paupadros

Updated with Baseplate Alley. Yay! Ten modulars everyone, a little under four years of work behind these ten best friends of mine. Seeing Magic Shop now is kind of seeing that friend from when you were younger that you spent all your afternoons with, but that you've not seen in a while. Yee old Magic Shop really is getting kind of yee old.

Some of the interesting reference I’ve been getting into recently (not that it stands any chance of becoming a real Lego set or anything....) Mackintosh’s Tea Rooms: https://www.mackintoshatthewillow.com Neoplasticist architectural designs https://www.mackintoshatthewillow.com Variius American things: https://www.museothyssen.org/coleccion/artistas/estes-richard/peoples-flowers Just to get some more varied ideas rolling other than Art Nouveau, Art Déco.. Add more unique ideas everyone!

Wait. I totally thought he'd signed a secret deal with Lego for it to become the next modular set.

I love cars and, for some reason, have xero interest in seeing them in modulars PR is almost as deep as DD and doesn't have a car. From personal experience, I can tell you that it's very easy to go over the 2200-2500 piece range, even as much as 4000 pieces in a single 32x32 just in adding small detailing. Nice to see you back!! As always, teasing with us. My first thought was promo for the Creator Expert large vehicle. But if like this year with the Mustang, it's in March, that's also unlikely. Maybe for 2021 modular? Honestly, it sounds like that flower cart polybag they did for DO in 2015. A complement that works well in any modular.

I couldn't be able to say nasty words even if I wanted! This is a perfect model, beautiful to look at, nicely detailed all around and especially superb shaping. I really like the cone at the first grey bit on top of the tan house and the integration of the windows there, amazing! Very very hard to point out something that feels off, so I just won't I like the use of the fully-studded finish on the model, it gives it that great "it looks real, but it has that Lego charm to it". In that aspect, it reminds me of @Pate-keetongu's house from New Century Corner II, but better overall and put in a more fitting context. Congrats!

You could keep the whole wall of bricks for the exterior and add the clip inside (I mean, maybe a parallel clip attachment a brick further inside.

Great model! Needless to say that the interior detailing is superb. It’s also true that its kind of hard to really go wrong with it, but it really does capture the atmosphere of a crowded pub. I’m a big fan of what you’ve done architecturally in the ground level. It’s something I also often do in my own modulars, pulling the ground level that extra stud or two to give it all that plus of charisma. I think the black works wonders for that area. The rest of the design screams less “British” to me personally, but that’s coming from someone who has not put two feet on english land for a little while. The roofline is a bit over-the-top, but who cares, really it looks jarring and fun and good anyways. You took me back to Temple Bar for a minute or two with this cool build!

Cool idea! Seeing the updates you’ve done over at Ideas, I can’t help but flinch when seeing the Technic brick to 1x1 SNOT brick attachment. Not only half-illegal due to the difference in height of the placement of the SNOT bit and the Technic hole and on the 1x1 brick but also bizarre when there’s better options. Maybe a bar to clip would work better Anyway, cool design.

Thank you @koalayummies, it means a lot coming from you. I was really trying to go further with what a modular could be. I’ve been doing that from the past two years but this model is the one that pushes it furthest and best. I started with 45-degree façades (Sweets & Co., A Summer in Tuscany), then I tried curved façades (Klee Corner, Disco 2000 Vinyl Store), which I never got to entirely work in a completely modular fashion and now this. I believe this is the basis for any modular. One can any two building using this same format; it’s quite flexible. Everything here is detailled and thought with extreme care. I also really like how the striped model turned out. It was a colour scheme I had hanging around for a little while in my little library (alongside blue+orange of the other building) that I took out for a walk in this model. Colours and shapes work as one, which is what you always want. I’m aslo a big fan of having the ground floors be completely different to what’s on top, this way you can have almost two façades in a single building. The windows and the lamps were inspired by a building in Berlin and Earth Blue is a subtle enough colour not to overshadow the striped façade but to give a little bit of personality to that area of the model. I really like how both ground floors (the earth blue and the black one) are basically the same but with subtly different details: windows are mirrored from one to the other, one used chees slopes, the other one uses the new 1x1 bow pieces. The side and the back area, as you mention, were necessary to give the model some breathing space. Imagine it all being blue! It was inspired by Lego’s own DD, only the transition being more abrupt here. Sometimes I overthink the buildings, so it was refreshing to just go around building that side area with almost no SNOT (I was kinda sick of so much SNOT in the other two façades) with medium nougat and flame yellow as my only two colours. I think it works as a side façade, but it might be lacking the charisma to be the visible face of the model. I also really like the ventilation shaft/open area/patio in the middle of the building. It allowed me to divide the interiors without using any extra walls in two rooms and it shrank the interior spaces that I always struggle with. Thanks a lot!!

