ExeSandbox

Yes it's possible, in "Edit > Preferences > Appearance > Background Color". Although I don't see a way to change the window color unfortunately.

Wow, the effect of those half round bricks is brilliant! The subtle curves look very organic and does not have the stepping issue that you get from using tiles instead.

Very charming!! The architecture style and color palette reminds me of those cozy looking LEMAX miniature buildings, which I don't see captured this well in LEGO form that often!

Thank you! Thank you very much! The build for the chairs and stacked plates seems to be what I always fall back to when I can't think of anything new. They just work pretty well. Thank you! Really glad to hear you felt that way when looking at the model. Here's the reference image I relied on when building the house, which I believe is from New England, which I suppose explains that vibe. Thanks as well, even after doing it for a long time, rendering is especially challenging because every model is unique and different approaches are needed to bring out the best parts of the model. I still stumble a lot when it comes to that. (Oh no, did not realize all the tree roots were oriented the same way! Hehe, my bad, I got caught up in all the other details and missed such an obvious detail. But thanks for pointing it out.) Thanks!! Oh, I didn't know grapes are harvested for wine during fall. That was pretty lucky, I just thought it looked good in those colors. Gosh, I gotta do more research next time... Thank you, I appreciate it! Thank a lot! Really glad you liked it! Thank you! Nice to know the roof is well liked as I almost went with using regular sloped bricks instead, which I'm glad I didn't. I'm not really good at roofs and angles but lots of trial and error made it work in the end. For the trees, in Brother Steven's version, the leaves are hanging loosely on the 3-stalk element, which creates a very organic look, but it was incredibly difficult to recreate digitally, so what I did was to sandwich a flower element in between some leaves and attach them to the 3-stalk element. A simple solution, but it does look a bit less natural as the angles are now fixed in place. Yeah, the search drop down is in a weird position. Well I guess it's a good thing I use simple names for my models.

Thank you! I used a few reference images of Napa Valley vineyards, so I guess there were a few semblances. Thank you so much! I wasn't sure how the colors would turn out as I just had the model be colored in gray when designing, so I was glad it worked. I was originally just going to copy this technique for the roof, but then decided I should have something more sophisticated instead, but kept the stairs. Your right, we should hang out in the cellar just to step on grapes and totally not to c o n s u m e what's inside of those barrels. Thank you very much! I was thinking that I may not have included enough of details, but I guess I can be eased from that thought. I actually got inspiration for the ice cream part from 41379 LEGO Friends Heartlake Restaurant (which I personally think is one of the best LEGO Friends set!) I suppose the cramped upper floor interior might just be me then. Thanks a lot! Really glad you thought so about the colors! Thank you, it means a lot! Nice, it's always great to find out more winery spots I haven't heard of. Those at Finger Lakes looks really beautiful! It would be cool to actually be inside one of those photographs one day. Thank you! LEGO's selection of warm colors feels a lot more versatile than their green ones, which is why I picked an autumn setting for this one. Thanks a lot! Glad you liked it!

It's been a while since I've done these kind of semi-diorama models, and thankfully I haven't lost all my touch. Despite "Winery" being in the name, I designed it to look more like a house and it functions as one for the most part as well, but I can assure you that this model is positively alcoholic!! ....just like myself ......(I'm kidding, alcohol tastes weird...) This model is designed to look like a sort of diorama built and glued on top of a round piece of light wood. But to be honest, I can't really tell if it's giving off that look. The build for the trees were inspired from Brother Steven's trees, but I altered some things to make the construction legal. Aside from the trees, there aren't much details on the back, other than some dried leaves and stone paths on the ground. Just wanted to keep things simple. (or maybe that's just an excuse for being lazy to add more stuff.) The only alcoholic part of the model. Which probably puts the alcohol content at 10%. (Mmmmmm... LEGO would not approve..) The increased base height allowed for a cellar to be implemented, but the walls still had to jut a couple of bricks above the ground and even then the wine racks still stick out by a plate high, which posed a challenge when building the floor above as it could have made the house too tall (which would look really weird) I always have the habit of just focusing on the exterior part and then shoehorning the interior at the last part, and that's exactly what I did here. It's probably dumb luck that the interior managed to turn out pretty nice, because I wasn't trying that hard (like going through 10 iterations, I only did 1). The raised kitchen floor was also another accidental idea which happens to work really well. The effects of shoehorning an interior to accommodate the exterior design can really be seen in this floor. The interior turned out alright, but the look of "there isn't enough of space, and I'm just trying to cramp furniture inside" is clearly evident. Although I do think the exposed wooden beams look kinda cool even if it feels a little stuffier. Welp that's about it. As a bit of an additional note, the model contains about 5,949 pieces and measures 60x60 studs. Only bricks in available colors were used, so it's buildable in real life if you have the parts (and instructions...) Even if it takes a bit more effort, it does feel sort of refreshing to have only used existing part colors when designing digitally. Link to Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exesandbox/albums/72157718139635096

