Andy D

I usually sort until I have some kind of order I can understand. MOC or set, I always sort. Background is often nothing, but sometimes I have the news or Travel channel on TV, I don't usually watch while building, I just sometimes like a little background noise, sometimes I don't. I usually build in no more than 2 to 3 hour time blocks, maybe no more ha 4 hours in one day. Andy D

Welcome to EB, I hope you enjoy your stay. Your enjoyment of your passion for LEGO should be what is most important to you here. Andy D

Yeah, they were 5 feet on the North wall and 3 feet on the South wall. During the review phase the shelves on the North wall have been changed to 5.5 feet, the shelves on the South remain at 3 feet. Thanks for noticing. Also, all the shelves have been changed to a floating design to get rid of he shelf brackets. The exact height of the shelves will be determined at installation time as there are some LEGO set height issues from the top of the credenzas and between the shelves for size of some of my modular buildings. This will give me a total of 20 linear feet of display space on shelves and 8 to 10 feet on the 2 credenzas, could be a total of 30 linear feet of display space, more would be better, I thought about it and decided that more would make my studio look like a room full of shelves and less like an inviting place to be creative. I don't plan to display many sets at one time, as for me it is more about the building and just temporary displaying. This is exciting, the contributions and questions and discussion are wlome and appreciated, but the design has been approved, so any further changes will have to be minor. Later this week I will be going to the "factory" to watch the actual command to he CNC and watch the CNC cut the pieces for my room. Yesterday I went to the Apple Store and bought a 15 inch MacBook Pro to replace the aging iMac I was using in my Studio, I wanted something I could completely move from my build space when not necessary. My wife is so supportive of the whole process, this starting to remind me of a boat... You know what BOAT means don't you? "Bust Out Another Thousand". Well, almost done spending. I told my wife, "at least I am not on the LEGO Black Friday Event list". I am afraid that was not very comforting. Andy D

I had no intention of getting this set. I Star Wars is just not my favorite theme, I have a few iconic Star Wars sets, but... This set will be an excellent parts pack for a MOC I have in mind, a desert type building to go with my Oasis Carpet and Coffee Shop. I really like he dark tan and "flesh" bricks and tiles. I will build he set to learn wht can be learned, the on to a MOC. Andy D

Great! You had me for a couple of minutes! I was really wondering "what the heck" The I realized that today is going to be a fun day on the Internet and absolutely nothing will get done Oh well, nothing to see here, move along. Andy D

Wow! That is quite nice. You captured quite a few details there. Just curious, what is the foorprint of he builing, and the height? To me the footprint appears 16 or so tuds. Andy D

Wow! We just spent 6 hours finalizing the design of my new studio. Wife and I met with Jennifer about 10 AM PST and went over everything with a fine tooth comb. I enlarged one cabinet by a little, changed the number and size of drawers changed the size of the shelves and made them free-floating to hide the hardware, selected stain and surface material colors. I can't believe all the little details we had to go over, but in the end it will look great! Jennifer even did a trial run of sending the design to he CNC, all's well. They are going to order material and actually send he design to their CNC and cut next Tuesday. I plan to go down and watch part of the process so I can see just how their CNC cuts the material for my cabinets, desk and shelves. We also finalized the order for the new carpet. Looks like everything might actually be done by he end of April! I guess you can't tell how excited I'm getting! Andy D

Redhead1982... Sounds like your process is pretty much like mine. I love the tactile feel of the art medium (LEGO bricks). But that's where the similarity ends. I need lots (lots and lots ) more practice and experience to approach your level of quality. Thanks for sharing you very inspirtional pieces, I look forward to many, many more from you. I Andy D Like the man said when asked how to get to Carnige Hall, the answer was.... "practice man, practice"

Blakbird... I do not approve of plagarism in any form. If someone wants to use another's work, with he Internet it is so very easy to give credit where credit is due. I do believe you should contact the seller and say that you are flattered that he found your words fit his needs so well, and just request a link back to your site. Hmmm... I wonder if stealing words is not so bad, what else will a person do? How honest is he to deal with? Plagarism is a symbol of honesty (or lack there of). No need to be confrontative with him, he probbly just doesn't know any better, doesn't know it is wrong, this is a symbol of our current education system. Just nicely ask for a link back and than move on, but that will let the person know that pepole are watching. We are all judged by our deeds. Just MHO Andy D

