[MOC] Victorian Cottage

[Elysiumfountain]

I haven't built a MOC in quite a while, been a bit busy with work and everything else. And the inspiration doesn't come as often as it used to when I was younger. But this January I decided to sit down and build a really cool MOC for a contest. And I thought, I enjoy Victorian architecture a lot, why don't I build a Victorian cottage? (I mean, technically it's a house but cottage sounds a bit more charming).

 

 

 

 

This was a really interesting model for me to design. I actually started with the balcony and the tower, and then built downwards from there until I reached the baseplate. From there, (because it was all in one step in the stud.io file at that point), I ended up separating the entire model piece by piece, and building it again from the ground up! I am definitely the type of builder who will build everything at once and organically flow into a completed model. Only to find it is in one big step with no indication of how I got there. Wasn't going to fly for the contest, since we needed to build instructions. 

When I started building, because it was actually going to have more of a rectangular shape with a porch in front of the tower, I made one of the gable ends longer. But that really made the roof angles wonky. So instead, I decided to make it more or less the same on either side, which worked out in regards to the gable ends. The shell design over the windows on the tower went through several iterations before I found the one I liked. 

 

 

To add further complication, the whole model was then split into three parts, built again from the ground up, and instructions were made for those three parts. There were a few part problems to work out along the way, this step was incredibly helpful. The submodels were then reincorporated back into the final model with an accompanying 628 page instruction component. And of course part problems cropped up everywhere which meant the instructions had to be formatted again a whopping three times! What a journey! I think I definitely know the model inside and out by now. 

 

 

The most challenging part for me was working on the roofs. I am definitely not the best at coming up with angles and figuring out how to make those work, it definitely took a lot of time and a lot of trial and error. 

There was also a hilarious mishap at one point realizing that the detailed, hinged roof that I intended to be able to open and close would not open at all, and instead it just crashed into the porch roof. Which prompted a redesign to a more doll-house open wall style build. 

 

 

Oh, and there's no toilet. Which is a bit of an inconvenience for whichever minifigs end up buying this house, but it's nothing a little redecorating can't solve. 

The furniture was pretty fun to create too. I'm not the best at coming up with fantastic unseen-before techniques, so a lot of it more basic.

It was a great experience to be able to build this model. The idea was rather spontaneous, and I settled on the Victorian house theme because I've always loved Victorian architecture. I especially loved the Monster Fighter's Haunted House, and I wanted to create something that had somewhat close to the accessibility of a dollhouse while still having the stability and bulk to be a stand-alone display model. There was quite a bit of trial and error on the trim, some of the pieces clashed in ways that the program wouldn't detect until it was too late. But overall, I'm very satisfied with how the build turned out!

 

 

This MOC I've currently entered into the Bricklink BDP Series 1 contest that's currently ongoing, and it has just entered the voting phase. If you like this model and think it would be a great set someday, I'd encourage you to vote for it here: 

 

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-1/212/Victorian-Cottage

 

Thank you for reading! :) 

 

 

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Elysiumfountain
Photos had the wrong embedding.

[A_Forest_of_Lego]

It's beautiful, I love the design!

[Elysiumfountain]

@A_Forest_of_Lego Thank you so much! :) 

[The Undo]

I voted I love it.

The overall design is captivating, the facade details are amazingly done and I love that there's so much little details in the interior.

It's a beautiful build!

[Elysiumfountain]

@omerai Thank you so much! There were definitely a few times I had to figure out different facade decorations when things I thought were great turned out to be full of collisions lol. Overall though it was a great process to go through. Especially since I am really bad at angled roofs, those are tricky! 

[peedeejay]

Lovely building. Great details all around!