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Hi all, I have followed quite a few of these projects on EB and it's about time I began one of my own. Having come out of my dark ages a couple years ago I missed out on the first few of the modular series, namely CC, MS and GG. I have long thought about trying to acquire these via bricklink and PAB and so have decided to begin with GG which is currently selling for around $600. I will only be using new parts and will not be breaking up any of my current collection. Since I am trying to do this cost effectively, my first task is to determine whether I should buy specific parts from BL or PAB. Over the last day and a half I have compiled a spreadsheet and have populated everything that is currently available from PAB and the cost of those items. I also added a column to track elements that I already own, unfortunately given my decision not to pilfer any other sets in my collection this is only 17 elements. So, of the 311 unique elements in this set about 200 are available from PAB - though many are not cheap. Total cost if I were to buy all of them would be $261.55 not including tax or shipping (seems free at the moment anyways). Most of these items are common and all of the sand-green, dark red and earth green elements are not available via PAB. Next phase will be to cost out each element on BL - I am not exactly looking forward to this part!

After reading the latest talk here I sent an email to a buddy of mine up north who is the GM of a Lego Store. I have all of the modulars except for the TH at this point and I know I would be kicking myself if I ended up paying over retail for it so I wrote that I felt the end was near and wanted to pull the trigger sooner rather than later. I asked him give me a heads up if he had one on the shelves that he would be willing to ship to me. He told me that he would be getting 2 of them into his shop in a week or two and that I could have one of them no problem. 2 things I would point out; 1 - I know his store very well and they had tons of TH's on the shelves ( like most brand stores I am sure ) through the beginning of this summer 2 - The most important shopping weekend of the year for this store is coming up in about a month, and if they had inventory of 2 year old $200 sets they would be doing everything they could to get them sold and out of the way.

Wow! I have been crazy busy for months - too busy for much Lego unfortunately I popped in to see if the next modular was announced and saw that this thread still has life - a lot of life! Cool to see so many others bitten by the bug, I will have to catch up when I have the time. Heya Wodanis!

I see that this topic has sprung back to life while I was out of town, nice to see some new people taking the plunge My MS LDD file does not contain all of the mods that I ended up making to it and is also missing the upper two floors, I would be happy to share the files for both CC and MS, if someone could explain how I can attach them in a post

I love your design, have you thought of tiling the floors instead of using plates? That first floor cafe is spectacular! Is there any chance you could post some pics of it built?

Very nice work! I really like your furniture. I plan on building out the upper interiors for my GG at some point, though the thought of sourcing more sand green for interior walls gives me pause. I also really like your inclusion of a bathroom, it seems rare to have in most modulars. Most people's cities must have a ton of outhouses

Rumors were flying the during graduation ceremonies at the Imperial Military Academy, word was the rebel base had finally been located and a major assault was only days away. We all assumed we would get our first taste of battle during this coming campaign, and we were hungry for it... When our orders came down, the disappointment was clearly etched on the face of every trooper in my squad. We were held in reserve and would stay with the fleet above Hoth unless we were called upon. The battle turned quickly into a rout and with the rebels scattering we finally received our orders... We were being sent to Tatooine to search for any rebels who may have fled into hiding there. It was not the glamorous assignment that we had envisioned, but at least we wouldn't freeze to death... We dropped into an area known as the Jundland Wastes and began our scan... 3 days went by and our search had yielded nothing. Perhaps we had become comfortable with the notion that we would end our mission without finding a trace of rebel activity, and thus became careless... The last thing I remember as we entered the canyon was thinking to myself, "wow, what an ideal location for an ambush". I barely had time to finish the thought. After the first jarring explosion all I could see was black and I struggled to stay conscious, I had been flung like a ragdoll into a crevasse in the canyon wall. I could hear frantic radio chatter from my squadmates, they were clearly in trouble. I couldn't believe my luck that my rifle lay within feet of me. I reached out to grab it, but failed to pick it up. Bewildered, I reached again this time noticing the shiny arc of crimson trailing from the end of my right arm. My hand was gone... My knees went limp and everything faded to black. When I came to I realized that I had no idea how much time had passed. I didn't hear a sound aside from the breeze channeling through the rocks. My attempts to radio my squad went unanswered and I started to crawl out towards the floor of the canyon... then I saw the first of them. They hadn't just been killed, they had been butchered. Worst yet, whoever our attackers were had stripped them of the majority of their gear and armor leaving the corpses to the scavengers. I considered giving up right then and there, I was so lightheaded that I could not think clearly and coming up with a plan to save myself seemed almost laughable. Delirium was surely setting in... I knew I had to get it together or I would be just another skeleton in the wastes. I lifted my head and out of the corner of my eye noticed a splash of color, green was it? I was so thirsty I could barely separate my lips. "I'm losing it for sure" I thought. Stubbornly and painfully I crawled forward. Every inch I got closer I imagined the utter devastation I would feel when I reached my goal and found that my eyes had betrayed me. "Haha!" I cried out loud when I saw a muddy hole tucked in besides a few tufts of scraggly grass. I ripped off my helmet and lowered my face into the muck, sucking as much water as I could through my teeth in a vain attempt to keep the mud out. I struggled out of my harness and tossed my gear aside, rolling onto my back. I stared up at the evening sky, content that this was the end... Well, this is my first ever MOC , I would like for this to be judged - I have some catching up to do!

