Pinnacle

Personally, I use BrickLink rather much as a buyer and I have no problems with finding my stuff. It is powerful and reliable indeed. And there are far more parts to buy than on the official LEGO-site. And most times for a reasonable amount of money too. I can only hope that BL does not turn into a kind of Pick-a-Brick store with fewer different part and too high prices…

Sometimes, I use animals for decoration of my MOC’s. mainly on events, because the kids like it. In that case I’m content with the moulded animals. But for building, I like the brick-build animals above all. That is to say, if it is a big set. Minimal as big as the Statue of Liberty. But greater would better…

Today I build six columns for my little Tower of Babel. Maybe a little boring but also relaxing with a good piece of music and a delicious hot beverage.. Two hundred forty-eight columns done, about the same amount to go…

Foremost, I love the typical basic bricks like the 2x4 because they form de basic of all my MOC’s. But in the end, is almost every part useful even technical parts. They make great ornaments for historical buildings such as iron cast railings and so on..

That is for sure. Sturdy wooden beams are used for a kind of stage. It has not only to bear the load of bricks, which is about a ton, but also my one weight if I have to stand on it…

Tower of Babel Vlll Building the MOC. (02) After building the six modules together, the MOC is too big to transport it to the various LEGO-events. Unless you have a big truck, of course. Some people asked me: why do you not build in modules. Then you can transport it. Well, that is nearly impossible. Or the modules will be too heavy and too unmanageable. Or it will be too many modules. I’m not too fond of modular building on this scale. There are always nasty seams between the modules, mainly due to the problem of not having a sturdy and completely flat surface to build on. And thus, I decided to build it as a whole. It is also more ‘natural’. And that is what I like. Now some more photos of the progress of the building from 2013 till 2021.

Why all those critics about TLG? Use it or leave it. LEGO is meant to be a child’s toy and therefore they make toys. And children love it; otherwise, they didn’t sell their stuff. Adults have discovered that LEGO can be more than a toy and can even be used for great artworks. But LEGO has only just found that adults also like the LEGO-bricks. I think that in the near future, TLG more parts will develop especially for adults. I’m not interested in sets what so ever. But it would be nice if there came more sorts of basic bricks or types of (inverted) slopes and arches. Uneven ones for instance, 2x5, 2x7 and so on. Well, my list can be endless… On the other hand, limitation leads to creativity…

The left one... I know, I'm an oldie...

Indeed. We live in an old farmhouse wit a big barn attached to it. Space enough..

Tower of Babel VIII Building the MOC. As told before, I started the building of the Tower on the 14th of March 2011. At first, I laid the outline of the facades to a height of five layers. Then I could see the dimensions of the whole thing. Then it appears to be a lot bigger than on a drawing. Well, a nice challenge. I took it to a LEGOworld event in Zwolle in 2012. There are no pictures of it. It was not very exciting for making pictures, but more to show what I was doing. The next LEGOworld, it has become a little more. I had created 6 ‘modules’ which I could put together on the location of the event. And a fragment of the inner construction. (the red parts) As soon as a building gets a little bigger, you will have to consider the accessibility of all the places where you want to place the parts. And for that, you will sometimes have to be able to stand upon your model. That's also because of the pyramid shape. After all, as you get higher, you also have to reach further forward because the façade jumps further and further inwards. The best thing is to build as much as possible from the inside out. In the beginning, you can deviate from that. I started with the outline initially to get a bit of how things are going to turn out. In the beginning, the walls are even six separate parts to exhibit them at events. But soon, I had these walls to 'build together' those parts, and transport were no longer possible. After the walls were about 30 stone layers high and all the columns were placed on level 0, I proceeded with the so-called central core, consisting of square columns 6x6 studs, totalling 49 pieces per level. I laid solid planks on the cross-shaped columns as a 'work floor' where I can stand upon to build the core. The height of the core ran each time two levels before the edge columns. This allows me to move the work floors to the next level and thus work up to the desired height. A point of attention is that there can also be considerable tension on the various components with larger buildings. The cohesion of a LEGO model is determined by the clamping power of the individual parts, all of which generate considerable tension. To prevent warping or bend the building's construction, it is essential to work as evenly as possible. So working from the core to the edge, it is best to first place one row of columns with the arches on the left and then one row of columns plus arches on the right And work from front to back. Then you build up the tension so evenly as possible. And everything will remain pretty straight and square. Besides, I avoided large parts and long beams. Except for the arches, the whole building consists of basic bricks, with the largest brick being the well-known 2x4. Mainly, building in that way is a more significant challenge. But also to avoid as many wrong tensions as possible. Some more pictures.