Wow, building this monstrosity in 2 months is mind-blowing! It looks really really good. Dark brown and lime is a great combo for the landscape.

Great to see another new MOC from you, the building feels cozy! I do really like the composition and color choices. (+1 for the circle stone pathway and the ski poles as fencing too.) Beautiful design overall. Odd choice for the kitchen utensils hanging way above the door though.

Hi and welcome! A somewhat adequate solution to having the flower hair piece not stick out so much is to use another flower piece like this: Which has the standard 3.2mm shaft at the bottom as well as a 1.5mm hole going through. It's not the cleanest solution but it sticks out a lot less than the inkwell piece. Hope this works for you!

Wow, talk about "thinking out of the brick"! Such masterful use of shapes and colors, it's exceptional.

Thank you! Yup, this building is covered in more SNOT than a five year old's toy. I've been planning to include a phone booth quite a while back and the Diagon Alley came just in time! Thanks, hope you enjoy it! Thanks you very much too! Yeah I noticed that many modular builds are often filled to the brim with details and that's totally not a bad thing as everybody seem to really like that, but I wanted to see iif I can take a different approach for this model. Thanks, I appreciate it! Glad you're really in love with the building!

Thanks @jalemac34, I'm really glad you like it! Thanks! Yeah, that's true. For some reason I quite like the technic connector eyesore. But I do have to keep the consistency of the look in mind too. Thanks a lot! Perhaps I should make a challenge for myself to find the most niche subject to make a modular on. Thank you very much @koalayummies, I appreciate it! Glad you spotted all those little details too, quite a many of them were actually born out of dumb luck by random experimentation or I happen to come across a picture that had a particular detail I liked and decided to include it.

Official LEGO sets are the best case studies for this. Due to LEGOs strict quality standards, their sets are built like tanks! (most of the time anyway.) But from what I've done and observed, a technic frame is your best bet. The bigger the model, the more rigid and well designed your technic frame has to be.

