Homemade Road Plates

[DoomedACE]

Damn these look great!

You really should look into selling these!

[Scipiotik]

These are amazing, great work.

[Bricked1980]

Thanks very much to everyone who has made such kind comments on the new pics I posted yesterday.  Glad you like them.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Bricked1980

[koalayummies]

Absolutely fantastic work Bricked1980. I'm a purist but this is absolutely fine in my opinion (doesn't alter Lego pieces and isn't knockoff brand) and its amazingly well done. The detail, marking, textured pavement look and sizing are exceptional. Outstanding work, its really fun to look at and your photography is top notch.

[HenrikLego]

These road-plates look great, and seems like a perfect way of building roads without purchasing those expensive lego baseplates. And this looks much better.

I understand that you do not want to use the printer available at work to print and sell plates on demand, but if there would be any way of buying the designs from you and using a online print-on-demand service or something like that I think a lot of people would be really interested. Myself included. There has to be some kind of service out there that lets you as the creator upload designs and sell on demand. I am just thinking out loud, but that would be amazing!

[Bricked1980]

3 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Absolutely fantastic work Bricked1980. I'm a purist but this is absolutely fine in my opinion (doesn't alter Lego pieces and isn't knockoff brand) and its amazingly well done. The detail, marking, textured pavement look and sizing are exceptional. Outstanding work, its really fun to look at and your photography is top notch.

Thanks a lot, that's very kind.  

1 hour ago, HenrikLego said:

These road-plates look great, and seems like a perfect way of building roads without purchasing those expensive lego baseplates. And this looks much better.

I understand that you do not want to use the printer available at work to print and sell plates on demand, but if there would be any way of buying the designs from you and using a online print-on-demand service or something like that I think a lot of people would be really interested. Myself included. There has to be some kind of service out there that lets you as the creator upload designs and sell on demand. I am just thinking out loud, but that would be amazing!

Thanks very much.  I might consider this at some point as a few people have made comments asking if I could sell them. Before doing this though I'd want to do a few more designs first. Currently I've only made the ones seen in the pictures but it would be good to create a full package containing corner pieces and straight sections without the bus lanes and parking bays as I realise not everyone would want these on their roads.

I've no idea how I'd go about selling them though so I would need to look in to the different options. Also it is fine making these for personal use but not sure if I would be breaking any copyright laws if I attempted to sell them. I don't think this would be an issue as the second batch I designed with the textured road and bus lanes etc are completely my own design and not rip offs of anything that Lego sells.

Anyway if I do decide to do this in the future I will post the details here. 

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

I don't think there's any infringement of any copyright whatsoever, as long as you create you're own design.
There are a number of details you should make you're own style, just to make sure they don't look like any Lego design.

I'll send you a PM.

[Scipiotik]

If you sell the designs I'd be mightily interested!

[alsielou]

I love the pictures in the rain. They really do bring the scenes even more to life! I like your road plates too, especially with the bicycle and bus lanes. They are great designs and perfecty executed. I have thought of doing this for the kids but I’m not sure it would stand up to their level of playability, especially my son who likes to drive the vehicles around at breakneck speed. (Or should I say break-lego speed)!

[Bricked1980]

7 hours ago, alsielou said:

I love the pictures in the rain. They really do bring the scenes even more to life! I like your road plates too, especially with the bicycle and bus lanes. They are great designs and perfecty executed. I have thought of doing this for the kids but I’m not sure it would stand up to their level of playability, especially my son who likes to drive the vehicles around at breakneck speed. (Or should I say break-lego speed)!

Thanks very much.  Not sure how durable these printed roads would be if they were being played with regularly by children. They also have a tendency to slide around a bit so if you were making them for your children it would probably be a good idea to stick them down to a board, play table or something like that. I don't think they'd work very well if kids were playing with them on a carpet or a soft surface either.

So I think these work well for building up a layout for display but are probably not the best choice for children to play with.

[Svendp]

On 13-2-2018 at 12:01 PM, Bricked1980 said:

Yes, I find the way Lego sells the road plates in double packs to be a bit limiting. It would be better if they sold them individually or in packs of 2 copies of the same design.

