Bricklinking Modular Buildings

[goldengraham09]

I Bricklinked the Town hall, Im just about getting the last parts hopefully next week delivered.

As this was my first time ordering everything off of bricklink, i think i will leave a project like this for a while, concentrate on some custom things first and then properly organise a way to order things more efficiently.

the time i would go from the most expensive plus the highest qty first then work my way down and get all the lower things last.

i also changed the colour of my town hall so i saved a little bit more.

i think the next project in time would be either Green Grocer or Market Square after i have bought all the other modulars that are in stores. some saving to do for the next 4-5 months for me haha.

[Wodanis]

According to Lego Customer Service, there is no limit on the number of lots/elements you can order, but there is a 200 piece limit per lot/element (if you require more than 200 there is a form for a bulk order that needs to be filled out prior to the order). However it seems that people on here have been only able to order a total of 80 lots...I'm not sure if that's a browser/website issue or what exactly.

There is an upward threshold that orders containing more than 80 different types of parts the system would kick it out. I think the problem has been addressed though with TLG. A shortcut that was mentioned is true, to email the list of parts you want for an estimate and can make purchase without the system giving issues. TLG recently made changes to who and how much one can order through bulk. There is no price discount for purchasing in bulk unless you belong to an LUG and they do a bulk order as part of the LEGO Bulk programme.

[BlockLogo]

The instructions that are available online for modulars are pretty impossible to read for a colorblind fellow like me...

[Aegis1984]

The instructions that are available online for modulars are pretty impossible to read for a colorblind fellow like me...

I'll agree with you there. When I BL'd my Cafe Corner, I tried printing the PDF and that was just a waste of ink! I had to up the brightness on my monitor because the brown bricks blended in with the black and the bley too much, and one couldn't differentiate between the bricks as it looked like a gob of black on paper... And I have good eyesight!

[BlockLogo]

All right, my Green Grocer is done. Pretty happy with it overall, and with the substitutions I made, like masonry instead of grooved bricks, and 1x4 and 1x2 sand green bricks instead of 1x8s, to name a few. I'd like to flesh out the interior a little, maybe move TBBT in there, or expand one of the seasonal vignettes to go inside, and maybe update the store part with printed milk and OJ pieces and such, and adding some more little builds inspired by the Quick E Mart set, but those will be tiny side projects.

Not sure what to do next, but it needs to be a smaller/cheaper project than the Green Grocer. I'll wait on the Cafe Corner, but might start getting a few lots of essential parts along with orders for my next project.

I'm thinking Market Street, but just the one half with the actual residence, maybe with an extra floor. I really like the look of the building and it might be a good blueprint for more residential buildings in the same style but different colors.

I'm also considering Emmet's apartment from the Assembling Bricksburg thread, since it's larger than the Town Hall but might come out cheaper for me, or just extra floors for the Green Grocer and for the townhouses from the Pet Shop set, or a different color townhouse. I feel like MOC-ing something but have a lot to learn still, so I'm trying to modify some stuff I already have. Thoughts?

Edited March 29, 2016 by BlockLogo

[Chubbs]

Has anyone done the Townhouse in alternate colours? Blue? Pink? Purple? And have pictures of said build?

[BlockLogo]

There are some in alternate colors in the assembling bricksburg thread, yes.

[Sven F]

I'm finally done with the Grocer. subbed 1x8's for 1x4's and grooves for masonry.

If grooves ever make a comeback, i'll replace them.

If you are using masonry bricks, and you don't want a ghastly 1-brick wide untextured gap on the left end, you will have to modify the build slightly and use 57 of the 1x2 masonry bricks for the fascade, versus the 48 or so used with the grooves.

[BlockLogo]

If you are using masonry bricks, and you don't want a ghastly 1-brick wide untextured gap on the left end, you will have to modify the build slightly and use 57 of the 1x2 masonry bricks for the fascade, versus the 48 or so used with the grooves.

I have dat gap on the left end. I'll have to fix it. I hope I have enough masonry brick left over. How exactly did you do that? I don't have the build in front of me, so I can look at now. Maybe it will be pretty obvious...

Also, I substituted the blue arches for the awning for medium blue. Seemed silly to pay $2 for those, even if the blue looks a little better...

[Bizmarck]

Hello All,

I just finished the interior and got the food for the outside so I thought I would post a few more picks here of the finished product.

Here it is in overall, think it fits in quite nicely with the other buildings and you can see what it looks like with all the food in place etc.

Here we have the first floor

Here is the the second floor, note no walls for the bathroom as I wanted better access to play for my son, who dose not care about walls in any case ^^

And there you go, very happy the way it came out, worth the effort to get in my view.

[muffluvin]

Need your opinions. I am planning to build Cafe Corner, will be trying to use the bricks in my bulk lot which are mostly in the shades of gray.

Which facade is better?

This one uses a lot of the "gold bullion" from the Brick Bank.

This one uses the "BRICK" bricks.

I am not the creative type, just good at following instructions. So please forgive the lack of pizazz on these.