1 and a half years later, I finally built another Modular Building, WOOOO, hooray, yeah.... I thought I set a pretty high bar with the Doughnut Shop (if I do say so myself), because of that I had trouble thinking of what to build next thematically. So I went the entirely opposite direction, instead of giving it a unique footprint with a rich contrasting color scheme and basing it around an interesting subject, I made the Umbrella Shop a solid rectangular block with a subdued color scheme and gave it the least interesting subject, which is a shop that sells umbrellas. (hOw ExCiTiNg) Of course, then my job was to use those design cues and still make it look nice and interesting. I think I did a pretty good job (but you can be the judge of that. ) (Also just like my previous modular, many building techniques and details were stolen-...ahem...I mean...inspired by the Downtown Diner, some more obvious than others, because I practically worship that modular building at this point. I do feel like the style of this model turned out looking like a scale model building, rather than a LEGO Modular Buildings. But it is still in essence a modular building.) I was initially clueless on how to design the back of the model, since I always pay all my attention to the front, So I just threw in whatever ideas I thought felt good to me. The shuttered windows was actually influenced by my house in which every single window would have a metal lattice placed over it (presumably to prevent easy break-ins.), Exploded view of the model. The tree can actually tilt forwards to allow the upper levels clearance to lift up, this was an accidental but needed feature because I just wanted a solid connection for the tree and the ratchet w/ cross axle receiver element worked for that. Strangely, of all the carefully crafted details in the model, the simple sloped skylight build is my favorite of them all, it really ties everything together nicely. But idk it could just be me. The interior for the titular store. From this view it doesn't look like much is going on unfortunately, but there are some more items and details from other angles. That vintage cash register is way oversized though... It's an odd decision for me to make everything but one item in black and white. But I just couldn't find the right color scheme and I wanted to give off a vintage vibe, so I thought nothing looks more vintage than black and white photographs. I thought the colored shelf looks pretty which is why I left it in. A small little living space, but not good enough to fully sustain a life. The old school-ness really shows on this one with the typewriter and metal frame bed. I'll probably get a raised eyebrow for this, but why is the bathroom fully exposed by a open window and a glass door!? But really, what's there for a minifigure to hide.? If you're one of those people that likes your minifigures a little spicy, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) please seek help. maybe I'm the one that needs help...... Here's a pic of the iterations this model went through. The first iteration was very very rough and looks like garbage, I established some core ideas with it, but the proportions and window arrangement is bland and unattractive, so I fixed them in the second iteration. I've gotta be pretty careful with what details I add, because for a fairly "simple" building like this, small details can have a massive impact on the way it looks. Welp that's all from me, I hope you enjoyed looking at the model. I gained a lot of satisfaction from designing it, but I have been looking at it everyday for more than a month during designing and the exposure blindness is killing me so it's good to finally be done. Also I went through LEGO rehab and turned a new leaf, so I only used parts in available colors for this model. (well all except for 27150 Minifigure, Utensil Umbrella Folded. Old habits die hard.) Which means I was able to create instructions for this model. If you're interested, you can get it here: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-59200/ExeSandbox/umbrella-store/#details (It's a hefty $20 though Do you think this model is worth that much, or should I lower it?) I'd also like to hear what you think about this model. Be as un-objective and critical as possible, don't worry I won't feel bad at all. More pics: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exesandbox/albums/72157717310853613

The design is so clean! I really dig the way the different sizes of windows are arranged. Colors are so nice to look at too.

ok im fully sold...

Very cozy!

Looks nice. The side view is kinda funny and the horn might be a tad big, but it works. But yeah, could have been easy for LEGO to create a small horn with the tiny shaft attachment to go onto the horse head.

I think it does depend on the kind of building you're building. Modular Buildings (with separable floors) are usually all about the exterior details and interior details are only supplementary, so for displaying I wouldn't sweat it with the visibility of the interior, but for accessibility, proper floor planning right from the start is essential instead of trying to shoehorn an interior after the exterior is done. (A crime which I always find myself doing. ) Open back/Hinged buildings are usually present in dollhouses which have more emphasis on the interior in relation to the exterior. The shallow floor plan and poor lighting can be overcome by good planning and design (window placement, colors and height can all play a big part.) Not having 360 exterior isn't that big a deal depending on the type of building. Modular style buildings are obligated to have full 360 exterior to feel like a modular building. But in other cases, interiors usually have greater detail and is generally more interesting than the back wall of a house or building, so it's an easy compromise to make.

Wow, it looks so beautiful. The blue roofing looks really nice, and the way the olive green blends into the stone base of the building is such a nice touch!

You're welcome! Glad I was able to help.

I think there's a set of buttons somewhere in the toolbar where you can set the "grid size" which doesn't refer to the actual grid floor, but the stepping size.

Good looking figure, I think you've captured Cole's looks very well. Love that hair sculpt!

(If only posts have a like button...Here's three. )

It really is the season for Modular Buildings. The building looks beautiful, the colors are unique and the texture is great. I like the shaping solution you did to make it both a corner and reversed corner building, quite brilliant. If anything, the sidewalk could use some love. But overall really nice MOC.