Birth of a new Lego city [UPDATE #24 Overpass completed! ]

[Chiaroscuro]

16 minutes ago, HereWeGoAgain said:

Crap I thought I updated my SIG the other day. Will do it on the computer later. 

In the mean time:

https://www.instagram.com/h311m4ns?r=nametag

Found it. Just sent you a request to follow it (it is set as a private account)

[HereWeGoAgain]

38 minutes ago, Chiaroscuro said:

Found it. Just sent you a request to follow it (it is set as a private account)

Yep keeping it private for the time being ;-) 

Cheers

[greg3]

Great looking layout so far!! I really like your use of different levels and water effects. Looking forward to seeing more!!

Thanks for sharing!!

[HereWeGoAgain]

11 hours ago, greg3 said:

Great looking layout so far!! I really like your use of different levels and water effects. Looking forward to seeing more!!

Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks for the comment!

It's been about a year now since I came out of my dark ages and started this project ^^

Cheers

[HereWeGoAgain]

Hello Brickfans,

So as mentioned previously, here's a bit of progress for those that don't use Instagram (I can see my sig with the IG link, can you too? If not please let me know).

I haven't made tremendous progress as the confinement continues for the time being here in Switzerland, I still work from home and the schools will probably not reopen, so one thing at a time.

As I was waiting for parts to continue the beach/ocean, I had the idea of creating a little water pumping facility for my city with the goal of providing drinkable water to my habitants. I moc'ed it up in LDD and started building but of course, ran out of the parts in the colours I needed (I love medium azure and it seemed fitting for again, something water themed). It will eventually be placed next to my mountain/train tunnel next to the river where I have a space I didn't know what to use for. So here's a tiny preview:

I have the tubing for the water already built, it'll go through the 2 round openings. As I go and build real sets and see other mocs, I try to make building more "complex" in terms of textures. We'll see how it looks when it's done.

While I was again waiting for parts, I was finally able to build the Old Fishing store I had sitting in my collection for months. I love the looks of the set. I must admin it was a bit boring to build but the end result is great. This is about where I'll place it in my beach area. You may notice I replaced the tan 32x32 baseplate that comes with the set in favour of four 16x16 plates. The reason being I want things to be level once I get to create the beach which will have some elevation:

Finally, I started working on the support structures that will run in the back of the middle table to bridge the gap between the 2 main tables:

I need to build 3 of those (2 are done) and they literally used up almost all my stash of 2x2, 2x3 and 2x4 "rainbow" bricks lol. Duplo would be my friend here, I stole a few 2x2 Duplos from my kids (shhh, don't tell them :-p) as I had seen JangBricks use them in his mountain.

These 3 platforms will host a train track, probably a small train station, a road (1 way so need to plan red lights on each side) and a rocky overlook of the beach/ocean for minifig tourists. The front will eventually be covered up with rockwork (this is going to take forever lol).

'Til next time,

Cheers 

Edited April 15, 2020 by HereWeGoAgain

[jpx]

3 hours ago, HereWeGoAgain said:

So as mentioned previously, here's a bit of progress for those that don't use Instagram (I can see my sig with the IG link, can you too? If not please let me know).

 

Thank you for the update. I've been following along since your first post with the tunnel, and I'm super impressed!

Your link works but I'm not on Facebook/Instagram, so I appreciate your 'regular' updates here. 

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

1 hour ago, jpx said:

 

Thank you for the update. I've been following along since your first post with the tunnel, and I'm super impressed!

Your link works but I'm not on Facebook/Instagram, so I appreciate your 'regular' updates here. 

 

Thanks for comment, really appreciate it and hope I'll be able to keep impressing as I go along and build this city up! still need to find a good name for it though. I'm really not into social media either, but IG has been useful for quick updates I must say.

Anyway, was able to complete the 3rd structure, I literally depleted all my 2-by-x bricks at this point . The 3 structures fit by the exact mm on my middle table. My fingers hurt from all the clicking.

Pro tip: if you plan on building a city, keep those old dirty, bitten, yellowed bricks you had as a kid, they come in handy to make such structural work (not that you guys didn't already know this :-)).