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been longing for a good European modular for two years. Ornated windows, gables, piteched roofs maybe...

“It also didn’t hurt that I have spent quite a bit of my time inside British pubs over the years” I agree with what you say about the humour in the sets, I also try to put it in myself. Super cool feature!

I think it will be another unusual combo. If they’re sticking with American, I bet they’ll go for records store; nothing quite like it in the previous fourteen models and opens up oportunities for great detailing. For me, as I bet for many, the exterior architecture is everything. Yes, if the interiors feel bad/kinda lazy (looking at you CG ), it’s definitely something I dislike, but if the model feels architecturally boring, badly coloured or (again looking at you CG ) the architecture seems infantile; lacking all the realistic but at the same time fantasy-flavoured Jamie designs, or even the DD, it’s a complete no no for me.

Great model! There’s lots of interesting things to point out that made me go “wow, that’s great!”. Firstly, the layout of the model. I’ve personally never seen a building with this shape in real life, but maybe they’re popular in the north side of Europe. Anyway, I think it’s quite daring and that is works well. Secondly, how the hell have you crammed so much in so little space! As for details go, I really like the red staircase leading upstairs, the blue awnings and the covered up arches in the bottommost part of the building (sewer arches I guess, really cool!) I’m not a huge fan of the colours, especially using tan as a colour to frame it all together and for the windows of the blue towers. When designing myself modulars, I always end up (I don’t know why) using super bold, insanely highly contrasted colours. Your work is usually the opposite, more traditional architecture and more muted colours, but I anyway like it. I think it lacks a bit of consistence throughout, the eyes are a bit lost when they get to the sand green façades; very prominent tan horizontal striping and missing vertical striping. I think that the building looks a bit smaller due to this small issue. Anyway, a superb model.

Glad it worked! I knew it was possible but I'd never used it myself

I think you can do that through Rebrickable, but I don't know if you can upload Stud.io files there.

Thanks! Thanks a lot @peedeejay! Means a lot coming from such a good builder. I think that my models ofen fall for many people at the "it's great but why did he have to do this/do that!". I think that with this one I've achieved a balanced modular that is just on the verge of craziness, besides the inevitable colour choices (it's not something I even strive for, I just build this way!), the rest follows some logical rules. The detailing is never over-the-top and doesn't detract from the building, the colours are located in single areas and not splattered around the model. I think that the issue with some of my previous models was over-texturing, but also changing the render engine creates bigger differences between the lit-up and the darkened areas, so everything seems more polished here. Again, thanks a lot!

Great model with what you had to work with! Especially the whole right section with the terrace and the red roofs, but the little tower also looks proper and makes it fit with the modular street well. Of course, if you had gone full adaptation to modular format, it would have worked better (with baseplate and sidewalk) but it looks fine too Reminds me of aa modular by @Giacinto Consiglio, let me find it I really like it! And it maintains the spirit of the original too.

Well... This model has been featured on The Brothers Brick! They already featured my brother's School of Athens earlier this summer, but this is an extremely pleasant surprise. https://www.brothers-brick.com/2019/09/13/not-a-drab-grey-brick-in-sight/

Interesting model. I'm definitely not the most credited to comment on this model (I don't have a single WV set!) but I think that it's one of those models that looks better from a distance than from close up. I get the cartoonised idea, but a little more actual architectural detail would have done no bad. Plus, I think that the reddish brown façade is a tad dark, dark orange I think would have worked better. That said, it seems much larger than 1400 bricks. I mean, full interior and large exterior. The roofs are a huge plus, they offer magnificent visual presence and open up interior space. The chimney is a cool idea and I really like the simple but nice stocking build.

Little details! One is turned the other way round. Maybe I will, but I think it's also fun to let people find it out rather than throwing it at their faces. Thanks a lot! You could build a whole modular using the same technique but with buildings you do like. The format is very flexible, you just need to build two 12-wide models and placing them in that exact angle.

Thank you! In my street, I also tend to have windows recessed half or a full stud in so it's also fun for a change. As little of a change as it is, it really makes the windows ten times more visible and more vital to get right for the build. All the plate designs in the blue building are purely decorational. In fact, I've kept them as a vestige of what I wanted to put in here. Originally, I played with another psychedelic pattern for that façade (one that looked a bit like a staricase using white, red, green and black), but both buildings clashed too much so I simplified the design to this simple classic Blue. I the texture as it is now is subtle and adds to the build, unlike previously where the pattern ruined it. I had written faux newspapers for modular town before, they had to have the publisher somewhere! I'm not sure about what you mean in the last paragraph. The fact that both the striped and the blue façades are not in the grid? Thank you anyway. Btw, I love your library build.

