Some Guy With LEGO

New Roadplates & Towns?

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For anyone with a town/city already going, who is thinking of 'upgrading' to the new design roads, and who is thinking of sticking with the traditional road plates, and are traditional road plates going OOP or will both co-exist?

 

 

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Well, personally I will try to combine them. Main street with modulars and older sets with base plates will be connected to road plates. Other sets like sets from Creator 3v1 on higher plates I will try to connect to new roads. I think it will nice detach "city" and "suburb" :classic:

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they can easily be combined. if you lay your baseplates and modulars on a layer of plates (a bunch of 2x2 or 4 18x18 plates) they will be the same hight as the new baseplates. so i think a lot of people will combine them.

some people (with small city's) will switch to the new system, and they can sell their old baseplates to the people who will stick with the old baseplates (people with lage city's)

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I'm thinking about replacing my road plates with the new road system, as it would let me free up some space. However, I'm still looking for an easy way to combine the modulars with these new roads. As it stands, the roads will end up higher than the modular pavements and I want them to be at least the same height or ideally have the pavements end up a bit higher.

Currently, I'm looking at either replacing the modular baseplates with regular plates, or just placing the modulars on top of baseplates/plates. First one seems a lot of hassle with 10+ modulars, and expensive.

Edited by Gorki247

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No, I am still using my 80s style road plates and I am much more happy to use them instead to replacing the new one especially my town is so big...........

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3 hours ago, Gorki247 said:

Currently, I'm looking at either replacing the modular baseplates with regular plates, or just placing the modulars on top of baseplates/plates.

I simply put some layers of folded card under the modular baseplates to raise them a little. Works fine and cost $0!

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I’m definitely not switching. Biggest reason, it would be too expensive. I have a 6x7(32x32) area with 17 roadplates currently taking up space. I would need one pack of the new roads to equal one rod plate....then I’d have to raise up everything else in town. And I’d much rather use that money on other sets. 

I certainly hope they continue making both side by side. I only have four extra packs at the moment. They’ve been out of stock for a few weeks but that doesn’t mean they’re completely done, as many, many sets are suffering the same fate. 

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My plan is to keep using road baseplates for my city. I think that they look awesome with sidewalks expanded onto them, and the new plates seem too small. I may, however, use the plates for bridges/overpasses. I think that they will coexist. I hope so, anyway. I love those baseplates...

Stay safe,

caiman0637

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1 hour ago, Vindicare said:

I’m definitely not switching. Biggest reason, it would be too expensive. I have a 6x7(32x32) area with 17 roadplates currently taking up space. I would need one pack of the new roads to equal one rod plate....then I’d have to raise up everything else in town. And I’d much rather use that money on other sets.

Not that I expect it to impact your decision given how much you've invested in roads already… but how did you arrive at the conclusion that one pack of the new roads equals one road plate? 60304 contains four 16x16 road segments and one 8x16 crosswalk segment — in other words, an equivalent length of road to either 1 straight road and 1 T-junction or 2.25 straight roads.

Mind you, you're totally valid in not seeing any benefit in replacing the roads you've already stockpiled or modding your layout to accommodate the difference in width and thickness that the new roads have from the old ones. From what I've seen of your Flickr, you've managed to create an amazing layout without ever needing to deviate from a grid of 32x32 baseplates.

Just now, Hemlock Falls said:

Neither, I just use dark bluish grey vase plates and white/yellow tiles. Works fine for me.

This is a really lovely layout! I love that you included a median strip along your town's "main street". It really helps to create a strong focal point, much like the public square in @Vindicare's layout. I also love that you went to the effort of including color-coded road markings (yellow markings between lanes going in opposite directions and white ones between lanes going in the same direction), just like on real roads. Great work, and congrats on coming up with your own road standard tailored to the specific road features that were most important to you!

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6 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Not that I expect it to impact your decision given how much you've invested in roads already… but how did you arrive at the conclusion that one pack of the new roads equals one road plate? 60304 contains four 16x16 road segments and one 8x16 crosswalk segment — in other words, an equivalent length of road to either 1 straight road and 1 T-junction or 2.25 straight roads.

Mind you, you're totally valid in not seeing any benefit in replacing the roads you've already stockpiled or modding your layout to accommodate the difference in width and thickness that the new roads have from the old ones. From what I've seen of your Flickr, you've managed to create an amazing layout without ever needing to deviate from a grid of 32x32 baseplates.

I based it off of equally replacing one current road plate with the box of the new(4 16x16). 

I will say, they do have some great qualities. One being that I do not use the curve plates because I can’t smoothly sidewalk the inside curve & I have been hoping for a ninety degree turn plate for years. I got my wish, just in a different format. :tongue: And I do like that they’re 16x16, that way I could work around Assembly Square’s size difference. 

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11 hours ago, Vindicare said:

I based it off of equally replacing one current road plate with the box of the new(4 16x16). 

