Doctor Octoroc

Thanks for the kind words! I do like the original Jin Mao as well, just needed it to be at a more appropriate scale. I personally think the newer one looks more refined but another reason I wanted to change it is how similar the build was to Two International Finance Centre and I wanted it to be different. What did you like better about the original one? I also completed the Burj Al Arab but am having a hard time getting the flex tubes accurately represented in the render and instructions. MLCad has a very difficult to use method for creating flex tubes and the part from Lego Digital Designer didn't import so I'm exploring another program, LDCad, to see what I can do to incorporate it.

By multiple requests, the London Shard! A few iterations before I settled on this one, I think it turned out nicely, especially at this scale and compared to other models even at larger scales.

I'll add them to the to do list! Also, two more finished - 23 Marina and Cayan Tower!

I wasn't entirely happy with my previous build of the Jin Mao Tower, plus it was a bit too tall - must have miscalculate the height before building it - so I revamped it at a slightly smaller scale and I think the result is better than the previous incarnation.

And one more for the night, 432 Park Avenue in New York, NY.

Another model finished, the Ostankino TV Tower. I love these towers because they're not too difficult to get the look right, it's just about finding the right pieces and combination of rods within to hold it all together!

I didn't choose the scale ahead of time, it just works out to be that. I started by building the Burj Khalifa and scaled everything in relation to that so I counted the height of the Burj in LEGO plates and then determined, based on its actual height, how tall each LEGO plate would be and it worked out to be 25ft per plate so I used that to calculate how high each building image in my reference file needed to be where each plate is 4 pixels high. It was totally arbitrary and I didn't think about what the actual scale would be beforehand. But since I scale most of the buildings up to the nearest plate, that would drop the scale down a little so 1:2400 would be the closest standard scale to mine.

Yeah, it's about that. "Exact" scale is 1:2466 so you can round that up or down as you please. I generally round each model up to the nearest "plate" height as determined by the guide I created where I have a specific height I resize each building reference image to the same fraction of its actual height and place it on a set of rows that represent LEGO plates. That's how I determine how many plates high it needs to be to be the right size in comparison to the others and how I make sure certain features of the building are as close as they can be to their respective plate heights in that reference guide. Also, another model done - I was never very happy with the official model for the John Hancock Center so I took a stab at my own build of it. It's the same concept with offset stud plates being used to 'step' up for the the angle of the structure but I utilized side stud bricks and tiles to create a more textured look and have one antenna higher than the other as it should be. I also built the additional small structures to the side to be more accurate to their actual size so instead of an oversized parking garage using 2x2 round plates I used 1x1 round and square pieces to represent that and the other building beside it.

This one was a challenge. I tried a dozen other methods just to create the general shape at this scale and nothing seemed to work while trying to use flex hoses, hinges, etc. In the end, I ended up using four sided studded bricks at alternating 45 degree angles to suggest the rotation and get the shape right.

I'm on a role today haha. One more for you, another request for the Trump Tower in Chicago, IL. This one took awhile to get a good look - I wrestled with various angled slopes to no avail then decided to get a bit more creative with a combination of curved slopes and cheese wedges around the outside. The result isn't as accurate to the shape but the overall appearance and layout is much better than anything else I could come up with.

I'm not sure, but I get similar problems with Google Earth, Lego Digital Designer and select other programs that I believe all use OpenGL so it's probably that. I downloaded it last week so it was probably the newest version unless they just released that update within the past few days.

Another one finished - a second request for City of Capitals. I found some other builds in a similar scale where the builder used 2x2's with center studs to offset the sections but I found it more appealing to offset them with 1x1 plates on the corners.

Two more models, sets of instructions and cover pages finished! The Princess Tower, a relatively simple one and by request, I did the Oriental Pearl Tower, which was a challenge at this scale but managed to make creative use of a gun piece for the three legs - I only wish this and the Technic pegs I used were available in tan to match the main tower shaft.

