Queen Elizabeth II and the Gold State Coach

[Brickadier General]

Because of work and school, I do not have a lot of time to build. Between semesters, I had a two week break to build, and this carriage was the product of that vacation. It is a minifig-scale representation of the Gold State Coach. The real one was built in England in 1762 as the ultimate ride for the Royal Family and has been used in every coronation ceremony since King George III. It has also been used for special events like royal weddings. The real carriage is beautifully ornate and gilt in gold. It's so heavy that it takes a team of eight horses to pull it!

I was inspired to build this model after seeing the carousel horses in set 10235, Winter Village Market. They reminded me of the horses pulling the royal carriage. From the beginning, I wanted to build the carriage out of pearl gold and metallic gold parts. This created a big challenge because pearl gold is usually only used as an accent color in sets. As far as I know, basic bricks and plates are not available in pearl gold. A few years back, Sir Nadroj proved pearl gold could make for a stunning carriage with his "Bavarian Autumn." Since then, the number of parts in pearl gold has expanded to include the wagon wheels, minifigures, etc. The build was definitely not easy, but it was fun to see how a limited range of parts could be configured to make something recognizable.

Questions, comments and criticism are welcome. For those who are interested in this project, it is on Lego CUUSOO via the following link:

http://lego.cuusoo.c...deas/view/52291

More pictures can be found via my flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29934333@N02/sets/72157637177950964/with/10602636545/

This build is intended to represent the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. She is represented by the minifig in the front. I chose this period because I used to collect toy soldiers, and one of my favorite toy soldier sets was the Britains coronation carriage released in 1953.

Here is a side view of the carriage.

Here is a rear-view image of the carriage. The rubber-bands on the wagon wheels are a nod to Sir Nadroj. They also give the wheels some traction!

Instead of using the new carousel horses, I used rubber bands and gold coins to cover the horses heads. Pearl gold clips and rings from Lord of the Rings sets helped for decorating the horses even further.

There are four Tritons (mermen) on the carriage in real-life. Fortunately, the Atlantis sets offered up the appropriate minifigure. For the Tritons in the front, the pearl gold cobra and axe-head are designed to serve as their tails. Lego doesn't make pearl gold hair, so I had to paint some. The top of the carriage features micro-minifigs, used to represent the cherubim on top of the real carriage (though the real carriage only has 3, not 4).

The interior of the carriage features dark red plates to represent velvet, and it can seat one minifigure. The four ornate corners of the carriage were built using Prince of Persia helmets, pauldrons and crowns.

The Tritons on the back feature "angel wings," and the bottom portion of their bodies was built using a scorpion and robot arm and 2 teeth for the tail.

If you would like to learn more about the real Gold State Coach, there is an excellent video on

.

Thanks for taking a look, and happy building!

[lightningtiger]

Fantastic carriage design you have there 'BG', good luck on Cuusoo too.

Brick On 'BG' !

[L@go]

Knowing what sort of limitations you've had to deal with when building in pearl gold, this is nothing short of astonishing. I'm awestruck. A master build.

[brickie]

"Rule Britannia; Britannia rules the waves"

You have had me up marching around the room at such an impressive show of pomp and majesty.

A brilliant build.

BG, I salute you.

[eurotrash]

Very fine indeed! Excellent use of parts to create the effects. I think you should give up school and build more....

Thanks for sharing it with us!

[timmyc1983]

Wow, wonderful building! That must have given you many headaches trying to find the right pieces in pearl gold to make your carriage. It looks fantastic though! You should be proud.

Fantastic work and happy building

[Brickadier General]

Thanks for your kind words everyone.

Very fine indeed! Excellent use of parts to create the effects. I think you should give up school and build more....

Thanks for sharing it with us!

Thanks! That would be a dream come true. If only it were that easy...

Wow, wonderful building! That must have given you many headaches trying to find the right pieces in pearl gold to make your carriage. It looks fantastic though! You should be proud.

Fantastic work and happy building

Thank you! There were many BrickLink orders which were used in this build. In the beginning, I wasn't sure how the carriage would be built, so I bought lots of different parts in pearl gold in case they might come in handy. Now there is a small box of extra pearl gold parts.

One thing that help during this build was prototyping. In the beginning, I used some non pearl gold parts in the build, so long as they definitely came in pearl gold. This allowed me to get the desired shape of the carriage while still waiting for BrickLink orders. It also served as a means for determining what other parts might be needed.

[Csacsa234]

*oh2* *oh2* *oh2* *oh2* That is the most beautiful thing I've seen made of lego, really jawdropping moc, congrats! Edited November 3, 2013 by Csacsa234

[Redhead1982]

Although at first sight, it doesn't look as something to be described in superlatives, upon a closer and thorough inspection, it reveals its specialty. I was surprised to see so many pearl gold bricks, not to mention a whole carriage. It looks very impressive, and cleverly designed. As a whole, I like the ''length'' of the MOC, with lines of horses. The ornaments on the horses' straps work nicely. Also, eye guards are a fantastic details. Well done.

[kermit]

Wow. Amazing build. That carriage is stunning.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

That is an excellent piece! Fantastic detail, I really like the use of coins for blinders. The chrome-gold really stands out

[Hoexbroe]

Excellent build!!!

Very inspiring: One could do "royal", "celebrity" or "wedding" carriages even for modern CITY layouts.

[rriggs]

The coach itself looks great and I love the ingenious way you have used some of the pieces to create the details.

My only criticism is that the horses are too small for the scale of the coach. You either need to make the coach smaller (hard) or otherwise maybe look at putting together some brick built horses which are a bit bigger than minifig horse s.

Cheers

Rog

[Brickadier General]

Thanks everyone.

That is an excellent piece! Fantastic detail, I really like the use of coins for blinders. The chrome-gold really stands out

Thanks. I remembered some past MOCs which used coins as blinders, and they do work well. Getting them to hold under the rubber-band is sometimes tricky.

The coach itself looks great and I love the ingenious way you have used some of the pieces to create the details.

My only criticism is that the horses are too small for the scale of the coach. You either need to make the coach smaller (hard) or otherwise maybe look at putting together some brick built horses which are a bit bigger than minifig horse s.

Cheers

Rog

Rog, thank you for your input. I can definitely see what you mean. The carriage sits considerably higher than the horses. Lowering the body would seem the ideal solution and possibly using smaller wheels and painting them gold. I do like your idea of using brick-built horses. Those might allow for more detail. Have you seen Tanotrooper's horses? http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43479&pid=763969&st=0entry763969 They are pretty nice!