I will say, they do have some great qualities. One being that I do not use the curve plates because I can’t smoothly sidewalk the inside curve & I have been hoping for a ninety degree turn plate for years. I got my wish, just in a different format. :tongue: And I do like that they’re 16x16, that way I could work around Assembly Square’s size difference.  

Oh, interesting! I didn't realize you were thinking of making the roads themselves wider. But I definitely understand where you're coming from — that would certainly require a lot fewer changes to your layout as a whole than having to either replace the margins of the old road plates with standard plates or move all of your buildings closer together.

And I definitely understand your reasoning for not using the curve plates. They really are a real pain to work with unless you're the sort of builder who prefers to leave the studs exposed and in their base color.

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I prefer the new roads for a 3-in-1 scale display they aren't as wide as a baseplate, and allows plate-high sidebuilds easily attached like traffic lights/plants/roadworks, or small sidebuilds like a bench/playground etc.

Generally while most 3-in-1 buildings are open back anyway, those new roads are more customizable to fit onto a smaller shelf or closet display without needing a custom shelf size/depth, or actually cutting baseplates (would never do that).

Also should be fairly easy to make single-lane driveways leading to something like a drive-in/garage/parking space using those 8x16 modules.

 

Edited by TeriXeri

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1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

I prefer the new roads for a 3-in-1 scale display they aren't as wide as a baseplate, and allows plate-high sidebuilds easily attached like traffic lights/plants/roadworks, or small sidebuilds like a bench/playground etc.

Generally while most 3-in-1 buildings are open back anyway, those new roads are more customizable to fit onto a smaller shelf or closet display without needing a custom shelf size/depth, or actually cutting baseplates (would never do that).

Also should be fairly easy to make single-lane driveways leading to something like a drive-in/garage/parking space using those 8x16 modules.

True! There are also ordinary tile pieces in sizes like 6x6 and 8x16 which are already fairly effective for that purpose, but even then, these new roads make it a little easier to keep tile-based driveways like those level with the road surface. We might even start to see more sets that find unique or interesting ways to incorporate a driveway into a design. I'd love to see a set with a brick-built foundation that has a similar level of charm to the raised baseplate in https://brickset.com/sets/6416-1/Poolside-Paradise! That baseplate was one of the biggest contributors to that set's charm IMO, but needless to say, it was a pain in the butt to try and use in MOCs or integrate into larger layouts.

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I don't use road plates. You might as well just paint plywood as it's cheaper. However I have seen rumours of the old baseplate packs retiring. LEGO might just be redoing the set numbers.

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I have a rather small town at the moment and I see a ton of potential for creativity in the new system, so I will be switching. I think it is a lot more modular than the current system and the fact that it doesn't have curbs finally makes it so we don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on tiles to tile the studs on traditional plates.

For me, it will be saving money, and I think it has the potential to look absolutely amazing if done right.

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15 hours ago, Maple said:

I don't use road plates. You might as well just paint plywood as it's cheaper. However I have seen rumours of the old baseplate packs retiring. LEGO might just be redoing the set numbers.

IMG_0167

i was using painted plywood for a while, but the grey base plates just look so much better.

452F5002-917D-4D36-8829-E38414AC27C0

 

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1 minute ago, Hemlock Falls said:

i was using painted plywood for a while, but the grey base plates just look so much better.

Yeah and the grey baseplates are the best bang for your buck. I got two from Walmart a couple months ago for like $16.50. But I still don't have the money for that. (Walmart only allowed one bundle). I do like how your roads look like even with the studs.

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I don’t mind the studs, it’s Lego.

i spent about a year and a half tacking on a grey baseplate or two to my BrickLink orders if the store had them cheap. And now I’m happy with it and glad I did. 
I had a plan at one point using the black minifigs stands to “pave” the roads, but I would need about 200 times as many as I have to do the whole city.

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2 hours ago, Hemlock Falls said:

I don’t mind the studs, it’s Lego.

i spent about a year and a half tacking on a grey baseplate or two to my BrickLink orders if the store had them cheap. And now I’m happy with it and glad I did. 
I had a plan at one point using the black minifigs stands to “pave” the roads, but I would need about 200 times as many as I have to do the whole city. 

Discussions about what color is optimal for LEGO roads could be a whole separate point of discussion! I myself am quite fond of representing asphalt roads using Dark Stone Grey, which is also conveniently the color LEGO has been using for roads in the City theme for the past decade and a half. I like that by making roads in this color, you're free to use Medium Stone Grey for lighter-colored materials like concrete curbs and cinder blocks, and Black for darker-colored materials like rubber tires or wrought-iron fences.

You do lose some of that contrast with sets like the Modular Buildings since they tile so much of their sidewalks/pavements in Dark Stone Grey, but honestly your use of studded road surfaces ends up helping to restore that lost contrast by making the road surface appear much coarser than the more pedestrian-friendly paving stones on either side!

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