Buildings, scale 1:25, created by Pinnacle

[neonic]

Great castle, and it's huge indeed.
Looks great, amazing organs, interior and stuff. the Outside looks great too with that little 'park' around it.
Also like the scaffolding and the crumbled piece of wall. the Stained glass looks great too. I ques it would looks even more great when you shine a light. 

[Shiva]

It looks good :)

Thank you for sharing those photos.

[Pinnacle]

20 hours ago, neonic said:

Great castle, and it's huge indeed.
Looks great, amazing organs, interior and stuff. the Outside looks great too with that little 'park' around it.
Also like the scaffolding and the crumbled piece of wall. the Stained glass looks great too. I ques it would looks even more great when you shine a light. 

Thanks for the nice words. I’ll certainly try it out with the light.

16 hours ago, Shiva said:

It looks good :)

Thank you for sharing those photos.

Thanks. I like to share it.

[Pinnacle]

After the demolition of the Sokenniwell castle I wanted to make another building to exhibit at the various events. In the end it became the "Amsterdam Gate" in Haarlem, The Netherlands. The Amsterdam Gate is one of the twelve city gates of Haarlem and the only one that still exists. The former wall around Haarlem is also gone. The road through the gate led to Amsterdam, hence the name. For the design I used the original drawings that I received from the municipality of Haarlem. I converted it into a LEGO drawing and in late 2008 I started building. The building is built as accurately as possible on a scale of 1:25, both from the outside and inside. Even the chimney and flue is present and could be used if the bricks were not from ABS...   After six months it was completed and could be seen in various locations. It was demolished in August 2020, because I need the parts for the project I'm working on right now. By the way, It is amazing how much dust, webs and dead spiders end up in a average building. A good reason to take it all apart and put it in the washing machine..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shiva]

RIP Amsterdam Gate, cheers for the photos :)

[Pinnacle]

Thanks.  .

[Pinnacle]

Demolition Time.

In August 2020, I started with the demolition of the Amsterdam Gate in Haarlem. I built this building in 2008, and it has been at many events ever since. Time for something else, then. It was time to clean it up. It's amazing how much dust and dirt settles on (and especially inside such a MOC). You always try to keep it as clean as possible, but there are many nooks and crannies where you can't get to the dust. And because the Amsterdam Gate also has an interior, several spiders could nest there and make a web. Unfortunately, few flies came in those rooms so that these spiders died prematurely and dried up in time.

Time for demolition and general cleaning.

In general, I don't take pictures of the demolition of a project. I want to finish the tearing apart en the sorting of the parts as soon as possible so that I can start a new project quickly. But because I have a few pictures of the construction of the Amsterdam Gate, I decided to make an exception this time. Also to show that this building also had an Interieur, complete with walls, floors, the large fireplace in the space above the gate, stairs and passageways.

Scrapping an MOC also means that you will have to sort all parts again. Usually I start by breaking down a part until I have a reasonable mountain on the table, which I sort out again and put the parts in temporary containers. I repeat that a number of times until all the parts are in the containers. If necessary, the parts go into the washing machine. Only then, I put the parts in the final bins. That seems cumbersome, but in my case it saves a lot of running and lugging.

 

Hence a few more pictures to close the past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shiva]

Cheers for sharing these :)

[Pinnacle]

Thanks.

[Lira_Bricks]

Not that many people use only basic Lego blocks to make their MOC's, but damn does it look nice! :)

On 12/12/2020 at 4:50 PM, Pinnacle said:

“Killing your darlings” will always hurt a little in the beginning. But as I see how much dust, cobwebs and dead spiders ended up in a MOC, Then I am only happy to clean up all the parts and used them in a new MOC.

I make photos and drawings of the more complicated creations so I can always reconstruct them.  But I have never done that in reality. I’m more interested in a new challenge. But I need the old parts of course…  

I understand now how spiders could get into your MOC's with buildings that big ^^

[Pinnacle]

I did't see your post until now, so I did some explanation in your topic.

Thanks for your nice compliments.

[Pinnacle]

 Introduction. 

And now the project I'm working on right now, Tower of Babel. After the necessary research and drawing, I laid the first brick on September 1, 2011. Since then, I have been steadily working on this structure with almost biblical dimensions. Of course, I don't work on it every day. That varies according to the seasons. In the summer I prefer to work on the house and garden. In winter, it is often too cold in the old barn. But fortunately, it is not a work with a deadline, but a hobby for fun and pleasure.

Why the Tower of Babel?

After building several houses and castles, I was looking for a new challenge. I had plenty of ideas. Initially, it was going to be a kind of fairy tale castle. A mix of Schloss Neuschwanstein and a Disneyland castle. But on closer inspection, much of my stock of white stones turned out to be too yellowed to build a genuinely sparkling fairytale castle.

Moreover, the parts with the standard fairy colours are difficult to obtain or do not exist in the desired form. A tower from the movie "Lords of the ring" also came into mind. But that's been done by many LEGO fans and is not very original anymore.

