Hemlock Falls

I had already thought of calling mine Hemlock Falls, then I thought it would be more clever to call it Hemblock Falls. The b could be silent like in dumb or not. Idk.

I do believe that the mountain and waterfall concept of this table will eventually make it a unique display. In the meantime I just learned a lot about how to plan for a train route and the obstacles involved with that, I just received my first bricklink order and learned a little about what to look for with a slightly more purposeful idea behind it than I would've had last week, making decisions after seeing how things look (like maybe I don't want it to have all the things that I thought I wanted waterfall, beach, city, suburb, woods, farm, etc... all on one table, maybe just beach and suburb or something would ultimately be better), learning to use LDD and determine how I can best utilize it, and spending good Lego time with my 8 year old daughter (who often doesn't even look at the instruction. She just makes whatever she wants.) keeping fresh what it really means to "play with Legos". I am certainly a novice at best when it comes to Legos, but I don't intend on having my 'Hemlock Falls' look just generic, cluttered and expensive for very long. Art is my profession, and part of my career is building stages for musicals. The table is actually made of lumber from past performances we've done. I think that there is a lot to look forward to with my developing Lego obsession as I make more decisions, learn more, see more, problem solve more and discuss more. I learned guitar by playing Metallica and Pink Floyd like anyone else, I learned to draw by copying comic books and Iron Maiden t-shirts like anyone else, then I had a foundation to go and learn, explore and create, and as far as Legos go, I am just starting now.

I know. It's gotta start somewhere though, right? I have much more free time during the summer, and I intend to do just that. I never said that I though it was creative or unique to show off a bunch of store bought stuff. I'm starting from scratch, so I need to collect a supply of bricks, reacquaint myself with the product and the process, learn and gather ideas from each retail set I get and explore what other's have done with their inspirations, their trials and errors, and the aesthetic value of their MOCs and towns to help me internalize and discover what it is that I want to do with my Lego hobby. This is why I joined this site, to find really great ideas and to show where I'm at to solicit advise from people who have more experience with Legos. I welcome any sort of constructive or reassuring criticism, especially this sort. Thank you.

I'm thinking about changing the name to Hemblock Falls, it really still sounds the same. I wish I had thought of that sooner, before taking this screen name.

IMG_7319 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr So, I've added a B model Mountain Hut to the falls and made a tunnel entrance out of dozens of 1x2 log shaped bricks and the left over roof pieces. The train curves inside the mountain on a slanted plywood and comes out behind the downtown part. IMG_7323 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_7322 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr When the train comes back to the falls I used more 1x2 log bricks to elevate the tracks to 5 1/3 bricks high. The train shows signs of resistance getting up that steep of a grade, but I don't need to speed it up a notch to get up it. IMG_7318 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr I will be adding several more trans-blue pillars to the falls soon, as well as gray rock panels and slopes to eventually build up the mountain and hide the black plywood. IMG_7315 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr I know that this looks cluttered now. It is a work in progress, and for now it's just a place to put everything. And if you noticed the photo hanging... IMG_7326 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_7325 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr yeah, she's cool with it. If it interests you to see the earlier development of this table, I had posted some pics of the process in my introduction...http://www.eurobrick...opic=105518&hl= I have just recently gotten back into Legos after almost 30 years back in October, so this only represents about 5 months worth of Lego enthusiasm. I hope to make this a great display some day. Thank you. IMG_7317 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=106193&hl= I have begun to create the waterfall and train tunnel, Have posted pics in this other thread, and progress will be posted there. Thank you

I just made my first bricklink order this week from Sir Timothy's. Everything went well. Got items in a few days, in great shape.

IMG_5664 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr This was my first spark of an idea to make a waterfall. When I got the mountain hut in October, I thought it should be elevated like it was actually on a mountain. That week I went to the Lego store for the first time and picked up some trans-blue round bricks and thought to continue the little waterfall already on the hut. I've finally made some progress making this more of a reality in my small town that I've decided to call Hemlock Falls. IMG_7211 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_7214 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr Also the train tunnel is something new I made this week. Both the tunnel and the waterfall have a long way to go, but I like the way it's coming together so far.

Wow!!! Amazing!

I am asking my girlfriend to get me the Detective Agency for my birthday in May, but buy it in March (using my LegoID). Definately getting the Port-a-potty truck and probably some other demolition sets, and the Changing Seasons house if it's out by then. Almost thinking about getting another Toy Store/Grocery Store to build a B model or something. Maybe the birds, idk.

I just ordered about $40 worth of stuff today and it was included in the order. (in NY)

Thanks. Happy to be here IMG_7122 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr

IMG_7105 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr Just bought the lighthouse used, missing 2 pieces that you'd never notice. I love it!

