[MOC] Octan Avenue

[paupadros]

Octan Avenue, the newest addition to the modular street!

I promised myself I would complete a new modular in less than the year it took to complete my previous: Baseplate Alley, but here we are. Exactly another year since my previous model, here’s my eleventh modular: Octan Avenue (yes, I'm simply using a well-known Lego brand as a street name, despite the building having nothing to do with it!) 

The design of this modular began in Autumn of 2019. On my way to university, every day I would go past a building in Les Rambles in Barcelona that just seemed quite fitting to turn into a modular. While in no way a stunning piece of architecture, the entrance to the Plaça Reial is orthogonal enough for it not to be a nightmare in Lego bricks but has quite an interesting mix of porticos, asymmetrical façades and clearly marked centrepieces in the corners to the middle street. This building reminded me of another similar building from Palma de Mallorca. Again, mirrored façades with an alley in-between. This one, though, with much more adorned Art Nouveau flair.

For my model, I kept aspects of both sources of inspiration plus a bit of my own magic. My building has the alley over on one side, simpler window designs and the running portico (like the building in Barcelona) but much more pronounced tower-like elements protruding with very prominent designs on top (like the building in Palma). Building the tops of the towers was remarkably difficult. Because the yellow building naturally has more presence as it has more volume, I needed a spire that would draw attention and finalise the design effectively but not overshadow the blue building. This is why the tower top in the blue building is wider and a tiny bit taller. Hand on heart, I was stuck doing all kinds of spires for both buildings for a good month and a half until the combination of these two worked well. 

A simple 360º view:

 

 

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Interiors:

My focus is always on exteriors and nailing those. Interiors are always the second half of the job. I like coming up with original quirky shops to fill my modular and in this case, they are:

Yellow Building: Model Store

This one was quite fun to do. The ground level has models of two airplanes: 10226 Sopwith Camel and the one the kid in 10270 Bookshop is playing with (he had to buy it somewhere didn’t he?) 

The middle level has a model of the recent 10277 Crocodile Locomotive and of my three first modular: Magic Shop, Italian Villa and The Iron Horse (2016). You can find them on my Flickr, Instagram or their respective EB topics.

The top level has five more mini-modulars of mine: Sweets & Co, A Summer in Tuscany (2017); Klee Corner, Disco 2000 Vinyl Store (2018) and Baseplate Alley (2019).

 

Blue Building: Rug Store

For the blue building, I needed a shop that housed items on its walls as it barely has any floor space. A rug store is ideal.

The ground level houses the staircase to the middle floor and a bunch of boxes and items that are little Easter Eggs to official modular.

Both the middle and top floors and full of rugs! My personal favourite is the black and white one on the middle floor.

 

Video of the modules flying around and showcase of the interiors:

 

 

 

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Like I did with my previous model, you can have a look at the 3D model to explore all the little nooks and crannies:

Exterior

Interiors

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Thanks for reading through and hope you enjoy this model!

Edited September 27, 2020 by paupadros

[Berthil]

Nice building with nice details and references! I don't understand the alley as this means both small buildings must have stairs inside which always take a lot of space in a modular. Some stairs flip to create room but still.
The renders are very good, almost real. Therefore I think you should state somewhere that this is a digital building which cannot be build with LEGO bricks as bricks in certain colors that do not exist in LEGO are used e.g. the white masonry brick.

[JintaiZ]

Simply fantastic!

[Pisces no Aphrodite]

Amazing building !

[The Brick Boss]

Great Job 

[paupadros]

6 hours ago, Berthil said:

Nice building with nice details and references! I don't understand the alley as this means both small buildings must have stairs inside which always take a lot of space in a modular. Some stairs flip to create room but still.
The renders are very good, almost real. Therefore I think you should state somewhere that this is a digital building which cannot be build with LEGO bricks as bricks in certain colors that do not exist in LEGO are used e.g. the white masonry brick.

Thank you! The alley is simply there for compositional purposes. Yes, it adds quite a lot of unnecessary staircases throughout the building, but, ultimately, the important aspect (for me) is the view from the front and not so much the actual practicality of the building. In fact, in all but the ground levels, the stairs and the wall are a single assembly that can be pulled out, meaning that even in the tiniest of rooms, there's plenty of access. You might have a point with the thing about the explicitly calling it a digital build, although I've never really done it. 

4 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

Simply fantastic!

3 hours ago, Ragana9289 said:

Amazing building !

3 hours ago, Brandon Pea said:

Great Job 

Thanks a lot guys!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Too cool!

I like your building technique for the windows!

[paupadros]

23 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Too cool!

I like your building technique for the windows!

Thanks! It's a really great technique to get compact windows with a frame around them. 

[snaillad]

I really like the idea of the alleyway between the two buildings and the roofline is a pleasing mix of shapes. Nice work!

[paupadros]

21 hours ago, snaillad said:

I really like the idea of the alleyway between the two buildings and the roofline is a pleasing mix of shapes. Nice work!

Thank you Andrew! It's an honour to get such a message from one of the masters!

[peedeejay]

Cool! I really like the window framing. Such a pity that the technqiue blocks parts of the windows on the inside with the brackets. However I don't see any other way to achieve it at the moment.

[Jerry McGlade]

Really cool model, really like the overall aesthetic.  

[Legocitycustoms]

The Crocodile is cool. XD

[paupadros]

On 10/2/2020 at 9:08 AM, peedeejay said:

Cool! I really like the window framing. Such a pity that the technqiue blocks parts of the windows on the inside with the brackets. However I don't see any other way to achieve it at the moment.

Thank you! I tried everything. As long as they don't come up with a piece that is just the 1/6 brick bit of the bracket, blocking the window is inevitable 

On 10/4/2020 at 5:45 AM, Jerry McGlade said:

Really cool model, really like the overall aesthetic.  

Thank you! I worked hard to achieve an overall pleasing effect!

16 hours ago, Legocitycustoms said:

The Crocodile is cool. XD

Really fun to design. Still trying to get my hands on the real set though 

[gotoAndLego]

Very versatile, offers lots of way to integrate it in a town layout.

[paupadros]

On 10/6/2020 at 10:14 PM, gotoAndLego said:

Very versatile, offers lots of way to integrate it in a town layout.

Thank you. I had wanted to do a modular which was not only modular in the floors but that you could repeat indefinitely across a street. Plus, you can change the colours of the model with absolute ease.

Thanks