But then, I saw an image of the famous painting of "The Little Tower of Babel," painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1563. That's exactly what I wanted. The challenge was mainly in the circular stairway or gallery around the Tower. This is not a 'layer upon layer' building like, for example, an apartment building. But because of that ascending staircase, there is no layer alike.

 

 

[Shiva]

Is it a build that can be divided into sections? Or a big single building?

+ yikes!

[Pinnacle]

It will be a single building. The sections will be too many or too heavy to transport.

This is a typical home-project that not easily can be transported.   

[Pinnacle]

The Tower of Babel II

Round or square.

painting depicts a round tower. So it would be obvious to build a round tower. There are several ways to make more or less round shapes with LEGO-bricks.  And sometimes the result can look outstanding. But I like it to build as accurate as possible, not only architecturally but also qua construction. You should be able to recreate it with real bricks on a 1:1 scale, and then you will have the real thing. Of course, this will not always work, but it has to get as close as possible.

Moreover, the Tower is not exactly round, but it is a spiral, or rather, a conical helix. And that's a form that's hard to build with LEGO parts. At least on a larger scale.  Because I think a 'natural' construction is more important than a round shape, I have chosen to build the Tower rectangular.

 

 

 

 

Other considerations.

The Tower of Babel is mainly a mythical building. In the Bible, it is used primarily to explain the origin of the different languages in the world. But very little is written about the shape and construction of the Tower. Also nothing about the dimensions, except that it had to reach "to the heavens".

The more profane story tells that sometime in 2300 B.C. a man named Nimrod ordered the construction of the Tower of Babel. Nimrod was Noah's great-grandson, indeed, the man of the ark. The location would be somewhere on the Euphrates. Nimrod's descendants probably didn't want to experience any more flooding and wanted to keep their feet dry. And that's why they would like to build a tower as tall as possible.

Probably the city of Babylon originated there on the Euphrates. In the period between 1770 BC and 1670 BC, Babylon was one of the largest cities with an estimated population of 200,000 people. So a tall tower in such a city is not at all so unlikely. And it is also assumed that the Tower was completed in those days. One thing is sure: as Bruegel depicts the Tower of Babel on his painting, it has surely not looked like it in real life. Much more likely it was a so-called ziggurat, a stepped pyramid with a temple on top, as was customary at the time. And a ziggurat at that time was always square or rectangular with multiple layers and equipped with stairs.

 

 

[Pinnacle]

Tower of Babel III

During excavations at the site of ancient Babylon, the German archaeologist Robert Johann Koldewey found  the foundation of the Tower which was 91 x 91 meters. That means a square Tower.. It is suspected that the famous Tower once stood there.

But no one knows how the Tower was built and what the architecture was. Moreover, the building has had a turbulent period in which it has been created, destroyed, rebuilt, then demolished and yet rebuilt. Until 390 BC Alexander the Great wanted to reconstruct the Tower, but during a working visit he got an accident. That was seen as a curse at the time. Construction was halted, and the Tower fell into oblivion. Gradually the remains disappeared, probably used in other structures.

But much of the story is shrouded in mist, and several authors have often put a different spin on it.

Besides, many artists in various periods have depicted the Tower of Babel in different ways, each in their own way and at their own insight.

 

 

 

 

Considering all this, I think that I could make my own creation. And so I opted for the excavated square floor plan of 91 x 91 meters because of the authenticity and the possibility to create this building in LEGO parts. And for the spiral staircase or walkway, I choose  the Gothic style of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

[Shiva]

The Tower of Babel 1563, it will be, sort of? But square.

[Pinnacle]

4 hours ago, Shiva said:

The Tower of Babel 1563, it will be, sort of? But square.

That is correct. I like this painting the most because it looks realistic. And it will be square because of the excavated foundations. 

[Shiva]

Sounds good to me :)

[Pinnacle]

Thanks..

[Pinnacle]

Tower of Babel IV 

Design. 

So that was the plan. Now there's the realisation. I started with some pencil sketches to see what the best approach would be. After I got the first impression, I started working on the computer. There are a few fixed starting points.  At first, the dimensions of the various LEGO parts. For me, that was the Brick, Arch 1 x 12 x 3. This element was decisive for the entire dimension of the structure. And to a large extent, also determines the measurements between various building parts. The buttresses' measures, pilasters, and the intermediate counterparts were added to the span of the arch. And this resulted in a centre-to-centre size of 16 studs. This means a grid plan of 16 studs in both the x-direction and the y-direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next point was the size of the Tower. Breughel's painting shows eight tiers. Or rather, the gallery wallows around the core of the Tower eight times. It means that there are 16 distances of 16 studs and the length is thus 256 studs, i.e. 2048 mm.