I know right? Tens of thousands of innocent protocol droids, murdered in cold blood... For shame!

I've got one of the old green ones and 12 of the new orange ones plus a few more in sets that haven't been built yet. I didn't really use them too much at first but I have come to rely on them more and more lately. They really are a useful tool!

Thanks guys! I did not change the interior layout. I agree that the placement of the staircases limits possibilities for the interior but I had bought the plates for this portion of the build pretty early on. We will see what happens when I start designing the inside, I think it would make a lot more sense to have those stairs tucked into one of the back corners... Sounds like I may have helped the economy and cost you and Wodanis a bit more money . I am looking forward to trying out the TH style balconies, that is now the only modular that I don't own so I haven't seen that build in the flesh. The parts for that and any work on interiors will have to wait for a while though, I need to leave town for a couple weeks starting this Sunday I actually picked them up off of BL. I had a tough time sourcing the one hairpiece for GG ( the one that cost me $2.50 ) and I didn't need anything else from that seller so I looked for some other stuff to justify the postage and tossed in 90 of the light bley masonry profile 1x2 bricks at $0.08 a piece. I wasn't thinking about their use for MS at the time but I was sure glad I had a pile of them on hand when the idea came to mind! JayCal, I look forward to seeing your completed pictures!

Ah, the beaches of Spira... There is nothing like the feeling of sprawling out on the sand with the sun beating down, soft breeze licking at your face... There is also nothing like the jarring realization that you are, in fact, not vacationing on Spira - you are floating in a bacta tank. With that the reality of all that happened on Tatooine came rushing back to me. A quick glance towards the end of my right arm confirmed it. I had given up all hope of rescue, my only wish was that I would be long dead before the scavengers found me. Who found me and how? The 2-1B unit drained the bacta tank. It felt good to support my own weight again. I glanced past the monitors and saw an operating table prepped with a Repli-Limb hand, the neural-interface rods sticking awkwardly out of the end of it. "This is probably going to hurt..." I said out loud to no-one in particular. "I am preparing a neural bypass sir", the droid replied. "Though I will need to remove it before we perform the sensation test". I settled onto the table, "Damn thing is right" I thought to myself, "I can't feel a thing from the shoulder down". As I watched the droid work my thoughts drifted away to my squad. I could feel my face redden as the anger welled up inside me. "This hand will be the hand of vengeance for them", I took a deep breath and made a a tight fist with my new hand, "and I will not waiver in my determination to exact it". "Sir" said the droid, interrupting my thoughts, "please report to the Captain for debriefing". Alright, time to get some answers... Comments and criticism is most welcome, this is only my second MOC/vignette so I'm eager for feedback. I would like for this to be judged for SoNE. Here are a few other angles: For anyone interested here is part 1: Left for Dead

I like what you have done here. I bought this set a couple years back with the thought that I would enclose it at some point. I do not plan on using hinges, I want to build a modified 3 story bank that would fit on a 16x32 baseplate with floors that are loosely connected for easy removal as in the modular buildings. Be sure to post some pictures when you get it built!