Thanks a lot @ExeSandbox! It really does mean a lot coming from you, I love your builds so much. I was a bit hesitant about the colour choices, but I think they balance out one another quite effectively. As for the green baseplate, you might be right, but more than a conscious choice it's just that I design the models on this green baseplate (I prefer imagining a flat green field than a desert-like tan slab of nothing ). Definitely no need to complicate the windows more; I did try out some more orante designs but they gathered too much attention and I wanted the façade colours and the façade detailing to catch the attention first. The thing is... I'm really bad at lighting design . I struggle quite a bit with placing additional lights to enhance the HDRi. I prefer just to play around with the orientation of the HDRi itself until it creates nice shadows rather than faking it using lamps. The interiors too are done using HDRIs. Just find a warmer one, add some DOF and you're done! Thanks a lot again. I don't know when I'll build a new model, time is quite sparse! Thanks! The building does the promo for them. Where's your art gallery? Oh, in that crazy angled strpied bizarre building thing. I just didn't want to add any extra signage around. Thank you! The colour choices came way later, but I think that the model is attractive for the colours at first glance and the nifty angles are what turn it into something more than a screaming diva. Lego is an extremely versatile medium. I follow your content quite a bit. I mean, your models have nothing to envy mine. I sometimes wish I could build a classic modular, with all the intricate details, the gabled roofs, but, I don't know why, I always end up designing bizarre Frankensteins. Anyway, thanks for your comment, really appreciated!

Thanks a lot @Bricked1980! Without a doubt, this was not a rushed model. It took a little while to even come up with the way to build the triangles and it was two/three months more before I realised that I had to duplicate the triangular façade to make the model more harmonious. Because I mainly build in LDD, towards the end I had to do trial and error back and forth in Mecabricks to make sure that all the designs I planned on doing using newer pieces were actually feasible (mainly the roofline that wraps around the back, the Medium Nougat one). The colours are something I always take lots of care about. The colours of the striped façade are actually taken from my own model; I used a very similar colour scheme for the floor of the Pharmacy in Klee Corner and the blue/orange colours were one of those "why hadn't I thought of that before". I think they work well. The whole alleyway is, as you correctly point out, reminiscent of Dowtown Diner. It framed the space well. Another façade there would have ruined both the other two façades and the "breathing space" of the model (plus it's already on 3500 bricks, so quite part-heavy). All the renderings are done using Blender, with @Scrubs' magnificent add-on, of course. I'm surprised how well they turned out. I used HDRIs (360 images of lighting) of skies to make the lighting seem absolutely real, not studio lighting, outdoors lighting. Interiors are never my thing (hence why I put a ventilation shaft, to make the interior spaces smaller and to have less space to ruin ) and I was trying to come up with an original design, but yours is very good, so I just rolled with it hoping you woun't get mad. So glad you like it!