O yes, the building of the tower is in full swing. Pictures come later on.

After a year of research and making the first drawings, the physical building started in the middle of March 2011. But I’m relatively new on Eurobricks, and I want to do the story more or less chronologically. Pictures of the actual MOC will follow soon. Thank you for following

Tower of babel VII Architecture. For the façades, I followed more or less the painting of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It shows a kind of early Gothic architectural style that was actually out of fashion in his days because people were already more or less in the Renaissance period. But of course, that doesn't have to prevent a painter from painting an early Gothic-style building. In the painting, the black surfaces (windows?) are somewhat different in shape from each other. I avoided this because the Gothic style wants to radiate a certain unity by, among other things, the use of geometric patterns that repeat themselves regularly. In the LEGO model, it looks very messy, and the possibilities are limited. There is already a difference in the black surfaces because of the decreasing height of the façade. The use of colour for the façades is quite colourful and consists mainly of the colours white, light grey, dark grey and tan. At a distance, however, it is okay and looks suitable for an old stone building. But the use of all those colours is mainly motivated by the availability of the bricks. For example, some parts in tan are not available in grey or white. And that limits the possibility of making details in the MOC. And that will be a pitty. The buttresses are adapted to the walkway's varying height and are equipped with pinnacles on the spot of every two steps of the walkway. A. Fragment of the facade. Elevation. B. Fragment of the buttress. Elevation. C. Fragment of facade and buttress. Cutaway drawing. D. Fragment of facade and buttress from within. Cutaway drawing. Note: The green bricks are no part of the MOC. The colours on te drawing do not correspond to the colours of the MOC.

That is indeed the problem with Bricklink. But as TLG can see that there is a great demand for specific parts; they can start a moulding machine and produce as much as ask for. Maybe not for every part but for the most common parts like basic bricks and plates.

I’m not too fond of the idea of too much dividing. Why should we? It is the LEGO that us united. Of course, it is nice to know in which country somebody lives. Gender maybe. But in my humble opinion, no ethnics or religion. It has nothing to do with being a LEGO-fan. Just my two cents..

Sorry for being unclear. I meant to say; bags of 1000 pieces of the same shape and colour. Or better, a possibility to make it easier and cheaper to order bricks in bulk. It is extraordinary that I can order 1000+ 2x4 bricks for on an average ten Euro-cents on BrickLink while the same brick costs 22 Euro-cents by LEGO’ pick a brick. And there is a limit of 999 pieces.

I think that there are much as AFOL’s as that er are opinions about TLG and what they should do or not do. Speaking for myself, I am not very interested in sets or themes. The only thing I like most is the parts in all kinds of shape and colours. And easy to buy in bulk for a reasonable price. Bags of 1000 or so. Then I can build my own themes. I need no LEGO-company to feed my creativity.

It does indeed depend very much on the type of glue that has been used. If it's just household glue, you have a good chance of succeeding and all you have to do is remove some glue residue. But if, for example, Gamma-Butyrolactone has been applied, (the stuff they also use LEGO itself), you can forget about it. This is a solvent that melts the adhesive surfaces together, as it were. It is virtually impossible to loosen the parts without damaging them.

I think it is never a good idea to spray or paint LEGO-parts or modify the parts in any way. As said before, it will chip off on many places, and on other places, you can never remove it again. As said, think of other solutions.

That is certainly true for the somewhat later periods, such as the period of construction of the great cathedrals. But in ancient times, the time before B.C. architecture did not change very much And therefore those buildings were relatively homogeneous in appearance.

I think that as a primary colour tan and on some places white and light grey bricks would look the best. Buildings in one single colour will look rather dull and unnatural. But that is only my opinion. It depends indeed in what setting you want to place the pyramid. Has it to be as real-looking or will it be in a kind of fairy-tell layout.