[Boettner Builds]

I like it with the "gold bullion". It gives the wall more depth. I do love me some "brick" bricks, but the added depth looks better, at least to me :)

[BlockLogo]

If you're gonna use the masonry bricks, it would look better if you set the windows back half a stud with jumpers, like in the more recent modulars. It will create a little more movement and depth and make the facade less flat. You'd basically achieve the same effect as with the bullion tiles but with less pieces. I really don't like the idea of covering a whole building's facade with a bunch of tiles or other pieces. It can look really great, but it's not very economical...

[BlockLogo]

I'm bricklinking the house of Market Street at the moment, with an extra floor and some other modifications and substitutions. I was able to get everything with 5 orders (if all goes well and none of the sellers has any inventory mistakes) except the droid arms and hoses to make the balcony, as the latter are stupid expensive. Has anyone bricklinked the Market Street and found a passable solution or substitution for this?

I'm leaning towards using this piece in white

[TheLegoDr]

Keep in mind with offsetting the windows back a half-step with jumper plates, the window arch won't line up with the window top now. So you'd need to make it offset a full brick deep to justify that change.

As for the look, I think the gold bullion looks better since it already creates depth. do you actually have that many of the bullion piece? Or are you taking it from the Brick Bank? You mentioned trying to do it from your own supply, is the reason I ask.

As for Market Street, I've seen a few people in this very topic show pictures of the fence piece instead of the hose set up. It seems to work okay, but it depends on how you line it up. If you just use the one (like Town Hall), then it might work just fine for shaping. If you use two, then it becomes a bid deeper than you may want. But it would make it more round out front, so depends on the look you are going for.

[BlockLogo]

That's a good point about the arches, and it pretty much negates what I said...

[BlockLogo]

I just finished building my brick linked modified market street. I just did the house, not the market part, added a floor, and substituted the grille bricks for masonry bricks, the 5 high doors for 6 high door frames, and the hoses with fence pieces. The latter is very fragile but I really like the way it turned out, especially the extra floor. Now I wanna add floors to the green grocer, pet shop, and townhouse.

I also built on 2 regular 16x16 plates rather than a 16x32 baseplate in order to start brick building streets in dark grey. If I like the way that turns out I will start the long process of swapping out the baseplates of the rest of my modulars...

[simon74]

Hi everybody,

I really got inspired by this thread and everybody contributing to it!

Thanks so much! :-)

I have placed my orders with EU and US vendors for GG (sand blue) and CC via BrickLink, BrickOwl and B&P (I have bricklinked also 3 copies of the AT-ST in The Battle of Endor 8038).

I'll wait until I have everything to start building.

If anybody interested I can share my process, the cost (I took very detailed accounting, currency EUR) and pictures once I am done.

Here is my question: what would be the less painful way to build a list of pieces for the first floor (bags numbered as 1) of GG?

I am asking since building the list of pieces for the AT-ST only out of the 8038 was time consuming.

Thanks!

Edited June 19, 2016 by simon74

[Wesley D]

Hello!

Here is my attempt to recreate a Cafe Corner.

There are some modifications:

- I have replaced all the dark blue bricks by dark stone grey bricks.

- Using 1x4x6 doors instead of the original type of doors made it necessary to change the structure a little to make them fit.

- Some 2x2 turntables were replaced by light stone grey 2x2 tiles with 1 stud, to make the colours fit.

- My building doesn't have the door on the side, all 3 1x4x6 windows are on the same level.

I hope you like it.

[PriorMarcus]

Beautiful substitions. Is it possible to get a cost estimate and a parts list?

[Wesley D]

Thanks!

It has costed me over 300 euro. I collected my parts mostly from Bricks & Pieces and Pick A Brick.

I have a .lxf file that I did open with a program called BrickHelper (found on these fora) to make a parts list, but I can't copy or print lists in that program.

 

Edited October 16, 2016 by Wesley D
reached attachment limit

[Dazz]

Hello!

Here is my attempt to recreate a Cafe Corner.

There are some modifications:

- I have replaced all the dark blue bricks by dark stone grey bricks.

- Using 1x4x6 doors instead of the original type of doors made it necessary to change the structure a little to make them fit.

- Some 2x2 turntables were replaced by light stone grey 2x2 tiles with 1 stud, to make the colours fit.

- My building doesn't have the door on the side, all 3 1x4x6 windows are on the same level.

I hope you like it.

Thanks for sharing your version. In my opinion, it looks great. I'll probably make similar substitutions when I'll bricklink the CC at some point.

[Captain Pirate Man]

How cheaply could the TH be bricklinks for? Has anyone done this?

[Chubbs]

How cheaply could the TH be bricklinks for? Has anyone done this?

For all new pieces - you'll be in the $500 - $600 US range I would guess as the part out value according to the Bricklink is $660 average.

[TheLegoDr]

Looking at currently available sets used complete ~$450 to sealed complete $499. Part out value for currently listed new prices $742.54 (including instructions/box ~$120). I'd suggest buying a copy unless you had a lot of the pieces already.