AirborneAFOL

Wow. This beats the stupid crane the Cargo Train comes with, that's for sure!

Well done for a first time effort! I like the smaller "footprint" (baseplate). Definitely an appeal for those of us where our developments have reached our city limits, and the price of real estate has skyrocketed ;)

Fire Station MOD completed. Basically added fully enclosed walls, and then tried a technique of only making half the floors (50% of each level) removable to get inside... Leaving a "shaft" for firepole to run internally as well. Nothing special - especially compared to some of the remarkable work others routinely do - but I'd at least consider it an upgrade over the existing set. You'd think with the endless string of fire and police stations Lego makes, they'd at be a bit better at enclosing them and doing interiors! Firehouse MOD by airborneafol, on Flickr Firehouse MOD by airborneafol, on Flickr Firehouse MOD by airborneafol, on Flickr Firehouse MOD by airborneafol, on Flickr Firehouse MOD by airborneafol, on Flickr Firehouse MOD by airborneafol, on Flickr Firehouse MOD by airborneafol, on Flickr Just realized I didn't get any good pics of the ground floor or backside... Will post those later this weekend. Also took a few (not great quality) pics of the Factory as well... Factory - exterior front by airborneafol, on Flickr Pipe cutting across the middle of it obscures the shot of the "assembly line" a bit. And not a great view of it, but a catwalk overlooking the operation as well... Factory - Interior far left by airborneafol, on Flickr Factory - Interior middle by airborneafol, on Flickr Control panel and... Um... Furnace? Boiler? Forge? Not sure what exactly it is - or what the factory even makes for that matter - but alas, I'm a white collar guy... Factory - interior backside by airborneafol, on Flickr

Nice work, tkatt. I was just at MOA last night and cleaned out the grey 1x3's. They must have refilled them this morning :)

Interesting point, Thetford. Makes me wonder how many "repeat" police sets kids end up getting. I imagine quite a few 6-yr olds get a "police station" - but 2 years later the instructions are lost and it's been disbanded into a "box of bricks", so a "police station" once again appears atop their Christmas list.

Beyond words. Truly a gold standard. Any chance you'd be willing to elaborate/pic a bit more on the garage doors? Brick built is always tricky so I'm rather curious how you pulled it off in what appears to be so seemlessly.

I dig it. Feel free to use this pool table design: image by airborneafol, on Flickr I'll probably use your (very cool) bench press for the Firehouse MOD I'm working on ;)

Very cool. Really like your technique for the rack of "wetsuit shirts"!

Very impressive. Bravo!

Many thanks on the critiques thus far. Very helpful insights for future development. Some better pics of the schoolhouse MOC... Schoolhouse by airborneafol, on Flickr Schoolhouse by airborneafol, on Flickr First floor office and classroom...albiet one of the teachers seems to have died of boredom for lack of students... Schoolhouse by airborneafol, on Flickr Schoolhouse by airborneafol, on Flickr Second floor library and science lab... image by airborneafol, on Flickr image by airborneafol, on Flickr Third floor classroom and cafeteria... image by airborneafol, on Flickr image by airborneafol, on Flickr

Somewhere in the world, a young child is weeping that their brand new pirate minifig just has two normal hands...

"The Kelt" - Irish Pub. My first MOC. Left some of the poor design elements a bit raw, just so I can feel better about my more recent MOC's :) Exteroir image by airborneafol, on Flickr First floor - bar and piano image by airborneafol, on Flickr Second floor - game room, darts and billiards image by airborneafol, on Flickr And the third floor. Live band. And behind a hidden door, a poker room / IRA-nefarious-plotting-hideout... image by airborneafol, on Flickr Police Station MOC - my most recent. 9-5-14 Police Station MOC by airborneafol, on Flickr 9-5-14 Police Station MOC by airborneafol, on Flickr First floor, facing rear, a little reception/booking desk... 9-5-14 Police Station MOC by airborneafol, on Flickr First floor facing front... Tried to rig up a little metal detector by the door... 9-5-14 Police Station MOC by airborneafol, on Flickr Second floor, fairly barren as yet. Just a bunk-bed cell w/toilet-sink, and then a few supplies for the cops. Not sure what to do with the extra space yet... 9-5-14 Police Station MOC by airborneafol, on Flickr And a helipad on the roof. About 6-stud clearance underneath it, may install a shooting range down the road here... 9-5-14 Police Station MOC by airborneafol, on Flickr

I was running into the exact same issue. Copy/pasted the BBC Code (flickr) and working great now.

