jlassen

I've worked on some front landscaping... I kinda like how this looks on the left...

yes. The main gates are based on the design in the original... they had a special feature that moved a pathway forward and backward as the doors opened. I kept the interior hinge design, and just made the doors wider while getting rid of the moving floor. (Though at one point I had the design flipped with the right door's hinges on the outside, and not able to open. The rod iron grate/door on the right is reminiscent of the dungeon cell door of the original kit, and it too opens. Here's the door detail.

Does anybody else spend an unreasonably long time trying to cram functional staircases into too small of a space? After finishing off my Goblin Market, I'm busy converting Raganas's Shadow Castle into a Town Hall Modular knock off. I can't wait to put the dragon head tower on top of this, where the clock tower was in the Town Hall. :) My Goal was to replicate ground floor facade of the castle. I ended up making the castle doors double wide. This was an early start that I abandoned, but recently picked up, which lead to the above staircase madness.

From the "Just Right Is the mortal enemy of Good enough" file... Looking at the Original and Goblin builds side by side, the Tower Roof piece doesn't look right... doesn't over hang the balcony enough. I tried adding some short rails, alla the Scooby doo mystery mansion. but feel like those rails dominate to much... Instead pushed the whole tower-roof-piece out one stud, and built up the back. I think this is the way to go... Thank you. I definitely appreciate the feedback. The heavy castle like design of the first floor does feel kinda of bank like (and in fact is part of what promoted my goblin fortress musings to begin with)... But since that heavy old world stone vibe was part of the original "Grocer", I'm probably going to leave the ground floor shop as is.. the third floor has been remolded in "Argento modern" with red and white tiles though. :)

I fixed the roof topper. cleaned up some interior tile work and the fire escape in back. And added a goblin to the balcony... Heres the Studio file for those who want to play around with it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YvLs9UiRzJLxB_aUGV65IQ-g5Fkp9c7L/view?usp=sharing And here is a side by side view of Original Green grocer, and My Goblin Market.

So I've been looking at my Goblin King fortress (4118), and have wanted to try and make a Modular MOC that utilized the Yellowish Green Color and those quarter cylinder castle pieces. I've often thought about doing a Modified Green Grocer (10185) which honestly is way to expensive for the mediocre Modular that it is... Interiors bad, Expensive rare colored pieces, etc. so I started playing around with combing these two ideas... and the obvious first step was Replacing the Victorian Bay windows in the Green Grocer with some kind of Goblin fortress inspired bay windows, using those cylinder was step number one. The main problem I faced was 1 cylinder high was too short, and two high was too tall. and the whole thing was hard to stabliize. So I ended up creating a step down, and step up on the 2nd and third floors to accommodate my awesome bay window section. Admittedly, this looks more like a cathedral than a castle, but I'm willing to go with it. two tall, with just enough plates in between to stabilize that mess. and built as a separate piece which can be slotted into the 2nd story bit nicely. I decided on the main color being yellowish green rather than having the bay windows be different than the main body of the building. Imagine my surprise when there are no 1x4 yellowish green bricks? No Problem. lots of 3s and 2s and 1s will build these walls just fine. :) I added some texture via tiles on the sides of the windows of the 2nd floor to make up for the lack of notched bricks that the original grocer is known for. Highlight colors bugged me for a while, but the goblin fortress showed the Sand Green and yellowish green set each other off nicely. As an added bonus Roofing tiles come in sand green, as does the Really cool Tower Roof piece from the Scooby doo mystery mansion. So now I'm definitely going with primary highlight as sand green. Dark Green seemed to be a fortuitous fit as a secondary color, given the part needs. The third floor balcony was a bit frustrating at first, but really came out nicely, despite the limited color range options... It turns out my "goblin" bay windows were just the right size to accommodate the round spindled fence, and Disney princess gothic arch. The color pallet being limited to pretty much white still fit nicely with the third floor white window frames. I used dark grey to frame some of the tower bits, and recolored the cornice above the door on the main floor, since it didn't need to match the white bay windows of the original. I totally cheated on the "gargoyle" tower topper heads... sand green goblin head, which doesn't exist, but for now it works. After putting it all together, I still felt the bottom needed to be tied to the accent colors a bit more, so I changed up the awning to match the Dark Green Highlights. the back of the tower roof isn't perfect, but I don't think it looks any worse than the original Grocer's built Copula current roof.

