Hrw-Amen

Looks like there could be some fun had with fast trains and corners with these on those sharp LEGO tracks curves? Many an hours play potential there.

Can we see them with the containers stacked on them please?

So most of these alien vehicles look like they are planet based crawlers and are piloted by alien crew. Do we think they are actually alive as some of the smaller ones appear to be unpiloted? Is it a case that they get a pilot at the certain stage of maturity, are the little ones just babies or are they fullt grown but of a different bug species? Does being small and able to act alone make the small ones actually smarter as they do not need to be piloted, or are they as I said just babies acting out of instinct with the swarm? What benefit do the piloted ones get? Is it sort of symbiotic or are the pilots really in control or does the bug get a say, or even is the bug alive at all, mis it just some alien craft constructed to look like a bug? If this is the case then why do they have smaller un-manned (Un-aliened?) ones at all?

I usually build stuff with an aim of going 7 studs wide as my standard, but often when overhang is required they go to 8 studs wide. I am pretty sure that you could get an overhang in just 8 studs wide if you used some plate techniques as Commander Wolf suggests. I think the trick maybe to build a 7 wide body to sit on the standard 4 wide wheel frame and work from that. The trick is to use a layer of jumper plates to get the half stud offset. As it is only one plate it does not add much to the overall height and you can easily make the transit back to normal even stud width within one brick depth as you are then working in plate height, not bricks. Building an odd number wide body is quite easy really as long as you have enough of those jumper bricks to support it.

I think the main issue here is with the perspective in which your City is seen. It looks like a group of building squeezed in between a train track, which is OK as that is what it is. To start with i would build tunnel ends where the train runs around the back. You may not want to build a tunnel all the way along the back as that could take a lot of bricks, but feel free to if you want. A way around this would be perhaps to put in a facade of building fronts in front of the railway line to the rear. It would block the view of the train running around the back and then when it appears from the tunnel at one end it seems as though the train has come from a long way off and not just been around the block so as to speak. That would add a depth to your streets and to the buildings in general as well as forming a backdrop and giving the impression of the train arriving from elsewhere and of course leaving to elsewhere. I think the other thing to remember is that a display like this is never really finished, so if you have a gap or the bits between the road and railway are not fully finished I would not get too hung up over it, it will be in time and you know this, you cannot expect to have the whole thing built straight away. That would take away the fun of building for it as well. Just take it a step at a time as long as you have an over all plan as to the way you want to go.

Wonderful build as everyone has said but I have to ask how you managed to get the trees that thin to stand up? I have trouble getting ones with thicker trunks to stand up without bits falling off of them, I imagine that a simple breeze would blow those over. Any trick on the strong tree building would be good, Having said that the scaffold must be quite strong to take the hamster, I know they are not that big but compared to a mini-figure it would be like sitting a fully grown elephant on real life scaffold! Still a wonderful blend of plates to get that perfect brick look and a wonderful surrounding. Surely this one will last abd not be taken to bits again, it looks a bit to good for that?

A very nice and interesting town layout. I think to see it in the real world would be so good to get to look for all those hidden details that one may not notice from a photograph! One thing that worries me though, on your river photograph, is that boat really going to fit under the bridge? I have visions of the owner loosing his push-bike along with the roof of cabin if it does not make it!

I agree with most of what people have said, although I would not want to grumble about your photos as mine are far from perfect most of the time. It could do with a bit more E/N detailing on the sides, maybe one or two passenger windows. (Perhaps just one as it is not that long.) In my experience of British trains of this sort the baggage car is (Or was.) Rarely just a baggage car and was at least partly given over to passengers, sometimes just four or six seats. I agree that the doors in DBG are not that accurate but then again we are limited to what colours are available. When I built my baggage car for my main passenger train (In Green.) I used two of those doors on each side, at least then it gives the functionality of a double opening sliding door which reduces the effect of it being the wrong colour somewhat at least i think it does. Admittedly there is not a lot of room (My carriages i did this on were 40 odd studs long.) on yours, but I do think it would look better myself. One other thing that I have noticed with British trains of the era is that sometimes although the carriages were often of the same type or style and in the same livery they often had different coloured roofs, you would get a train with say all the cars having light grey roofs and one that had a black roof. The observation comes from a childhood spent standing a top railway tunnels watching them going through. If possible to give a better effect it may be a good idea to give your baggage car a black roof. It would still fit in with the train but mark it out as slightly different. I think it was simply that many of the post war carriages on BR trains were maintained over many many years sometimes in different batches and so these odd little things crept in. I know that sometimes it is hard to build these details and can be costly to get all the bits, but it can be worth the while even if you only get them a bit at a time. It makes for a very nice train. But you have made a very good start with your's so nothing to worry about. I expect that it looks pretty good running around with the other coaches behind your E/N?

It is a very nice looking engine, nothing like a large steam engine really. I must agree with you on the tender, I think it is rather nice and I also like to greeble the wheels on my tenders as it does tend to hide them and they never look at all like LEGO train wheels on the real thing so it is a very nice job you have done. Do you still have your old train from 2006 or has it been taken apart for parts? (A fate many steam trains suffer from be they LEGO or otherwise.) I like to keep all mine built, once they are made they are made! But I understand it is not always possible.

I don't know much about American engines to be honest, but it looks good to me simply as something i would recognise as an American loco. Sorry I cannot comment on it's dimensions but I like the overall look of it.

