Buildings, scale 1:25, created by Pinnacle

[Shiva]

Thank you for the updates :)

IRL builds, that take a very long time, I think those can have a bit of varying architectures too.

[Pinnacle]

That is certainly true for the somewhat later periods, such as the period of construction of the great cathedrals. But in ancient times, the time before B.C. architecture did not change very much  And therefore those buildings were relatively homogeneous in appearance.

[Shiva]

Ahh, could be so yes.

[Pinnacle]

Tower of babel VII

Architecture.

For the façades, I followed more or less the painting of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It shows a kind of early Gothic architectural style that was actually out of fashion in his days because people were already more or less in the Renaissance period. But of course, that doesn't have to prevent a painter from painting an early Gothic-style building. In the painting, the black surfaces (windows?) are somewhat different in shape from each other. I avoided this because the Gothic style wants to radiate a certain unity by, among other things, the use of geometric patterns that repeat themselves regularly. In the LEGO model, it looks very messy, and the possibilities are limited. There is already a difference in the black surfaces because of the decreasing height of the façade.

The use of colour for the façades is quite colourful and consists mainly of the colours white, light grey, dark grey and tan. At a distance, however, it is okay and looks suitable for an old stone building. But the use of all those colours is mainly motivated by the availability of the bricks. For example, some parts in tan are not available in grey or white. And that limits the possibility of making details in the MOC. And that will be a pitty.

The buttresses are adapted to the walkway's varying height and are equipped with pinnacles on the spot of every two steps of the walkway.

 

 

  A. Fragment of the facade. Elevation.

 

B. Fragment of the buttress. Elevation.

 

C. Fragment of facade and buttress. Cutaway drawing.

 

D. Fragment of facade and buttress from within. Cutaway drawing.

Note: 

 The green bricks are no part of the MOC.
The colours on te drawing do not correspond to the colours of the MOC.

 

 

[Vilhelm22]

Very nice!  When's a physical build expected?

[Shiva]

Thank you for the update :)

[Pinnacle]

15 hours ago, Vilhelm22 said:

Very nice!  When's a physical build expected?

After a year of research and making the first drawings, the physical building started in the middle of March 2011.

But I’m relatively new on Eurobricks, and I want to do the story more or less chronologically. Pictures of the actual MOC will follow soon.

7 hours ago, Shiva said:

Thank you for the update :)

Thank you for following 

[Shiva]

Ohhh, you already started the build?! :)

[Pinnacle]

23 hours ago, Shiva said:

Ohhh, you already started the build?! :)

O yes, the building of the tower is in full swing. Pictures come later on. 

[Shiva]

Sweet :)

[Pinnacle]

 Tower of Babel VIII

Building the MOC.

As told before, I started the building of the Tower on the 14th of March 2011. At first, I laid the outline of the facades to a height of five layers. Then I could see the dimensions of the whole thing. Then it appears to be a lot bigger than on a drawing. Well, a nice challenge.

 I took it to a LEGOworld event in Zwolle in 2012. There are no pictures of it. It was not very exciting for making pictures, but more to show what I was doing.

The next LEGOworld, it has become a little more. I had created 6 ‘modules’ which I could put together on the location of the event. And a fragment of the inner construction. (the red parts)

As soon as a building gets a little bigger, you will have to consider the accessibility of all the places where you want to place the parts. And for that, you will sometimes have to be able to stand upon your model. That's also because of the pyramid shape. After all, as you get higher, you also have to reach further forward because the façade jumps further and further inwards. The best thing is to build as much as possible from the inside out. In the beginning, you can deviate from that. I started with the outline initially to get a bit of how things are going to turn out. In the beginning, the walls are even six separate parts to exhibit them at events. But soon, I had these walls to 'build together' those parts, and transport were no longer possible. After the walls were about 30 stone layers high and all the columns were placed on level 0, I proceeded with the so-called central core, consisting of square columns 6x6 studs, totalling 49 pieces per level. I laid solid planks on the cross-shaped columns as a 'work floor' where I can stand upon to build the core. The height of the core ran each time two levels before the edge columns. This allows me to move the work floors to the next level and thus work up to the desired height.

