[MOC] MIKE'S BIKES / ICE CREAM PARLOUR (Modular Building)

[ReplicaOfLife]

This is my newest modular building. I started building right after I finished the Mage's Mansion. As with that build, I did not plan ahead in LDD but just started building with the pieces from my collection. Since I parted out a lot of sets in the past few years, this felt like the natural thing to do. I ended up doing one (rather large) Bricklink order solely for tiles, 1 by x plates and a few bricks, since I was running out of those soon.

I had always wanted to do a 24-wide modular. I remembered that I still had at least two of the old 24 x 16 baseplates with my childhood Lego, and wanted to use those. So I got them out, cleaned them...and thought, hang on, these feel pretty small. Did some counting, and yep, they aren't 24 x 16 baseplates, they are 20 x 14s! Whoops .

I used them anyway, so this building occupies the rather unusual footprint of 20 x 28 studs. Less space then I had planned with (I had a basic idea for the general layout of this building), but I took it as a challenge...

Since I did no digital planning, I have no idea how many pieces I used, I'd estimate that there are about 2500 pieces in here, but I could be way off.

 

As usual, more pictures are available on flickr. This time, it's a lot more
 

This building features two businesses and two apartments.
The idea is that this used to be two very small buildings that at one point in time were combined into one.

The little girl just bought her plutonium ice-cream.

The girl's dad also got an icecream, but when he saw the new mountain bike on display at Mike's Bikes, he forgot all about it...

Closer look at the facade detail on the sand-blue portion of the building. This involved building in multiple directions - most of it is upside down!

The rooftop terrace on the blue portion of the building is accessible via a working sliding glass door, and features a pool for these hot summer days!

Closer look at the roof of Mike's Bikes.

Mike's Bikes is a pretty small shop, thus it is very cluttered with barely any room to move around. Still, Mike manages and has a lot of fun at his job!

The Ice Cream parlour is even smaller than Mike's Bikes. It doesn't offer any seating, so everything is 'to go'!

The apartment on the first floor features kitchen and bedroom areas and a living room with a cozy sofa.         

While her girlfriend relaxes on the rooftop terrace (as we saw earlier), the other occupant of the second apartment is preparing dinner. Looks like it's time for chicken!

The bathroom is rather spacious, featuring a large tub.

The topmost floor features a small bar area - together with the small swimming pool this is THE place for parties!

 

Since these are always popular, here's the bird's eye shots of all the floors (click for larger versions!):

Overview - Ground Floor by Tobias T., auf Flickr

Overview - First Floor by Tobias T., auf Flickr

Overview - Second Floor by Tobias T., auf Flickr

Overview - Third floor by Tobias T., auf Flickr

 

To finish this up, here it is together with some other modulars

 

Again, more pics are available on flickr.

Looking forward to your thoughts and comments on this, hope you like it!

Cheers,

Tobias / "Roger_Smith"

Edited July 24, 2018 by RogerSmith

[Johnny1360]

Looks great, good job on cramming in so much in such small space. I did get confused for a minute with apartment on the first floor, here in the US the ground floor is considered the first floor. I am just getting started on creating my own buildings, all my stuff looks so plain and not very stylish, unlike your MOCs, thanks for sharing. 

[Bricked1980]

Fabulous.  I really like the colours you've used. The light blue building contrasts nicely next to the dark red building and the sand green window frames really "pop" next to the red.

I also love all the interior details and I can't believe how much you've managed to squeeze in to a footprint of only 20 x 28.

[Digger of Bricks]

Saw this was featured over on the blog ArchBrick. 

ArchBrick - Mike's Bikes & The Ice Cream Parlour 

[DK_Titan]

Nice. I like the colour scheme you used and how you managed to squeeze in so many details. 

[peedeejay]

Flawless! Clever part usages, smart building techniques (especially building the windows upside down), great interior details and perfect photos.

[paupadros]

Very nice model! The red/sand green building drew a big smile on my face, as I'm also building in that combo (not exactly in your way, windows and wall each a colours, though ). The layout is fabulous as well, a shorter building poking out a lot more is still on my "to do" list. I'm seriously astonished your blue building is just 8 studs wide. Never had I ever seen so much detail and character in such a tiny space. Plus, Dumbledore's beard as decoration... How awesome's that!? Super model, I love it! 

[ReplicaOfLife]

Thanks! @Bricked1980, @DK_Titan

On 7/22/2018 at 9:18 PM, Johnny1360 said:

Looks great, good job on cramming in so much in such small space. I did get confused for a minute with apartment on the first floor, here in the US the ground floor is considered the first floor. I am just getting started on creating my own buildings, all my stuff looks so plain and not very stylish, unlike your MOCs, thanks for sharing. 