I'm sticking with already built skyscrapers for the time being, if nothing else to make the task at hand seem less daunting haha. There are nearly a dozen new super and mega tall skyscrapers being built this year alone so I'll have my hands full once they start completing them. But I am excited to get to that one once it's officially complete! And now that I've finished the last of the instructions for all currently completed digital models, it's time to start building more. I made one attempt at Burj al Arab but at the small scale (it would be the shortest one that I've made for this series yet) it's a real challenge to get the shape right without too much plate stepping or awkward joints. I'm trying to incorporate flexi-hoses into the build but since they only have factory lengths in all the digital builders and don't allow cutting the hose down as some official sets have done (Seattle Space Needle), it's hard to do so with complete accuracy. I may try my hand at another one for the time being and revisit at a later time...

I'll definitely consider it, although at 180 feet, it's not very tall But considering the historical significance, I suppose an exception can be made. On the topic of tall... In hind's sight, it's not quite as good as I thought it was when I first finished it...I was excited that I found a build style that was different from the official model but despite the improved base, the rest leaves a bit to be desired...I just wanted to steer clear from the ridiculous number of 1x1 cylinders.

That's the plan! I just have to gather some funds first. Can you link me to that one? I'm essentially working my way from tallest down to shortest since the idea is building all the tallest skyscrapers but if it fits the bill, certainly! It took me a few days but I finally finished the instructions for Makkah. I think my graphics card has an incompatibility issue with LPub3d as it's constantly crashing :-/

Thanks for the kind words, I'm also pretty anxious to get these built in real life - got too much on my plate right now to get to them just yet, that's why it's nice having digital versions to tide me over. And I love your work as well, Tom. Micro builds are my favorite, they actually got me started into doing Architecture style at this scale - well, that and spending two years studying architecture lol. Nice, this'll be a good starting off point for round 2 haha. I was definitely already thinking about the Oriental Pearl Tower and Bank of China. London Shard will definitely be a challenge...I really hate letting studs show on my models.

I certainly will! I'm currently putting together the instructions for Makkah - 806 pieces, making it the largest piece count we'll probably see from any of these and probably around 90-100 pages of instructions, best guess. Any suggestions on the next one from anyone once I finish up the last two sets of instructions for the one's I've already built?

Thanks! I took a few cues from some other builds but many of them used stacked plates for the three angled portions around the outside so I wanted to to a cleaner look for my build. Speak and you shall receive! Tokyo Sky Tree is done.

Yeah, my plan is to order all of the pieces at once from Brick Link along with extras so I have everything I need to build all of them. I may also make some changes in construction along the way and want to change the digital builds and instructions to reflect them. As of now, aside from all the covers I've already posted, I have three more models completed and awaiting the MLCad/LPub treatment - Tokyo Sky Tree, Makka Royal Clock Tower Hotel (this one's a beast lol) and my own take on the Burj Khalifa. That one I'm especially proud of as I made numerous previous attempts to improve upon LEGO's design and finally came up with something I liked better

And one more for you guys, the tallest one yet - Shanghai tower. Also the most pieces and number of pages for the instructions! The build is actually pretty simple, a lot of repetition. For anyone that's built the White House, you know what I'm talking about...

See below Thank you kindly! Two more sets of instructions and covers finished - the CN Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center!

Thanks! I mean, it's basically what LEGO is already doing but there are limits to the feasibility of certain buildings since some wouldn't sell as well as those they've already put out. But that's why there are AFOL's in this world :-) Eventually I'll be making select instructions available, I'm just working on churning them out right now for the buildings I've already designed. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with them yet but I may put together some sort of KS campaign to raise the funds to build my own complete set while offering the complete package of instructions and some other goodies as rewards, including physical instruction booklets and full kits for higher levels.

That's good to know. I have a number of workflows for other programs that depend on me memorizing certain settings since I'm always switching back and forth so I may end up doing this in the future if my builds get more intensive than 200 pcs or less models.

I'll get posting haha. I'll take a stab at it myself. I have some minor programming background so I should be able to find any irregularities in the code itself if that's where they are. Thanks for the offer - I may take you up on that once I've surpassed the newbie status around here :-) Aaannndddd, found it! The preferences had the measurement units set to to cm - probably because it was a UK download haha. Didn't realize this since the previous instructions I opened was already set to inches. This should solve the issue, I'll pop back on if it looks like the original issue is still happening.