So I was very anxious to try out some of the changes I had in mind for MS. I did not build a modified version in LDD as I had with CC so I was a little nervous that the change to 6 high doors would cause me trouble with parts. As it turned out things went very smoothly, though there are a few things that I am not fully satisfied with. I'll start with one problem with the original build that bugs me, the tiled awning on the first floor... This awning is actually 2 separate pieces, the 3 tiles on the left are one part and the two on the right the second. As can be seen the part on the right is sagging They are attached individually to this piece... The problem is that the two tongues on this plate are not identical, the inside of the right one has a notch open to the top and the one on the the left has a notch on the inside open to the bottom. I will rectify this by getting 2 of the 1x2 variety. I do not like the way the railings in the original set are built ( bars, hoses and robot arms ) so I decided a while back that I would build them using the straight and curved railing pieces that are used in quite a few other modular buildings. I basically replaced the 2x6 plate that made the base of the balcony with 2 4x4 curved plates and place the curved railings onto those. It came out ok, but for the doors to be able to swing out I will have the replace the 2x3 plate that attaches the balcony to the building with a 2x4 tile - the studs on the plate collide with the door when it is opened. I also plan on ordering some white, straight robot arm/bars to try and build these two balconies in the same fashion as those from TH. When I can see them in the flesh I will decide which build I prefer. The other major change I decided at the last minute when I was organizing my parts for the build. I replaced all of the 1x2 bricks w/ grill profile to the new masonry profile bricks. I think this makes a huge difference and am happy with the result. Last, but not least - I don't understand the design decision to not have windows on the back of the building... I will be adding 4 additional 1x4x3 windows with half panes to replace the tan bricks that are in the original set. These changes are going to have to wait for a bit, I have a two week work trip starting this weekend. At least that motivated me to get these built quickly! Many thanks to everyone who shared opinions and experiences in this thread, this has been a very rewarding process ( started only 7 short weeks ago! ). Now I can focus my attention on getting some interiors designed for CC, MS and the upper floors of GG

I like the 'moment in time' feel to this MOC. There is definitely a sense that all hell is about to break loose, I want to see an 'aftermath' vignette . Nice work!

I was anxious to get the third floor done today so I got an early start this morning... The only modification on this floor is my use of 1x4x3 window panes instead of the 2x4x3 ones used in the original set. I also used 1x2 shutters instead of 1x4's, I am not fond of the look of the 1x4's and I wanted some consistency between this and my GG ( and MS when I get it built ). Just like on the second floor, I added white tiles as window sills on the inside of the windows. Voila, the completed building! I am still waiting on the light bley garbage can and light bley turntable bases ( I used black for now but will swap them out when I get delivery ). I am still surprised at how affordable this building turned out to be, I'm quite pleased with the results. I plan on designing interiors for all three floors, no timeline but I have some solid ideas for the ground floor cafe, second floor hotel desk/receptionist and third floor hotel room. Now on to MS

Looking good! I will be checking back for more pictures

The TRU bogo 50% event that ended yesterday (22nd was the final day) was for everything except the Lego Movie sets, if there is another one that started today I don't know about it but it wouldn't surprise me if it were just for city sets.

I took advantage of the TRU bogo 50% deal that ends today... Yesterday I picked up the droid gunship and coruscant police gunship for $75 together. Today I went back and got the V-wing, Grievous' Wheelbike, Anakin's Jedi Interceptor, Vulture Droid, Kashyyyk BP and Utapau BP for $94.50 total. I didn't want to buy all of this so quickly but I could not pass up getting most of the wave for 25% off msrp

Second floor is now complete Here is a shot that show the interior of the modified window assembly. I'll post more pictures when I get working on the third floor...

I got started on the second floor last night... The only modifications for this section are the use of 1x2x3 windows instead of the wall panels that were in the original set. I added a 1x2 white tile to the inside of each window to act as an interior window sill, I like the look of it. The other difference will be the lack of the 1x2 light blue tiles that originally would have been placed onto the top of the inside of each pair of wall panels/windows. My windows will be recessed on the interior all the way to the top of the arched 1x2x3 windows that sit on the upper part of the window assembly. I haven't finished that part yet but I will take some pictures when I do!

I stopped in my local TRU today and they have have all of the new sets in and, surprise - almost all of them are selling for normal msrp! I was shocked. The only set that I saw which was marked up was the AT-AP ( $10 more at $59.99 ). They have a bogo 50% off event which last through the Saturday 22nd so they are some great deals to be had there. I picked up the droid gunship and the police gunship for $75, I was soooo tempted to go nuts on battlepacks but I resisted. We will see if I can avoid going back before the sale is over to buy all of the $25 sets...

Nice work ACPin! You have made a very cool scene, I am loving that brick built water buffalo!

I was mixed up, its the GG hairpiece you mentioned that I paid $2.50, the one from CC ran me $1.20. I paid $2.50 for the cat though...

Thanks guys! You have got that right, I paid $2.50 for mine I look forward to seeing your pics!

Wow! I don't quite have the words... This is impeccable, if this is your first attempt I can't wait to see what you are going to come up with for an encore!