Winter Village: Lumber Yard

[oo7]

The excellent recent entries to the Winter Village competition have motivated me to finish up my own submission before having to leave my Lego behind me for some weeks. As for my original inspiration, I really liked that this year’s cottage set strayed further from the main street and into the back roads of the Winter Village. My entry expands upon on the handicraft theme of its wood shed and small workshop, embracing a "rural industry" motif for which I have everlasting affection! Now since the winter cottage residents seem to cut their own timber, this lumber yard doesn’t sell firewood or Christmas trees like some do, but it does supply the local toymaker with materials for assembling those model planes and boats as well as contractors with construction supplies for building new Winter Village establishments.

I based the specifications and basic characteristics of this model primarily on the cottage, including minifigure count/demographics (I have an 8:3 male to female ratio and a 1:4 child to adult ratio) and layout (the shop stands in for the cottage itself, the covered cantilever rack for the shed, and the radial saw with the generator for the igloo while the forklift stands in for the plow truck and the snow blower for the sled). As a pleasing seasonal element included in all four Winter Village sets to date, I decided to build the holiday lamppost in a style mimicking the prefab part which I don't own in black. While the earlier two of the four models opted for a less complex, brick-built solution for the bottom of the post instead of the prefab part, the very first went for a contrastingly more inventive upside-down construction for the lanterns which I have attempted to parallel.

Beneath the lamppost, two kinds of propane tank are stored in a cabinet cage under international hazardous substance labeling. One is a utility variety used for the forklift, and the other is a consumer variety like those used for barbecue grills, which are not as popular in the winter, but also for portable heaters, stoves and generators like the one powering the saw (with the "gas tank" colored green to symbolize that it runs on cleaner burning propane). Two gas cylinders containing less flammable carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas are chained upright to the facade (the red hand truck stands by for their transport) and a garland of holly crowns the window with a custom decal that reads “HARDWARE” and dipicts a menorah popularly displayed from behind the glass for the larger holiday season.

Inside the shop, snow shovels are stocked in a bin at the entrance due to popular demand. Bags and buckets of salt and sand are also available behind the counter, along with typical hardware store items. The counter’s glass display case houses a cordless drill and carrying case, the perfect holiday gift for any handyman or -woman!

I decided against using a light brick here as I thought the shop should be heated by an old radiator rather than an open hearth, and I didn’t want to install one under the roof like in the Winter Village Post Office due to the awkwardness of holding the switch in to keep it lit. I have however incorporated great playability potential into the lumber yard provided by the adjustable height feature of the cantilever shelf which elevates lumber underneath the roof (and locks in place by the action of the elastic band pin system) for its protection from winter precipitation and allows the forklift to access a supply pallet nested underneath.

Finally, once the lumber pallet is taken down, individual boards can also be fed into the lumber saw vise using the spinning rollers as gramps here demonstrates. Closing remarks: credit to MOCpages user A Taylor for the gas cylinder design and acknowledgements to Mike "Count Blockula" Crowley for radiator inspiration. That's all folks, thanks for looking!

[-zenn]

Like that snowblower, but most of all I'm loving the radiator design; straightforward + instantly recognisable.

[scottwb2010]

What a fantastic entry oo7. The radiator looks great and the snowblower is cool. Liking everything about this as there is so much going on. Good luck with this entry.

[lightningtiger]

Well there's my idea toasted......oh, well excellent work 'oo7'.....cool snow blower and neat little hardware store......dam, I was going to try and a last minute entry.

Good luck and Brick On 'oo7' !

[L@go]

This is really nice - tons of great little details here. Another superb entry, and one that stands out a bit from the others. It's an unusual and different idea. I like it!

[genecyst]

this should be produced as an official lego set. amazing details and perfectly in line with the other sets as dimensions and style of building. Love it.

[tatertots]

What a great build! I love it!! Once of the best forklifts I've seen yet.

Edited January 21, 2013 by tatertots

[-obelix-]

Very nice build. Love the simple and effective snow on the rooftops and of course, the snow blower.

[TheLegoDr]

Neat build. I like the snow melting on the roof. I also like the radiator of course. How similar is that to the one in the Green Grocer?

Good luck with your entry!

[niteangel]

I love the way you use the chair to make the car wheel cover! :D Wonderful details in other parts of the creation!

[Vincent Kessels]

That's a great entry for the Winter Village contest!

[TooMuchCaffeine]

The snow on the roofs looks fantastic, and lots of other nice details. Great stuff.

[JopieK]

very nice job! Also the snow pattern etc.

[vecchiasignoraceppo]

this set is WONDERFUL.

the best i saw.

it has a real lego-style and it seems very funny to play with!!

and the interior is great.

[Kristel]

This is great looking build, with a lot of attention to detail. I really like the cherry/plume trim on the shop front and how you have done the shelving behind the counter.

[gazumpty]

This is my favourite entry so far...great work oo7

[soccerkid6]

Looks very realistic Every detail is well thought out and very impressive Good luck in the voting

[LegoMyMamma]

Every village needs lumber! My favorite part is the planer

Best of luck!

[Priovit70]

Awesome entry! Lots of great detail everywhere! My favorite are the shop interior with all those shelves and the planer... and almost forgot, the forklift is jaw-dropping!

Good luck in the contest!!

[sonicstarlight]

Really clever. All the different parts come together to make a great whole. The snow on the roof is quite well done - that and the radiator are my favorite details. Good luck!

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Top job on this build oo7! I really like all the details you built in and outside of this yard. I especially like the snow blower. I'm very interested on how you built that

[Venunder]

There are some really good features in this MOC. I'll be using some of them in my own builds for sure.

[oirad 72]

Congrats! Awesone good luck with the contest!

[Wedge09]

Awesome, great work :thumbup: I love this MOC

[badboytje88]

Although I really really like this and it is really well built, I'd have to say I do not think it goes along with the other Winter Village sets at all. It's way to industrial while the official sets are cute and colorful.