Benny says: if I fits, I sits!

[nahpets]

I have been following for a while - really cool build and its great to see different elevations rather than a flat city build. 

Is this new support structure behind the bridge? 

[HereWeGoAgain]

3 minutes ago, nahpets said:

I have been following for a while - really cool build and its great to see different elevations rather than a flat city build. 

Is this new support structure behind the bridge? 

Thanks for tagging along!

Yes they are at the back of the table behind the bridge and will help gap the 2 main tables. They will get covered up with rock work in the front to hide the "rainbow". There will actually be rock work all around this middle table to close the gap between it and the 2 main tables. I'll have to figure out a stair or access ramp for the figs to access the beach and ocean. 

It's pretty clear in my mind how I want it all to look, but it's going to take time (money and bricks too...) to build it all. 

I usually moc things up in LDD before I physically build, I'll share some screenshots once I have something worth sharing. 

[Chiaroscuro]

Really nice work on the updates!

(Hope that heater behind the bridge isn’t used).

I am planning some different levels on my layout too, but since they interior would not be visible I won’t use bricks as support just low custom tables.

Ny the way your signature is still no visible for me.

[HereWeGoAgain]

1 hour ago, Chiaroscuro said:

Really nice work on the updates!

(Hope that heater behind the bridge isn’t used).

I am planning some different levels on my layout too, but since they interior would not be visible I won’t use bricks as support just low custom tables.

Ny the way your signature is still no visible for me.

Are you on mobile? Because I think signatures are hidden on mobile, it shows up fine when on my laptop or desktop. 

The heater is used but not on full throttle and only when I'm in the Lego room and it's winter ?

[Chiaroscuro]

8 hours ago, HereWeGoAgain said:

Are you on mobile? Because I think signatures are hidden on mobile, it shows up fine when on my laptop or desktop. 

The heater is used but not on full throttle and only when I'm in the Lego room and it's winter ?

Oh, you are right. The signature are only displayed on the desktop mode.

[jpx]

19 hours ago, HereWeGoAgain said:

I'll have to figure out a stair or access ramp for the figs to access the beach and ocean. 

Just as an inspiration, perhaps you could make a funicular ? 

 

19 hours ago, HereWeGoAgain said:

I usually moc things up in LDD before I physically build, I'll share some screenshots once I have something worth sharing. 

It would be cool to get an insight in how you build, do you use the digital MOCs to make bricklink orders or do you have the bricks ?

[HereWeGoAgain]

3 hours ago, jpx said:

Just as an inspiration, perhaps you could make a funicular ? 

 

It would be cool to get an insight in how you build, do you use the digital MOCs to make bricklink orders or do you have the bricks ?

A funicular could be nice indeed, but I fear it'll be a bit cramped. The middle table is only 3 baseplates wide and for the minifig beach, one will already be used up by the old fishing store.

 As I'll basically have cliffs on all 3 sides of the middle table that go all the way up to the 2 main tables, I was thinking of wooden stairs like you often see to access a beach, something like this, integrated in some rock work:

 

As for how I build, I usually start with an LDD mock up. Not always, but most of the time. It doesn't have to be exactly a piece by piece representation of what I have in mind, but it makes creating easier for me as someone who doesn't have hours a day to pick bricks in drawers an do some free building. The big advantage of digital building is that all the bricks (at least most of them) are available with the click of a button so if I have an idea in mind I can translate it to bricks rather quickly. 

I received a large bricklink order today that should allow me to continue some ocean/beach work. I just did a bit of LDDing to mock up how I want the ocean and beach to meet near the old fishing store. I want there to be a pier in front of it for a fishing boat to drop of fish. This is where I'm at:

The fishing store I found an LDD file of already. I elevated it by 1 brick + a 2x2 jumper. Most likely the beach for the minifigs will also be elevated by a brick. It is on purpose offset by 4 studs to the left which is also the depth of a BURP. I just randomly placed a first set of "rainbow" plates on the base plate in front of it to moc up about where the ocean/beach are separated. I color-code all those plates to make it easier to see what I used where. Then I layered the first set of dark tan 1x2 plates to represent the wet sand. And I always create groups so I can easily hide or select stuff :)

As for the bricks I have, I have a fair collection now, mostly acquired by buying bulks of Lego on an ebay equivalent here in Switzerland. I usually target bulks with recent sets and instructions. It's a quick and rather "cheap" way to get parts that are not going to be too scratched up either. 