Got it! Sorry for the rookie struggles... image by airborneafol, on Flickr image by airborneafol, on Flickr image by airborneafol, on Flickr image by airborneafol, on Flickr

Okay, I've set up a flickr. How do I post those pictures here? Just copy/paste the link?

Okay, so a couple cavaets as I start a thread to archive my city... 1. I just "rediscovered" Lego this past winter, upon the birth of my first child. Having not really touched them in 20 years, my goodness, the building techniques and sets nowadays were a steep learning curve. 2. I have no clue how to upload photos well, so I've had to size the picture down and I think the result is fairly blurry. I'd be open to any suggestions, particularly if it doesn't require creating an account like flickr. 3. Just a mere panoramic below, so some distortion. 4. General layout is two 6x2.5 foot tables, shaped into an L. The far left is an "industrial district", then advances into a town center (waterfall/park/town hall/etc). Then the tables swing to the right and basically a conglomeration of mostly custom builds. My primary custom builds to date include an Irish Pub, bottling plant, Florist, Tool & Gun shop, police station, schoolhouse, church, cemetary, and construction site. If anyone is curious in any of those particulars, I could certainly try to get some good close-up pics. image by airborneafol, on Flickr

How about a waterfall (with train tunnel running through it). Haven't developed out the basin of the falls and wooded area yet.

After some experimenting last night, I found the following configurations of flex track allow smooth performance: 1. No more than 2-segments of flex at the "maximum" turn angle (slightly sharper than a standard curved track, completing 90-degree turn 4-studs sooner), along a 1-plate-per-16-studs elevation grade. 2. 3-segments of flex at a "standard" turn (equal to standard curve track), along a 1-16 elevation grade. 3. 5-segments of flex at a "reduced" turn (completing 90-degrees in 4-6 studs further than standard curve track), along the benchmark maximum 2-16 elevation grade. 4. Unlimited segments of flex at the "maximum" turn, along a flat grade. Of course, all of this is running a single PF motor (60052) pulling anywhere from 1-4 cars. Linking up a second motor on the 3rd car (or later) elimated all performance impediments, and can run smoothly across unlimited segments of flex at the sharpest possible turn and at a 2-16 elevation grade; the first/second motor would effectively push/pull the other one through the segments of high-friction. Of course, MOD'ing a freight car with a motor opens a whole different can of worms... Perhaps someone (with greater train expertise) would care to validate this experiment, and we could have flex track turn/elevation guidelines archived for future reference?

Bravo, Sir. Fantastic post, top to bottom. Some marvelous points. If I may, I'd piggyback a couple other elements (pun intended?) for consideration: 1. Look at Lego a decade ago. There was no Creator Expert line. There was no Pick-A-Brick (either online or in-store). The secondary market (bricklink, Ebay, Craigslist, etc) was in it's infancy. The TLG's Ideas concept did not exist. When you consider that TLG is the worst's largest toy manufacturer, and that it's privately owned (meaning they can take a longview without being beholden to quarterly shareholder sentiments) - the past decade has been a windfall for AFOL's. Looking at things from Lego's longview - the past decade was incredible progress, and gives much to be excited for in the decade ahead. Is there more work to do? Certainly - AFOL's are a market, like females, Lego has only begun to tap into. 2. Marketing. At the end of the day, Lego needs to be profitable. Sure, they can maintain some lines at a loss, if they see it as a longterm investment. But on the whole, they need to produce what sells at a decent margin. While Lego's marketing is probably not perfect, they're clearly decent at it lest they wouldn't be where they are. And the unfortunately reality of that is that for every Museum or Bank that may appeal to AFOL's, we're outnumbered tenfold by grandparents buying a fire or police theme for their grandchild. Take this with a the standard heresay cavaets, but my local Lego store manager (a huge volume outlet - Mall of America) told me just last weekend that the Fairground Mixer sales have been paltry, and the Creator Expert line as a whole is routinely a "dead space" on their floor, compared to the swarms packed around the Star Wars and other liscenced themes. HOWEVER - while "first time buyers" flock to the lisenced themes, City and Creator Expert lines are a much more longterm market - kids are discovering Lego via the lisenced themes, but spend 5-years settled into a City or Castle theme. That implies while Lego won't be filling their finite shelf space with "buildings" - they will be around long after the latest hit movie theme is long gone. City builders need to embrace the fact its a marathon, not a sprint. 3. This brings me to my "million dollar idea" for TLG. The AFOL secondary market is thriving. Many of us make very lucrative returns on "investments" - buying a few extra sets and tucking them away. The Fire Brigade and Green Grocer routinely sell on the secondary market at double or triple their retail cost from only a few years ago. Lego should create a "Vault" (much like Disney has) for their retired sets. Every 5 years or so, they could produce a limited number of previously-retired sets, and even at a 25-50% mark up from the original retail, I'm positive they'd sell. Otherwise, those of us who became AFOL's only years after one of these "unique buildings" was retired will be left spending our money on the secondary market - or griping about how Lego only produces a very few unique buildings per year.

