. After all the official modulars are pretty colourful by themselves, too. Asking me, however, about my favourite build is really unfair. They look all great. If I had to pick only one, I would go for Sweets & Co. The facade patterns are just great, plus the corner-layout, that adds depth and dimension, plus the detailing on the ground level, including the tree - it just says wow to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted May 22, 2018 3 hours ago, Littleworlds said: Absolutely! There is no need to limit colours, as long as it works out in the end. After all the official modulars are pretty colourful by themselves, too. Asking me, however, about my favourite build is really unfair. They look all great. If I had to pick only one, I would go for Sweets & Co. The facade patterns are just great, plus the corner-layout, that adds depth and dimension, plus the detailing on the ground level, including the tree - it just says wow to me. Lego's modulars are definitely colourful, but have always been rather on the conservative side of things. We've had two houses in medium nougat, two in sand blue, two in tan, two in sand green, and counting. It seems to me they have fear at building a building orange or with stripes. Sweets & Co. was a great relief when I finished it. I knew I was onto something but just kept on falling the same brick all over again, I couldn't find any combo that would work well with the blue building. I'm actually thinking about making bigger, better images for some of the older modulars, for them to shine in all their glory. Don't know, thinking about it. I would love to build a new corner unit soonish, maybe revisiting the concept of a chamfered wall, but in a different position, different shaping. The only thing I don't really love about S&C is the fact it is very square. The whole thing feels like a heavy brick. Maybe that's why on a street scene, it always has such huge impact. Cheers! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted October 8, 2018 (edited) List updated with Disco 2000 and links to every model's Eurobricks topic Edited October 8, 2018 by paupadros Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fenghuang0296 Posted October 9, 2018 Ooh, nice. I particularly like the Wizard Shop and the Iron Horse. ^^ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paupadros Posted October 11, 2018 On 10/9/2018 at 11:11 PM, Feng-huang0296 said: Ooh, nice. I particularly like the Wizard Shop and the Iron Horse. ^^ Thanks! It's crazy to think these are almost two and a half years old. Funny you say The Iron Horse, as it's one of the ones that gets overlooked constantly. Looking back at those models, I wouldn't build them exactly like that now. Somewhere in the middle I would inevitably think: "Stop! Stop! You need at least two buildings!". Maybe I should do a single-building modular sometime soon. We'll see So glad you like them! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