For the train bridge I fully built it in LDD then exported the parts list, checked what I had and ordered the rest actually directly through pick-a-brick. The reason was that I couldn't find a seller in Switzerland with all the parts I needed, and for those they had, they were usually more expensive than Lego themselves. I didn't want to order from outside of CH because the shipping and the import taxes usually end up making it not worth it and a real hassle. Through pick-a-brick, shipping is free above 100CHF and not import taxes to pay.

[HereWeGoAgain]

Hey brick fans,

No picture update yet, I've been trying to tackle the rock work for the cliffs around the beach. As usual doing it in LDD first to translate my ideas into bricks, but it's a slow process. I'd love to have an entire day to spend on this, but I can't .

I really want to emphasise on snot rock work by using a large variety of slopes, wedge bricks and plates and create some nice angles etc. Height is 19 bricks, width is a 32x32 baseplate to give you an idea.

Initially I though about just building on top of a whole bunch of BURPs. I purchased some already but I want my rock work and cliffs to be different from my little mountain rock work as they will have more exposure. In total I have about 9 such cliffs to build 

What else? I got some bricklink orders (sellers are starting to send free gifts with the amount of bricks I purchase lol...). Last week's order was 1826 pieces mostly for the beach/water and yesterday I got another 1157 with a whole bunch of slopes, wedges etc....I really need to stop browsing stores and go like "oh, this could be useful"...

Stay tuned,

Cheers

[HereWeGoAgain]

Hello Brickfans,

Wow...up since 4:38am, my eldest has been up since 3am and finally fell asleep at 6am after my wife and I battled to get her to close her eyes. I couldn't sleep anymore, so I took the opportunity to enjoy the silence at home for a few hours. 

After about 2 days of playing around in LDD, I started to physically build the first cliff that will be on the the right side under the bridge. I of course ran out of wedge and slope parts as I had used them in LDD, but it gives and idea of where this is heading. A brickling order with a bunch of them should come in within the next few days. Not using BURPS is going to take...forever 

Most of what is shown below is the back structure to put the rock work on. I used some ball joints to create an angle at the outer corner (on the edge of the table). It's an interesting process to learn how to properly use bricks with studs on the side along with 1x2 or 2x2 plates with studs on the side as to have the correct height to have no gaps when building vertically, as well as properly tiling the sand at the bottom for the slopes to lie flat. It doesn't look like much at the moment. Height of the cliff is about 19 bricks. Obviously all the rainbow bricks will actually be covered up.

'Til next time,

Cheers

[HereWeGoAgain]

Hello Brick fans,

Had a bit of time to work on the cliffs. Progress is relatively slow for different reasons (parts I don't have, sorting I need to do, figuring out how to build something, actually building official sets (just did the Hidden Side El Fuego monster truck, cool build...and work and family, the usual :)).

I think it looks pretty neat, not a rock work master builder just yet but trying my best not to just build up vertically, although simpler.

On top of the front "rounded" rocks will be a little platform with greenery and stuff. Lots of details to add. Anyway, here are some pictures, with and without one of my bridge towers. Have a good week-end!

[DodgeDude5498]

That looks awesome! Keep it up!

[HereWeGoAgain]

On 4/24/2020 at 9:18 PM, DodgeDude5498 said:

That looks awesome! Keep it up!

Thank you!

I'm 98% done with the first cliff, will hopefully be able to finish it tonight and post an update tomorrow. I'm really happy with how it turned out (posted a few things on IG already).