The doors are nice and the whole idea is a good one. Where I live we have a railway track that runs around the side of our harbour down to the ferry terminal from the main station. When i was a kid it was used all the time and I remember watching the 'Boat Trains' snaking along the road with cars and other vehicles queuing up behind it. They used to have a man with a red flag walking in front and often they had to get the police in the move cars that had parked in such a way as to over hang the line. Although the track is still there it is hardly used now (Since about 1984/85.) and only once in a while, say every couple of years for a special train. Every time they do there is a big fuss locally with many people saying that railways and traffic do not mix and that the rails should be torn up as they are dangerous to cyclists and motorcyclists. Well, I have ridden a cycle and motorcycle many times down there (Sometimes being stuck behind the train in my youth.) and have never fallen off. I think that the problem is that they are used so infrequently now that many people just do not realise there are metal tracks embedded in the tarmac, as time goes on less and less people can recall the trains running. Yet when I go to other towns especially in continental Europe many have trains or trams running as part of the infrastructure and i don't hear shouts from the locals the tear the lines up! So yes, (Sorry for the pro-train rant.) your little rail cars are a nice reminder of the way things should be and what a missed opportunity my own local council have with allowing the tracks to fall into disrepair and pandering to those who do not know how to ride cycles and motorcycles safely. More trams/trains in rural areas i say, Jolly good show there and the doors are wonderful!

No reason not to do it and just because the rest of us don't it is up to you what you collect. I collect CITY, but I do not buy the buildings very often simply because I think my MOCs are better at representing whatever the building is supposed to be. I like whole buildings that I can lift off each floor, similar to the modulars, as opposed to the CITY habit of giving you just the front bit. However if they did a really cool building that i liked I may buy it and try and build the rest myself. For example I have the forest police station and plan to change bits and build a back onto it. At the end of the day it is your choice to buy whatever you like and if something jumps out at you that you would not normally get then feel free to buy it. If it is not up to what you expected you can always use the bricks in one of your MOCs so it will not be wasted. Good luck and remember to show us some photos.

Nice joke! Seriously I prefer yellows in every respect apart from in the LoTR and Hobbit sets, they are the only ones I have with flesh heads and hands that I have not changed and have no intention of doing so.

It is a shame those doors are not available in dark red as they would be much better for many older style coaches. I have had to use standard red myself but would have preferred dark red if at all possible. Nonetheless it is a nice design and I hope that you will get around to building it in one colour or another and that we will see the photographs. Just think, that maybe the colour of the original but your LEGO layout may have your own colour scheme in your town even if they purchased the coaches from the same manufacturer.

It is a nice train but really needs rods so I am pleased that you are doing them. For myself I try to use those half width technic beams on my own trains. I have tried building them out of technic connectors and axles but find they may look a lot better but they never run as good. I think that is at least in part to my inability to get the axles inserted to the same length though, but either way on such a nice train they should make it even better. When I looked at the 7th photo of the rear of the tender I thought that was a ghost poking out of the top until I took a closer look and realised it was a building in the background! I agree the tender is a little bland. They can be like that and I think a big bit of tender design is in the wheels. I see you have twin axles. Looking at lots of pictures of tenders though they tend to go mostly for three axles (Some even four.) which may sound like a bit of a building challenge but really once you know how to get that third axle to slide sideways a little is quite easy. I have built tenders using the train PF motor and had a third axle to make it more tendery and it looks a whole lot better. I would also steer clear of the stock wheel greeble for tenders, It is much more coach orientated, I find building something out of small greeble type modified plates is much more realistic, just remember the wheels pivot so maybe hang the whole affair on some clip style hinges so it can be angled out slightly to take account of this. It is not so much of an issue as you may think as even with LEGO sharp curves you only need a tiny bit of angle on it not to hit the wheels.

Hopefully this will give you some useful information although I am a little bemused by your choice of age ranges? I have found that they normally go in units of ten upwards either 30-39 & 40-49 etc or 26-35 & 36-45 and so on. Any reason for this choice?

Good use of the Batman there and he has a great Place to descend from.

How about using that SNOT method of building the road, then you are not tied to the width of the road baseplate and can make it any width you like? I like the idea of having the train run through the walls into two different rooms. I probably would not be brave enough to chop my house about to do this though as I would be worried about putting it back straight if I ever wanted to sell it. Not to mention that I would be worried of getting a beating from the wife when she got home from work!

The bridge design is really nice. Not sure about pillars? How high do you want it to go, I know that you said not that high, so how high is not that high? The bridge looks a little close to the water as it is, but I think just a couple of bricks higher would give it a much better look. I think if you want it to be simply that high off the ground then the bridge sides are a little high for that, the difference looks too great between the height of the bridge sides and the distance to the water. I would not go too fancy with the pillars as you do not want to detract from the good design of the bridge itself. Maybe just use simple round pillars in black of BLEY?

I think I would like another British steamer, but appreciate that others may not. Really any steamer would be good but I second that it should not be another of those western style locomotives. LEGO has done a couple of them now but in a childish manner that does not really appeal.

I wish I knew how to make all this stuff work like that.

I got some in WH Smith in Weymouth (Dorset England.) last Thursday, but i was unable to feel them as behind the counter. My local Toymaster had them today and I felt my way through 2 complete boxes. No Mr Gold but I think I have a full set now. (Have not opened them all yet as saving some for tomorrow.)

Mainly because I want to collect them and they are the only store selling in my area of town, As such it is either buy then there or direct from LEGO Shop online! Usually the box is in a place that you can feel them but for some reason this time they have kept them out of the way of feelers.

Looks like a nice bright version of the Maersk and a clean design for the truck behind.

Will the Wizard Battle set fit into the top of the Orthanc set? The top here seems a bit bland?