Head to Baseplate Alley and have a blast! Here it is finally, my tenth modular building! Almost a full year after my previous (Disco 2000 Vinyl Store), I’ve put together enough ideas to fill a whole 32x32 baseplate. Architecturally, I believe this is my most complete model. The designs throughout are not only daring but also well-balanced and complement one another, something I used to struggle quite a bit with. Both buildings are almost identical in shape and proportions and vary in details and colours. In fact, originally there only was one building: the striped one on the right. I loved it so much, but I was struggling to find something that would complement it well. In the end, I thought. “If I love how this turned out, why not repeat the already existing motifs to create a grander picture?” (almost like you would in a song; the chorus and the melodies are often repeated various times). The building on the left is my favourite of the two. The orange and bright blue colour scheme of the model is taken from Henri Matisse’s “The Dance” painting and I think it looks marvellous. Both buildings sit on a rather peculiar angle. I was looking for a way to offset the model from the usual 90-degree grid and found that two of the piece 54384 (https://brickset.com/parts/design-54384) turned at about 20 degrees filled about 12.5 studs and that allowed me to build an angled façade without any seams! Duplicating that didn’t solve the slight error, but some handy trickery helped hiding it. The rest of the model is completed with Medium Nougat façades on top of a Sand Green ground floor. I especially like how the windows in Sand Green (inspiration from my own previous model) work with the façade with yellow windows on the side. My favourite bit to build of modular are cornices and rooflines; it’s quite amazing how they can transform the look of a building. The one for the striped building is one that I’ve wanted to put on a model for a really long time; I think it’s really elegant and that it suits the building nicely (I’ve had it built for roughly a year and a half). The one for the blue building is a brand-new design especially designed to both enhance the other building (this one’s set slightly further back in some areas) and make the blue building have an almost castle feeling. The roofline for the nougat part is the minimum expression of the same concept of the white roofline. Using the new arches from the large Hogwarts Castle and the 1x1 bow pieces also found to top off the black box on the ground floor of the blue building, I’ve created this wave design. It’s rather simple to be honest, only impossible for a very long time. ================== Interiors: Interiors have never been my biggest strength, but I’ve put extra effort to make them really pop in this model (it’s my tenth, I should start getting better, shouldn’t I? ). The nature of the façade makes this modular way more modular than any of my previous models. Both top floors detach into three parts, one for each façade and one for the actual interior. This was not intentional but makes this model way more playable. Beyond that, I’ve also added an open ventilation shaft to add more interest to the interior and more light to all the rooms. Here’s a 3D view of the model with all its sections: https://www.mecabricks.com/en/models/Geje68pxvKX. 1. Ground floor: On the ground floor are two art galleries. They have interpretations of real-life works (I will admit that some of them are not particularly easy to identify), but you can find a Picasso, a Manet, a Botticelli, a Mondrian and a Matisse. I bet you’ll see the last one. They’re telling me that Matisse himself has decorated the façade of the left building using the colours from the piece he’s presenting here… Who knows, maybe it’s the art gallery that is running low on cash! I really like how this rendering turned out, it really tells a story. 2. Middle floor: Both the top floors are dedicated to the publisher of the ABS-famous newspaper “Stud Times”. Today’s edition is a packed one! The Iron Horse is closing because of chef Emma’s death, the celebrity detective Ace Brickman is seen eating in Jim’s Diner rather than at the usual Chez Albert, news about battered leg assemblies and even a front cover advert of face transplants! On the middle floor we have the machine printing out the newspapers with all the needed tools and equipment. There’s also a hidden little play feature, there’s a little rotating crank for extra movement (it doesn’t actually do anything). And before you say it, yes, the windows on the back are copied from Downtown Diner. 3. Top floor: Piles and piles of newspapers, typewriters (the design is the same one @Bricked1980 used in his Police Station), four clocks to check what time it is in the various parts of the globe, phones, coffee mugs to swallow the sweat, a fax machine and, of course, a paper bin to throw away texts with mistakes! ================== To see everything that I haven’t been able to explain in words, feel free to take a look at the model yourselves, many of the “how was this/that made” are visible! From here I encourage all the digital builders to upload their models to Mecabricks, there's hardly anything more enriching as a builder than seeing how others are building! 3D view of the model: https://www.mecabricks.com/en/models/Lkj9DgqB2Ap 3D view of the interiors (+ how the façades are built) https://www.mecabricks.com/en/models/Geje68pxvKX =================== Thanks for reading through and hope you like the model! PD: Please, could you comment on the various things I've changed in presentation. Mainly rendering engine and format of the image (now a squarer 3300x2550 format rather than the wider 3840x2160 format). Please say someone got thejokes in the newspaper

It's finally happening! My tenth modular building is finally coming super soon! It has been a whole year since I last posted a modular. Of course, I haven't been building this model all this time but I can definitely assure you it has taken sweat and tears to finish it. I'm finishing off some renderings as of writing this. It's my favourite of my ten modulars (yes, better than the whole bunch Klee Corner, Sweets & Co., A Summer in Tuscany, Magic Shop...). I've been focusing a lot on making the model as perfect as possible. I love everything about it, the colours are a banger and so are the design details I've snuck in. It's the model that I've wanted to build all these years and it's extremely fitting that it's my tenth. I only dreamt of having ten modulars on my portofolio when I began designing Magic Shop. I must admit that on the path here there have been many points where I've gone: that's it, I've got no more ideas, every modular building has already been built, but I was obviously wrong. (I don't know if anyone will remember but this would actually be my eleventh if you counted Casa Vicens, a scrapped model of mine). Oh, I've moved to Blender to render my images to make them extra pretty and I have one ready for you. I'm so excited for you to finally see this model! Soon, I promise! Some fun easter eggs in the newspaper (anyone remember a similar one from A Summer in Tuscany? ). Oh, and the name of the modular on the street plaque.