Real Water in Your City

[WesternOutlaw]

Many builders have tried their hand at brick-built water. From blue baseplates to SNOT techniques, water creates a lot of color and adds realism to any town/city, but have you ever tried the drinkable kind?

Drinkable water? Has TheBrickster gone mad? you ask.

I'm talking about adding water features to your town and train layouts that use real water. Waterfalls, fountains, ponds, lakes, and rivers utilizing real water. I personally have not seen this done, except for maybe outside, but I'd be very interested to see if any of you have tried it. And if you did, how did you keep or prevent the water from escaping?

Discuss Real Water in Your City in this interesting Trains & Town topic.

[Legoliner Pilot]

I've added real water in the water cooler in the police station.

[Captain Zuloo]

Interesting topic TheBrickster. I've never actually tried putting real water into my layouts, but I saw a video on YouTube of a layout with water in it. Check it out:

You can see the water really well at 0:34.

[MetroiD]

Great topic Brickster mate - as usual, you're precisely the man to start up the best discussions. I'd love to see this one pan out to umpteen pages with ideas, btw :]

As to water - we've just ordered a pile of trans-clear, trans-light blue and trans-dark blue plates and tiles so that we can start experimenting on fountain designs for the city. It is my belief that any LEGO city MUST have a brick-built fountain because there is a very special feel to that structure if it's built properly.

Real water, on the other hand, adds a new level of realism to any MOC or layout and is definitely a fascinating idea. As a matter of fact, I've already discussed that with members of my freshly-founded Bulgarian LUG (we don't even have a name yet! ) and we've come up with a technical sketch of how we could make a medium-size fountain work using a pump and a hidden (non-LEGO-built) container. The only issue here is related to dirt / calcium caused by water trickling down over LEGO bricks, which might at some stage have a negative effect on the bricks - but I guess that's a chance we'll have to take. I'd love it if someone would share some info as to whether their bricks have deteriorated too much after being exposed to lots of water...

Other than fountains, I would most definitely like to use real water as part of my own city - ideally, it would feature a river of some kind. It would most definitely not however be poured directly onto LEGO pieces, I'm thinking of moulding the riverbed out of some other material and then filling it with water, so that I don't have to worry about the bricks - just like it's shown in the video that Captain Zuloo has posted. As with pretty much all kinds of terraforming, I'm not necessarily convinced that using authentic LEGO bricks is the best/only solution and would like to experiment in order to create hills, rivers and even some other kinds of moving water (other than fountains).

I'll keep you posted on my LUG's water story developments.

Edited September 21, 2009 by TheOtters

[evildead]

Hi there!

I've used water in a Lego diorama this year. It's not city, it's Pirates, but the water scene can be used in other themes. Just take a look!

You can see more pictures here: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=384635

These are three aquariums made in glass. The one in the middle had a crack, but we took the water off, dry it and then glued it. It resisted for all the 2nd TomarLego exhibition in Portugal (4 days).

Some of the mocs were on top of plastic glasses and some were underwater creating some really nice effects.

It was a great experience and we're going to do it again next year!

[Section8]

I've made swimming pools that had water in them. I contained it by making a plastic wrap liner. I wanted to make a waterfall but I lacked a pump. I also always wondered if the pneumatic system would work if filled with water, but I never had any of those parts to try it out.

The only issue here is related to dirt / calcium caused by water trickling down over LEGO bricks, which might at some stage have a negative effect on the bricks

Just get yourself a gallon of distilled water, it won't have any calcium or dirt in it. Also, I don't think you will run your pump long enough to see any physical erosion of the bricks by moving water. That could take years of continuous running at the least.

[MetroiD]

That's great news, thanks a lot, Section8! It was going to be distilled water, but I wasn't too sure anyway - thanks for clearing that up for me.

evildead, those are some lovely pics, it must have been great fun putting that layout together! I maybe an avid City fan, but the Pirates theme also has a special place in my heart and I do appreciate a good Pirate diorama - such as this one ;)

[TJJohn12]

Thinking back, I remembered something like this being posted on LUGNET.

Sure enough, there is Ross Neal's working, 100% pure solution utilizing a boat hull and pneumatics.

More pictures in John Neal's Brickshelf folders: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery....f=7051&n=96

It HAS been done. Now, to replicate it might be the problem...

-John

[Rick]

As a kid, I once used the pneumatics system to pump water. I can't remember whether I made a whole crashtender (airport firetruck) to go along with it, but I somehow remember a big Playmobil farm tank encased in Lego bricks as a reservoir for the pump. Careless things I would not try with my bricks as an adult...

[prateek]

I've actually never even thought about using water in an MOC, but it sounds like a good idea.

