greg3

Funny you should say that.... I said mine was going to have an unusual twist to it!!!

Never MOC'd a petrol station before so I've just spent a couple of hours trying a few ideas to see if I can come up with an entry and I think I can!! Although my service station will have a bit of an unusual twist.... Will make it this weekend's job! Good luck to everyone who enters...

Hi The clock/CD player is an official printed piece from a Belville set... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4865pb08

Very nice! I really like the illusion of the sloping sides (I had to look twice!) The interior details are also great, especially the stairs!

Thanks for all the comments.... Unfortunately I've been ill all weekend so I've only been able to make a short basic update... As you can see, my workers have been busy building and the village now has 2 new homes!! They're based on set 1484 (Weetabix houses) from 1987... Eventually (when I add more roadplates) I might add another house where the recycling bin is to create a row of 3. At the moment only 1 has an interior (it's the "show home"!) As you can see, the houses are small but you can still pack a lot in!!! Kitchen area... Bedroom... As you can see in the first pic, there's now space for a new shop... but what? (find out soon!!) Comments always welcome...

Hi I made a wrecked car for a scene in my Lego village... I just took an official car (the one from 60007) and rebuilt the front end to simulate crash/fire damage. You could try something similar (obviously in your case the damage will be from the side) There are pics of my car in this topic... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=77658&st=25 Hope it helps...

Nice!! Apart from the repair bay) it looks like the sort of petrol stations we have here too. The interior of the shop is especially realistic... Thanks for sharing.

This week saw work beginning on extending the residential area.... As you can see, the road is being narrowed and will allow more building space on both sides of the road. As you can see the work is being done in stages to minimise disruption to the residents.... First stage is to prepare/build new housing then they'll work on the other side of the road to extend the shopping area. Later in the year I hope to add another roadplate leading to a small beach/harbour area to the village to the right of this image. A couple of pics of the men at work adding building plates! (And a way to use the new cement mixer!) Once the "cement dries" (actually, once my Bricklink order arrives!) work on some new homes can start! Thanks for looking....

Very nice!! I really like the variety of building designs but I think it's the signage that really brings it to life..... Looking forward to seeing it with some minifigs (and maybe a vehicle or several?)

Nice! I especially like the older building design... Looking forward to seeing what you come with next!!

An amazing piece of work - I love it!! The landscaping alone is a work of art (really like the frozen waterfall) and the mix of buildings etc is spot on (great way of using all the winter sports themed CMF too!) Excellent stuff!

This week's update shows the clear up following the garage fire... First the oil company had to remove the remaining fuel from the underground storage tank... Then the crashed car could be recovered... (I added a remote control to operate the winch) The remains of the car are to be taken away to be examined by the police... The site could then be cleared... (as the mine couldn't reopen until the area was cleared, the mining company provided men and machinery to help) Unfortunately the garage was beyond saving and had to be demolished... Now the question is what to do with the site? For now it's being used as a car park while I decide what should go there. So far I've considered.. A new garage. Police and/or Fire stations Recreational area (a skatepark maybe?) Housing (not sure who'd want to live by a mine though!!) Something else? Pub for thirsty miners? A mining/mineral museum? Comments/Suggestions are always welcome!! Thanks for looking...

A good start... I'm working on a model of a church myself and am finding hard to escape from the plain grey wall effect so I like the way you've mixed textures and colours to break up the walls of this church (the only thing I might suggest is to use a different colour for the roof (dark grey or black maybe)) anyway looking forward to seeing more....

Nice work! I like the desk design in the post office (might be (ahem) "borrowing" that idea myself) the Co-op's looking great too.... I like the way you've done the walls.

Just beautiful!! The exterior is a work of art in itself (the building details, the street furniture, the metro entrance all perfect!) And then it opens up!! As others have mentioned it has a real old dolls house feel to it and just looks great. Excellent work!

What a great fire brigade!! Love the station... Like an official set from the good old days but even better!! Again, I love all the little details you've added... Looking forward to seeing more!!

Very nice! A perfect combination of classic building style and modern details (the interior is especially good...and I like the little German flag!) Great work!