Anybody work up a locomotive/track rebuild of the Star Wars imperial transit set? (75217). Seems like it would be a pretty striaght-forward retrofit. NOt sure if the Great Train (imperial) Robbery scene from the solo movie is of interest to this group... but I feel Licensed trains are sort of on topic... Hogwarts trains get discussed regularly here, anyway. I love a lot of the futuristic/steampunk trains I see. Not sure how some of these Star Wars sets might play into that aesthetic.

OMG. look at that. I had no idea Heartlake city was on the east coast! :) Yes. completely by accident. LOL

quick Version 2.0 Went back to the original nose. Added driver compartment side windows. Lengthened it by 2 studs to accommodate powered trucks in back. Added extra fan, and moved them all back. Spread out the external decorative round tiles, to correspond to external Ad Blue (urea) exhaust gas scrubber units (LOL thanks Dr. Spock).. one on either side of each engine. white hand rail! Bottom grey steps. Vents all along the bottom to visually tie into the grey steps Undertanks colored to match front magenta nose splash Now onto some commuter carriages. I'd like to find some double decker commuter carriages but haven't found any 6 wide designs that I really like. I need to have a trailing Cab/carriage with a drive compartiment, so the train can be run in either push or pull mode, like a lot of contemporary diesel powered commuters...

I'd love to see your efforts. I too though about some of the boat and plane Magenta Pieces, and a more sleek commuter. But for this one I'm opting for a diesel punk look. A victorian Rail station done up in friends colors clearly needs to follow this project. I saw someone convert a city building to a railway station, and that got me thinking about what Freinds set would be a rail/conversion options. I like the cupcake cafe facade and details... that might make a good train station. :)

ack. Good point about the Powered truck being two studs longer. I guess the whole damn thing is going to be 2 studs longer.... GIves room for another Diesel engine in there. No problem. Its now a EMD 103PH conversion for commuter rail server.

Yeah. I'm going to be buying the new (cargo, i think) train sometime this month, and will use the powered trucks and receiver from that to power the heart-lake express at some point... Though I'll probably tinker through V2 and 3 of the engine by the time I get around to building it and some commuter carriages... Hopefully by Christmas! I have all of the white and grey pieces already, and lot of Lavender pieces already... but I think 2-3 coaches worth of lavender will require some special orders.... bah. Vintage diesel-electric, which has been converted to run on biodiesel? Seems very "Friends" to me. :) And when the Friends characters discover that the evil mayor is trying to destroy Heartlake City's commuter rail, they band together to stop him, by revealing the donations from auto manufacturers, and explaining to the public (via, among other things, an all-star benefit concert, of course) how commuter rail is one of the key-ways to stop global climate... Their campaign results in EXPANDED service, instead of destruction of the line, with 3 more EMD 103's being converted to Biodesiel! wooo! go Friends-theme Fan-fic!

I created the driver compartment specifically for mini-dolls.. the friends figures... Engineer would fit sitting down, and it's got a Panel that the doll feet slot into to hold it in place under the control panel. Rear/side seat may need to be lowered a plate so mini doll head doesn't hit top.. not sure. But either way the minidolls will fit in the shown compartment. Two more can stand on the edge of the compartment on either side of the center seat. Pretty sure I can cram 4 mini-dolls into there. :)

I thought there might be some interest here, for my Friends themed train.... I posted it over in the train tech forum.