Welcome to EB! The costume shop sounds like a great idea. I am looking forward to seeing it. Andy D

At first I looked at it in amazement, how did he get the strings so tight to hold the "balloons" up? Then after studying I decided that the only way this would be possible is to have it hanging so garvity could put tension on the strings. LEGO is one of he few art mediums that would allow this. Great job! This would have been an exceptional April 1 MOC posting. Keep on amazing us! Andy D

What I found is that I have to have sorting done just enough to build, maybe not as I want it when I am done, but enough to build. The problem with this is that I sometimes forget what I have and go to BL too soon and wind up with extras, not a bad thing, but waiting for parts to arrive when I didn't have to because they were in the closet. Organization is a MOC'ers best and worst friend. All I can say is sort and build, put a little building fun in with the sorting. I am very lucky to have this space and lucky that my wonderful wife said "go for it" when I proposed the room modifications. She sees how much time I spend in there and wants it to look nicer when company passes by the open door. Yeah, I feel your pain with the unbuilt sets, right now I have a bunch of unbuilt mostly big sets (some medium) that I had no place to display. THe new room will allow me to display sets longer before I have to put them in the inventory system. Some things may never get to the inventory system (modulars) but other sets get there within a month of construction. Just build and organize, that's all I can recommend (it's what I should do as well). Andy D

Dave E, Thnks for the reply. I guess I'm pretty safe on the storage, I hope I get to the project this year. For temperture and humidity, I live in So. Cal. Not much humiity, and we keep the temp in the house between 65-78 degrees Farenheight, so safe there, I store my lego in a dark place (like wine and mushrooms) and my Studio has UV protective film on the window, (as does the entire house), so without planning for it, my house is pretty "LEGO friendly". As for the "in click" storage, I guess it is not a problem. My LEGO is safe! Whew! Thanks, Andy D

In my efforts to "Get organized and build more" I am considering how to store bricks. I just received a medium to large BL order (about 600 bricks, maybe not a large order) that I bought for a future project. After verifying the contents I need to store the bricks (1x1, 1x2, 1x4), Will the bricks degrade faster over time if stored "in-click" in stacks? Thanks, Andy D

Very interesting read. He says, "To be continued" at the end, I hope so. My son's first LEGO space were Futuron, later Blacktron. Personally I miss both lines, I may get "bricked" (was going to say stoned, but it has a double meaning, I meant he one with stones) here, but I like the Futuron and Blacktron much better than Star Wars. I can't tell you how many Futuron and Blacktron sets I donated to Goodwill in the late 1990's. Wish I had them back, but I hope some less fortunate kid got lots of enjoyment out of them anyway. Thanks for the link, Andy D

Everytime I see one of your modulars I am just amazed! Now I am wondering about your design/construction process. To that end, what is your process? 1. Imagination and free build? 2. Pen/pencil and paper? 3. LDD? Or a combination of the above? Or something else? I tend to use more of number 1, and only 2 and 3 to try out some details in the very early stages, then only small sections. How about finishing touches, are they from the beginning? Or added for completion? How about you? Thanks, Andy D

What happened to the banner? Is it just temporarily missing? Or is it gone? I miss it! Andy D

I never tried this. Can you upload from iPad to Flickr? How do you handle the Flickr links in posts? When I publish photos I normally write the post in Pages (either iPad or desktop) then go th the desktop (an iMac) to insert the links to Flickr. I guess you could have EB open in one tab and Flickr open in another and copy-paste betwen the two. Did I get it, or is there another way? I spend way more time on my iPad and only use my desktop when I have to, so learning how to do more on the iPad would be great. Thanks, Andy D

I am also in the process of sorting, some of it is fun (the discovery part) but mostly it is, well, not a lot of fun, but it does help me to know what I have available. Without realizing it I aso have a category like furnishings. I think I will make furnishings and decorator pieces a conscious category. Good luck with your sorting project, but a I am finding sorting is a never ending pocess, hence the movie poster in the new cinema "Forever Sorting", it's true! Andy D

Thanks, I hope it does make it easier to find things and be more inspired to build. My last year's plan didn't work out as well as I had hoped (I still spent more, but didn't build more), but maybe the get orgnized is what I need to build more. No excuses this year! Hopefully I will even publish more (feedback helps to improve technique). Thanks, Andy D

Congratulations on both... The new fiancé and her being understanding about the needs for a room dedicated to LEGO. Thanks, Andy D