To create the incline, I've effectively placed 1-plate under the first flex "segment", and 2-plates under the 3rd "segment". I can definitely see what you're saying in the twofold problem - compounded by the vertical flex the track is prone to. I suppose this leads me down the path of "no inclines on flex track curves", unfortunately. I'll tinker some over the next few days and report back if I can find any flex curve-incline ratios that seem workable at low speeds, however... I can confirm you are correct on this point. I've been able attain slightly tighter 90-degree turns using flex track (the turn completed about 4-studs sooner than using fixed "curve" track) - and without any performance impediments (albiet with level grades).

I have, after months of quietly researching this forum, finally acquired 60052 (Cargo Train) to my city layout. I came to conclude (thanks in large part to many of your assessments on these boards) that it was the ideal "first train". A portion of my track layout runs through a "mountain tunnel". Apologies if this is addressed elsewhere - or my question unclear (still a rookie on the proper terminology)... Has anyone else has run into the problem of losing traction when exceeding 2-flex-tracks continguously at the standard elevation? My elevation is 2/3 "brick" height per 16 studs distance. When using 3+ links of flex track in an elevating curve, however, traction fails with even a single car. The obvious solution would seem to be leveling the grade when employing flex track - but I'm wondering if perhaps reducing the curve I'm using 3+ flex track to create would do the trick. Being as this segment is running through a tunnel, I'm curious if there's a good rule of thumb that would save a good bit of experimenting/rework on the mountain itself...

To those who want "more buildings" - I'd love to hear some suggestions of what type of buildings, specifically, you'd like to see. Below are a couple sub-themes I'd really enjoy seeing Lego produce something for every year or two: 1. "Industrial". A factory / manufacturing plant / etc of some time. Good ole blue collar jobs for all our minifigs. 2. "Public Works". Lego does some "light" public utility types (a repair truck, etc), but something like a power plant, water treatment, etc would be great. 3. "Shops". Bike shops and restaurants seem abundant - but a hardware store is a common MOC that Lego just hasn't picked up yet. Similarly, the Green Grocer seems the only food market. And the Grand Emporium the only "general clothing". Would love to see a few more, somewhat routinely, along these lines. 4. "Wildnessness". Every City has plenty of green spaces, and landscaping is a marvelously enjoyable MOC. But it'd be great to see a Lego "landscaping bucket of bricks" or even a set ('camping' perhaps?). Overall, I'm inclined towards the "build your own" camp. MOC's are the pinnacle of AFOL hobbyists, in my humble opinion. But I can respect the criticism of Lego's limited types of buildings offered - and would enjoying hearing more specifics on the types of buildings desired.

What's the primary appeal in multiple of the high-priced Creator Expert modulars? I have 1 each of several - but find that I'd rather spend any surplus "Lego budget" on bulk lots of bricks (for MOC's) or similar "non-duplicate" acquisitions. I'd be curious about the reasons some folks seem to acquire multiples (aside from simply maintaining extra's NISB as investments)...

As a frequent Lego Ebay buyer, here's a few "little things" that I appreciate, and keep me coming back as a repeat buyer from someone... * If it's a set, take the extra few minutes to actually bag the pieces consistent with Lego's bags. Gives a buyer the same experience in their build as if they bought it new. * Throw in a small surprise "bonus". Doesn't need to be much - just a dozen random element you've got a big surplus of. But I've always found it to be a nice little easter egg, and generous "thank you for your purchase". * Offer free shipping - especially if you list multiple, small items. It's a headache as a buyer to fill your cart with 10 items, only to have to hassle through a revised invoice request to avoid the shipping exceeding the order itself. Just build your anticipated shipping cost into your posting price. * Take the time to provide more than a sentence or two in the description. Particularly if it's a set, articulate if it's complete, includes any replacement pieces, or has any damages. It may seem counterintuitive from a "want to make the sale" perspective, buy serious buyers will appreciated the detailed condition and being upfront about any issues (no matter how small) and give them high confidence there'll be no frustrating "surprise! Missing three bricks!" when they get it.

Please no City school! The Heartlake High in the Friends line makes me feel quite superior in my schoolhouse MOC - if City or Creator ever released a proper school, I fear I'd be left with a big abandoned building as all my kids transferred away...