I know what you mean; I always think about that when posting a new building. No matter how I count, someone will be confused. So I just count the way I'm used to

 

On 7/23/2018 at 5:37 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

Saw this was featured over on the blog ArchBrick. 

ArchBrick - Mike's Bikes & The Ice Cream Parlour 

Yeah, I feel pretty damn honoured. They actually managed to get that blog post up faster than I managed to post it on here. The pics were on flickr for like 10minutes or so when I already got the invite to add the picture to their flickr group

 

On 7/23/2018 at 9:41 AM, peedeejay said:

Flawless! Clever part usages, smart building techniques (especially building the windows upside down), great interior details and perfect photos.

Thank you. It takes some time to edit the photos for presentation, so I really appreciate that!

On 7/23/2018 at 12:17 PM, paupadros said:

Very nice model! The red/sand green building drew a big smile on my face, as I'm also building in that combo (not exactly in your way, windows and wall each a colours, though ). The layout is fabulous as well, a shorter building poking out a lot more is still on my "to do" list. I'm seriously astonished your blue building is just 8 studs wide. Never had I ever seen so much detail and character in such a tiny space. Plus, Dumbledore's beard as decoration... How awesome's that!? Super model, I love it! 

Thank you

I'm extremely happy with how the blue portion turned out aswell, it's propably my favorite part of the building. Using those beard pieces was one of those spur of the moment ideas that worked out way better than expected. Well worth the countless iterations to get the positioned just right!

When can we expect your dark red/sand green building?

Edited July 24, 2018 by RogerSmith

[paupadros]

53 minutes ago, RogerSmith said:

When can we expect your dark red/sand green building?

Not sure. Haven't finished building yet and won't be able to in a little while. Concept-wise, it's pretty set and I like it a lot. Have been trying stupidly complex shapes and colour schemes; I hope it'll pay off as a super nice modular; although definitely not in the immediate future. 

[Delbaerov]

There is some great detail to the exteriors without feeling "busy" It looks fantastic.

Also a big fan of using the beards as part of the design.

Awesome work.

[ReplicaOfLife]

On 7/25/2018 at 10:56 PM, Delbaerov said:

There is some great detail to the exteriors without feeling "busy" It looks fantastic.

Also a big fan of using the beards as part of the design.

Awesome work.

Thank you :)

On 7/24/2018 at 9:41 PM, paupadros said:

Not sure. Haven't finished building yet and won't be able to in a little while. Concept-wise, it's pretty set and I like it a lot. Have been trying stupidly complex shapes and colour schemes; I hope it'll pay off as a super nice modular; although definitely not in the immediate future. 

Sound sinteresting with the complex shapes, hope they work out for you!

Tried some more unusual stuff with this one, too, but not everythingw orked out. E.g. for the roof decoration of the blue building, I wanted to use an idea involving some technic connector elements that I've had a long time ago. But it just didn't look right on this building, so I guess we'll see it on the next. Or the one after that xD

[ReplicaOfLife]

Wow. That last photo in the opening post showing this building together with the Outdoor Store and the Medieval Townhouse has been gathering favorites on flickr faster than any other photo of my modulars! It's been up only about two and a a half weeks and now is my most favorited photo on there (atm tied with an exterior shot of my Record Store).

 

To celebrate this and to thank everybody, I decided to upload three additional shots of this build, which I also want to share here:

Another exterior shot by Tobias T., auf Flickr

Another look at the street... by Tobias T., auf Flickr

Unseen view from the back by Tobias T., auf Flickr

 

Thanks to everyone!

Edited August 7, 2018 by RogerSmith

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Gorgeous modular building ...the pieces for the roof are amazing (and I had never seen them before) 

[eliza]

Looks great! The colors work surprisingly well. The roof on the dark red building is really interesting and fun. I also like the way the balconies are staggered. 

[ReplicaOfLife]

On 8/7/2018 at 10:21 PM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Gorgeous modular building ...the pieces for the roof are amazing (and I had never seen them before) 

 

On 8/8/2018 at 4:31 AM, eliza said:

Looks great! The colors work surprisingly well. The roof on the dark red building is really interesting and fun. I also like the way the balconies are staggered. 

Thanks, you two!

I wasn't aware of those pieces, either. I got them from two copies of a Ninjago set I bought cheap and parted out, "Temple of the ultimate ultimate weapon", or something like that. At first I had no idea what to do with them. They are intended as claws for creatures, but make for a nice shingled roof, methinks.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Great idea and amazing effect!