I don't know how to upload photos directly from an iPad, but do recommend that you get a Flickr account as it is free and takes care of a multitude of problems for posting photos on EB. Some folks swear by Brickshlf, you might look at that as well. Just MHO, Andy D

It looks like my completed studio thread got merged with this thread. Look for new content around post number 12. Or to get there right away, select the link below. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=80916entry1586201 This first post discusses the initial design and design criteria. As many of you are aware I am in the process of refurbishing my Studio (LEGO room). First I want to thank all of you who have been helping me with dimensions and sizes of competed sets and boxes. I am starting to get excited as the design is almost done, just a few dimensions to review and make certain about color choices for cabinets, work surfaces and display surfaces. As you know, this year is my year to "Get organized and build more". The refurb of my Studio is a big part of the get organized, the other part of the get organized is to sort, sort and when I think I am done, sort more until I have a good system for my parts inventory. I believe my new Studio will be complete by the end of April 2013, but as I mentioned, I am getting excited so I decided to post the as-is pictures (for the before) and the 3D renderings of the design so far (for the after). Here is my current space... The North and East walls http://www.flickr.co...8596313416/]Old Studio - North and East walls[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr And the South and East walls http://www.flickr.co...05/8596313554/]Studio - South and East wall[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr Kind of a hodgepodge of mixed up furniture and stuff. I wanted more space not on table tops (shelves for example) to display more of these... http://www.flickr.co...596355874/]Some modular buildings[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr To have a place to put a couple of these drawer systems in easy reach during building time. I've thought about it and I decided to use 2 of them. One for common parts that I will use all the time, and one for parts just for the current project. In theory is if I prepare more, it should help me to build more and not have to hunt parts so frequently. I am sure this will be an evolving system. http://www.flickr.co...213251/]Storage drawer system[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr I use these for storage, so I wanted to be able to store a bunch of them. http://www.flickr.co...314002/]Plastic storage bin[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr I also wanted to be able to store a bunch of these waiting to be built or parted out. http://www.flickr.co...213399/]Example modular building box[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr The new design of my Studio allows for additional storage of 16 of the plastic bins, and additional storage of 10 large sets. Overflow storage will still be in the existing closet in the room on the West wall. Last, but not least the design should allow for my Christmas Tree to fit in the North-East corner of the room where the credenza and desk meet. Here is a 3D rendering of the North wall storage, shelves for display space and the desk area on the East wall. http://www.flickr.co...05/8595213803/]Studio - North Walls[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr Here is a 3D rendering of the South wall storage, shelves for display space, place for my TV. You can also see the relationship between the desk area (on the East wall) and the South wall storage and shelves. http://www.flickr.co...05/8596314442/]Studio - South East walls[/url] by http://www.flickr.co...MyPlasticBricks[/url], on Flickr I think you can see why I am so excited about this project. The cabinet manufacture/builder/installers is Norm Tessier Cabinets Inc. at: http://www.normtessiercabinets.com/ I have seen their manufacturing facility (which is very modern, CNC and such) and they use the finest quality materials and construction techniques. The designer is Jennifer Beavers, she is a terrific designer and very patient with all my changes. But she says that now is the time for changes and to try to get as close to my exact needs as is possible to forecast. I also want to give a big thank you to Jennifer for all her hard work, the great design and helping me with my budget and putting up with me (no easy task by itself). I know this is early, but I was just bursting to share this with someone. I will post photos of the finished project when it it is done. Thanks for reading, Andy D

Your modulars always amaze me! So many details you put in. The stairway in the 5th picture particularly caught my eye. If I can figure out how you did it, I may have to steal (err borrow) it sometime. Great modulars, I always look forward to seeing them. Too many details to see all right now, but I will look more later as your modulars always take several looks to take it all (well most) of them in. Andy D

In my quest to re-build my studio I continue to look for sizes of things. Thanks to all who helped with dimensions of LEGO boxes, I now have the required interior dimenions for my cabinetry, and the size of my table for construction. Now I am looking at shelving. On one wall I want to put some long (6-7 feet) shelves. I need to determine how many shelves, and the distance betwen them. I want to display things like my modular street and the Tower Bridge. I found the tallest modular building (so far) is the Town Hall at 20 inches, I'm thimking I need at least 23-24 inches between shelves to properly display models like the Town Hall. What I am looking for is a web site that has LEGO sets organized by finished dimensions so I can compare sizes. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance... Andy D