A point of attention is that there can also be considerable tension on the various components with larger buildings. The cohesion of a LEGO model is determined by the clamping power of the individual parts, all of which generate considerable tension. To prevent warping or bend the building's construction, it is essential to work as evenly as possible. So working from the core to the edge, it is best to first place one row of columns with the arches on the left and then one row of columns plus arches on the right And work from front to back. Then you build up the tension so evenly as possible. And everything will remain pretty straight and square. Besides, I avoided large parts and long beams. Except for the arches, the whole building consists of basic bricks, with the largest brick being the well-known 2x4. Mainly, building in that way is a more significant challenge. But also to avoid as many wrong tensions as possible.

 

 

Some more pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

[Shiva]

Nice!

Is that stable/garage, your workplace for the model?

[Pinnacle]

Indeed. We live in an old farmhouse wit a big barn  attached to it. Space enough.. 

[Shiva]

That is quite nice :)  Sometimes I wish that I would not live in an apartment building. Sleep can get disturbed, if need to sleep morning/daytime.

[Pinnacle]

Tower of Babel Vlll

Building the MOC. (02)

After building the six modules together, the MOC is too big to transport it to the various LEGO-events. Unless you have a big truck, of course.

Some people asked me: why do you not build in modules. Then you can transport it. Well, that is nearly impossible.  Or the modules will be too heavy and too unmanageable. Or it will be too many modules. I’m not too fond of modular building on this scale. There are always nasty seams between the modules, mainly due to the problem of not having a sturdy and completely flat surface to build on. And thus, I decided to build it as a whole. It is also more ‘natural’. And that is what I like.

Now some more photos of the progress of the building from 2013 till 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shiva]

<3 for the update.

Is the base you build on, strong enough?

[Pinnacle]

That is for sure. Sturdy wooden beams are used for a kind of stage. It has not only to bear the load of bricks, which is about a ton, but also my one weight if I have to stand on it…  

[Pinnacle]

A little update about my Tower of Babel.

 

Summer is the time to work in the garden, so work on the Tower of Babel has been relatively quiet. But in the last few weeks, I have started building again. The south wall has now been raised to the floor of the first part of the second circulation and the floor of this has been added. Another 92 columns have been placed.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain the right parts in the required quantities. Especially tan slopes 75° tan and the Arch 1 x 5 x 4 - Continuous Bow red is becoming rare or too expensive.

It looks like the construction of this Tower of Babel will not be stopped by God but by LEGO itself. They should be much more concerned with producing the ordinary base bricks for a much more extended period.

But alas, they don't.

 

 

 

 

 

[Shiva]

Big!

[Pinnacle]

A little too big,  I'm afraid. It becomes challenging to reach the top columns.

 

But that also has to do whit age 

[Shiva]

Good luck :)

[CastleRail]

On 11/3/2021 at 3:58 PM, Pinnacle said:

Arch 1 x 5 x 4 - Continuous Bow red

You're using this part internally so surely any colour and variation could reasonably be substituted?

[Pinnacle]

In principle, you're right. But I like to take pictures, and therefore I use the right colour preferably. And the Tower will not really be finished because the painting of Pieter Bruegel shows red brickwork on the top of the Tower.  

That brickwork is not entirely red but also contains brown and dark red bricks. So that I can also use reddish-brown arches. Arches that can not be seen are mainly black.

One has to improvise sometimes.   

[Pinnacle]

Tower of Babel VIII

Building the MOC. (03)

Finally, the Tower of Babel has reached its highest point. That is to say, the point that Pieter Bruegel depicted in his painting of the Tower of Babel. The original painting can be seen in the 'Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen' in The Netherlands.

It doesn't mean that the Tower is almost finished. On the contrary. I have still to do the third part of it. Especially the outer walls with the evenly ascending gallery or stairway are far from finished.

Eleven years seems a long time, but I did not build every day of course. Sometimes a whole day, and sometimes I didn't build for weeks

 

 

Fact list.

 

Start of construction: March 14 2011.

Dimensions: In bricks: 303 x 294  Height 232.

 

                       In mm:     2424 x 2352  Height 2227 mm.

                              

Amount of bricks used so far: 443267.

 

Weight: 645 kg.

 

Number of hours worked: 1468.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[icm]

That is, indeed, a veritable Tower of Babel in Lego form.  Congratulations on topping out, good luck on finishing the facade.