I had almost 30 years, from my 12th birthday in 1987 to last september I hadn't put a second of thought into Legos. I think I was just graduating to Technics when I lost interest in Legos. I had a couple sets.

i dont think the posts here count

IMG_6878 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr I just think this came out cool IMG_6879 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6995 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr ...trying to figure out how to make a SNOT sign for the town. I need some different pieces, and a way to make the 'K'

Thank you. I wish I had known and considered more how the train can be arranged before I built the table. It's become very problematic trying to configure a way for the train to make curves, except in very limited ways because of the mountain and the narrowness of my daughter's leg of the table.

IMG_7011 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr This was from 1977 or 1978, possibly my first Lego set. Some of my earliest memories are of Legos. As I grew other toys kind of stole the spotlight, starting with Star Wars, then GoBots, He-Man, Transformers and GI Joe. But Leogs were always there. My brother and I had a suitcase under the bed filled with Lego pieces. We had Town, Space and Castle Legos, but sets never seemed to stay together for long. The majority of our Lego time was making half-thought out buildings, vehicles and robots, and seeing who could make the best lightsabers out of the longest pieces. I remember very vividly my 12th birthday when I got some Space set and came to the realization that I had outgrown Legos, and I haven't thought twice about it for almost 30 years. My brother however collected Star Wars toys and Legos throughout our teens, 20s and 30s. In the past few years I noticed him getting more Lego stuff like Hogwarts and the Ecto-1. I was not interested, I was actually just surprised at how expensive Legos had become. Last August I did buy my daughter a Friends horse show set, but still wasn't into it myself and ashamed that I had spent $40 on this dinky little toy for her. In September my brother asked if I would assemble the Palace Theater for him. I thought "why the hell would you buy a Lego set for $150 and not even want to put it together?" But I agreed to help him with it. My daughter and I put most of the building together, then my girlfriend came home and kind of scoffed at this obnoxiously expensive model we were working on. I gave her the limo from PC to put together. We all enjoyed the experience. Later my daughter went home to her mom and my girlfriend expressed how enjoyable it was to do Legos for a little while. We got on our tablets and started checking out some of the other modular and stuff. At around 9pm that night we ended up driving out to Target to get the Bike Shop & Café set. IMG_5200 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr This is where it all started about 4 1/2 months ago. Then I proceeded to buld the collection on a shelf in our loft. IMG_5273 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr Soon the shelf wasn't big enough so I relocated to a table out printer was on. IMG_5295 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr I tried to incorporate my daughter's Friends horse set, because if this was going to make any sense it would be for us to play with together. Eventually though, I had gotten too much stuff for myself and had to give her her own table. IMG_5691 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr My brother brought his theater over to add to the table, and soon bought the train station, daily bugle building, and small cottage to add to it. Since then we haven't gotten along as well and I gave him his stuff back. Soon enough, though, I actually had to take my daughter's table to add to mine. IMG_6094 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr It felt bad to take her table, and mine was very cluttered. I decided I needed to make myself a table so I began designing ideas. IMG_6349 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr I had many ideas, but stuck with the 'L' shaped in the corner so that I could have my side and my daughter could have her smaller side. I had to make something to cover up the cubby door in the corner, so I decided it would be like a mountain. IMG_6358 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6366 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6364 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6373 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6376 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6391 by Hemlock Falls, on FlickrIMG_6400 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6408 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr IMG_6445 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr Also, for Xmas my girlfriend's parents asked me what I wanted for about $200. I said I'd like a Lego train, and went with the Horizon Express with the PFs for it. My girl got me the Parisian Restaurant and I got us the Grand Emporium for something to do for New Years. She does not share my obsession with Legos, but she says she really enjoys when we do build the buildings together. As long as I don't have money problems because of this. IMG_6909 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr So here it is. I am very much in love with my Lego table, I am calling it Hemlock Falls. I have many plans for this display, like having the train elevated over the water part before going thru a tunnel, thru the mountain and out again behind the city. I want to terraform the mountain with a lot of tall angled grey pieces. I have the Green Grocer, Lighthouse Island and an older train station to add to it soon. But ideally I do want to get into MOCing. I am only fresh into this again. Any Leogs I had as a child are long gone, so I don't have any sort of reserve of Lego pieces. Since I'm paying $40-200 a set, I have a hard time taking the sets I have apart. I'd rather just order new pieces and eventually build a stash. It's only been a few months, I have a long way to go. I am thinking about starting MOCing and ordering pieces to fill out the fire station and make it an enclosed building. That seems like an easy, manageable project to start off with. I am looking forward to engaging with this group, learning from and sharing with the members here. Hope this intro wasn't too long-winded or filled with too many links to images. Thanks for your time. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that I also want to make a waterfall coming down from the mountain out of translucent blue and clear round 2x2s, hence the name Hemlock FALLS.

I think they want no bigger than 800x500 IMG_6878 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr Trying from my tablet

IMG_6597 by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr ...creepy

jan26a by Hemlock Falls, on Flickr