I wanted to created a Friends-themed diesel engine…. An early F7 style diesel locomotive that could be pulling a set of streamlined passenger coaches. There is plenty of commuter rail in the US still using old diesel workhorses like the fp40, so I figured a theoretical “Heartlake Express” Might be running something a bit older and more streamlined. I started off with Murdoch17’s EMD demonstrator (Here’s a link to version 3, but I modded an earlier version). I liked the 2 color livery design, and it seemed like it would be a pretty straightforward conversion to a “Heartlake Express” style livery. Given the existing parts and colors, Medium Lavender and white would be a good color scheme with some of the more functional bits (handgraps, vents on top and sides, etc. getting a light blue grey. I flirted with trying to make the trucks light blue grey, but I decided to keep them black so they would match a powered truck, as well as a custom unpowered one of the original design. I kept the 1x3 arch in the front nose Magenta, since the piece doesn’t exist in Lavender, and the extra splash of color at the nose feels fine. I could have made this piece white, but I wanted to break it up the white on the nose and continue the color from the sides...even if it was a different color. I Considered using Magenta for some other trim or accents… we will see. Maybe on the coaches. First thing I did was slightly redesign the nose. I wanted to hint at a streamline diesel design, rather than a heavy hauling switcher. I did keep the ability to light up the front headlight, from the original design by Murdock17…. There’s room to run a lego train light wire all the way to the powerbrick, undeneath the drivers compartment. Next Major thing I did was redisn the base plate so it had an opening for a powered truck cable. Given the placement of the wheels in the original design, I couldn’t use an existing train base plate, but given the double plate thickness of the original design, it wasn’t hard to keep it strong and functional. I also changed the color scheme on the undertanks below the center of the baseplate to match the rest of the “functional trim.” The cab windows were a challenge since there was no good window that looked good on the side of the cab in the correct color, so I built a frame and have open windows. Might be okay to ad a 1x1 Lavender brick and 1x1 see through brick, but I’ll leave em open for now. The ladder up between the hand grips didn’t have a 1x2x1 panel in the correct color, so I built out a slightly deeper solution for the lavender portion of the steps. Not perfect, but meh. I also think it's possible to build functional opening doors with the 1x4 swivel base, even though they don’t come in the right color, using tile plates… but that bit of detail along with the above “window” fix may be for the next version.. Since there aren’t any doors, I need to make this with a removable top to put the figures inside and to also allow easy access to the Power Brick. In order to do that, I had to move the side vents down 1 plate lower. I opted for a single removable top. With the new power functions receiver, it can be completely internal… No need for a line of sight IR transceiver. Just a 4x4x8 block internally. Next big thing was to create an interior driver’s compartment. I rejiggered some of the front interior, so I could simply place a built out cockpit block inside the body. This allows for replacing a mini-doll cockpit with a minfig cockpit. Most modern Lego city trains only have room for 1 operator, but I added a side facing control counsel, since there is so much room inside this. A bit out of spec for the prototype, as this driver area extends it back where the side venting is.. But again… I don’t care… It’s a nice balance between external visuals, and play value. I could add windows up there, and where the front top vent is, but that too is for a 2.0, I think. I could also then move the fans back to be above the theoretical placement of the diesel engines. With the driver’s compartment section and the power brick providing a bunch of stability, I removed all the crossbeams that ran through the interior of the original design, and created a base for the power brick that allows cables to run underneath it. If I was really being hardcore, I would make the front roof, and the back roof separately detachable. But all one piece probably provides a bit more stability. Also given the rear grab handles, I could possible make a visible Diesel engine in back section, but I’ll save that for version 2.0. There is probably an opportunity to use the fan hole as a place for the power on/power off switch. Again, something for 2.0, I think. I didn’t care for how the transparent dishes looked on the side of the original model, so I swapped them out form some round plates… The original prototype had windows under the vent, and that is what the dishes were modeling, but I decided for some external knobley/crunchy bits to break up the side panel. In real life these dieseals were constantly getting cutouts, and boxes welded onto the side, as engine and component upgrades demanded. I made the front round tile on the side a pre-printed piece from the lego elves set. This would be a nice spot for a custom printed Heart Lake Express logo…. A heart with Wings...

If the new modular is going to be a Hotel, Please let it be the Chelsea Hotel. :)

I just went to my lego store and they said the new trains were "delayed" due to quality control issues, and they wouldn't have them until august. I thought at least one of them was VIP on sale this month. Is this a real delay, or just BS madeup on they didn't know?

Friends Roller coaster (41130). is this one still in production? I hope so... nice to have different colored track options. "friends light blue"

There might be no way to actually achieve this, but could you theoretically have a trailing and leading pivot point, and only have one of them engaged, depending if you are pushing or pulling? Would that address some of the binding issues when pushing?

I like the Idea of putting the open staircase of the Parisian restaurant next to the Diner's staircase.... allowing side details on both to be more visible... I don't think its an accident that diner and Parisian restaurants side staircases mirror each other like that. YES. I am in this line.

The no armed "bad guy" dragons is a tradition from other Lego themes.

I think this is really really cool. Significantly better than the hodge-podge that was assembly square. I love this. Good Price point. will get it first day of release. Also. complaining it "Doesn't fit" ignores the fact that most cities are NOT homogeneous. IMO, this makes a city feel more realistic, and less "Thomas Kinkaid"

I think "bad Guy" dragons are not supposed to have front arms. Just rear Legs, right?

LOL. I got excited for some detailed winter modular. I guess I have to buy a couple of the friends winter holiday sets and make my own.

booo. Very upset we get a Bat Shuttle, but no bat train in 2018. 70923: The Bat-Space Shuttle