Actually, if I remember right they did sell it in packs of two identical plates 25 years ago. Somewhere down the road the changed this. Since then, I also stopped buying them :)

Your printed version looks great. At first sight, you don't even notice it's not a 'real' lego road plate even, since you've used the same design. 

As for the 2nd generation ones, I follow some of the other people here. If you make them too realistic, it doesn't fit well with Lego itself. So a mixture of batch 1 and 2 would be ideal. 

I wonder if anyone ever tried to print over existing road plates ... :) That way you would also be able to put in extra markings. 

Thumbs up

Edited March 1, 2018 by Svendp

[Bricked1980]

Last week I posted these 2 photos...

On 2/19/2018 at 6:46 PM, LegoModularFan said:

That one is my favorite  the poor guy...

Here is what happened to the guy next...  Luckily he remembered his umbrella 

[LegoModularFan]

1 hour ago, Bricked1980 said:

Here is what happened to the guy next...  Luckily he remembered his umbrella 

This guy doesn’t live in a deserted city, he can go to the PR or to the AS, take a coffee and relax...  

Very realistic scene with great effects BTW 

[fordtruckin]

Hopefully your city has a repair shop or at least a tow truck!

These roads and pictures are really cool. I am a bit jealous, but thanks for sharing. Always nice to see people enjoying the hobby.

[mohsen1990_1369]

may you send roads picture for me? i want to print them and have my own. 

my email address is: mohsen.bugari@gmail.com

tnx alot

 

Edited March 2, 2018 by mohsen1990_1369

[Bricked1980]

16 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

Very realistic scene with great effects BTW 

Thanks a lot! 

16 hours ago, fordtruckin said:

These roads and pictures are really cool. I am a bit jealous, but thanks for sharing. Always nice to see people enjoying the hobby.

Thanks!  I have had a lot of fun making these. Just wondering what to do for my next project. I might have a go at doing some roads/tracks for my construction vehicles that look as if they're part of a building site with muddy tyre tracks etc.

On 3/1/2018 at 11:23 AM, Svendp said:

Actually, if I remember right they did sell it in packs of two identical plates 25 years ago. Somewhere down the road the changed this. Since then, I also stopped buying them :)

I think they do this as a marketing strategy so that they can charge extra and people have to spend more money just to get the specific plates they want. 

On 3/1/2018 at 11:23 AM, Svendp said:

Your printed version looks great. At first sight, you don't even notice it's not a 'real' lego road plate even, since you've used the same design. 

As for the 2nd generation ones, I follow some of the other people here. If you make them too realistic, it doesn't fit well with Lego itself. So a mixture of batch 1 and 2 would be ideal. 

Thanks . Yes a few people have said this. Perhaps by making them too realistic they don't blend in so well with Lego. I think if anything it is the road texture I used which perhaps looks a bit too alien compared to anything Lego would ever produce themselves.

I would like to know what people think about this... Do you prefer the more realistic designs or the first batch I did which were closer to the official Lego designs? If I make any more would you like to see a more simplified style or should I carry on with more of the realistic designs? Feel free to let me know. 

[fordtruckin]

Honestly, if I wanted a more simple design I would buy what Lego has available because your simple design was basically the same. I prefer the more realistic style. If you are going to all the effort of designing them and printing them I think realistic is the way to go. 

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

@ fordtruckin: +1    

[LegoModularFan]

2 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

I would like to know what people think about this... Do you prefer the more realistic designs or the first batch I did which were closer to the official Lego designs? If I make any more would you like to see a more simplified style or should I carry on with more of the realistic designs? Feel free to let me know. 

I personally also prefer the more realistic ones and I think they look very well with Lego. 

[Scipiotik]

I prefer the more realistic.

[higgins91]

same, the basic one are too close to the lego one's.

 

 

 

[AllanSmith]

I like the realistic roads too. I just want super wide straight lanes that my 6 and 8 wide vehicles can fit on.

[Bricked1980]

Thanks for the feedback guys. So it seems most people prefer the more realistic designs.

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

Could you do a cobbled brick pattern or a v shaped brick pattern as well? That would be fantastic!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

What an impressive job!

The red line for the bus is amazing!