Tower of Babel VI Construction. I have already said that a MOC of a building should also be constructively as accurate as possible. If you were to build it full-scale with real bricks, you could do it on de same way. To do that, I first started to look into the materials used, the construction methods and tools used during that time. And the knowledge and skill of the people who lived then. In Mesopotamia, the arch construction was already well known and was mainly used for bridges. But could also have been used in the Tower. But it isn't very certain. The Tower that was probably built in Babylon is much more likely to have been a ziggurat. A terraced pyramid with one or more stairs. The walls were made of baked or dried clay bricks, and the soil was rammed into the core. Then they built the next layer and filled it with clay or sand. At least it's the most likely construction. So I could make it easy for myself by building a solid core of, for example, black or brown bricks. But that would be a lot of bricks and would be a very dull and annoying stacking. But Bruegel shows in his painting a tower with a rather intricate column structure. So I chose a column structure for the Tower. By opting for a rectangular shape, this core of columns and flying buttresses are relatively simple and might have been built by the ancient Babylonians. The LEGO columns are on a grid of 16 x 16 studs and are cross-shaped and eight studs wide. The arches consist of brick, arch 1 x 5 x 4 - Continuous Bow, on all sides. The middle columns are square 6 x6 studs. This has no constructive meaning but is motivated by the availability of the various arch forms. Many columns have a standard size and are 25 bricks high. The advantage is that you can make those columns "prefabricated". In my case, that means in the winter in the warm living room. Because in an old barn, where the Tower is built, it can be quite cold in the winter.. The arches between the columns, which prevent the columns from buckling, consist of 2x 4 Brick, Arch 1 x 5 x 4 - Continuous Bow. Then equipped with two layers of bricks, then finished with a 'saddle-back'. That saddle-back is mainly designed to remove the dust more easily because there's a lot of dust falling when a project takes several years. Problem by projects that took several years to build is that some parts were sold out and no longer available during the process of building. Then you have to look for other solutions. When I started building, those arches were available and not expensive. Now it's a different picture. There is almost no arch of those dimensions. Certainly not in red. So, I have to think of other arc shapes. But so far, I can still move forward with the existing stock.

I’m are a fairly frequent buyer on BrickLink. Mostly basis bricks in rather big quantities. In about twenty years I ordered more than 500 times. And I am only a buyer.

Tower of Babel V Realisation. You don't want to be surprised at this kind of constructions. If you are halfway at some point, and you suddenly notice that something is not going well or it is not going to fit, and you have to break down half of it again, then the fun quickly goes away. Especially if that happens a second or third time... Therefore, it is desirable to make a good plan and make clear drawings. And come up with a proper building plan. The building order is essential because you have to access every spot to place the LEGO parts. As far as drawing is concerned, I had the advantage of having an autoCAD drawing program through my work, an excellent drawing program to set up a master plan and work out the dimensions. Unfortunately, you'll lose your license if that company no longer employs you. And to pay for it myself, I found it a little too pricey. I tried some free drawing programs, but they didn't make it to even the oldest autoCAD programs. After that, I tried the various LEGO drawing programs, but I felt they were too cumbersome and too slow, and the possibilities were far too limited. Or I wanted too much. That's possible, of course. Eventually, I discovered the LEGO drawing program LDCad, created by Ronald Melkert. A fantastic drawing program in which it was possible to work out the entire Tower of Babel. Especially when you consider that it is 674,067 parts if the whole Tower is completed.. (according to the program) The program becomes a bit slower at some point, but it can also be the computer. It is also not possible to create a partslist. Apparently, it was a bit too many parts to process. The drawing colours do not correspond to the MOC's colours, but for me, they serve to keep the various steps and submodels apart more easily. Like you would work with an AutoCAD program.

Thanks for your reaction. I like the challenge of building a MOC that takes several years to realize. But also the research how such an ancient building would have been built in those days. And the designing to create a tower that can be made as an actual construction. The drawing and calculating for the dimensions and all the parts to be used Al the things one would do in case of a real building. The building of the real MOC will follow.