The angle of the slope remains the same over the height of the Tower. Namely an increase of 8 studs horizontally and one brick high. The height (in completed condition) is therefore fixed. Namely 16 + 2x15 + 14 bricks is 60 bricks high for the first tour. That height naturally decreases as the circumference becomes smaller. Eventually, the Tower will be 256 bricks tall, or 2457 mm (in completed condition)

 

 

 

 

Observant readers will note that 2,048 meters do not correspond to the 91 meters of the excavated foundations if one assumes a scale 1:25. Then the model should be 3.64 meters. And proportionally also a lot higher. To achieve that, I would have to bring the number of revolutions to 14. Which automatically means that the highest point of the first tour is already 108 bricklayers high, a lot higher than the 60 bricklayers of the current design.

That would be difficult from an execution point of view because you would have to work with scaffolding by then. The weight would increase enormously. But above all, it would become an insurmountable financial problem. And the proportions of the Tower would also be out of balance.

So the current design is based on a slightly smaller tower, a compromise between its correct size and financial feasibility. The full-size dimensions would now be 51 meters. In those ancient times, quite a construction ...

[Man with a hat]

Quite a challenging build. And quite the preparation and research as well. It is great to read that. Now only the anticipation for the real build...

[Pinnacle]

Thanks for your reaction. I like the challenge of building a MOC that takes several years to realize. But also the research how such an ancient building would have been built in those days. And the designing to create a tower that can be made as an actual construction. The drawing and calculating for the dimensions and all the parts to be used
Al the things one would do in case of a real building. 
The building of the real MOC will follow.  
 

[Pinnacle]

Tower of Babel V

Realisation.

You don't want to be surprised at this kind of constructions. If you are halfway at some point, and you suddenly notice that something is not going well or it is not going to fit, and you have to break down half of it again, then the fun quickly goes away. Especially if that happens a second or third time...

Therefore, it is desirable to make a good plan and make clear drawings. And come up with a proper building plan. The building order is essential because you have to access every spot to place the LEGO parts.

As far as drawing is concerned, I had the advantage of having an autoCAD drawing program through my work, an excellent drawing program to set up a master plan and work out the dimensions. Unfortunately, you'll lose your license if that company no longer employs you. And to pay for it myself, I found it a little too pricey. I tried some free drawing programs, but they didn't make it to even the oldest autoCAD programs. After that, I tried the various LEGO drawing programs, but I felt they were too cumbersome and too slow, and the possibilities were far too limited. Or I wanted too much. That's possible, of course.

Eventually, I discovered the LEGO drawing program LDCad, created by Ronald Melkert. A fantastic drawing program in which it was possible to work out the entire Tower of Babel. Especially when you consider that it is 674,067 parts if the whole Tower is completed.. (according to the program)

The program becomes a bit slower at some point, but it can also be the computer. It is also not possible to create a partslist. Apparently, it was a bit too many parts to process.

The drawing colours do not correspond to the MOC's colours, but for me, they serve to keep the various steps and submodels apart more easily. Like you would work with an AutoCAD program.

 

 

 

[Pinnacle]

 Tower of Babel VI

Construction.

I have already said that a MOC of a building should also be constructively as accurate as possible. If you were to build it full-scale with real bricks, you could do it on de same way. To do that, I first started to look into the materials used, the construction methods and tools used during that time. And the knowledge and skill of the people who lived then. In Mesopotamia, the arch construction was already well known and was mainly used for bridges. But could also have been used in the Tower. But it isn't very certain. The Tower that was probably built in Babylon is much more likely to have been a ziggurat. A terraced pyramid with one or more stairs. The walls were made of baked or dried clay bricks, and the soil was rammed into the core. Then they built the next layer and filled it with clay or sand. At least it's the most likely construction.

So I could make it easy for myself by building a solid core of, for example, black or brown bricks. But that would be a lot of bricks and would be a very dull and annoying stacking.

But Bruegel shows in his painting a tower with a rather intricate column structure. So I chose a column structure for the Tower. By opting for a rectangular shape, this core of columns and flying buttresses are relatively simple and might have been built by the ancient Babylonians.

The LEGO columns are on a grid of 16 x 16 studs and are cross-shaped and eight studs wide. The arches consist of brick, arch 1 x 5 x 4 - Continuous Bow, on all sides. The middle columns are square 6 x6 studs. This has no constructive meaning but is motivated by the availability of the various arch forms. Many columns have a standard size and are 25 bricks high. The advantage is that you can make those columns "prefabricated". In my case, that means in the winter in the warm living room. Because in an old barn, where the Tower is built, it can be quite cold in the winter..

 

 

 

 

The arches between the columns, which prevent the columns from buckling, consist of 2x 4 Brick, Arch 1 x 5 x 4 - Continuous Bow. Then equipped with two layers of bricks, then finished with a 'saddle-back'. That saddle-back is mainly designed to remove the dust more easily because there's a lot of dust falling when a project takes several years.

Problem by projects that took several years to build is that some parts were sold out and no longer available during the process of building. Then you have to look for other solutions.   

 

When I started building, those arches were available and not expensive. Now it's a different picture. There is almost no arch of those dimensions. Certainly not in red. So, I have to think of other arc shapes. But so far, I can still move forward with the existing stock.