Well it's Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day and like many small towns and villages in the UK and other parts of the world, Ballabreek marks the occasion with a pancake race. The rules here are quite simple: 1. Competitors race in pairs along the park path to the tram stop and back. 2. Pancakes must be flipped at least once on each leg of the race. 3. Fancy dress must be worn. 4. Bonus points are added/lost for flipping style, standard of fancy dress etc. So without further ado - ladies and gentlemen I give you.... The 2013 Ballabreek Fancy Dress Pancake Race!!! Crowds line the course to cheer on (and possibly laugh at!) the valiant athletes!! They may look silly but this is serious competition (sort of!) With each competitor using their own style and technique.. Competitors awaiting their turn (each one dreaming of the fame and glory that victory will bring!)... Pancakes are freshly prepared to official race standards to avoid cheating! As with any great sporting events there are winners... And losers!!! Thanks for looking... now I'm off to have pancakes for lunch!!!

Some quick pics to explain what I meant... Underside of a roadplate (like a baseplate can't be attached to studs) so just sits on top. To secure a road plate to a baseplate you can first attach a standard plate next to the roadplate (you can see they're now the same height and you can build over the join to hold them together. Not sure if that's of any use to your project but it works for me!! (although I use this method in my town to attach baseplates to roadplates!) Hope that helps!!

Unfortunately not.... Road plates are flat on the bottom and just rest on top of the studs. However because road plates are thinner than normal plates, a roadplate resting on studs is the same thickness as a normal plate so you could make a sort of frame using plates attached around the edge of your baseplates to keep the roads in position (not sure that makes sense, I'll try and take some pics of what I mean later)

Nice work! I like all the details with the various pipes and tubes!

Great little scene (maybe not the prettiest but very lifelike!) love the bike and the graffiti effect of course. Might be nice to add some figures to the scene... Nice work

I like the combination of colours on the front (to me though the red at the sides/rear is a bit too much!) Still, the building design is great and I look forward to seeing in a town environment. Nice work!

Very nice! Love the architectural details (especially the bits right up at the top) and I also like the square (those large trees look great!) Excellent work!

Bit of an eventful update this week, after a high speed police chase resulted in a major fire and much of the village being evacuated!! The trouble started when a high performance supercar (believed to have been stolen earlier) failed to stop for police. After almost an hour long chase the police planned to use a "Stinger" tyre deflating device in an attempt to stop the car just outside the small village of Ballabreek. However, the suspect driver tried to avoid the trap by turning off along the access road by the mine but lost control and crashed into the garage. Luckily for him, the driver suffered only minor injuries and was dragged from the wreckage by police officers and the garage owner just moments before it was engulfed in flames. The resulting fire destroyed the garage and caused chaos in the village as an exclusion zone was placed around the scene for fear of the fire igniting petrol in a nearby fuel pump. These photos show the immediate aftermath... Overview of the scene (you can clearly see where the car clipped the wall before crashing) With the fire all but out, a fire crew continue to cool the petrol pump (damage to the pump shows just how close it came to become an even more serious incident) while others extinguish the last few hotspots. The new fire bike was the first on the scene and although could do little to save the garage, its impulse water mist system was able to prevent the fire spreading to the fuel pump before the main appliances could arrive. (by the way, the firefighter isn't going "psycho" with a crowbar - the figure on the floor is a crash test dummy which was part of the garage's advertising sign..) All 3 emergency services were involved in the incident... Fire (obviously!) Ambulance - with the driver of the stolen car taken to a nearby hospital under police guard, the only other injuries were minor burns/shock suffered by the garage owner (here being treated before the short journey to the Ballabreek medical centre) Police - responsible for cordoning off the area due to the risk of explosions/fumes. They also needed to collect statements and other evidence. The mine had to be evacuated, the tram service suspended, a main road sealed off and the park and surrounding businesses closed (all because of 1 car thief!!) I have to say I quite enjoyed setting up this little scene. Wanted to replace the garage with something else and thought this was a good way to do it (as well as using this year's new sets!!) Watch this space to see what happens next!! Any comments are more than welcome Thanks for looking.