[Marko]

My town was initially planned to fourth floor in my house where we are supposed to have jacuzzi to be built around it with real water. Unfortunately I have not yet installed the jacuzzi, so I started building in my sons room. One day I will move my town to the jacuzzi room and have it with real water.

[Batbrick]

I initially played with water when making my now-demolished Lego City, but wasn't very successful. Mind you, Lego bricks are fantastic for holding water, atleast I found, though i'm not certain of its long term effects. I think when done right water made of Lego looks better, but that is a big challenge.

Batbrick Away!

[Inconspicuous]

I've made swimming pools that had water in them. I contained it by making a plastic wrap liner.

This is the solution I've used too. It's the same method I use in my real ice MOC's, like this one.

I used water without plastic wrap before like in these pictures, and it has no effect on the bricks. However, freezing does have some minor effects.

All of these were achieved using hoses outdoors, and you can see parts of them in a few of the pictures. I know this conversation is mostly about indoor and contained water, but I thought I share a few of my favorite water-related MOC's while we're at it.

[CP5670]

As a kid, I once used the pneumatics system to pump water.

It can certainly be done if you're careful with it. Lasse's fire engine is a great example.

[Darth_Legois]

Interesting topic Brickster!

I've used water, But most of the time it ended badly (went through the bricks )

But I was successful using the big hose piece from the 4504 Millennium Falcon. I made a 2 story building and 2 hose pieces down the side of the building (i could've done it inside but had a lack of bricks at the time) Anyway I connected the first one to the 2nd story and then through that it came through a hole in the wall into a sink. then you could block that off and make it go all the way down via the second hose connected to that brick. It worked pretty well except it leaked abit at the joints.

[Piranha]

Interesting topic, I really like that picture of the water droplet, from the discovery channel yea?

There are some interesting pictures here like the pirate set up and all those cool LEGO water fountains.

However I don't think I would add actual water into a LEGO display , that would be like adding a live plant or something

It doesn't seem very LEGO- ish to me.

Still I like what has been shown here.

[Captain Genaro]

I have before and it worked perfectly. using 2x4 bricks and using 2x2 blue tiles covering the gaps I had no problems with this. I used this as a lego pool but it has been destroyed for quite some time and has never been rebuilt.

[Inconspicuous]

A little off topic, but has anyone noticed that Arrowhead water ads have been appearing below this thread.

Back on topic, I've worked a little with the pneumatics system, and I would really love to see it in use. Can anyone post a video or photo of a fountain using it?

[paul_delahaye]

yes, I remember the working fountain using the boat hull, it was very clever

Edited September 22, 2009 by paul_delahaye

[evildead]

There is also this cool situation:

http://www.e-klocki.com/2009/06/03/wenecja/

[Tom Bricks]

This talk of using water is certainly interesting but I think it works best for the Pirate display.

Kind of on topic has anyone thought about using snow in MOCs for a winter scene or something?

[MetroiD]

Kind of on topic has anyone thought about using snow in MOCs for a winter scene or something?

Nice idea mate, I've considered that, but it wouldn't really be a good thing to do for an indoor display since snow melts within a few minutes even if it's in a cold room. I did try making a little hill out of snow in my old city layout back when I was a kid and I must tell you it was a very bad idea. Took some time to clean up the mess... Of course, no harm was caused to the bricks, but I don't know if it's actually worth the hassle... I'd rather use styrofoam if I wanted to create snowy effects - even though it may not be best combined with LEGO structures. On a sidenote - we have created baseplates featuring roads, lakes, riverbeds and hills out of styrofoam, but that's for our Christmas winter town display, which is actually more in the direction of Department 56 featuring lit-up houses and self-made figures, streetlamps, little structures, etc., but no LEGO.

Back to LEGO then - speaking of water in non-running conditions, does anyone remember the old 90s catalogues where the Ice Planet guys would constantly cut and carry ice blocks? Well I tried that too... and yes, it was a long time ago, I was still a kid, but that also didn't quite work out as expected

[Inconspicuous]

Kind of on topic has anyone thought about using snow in MOCs for a winter scene or something?

I have. I did a ice/snow MOC which can be found here. It's fake snow actually. I've also used real ice to make a minifig ice-skating rink.

[OptimusPrime12380]

Interesting topic. When I was a kid I remember building a town layout around a rubbermade tub I had filled with water for the floating boats. That was back in the late 80's to early 90's, haven't tried anything like that since as I don't really have the room to do it. But I always thought real water can add realism to a city layout, especially with any waterfront.

[green dewback]

Seen it once during a lego train show in a new shopping mall around a decade ago.

The layout had 4559 trains going through an underwater "tunnel" made with transparent acrylic, and the water had blue food-colouring to make it obvious.