[HereWeGoAgain]

Hello brick fans,

Finally, took me about 6 hours over the course of the week-end, to finish this first cliff. I'm really happy how it turned out. I definitely gained some building experience since my first moc (the train tunnel with the mountain). I tried to mix snot with studs on top as randomly as I could with some vegetation. When I was at like 75% from the top I started to build more vertically to reach the top a bit faster lol.

There are still a few details I'm planning to add, mainly to the beach around the pilar. And once I figure out what I'll put on the table on top, I'll be able to finish the like 1cm of rock work that's needed to hide the table's wood on the side.

What's next? So much stuff lol. There's no point in me doing the next cliff before I receive a bunch of larger wedges and slopes I ordered. I'll either get started on integrating the old fishing store the way I want with a pier in front of it or do some work up top next to the diner or the train station...don't know yet ^^

I did some playing around in LDD too with brick built roads. I'd have to assess the cost of going with those which would also elevate the city by a stud. I'm thinking the earlier I do this, the less pain it'll be and it allows for so much more detailing, but I need to focus on one thing at a time.

Here are some pictures without the pilar:

And here it is with the pilar and a bit of track (sorry for the halo from the lamp on the wall):

'til next time!

Cheers

Edited April 27, 2020 by HereWeGoAgain

[nahpets]

Wow looks great! 

I noticed the seagull disappeared from your earlier photos haha. 

will you fill the smaller hole? i noticed some light shinning through

[Chiaroscuro]

Great work!!! Thanks for sharing your progress.

 

I am curious about your thoughts and planning on building brick built roads. I am struggling at the moment to come to a solution for my layout (planning digitally first to order the pieces). My main problem is that I want to integrate a train track at the road to serve as a city tram line. But the corners are a challenge, I can’t find s solution that looks good enough.

[DodgeDude5498]

Extremely nice work! It looks very natural and elegant

[HereWeGoAgain]

1 hour ago, nahpets said:

Wow looks great! 

I noticed the seagull disappeared from your earlier photos haha. 

will you fill the smaller hole? i noticed some light shinning through

Thanks!

Yeah forgot to put the seagull back for the pictures, was late yesterday evening ^^. I just noticed the hole you're talking about. It won't be noticeable as this side is hidden by the bridge anyway, but it's going to bug me so I'll probably patch it, thanks for noticing.

1 hour ago, Chiaroscuro said:

Great work!!! Thanks for sharing your progress.

 

I am curious about your thoughts and planning on building brick built roads. I am struggling at the moment to come to a solution for my layout (planning digitally first to order the pieces). My main problem is that I want to integrate a train track at the road to serve as a city tram line. But the corners are a challenge, I can’t find s solution that looks good enough.

For now I just quickly threw out a build for a straight road which isn't difficult. Curves are always going to be an issue when building certain types of structures like roads in Lego. What comes to mind, I have no idea if feasable, is to lay the curved track on tiles (like I did on the back of my city, next to the bank, using MILS instructions). Then fill the gaps in and around the track with tiles (like the quarter-round 1x1 etc.). I may try to sketch up something to see what I come up with although I don't plan to do tramway in my city. The easiest may be to incorporate a monorail track to your brick built curves, but this means you:

1. Need to have a monorail (tracks are priceeeey)

2. Need to like monorails

3. Or make your own (there are some cool functioning designs) :-)

The other thing is there are narrower train tracks like these:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=85976&name=Train, Track Plastic, Narrow, Curve&category=[Train, Track]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

No idea if they would make it easier to integrate into brick built roads

5 minutes ago, DodgeDude5498 said:

Extremely nice work! It looks very natural and elegant

Thanks mah dude!

[HereWeGoAgain]

1 hour ago, Chiaroscuro said:

Great work!!! Thanks for sharing your progress.

 

I am curious about your thoughts and planning on building brick built roads. I am struggling at the moment to come to a solution for my layout (planning digitally first to order the pieces). My main problem is that I want to integrate a train track at the road to serve as a city tram line. But the corners are a challenge, I can’t find s solution that looks good enough.

You could also try to adapt something like this to follow along the curved track (not mine, just search "lego curved wall" on google), you can bend it to any shape you want: