Bricklinking Modular Buildings

[talos]

I tried to take a few photos of my progress on a Cafe Corner. I am pretty happy with the results. I did make substitutions due to cost/availability, and also to modernize the build with the currently available parts. I am calling it "La porte café rouge" :-), since I went with red doors for the Cafe and the hotel entrance. I put together an interior, using what I have in my collection, and it looks pretty good. I used some of the new Elves fence pieces in pearl gold for around the kitchen area of the cafe. I also added a back door, where the trash cans now reside. Also on the exterior, besides the red doors, I used an alternating color scheme of light and dark bluish gray skis for the fan above the door. Also, to contrast with the reddish brown roof, I used dark brown for the cornice line. Otherwise, it would of been all reddish brown and that would look too monotone. Everything else is as spec for a factory model. Oh, I also added the edge to the two awnings, to make it similar to the way the GG awning is done. I think it looks less monolithic with that detail added. Hope you like it as much as I do. Still to do is the hotel interiors, I am thinking rooms on the 1st (2nd level) and maybe a billiard room on the 2nd (3rd level)...using the design from the Detective's Office modular. Still trying to decide...

[Hobbythom]

Great interior. I really like the color of the floor.

[talos]

Thanks, it's the azur blue and light bluish gray. I was going to use the med blue like in the back wall, but felt the lighter blue was better.

[Lego Conductor]

talos,

Love your Cafe Corner. I've also updated the windows on the second floor. Don't really have the budget for the interior but do have plans to incorporate the future Big Bang Theory Ideas set into somehow. The only other area I've changed from the original is the two yellow tables out front. Once set is done I will post some pictures. Have started the build and had to stop as I miss ordering some of the parts. Checking the mailbox daily for said parts!!!

[ReplicaOfLife]

When I BLed my Café Corner, I did an interior for the ground floor aswell. I had planned ahead without use of LDD or anything, and ordered a couple of bricks I needed for it. It was fun :)

[talos]

I've gotten a large portion of my parts from a Simpson's House set I parted out. Its one of the few sets that have a ton of actual bricks, plates and tiles that can be very useful.

The windows are a great improvement, not having holes in the wall! Haha. Only have to modify the way the angled window units are assembled to make it work and not fall apart. They do run parallel to the wall instead of the original perpendicular to the wall.

[talos]

Can someone tell me why there are viking snakes in the entrance of the GG? I can't remember ever seen a real GG with snakes in the entrance :)

I replaced them with wood tiles. and Yes, because of the piece of 3.50 a piece.

I think it was just an available decorative piece at the time it originally came out, no particular significance.

[NgRO]

i'm almost of 500 pieces for complete the cafe corner! :D

[Wookiee]

I have started acquiring my modified sand green groove bricks. They are getting ridiculous in price. The fact bricks for Chris has over 3000 at a price is forcing the price up to that level. 8 more to go thank god then everything else is reasonable pretty much.

[Wookiee]

your lucky. i had to go for the blue groove bricks. I would need to pay about 170 euro's for these bricks alone. Which was the price of the set when retails being sold. I just hope a new set will be released with 150x pieces of sand green groove bricks.

Not that lucky. I think that they will cost me about 130 euro by the end of it but i thought better to get now before they get more expensive. I thought about the blue as an option but in the end decided on the green. I probably won't acquire the rest of the bits until later in the year but have got all the sand green bricks pretty much which seems to be the expensive bit.

[Lego Conductor]

Just about finished with the Cafe Corner. Did some slight mods from the original:

First I changed the tables out front

Tables by legoconductor, on Flickr

I also switched to the 2x3 windows and doubled them up. The window panes & lattice are set in the middle to give some depth

Windows by legoconductor, on Flickr

Also moved the roof railings to the edge

Roof Railing by legoconductor, on Flickr

Lastly still missed ordering a few pieces for the awnings

Awnings by legoconductor, on Flickr

Very happy to have done this project. I now feel like I own all the Modulars. I don't have Market Street and I don't feel I need it to complete my collection. Last order for the final pieces was shipped yesterday so it will be a 100% done soon. This is the second Modular I've Bricklinked and its cheaper than buying a set of eBay (for the most part). Also a lot more fun!

[vespagt66]

Hi everyone, I started bricklinking the GG but I chose to swap the 1x2 bricks with centre groove with the ones with brick pattern as the original ones in sand green are ridiculously overpriced.

Hope to share the completed building very soon.

[Sammael]

Ok, so I substituted the 20 white panels for 20 windows (10 with glass, 10 without). I also dug up some more bricks from my loose parts collection, so I am now down to just 38 pieces missing to complete CC. Is there a particular reason why I need to hunt down type 1 black door frames, or can I sub type 2?

Oh, and I recently acquired a 99% complete loose Green Grocer for 400 EUR, so that saved me a lot of time and trouble. There are a couple of yellowed pieces I need to replace, but nothing major. Once CC is complete, I'll finally have a full modular building line and I can focus on building my own modulars.

[Lego Conductor]

Sammael,

I order the black door frames from the BnP section of the Lego website. As of this post they are still available for purchase. To be honest I'm not even sure what the difference is between types 1 & 2.

[vespagt66]

That's a great idee vespagt66! I'm assuming your referring to this one:

That's exactly what I was refering to but I did not have the correct part ID name (masonry)

[stevkir]

I recently finished my Bricklink, PaB and what I could dig out of my own collection build of the Green Grocer. I have a video of all the modulars I currently own in my signature and I say a few things I modified to the GG in that video. There are a few things not mentioned like putting in actual windows 2x1x3 with pains into the bay windows, 1x6 and 1x2 Sand Green in place of the 1x8s and a couple hidden parts that I thought didn't really mater if they didn't match the right color like the hinge parts under the crates.

[talos]

Lego Conductor,

I ordered them too from the BnP section, but i assumed Lego will ship type 2 also. We wil see. Not sure that the difference is.

Type 1 has hinge pin holes on both front and back, and type 2 has pin holes only on one side. BL has a photo comparing them side by side. Here is a screen capture showing the difference.

[Lego Conductor]

Anyone got an alternative build for this turntable base? It's pretty expensive and a good color is essential for the entrance.

I believe you can get the base for the turntable cheaper if you go for the old light gray instead of newer light bluish gray. Shouldn't be to noticeable.

[Kryne]

Does it connect to any other peices there? or is that the only connection?

[Speedboat]

What about just using this piece instead of the turntable?

That should work just as fine in that spot.

[ronenson]

Anyone got an alternative build for this turntable base? It's pretty expensive and a good color is essential for the entrance.

Simply use a 2x2 jumper plate, works for 3 out of the 4 turntables

EDIT: Missed the previous post, that's exactly what I meant

Edited April 23, 2015 by ronenson

[vespagt66]

Just a stupid question regarding GG, where do the 2x2 dark green brick go? which step are they featured on? thanks in advance

[vidarf]

A couple of them can be found in the green band on the wall in the first floor. One to the left of the door if memory serves me right.

[staticblue]

Hi All,

I am Leonard, AFOL from the Philippines. I just registered into this forum to say thank you for all the tips written in here. Like most others, I came out of my dark side too late, just enough to snag the GE before retirement. Before reading this thread, I can only dream of owning the Cafe Corner someday. After reading all the helpful posts here, I became inspired to start bricklinking Cafe Corner from scratch. and lo and behold, just 4 hours after reading all the posts, and placing my first order of parts... I have completed all my orders to a tune of around $460 USD (orders still in process). Most of the parts are new from sellers in the US, unless new items are not available. The only substitutions I made are:

Black Door Frame 1 x 4 x 6 Type 1 changed to Type 2

White Panel 1 x 2 x 3 - Hollow Studs changed to the reinforced type

White Window 2 x 4 x 3 Frame changed to the hollow studs type

White Window 2 x 4 x 3 Pane changed to compatible window panes (modern)

The rest of the more expensive parts, I bit the bullet and went ahead with the exact items (black front door, LBG side door, dark blue arches, dark red slopes, lbg turntables etc). I also went and purchased minifig parts. The medium blue one was crazy expensive.

I did not use any tool or spreadsheets to compare and reduce costs. Just old fashioned multiple tabs in browser comparing items at checkout per store. Total of 15 orders.

All in all, I estimate total cost around $500 including shipping to my freight forwarder in the US, and another +$100 USD to ship to the Philippines by air mail. Excited to do the build now and see it in person. Thanks again all for this resourceful thread.

Edited April 24, 2015 by staticblue

[vespagt66]

A couple of them can be found in the green band on the wall in the first floor. One to the left of the door if memory serves me right.

thank you,but I found out that they were supporting the top of the roof, instead of these 3 I used 3 white ones as they are hidden it doesn't make a big difference