THANK YOU!!!
As a novice that collects/makes stuff for my son to play with, until he gets older and is ready to build more advanced stuff, this is so awesome. I always want to see the build techniques on these incredible MOCs. I love the suggestion of Duplo for building up the base, I would never have thought of this and this would save a ton of bricks. I would also never thought of putting a base plate on top of bricks, but I guess it gets anchored down enough with the other plates/bricks. I doubt I will ever build anything this great looking, but now I am better armed if I decide to try. Now I just need to get about 1/8th of the bricks you have.
Thanks again and your work is truly awesome.