Xyver

I've worked the roof out and added an upper level IMG_0289 by Ade-27, on Flickr Now to add the finish touches to the building and work out the landscaping

I've recently acquired quite a few of the old (2008/9) Agents sets and wanted to build a lair for the baddies. For my last display I just had an old shack and a boathouse, surrounded by all the Agents water vehicles and a couple of the jets. I have since also acquired the helicopter and the Mobile Command Centre so thought I would create a bigger base for the baddies. IMG_9866 by Ade-27, on Flickr The final plan is to have the lair sitting atop a cliff face, with an opening rock wall revealing a cave for the boat dock, but the cave will have to wait for now. For now, the lair will sit atop a cliff face, overlooking the water battle below similar to the above. I wanted something curved, rather than the usual square buildings and after seeing a wonderful build using train tracks for the curve, I thought I'd give that a go. So I grabbed my 6 wide tracks and came up with the following. IMG_0273 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_0275 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_0274 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_0277 by Ade-27, on Flickr This is very much a WIP and any helpful advice is greatly appreciated. It will eventually be finished with grass and pacing around the building, with a road leading up to the rollerdoor on the side. There will also be a train track running along the back of the building as there is a train that runs around the outside of the city displays this forms a part of. One of my questions is do you think the awning (made out of the brick separators) should be wide, either another two or three on either side. The next section is 6 wide.

Start with the Modular series of buildings, the Pet Shop, Palace Cinema and Parisian Restaurant are all still readily available, the Detective's Office will be out next year. The Pet Shop is probably the best one of these to get multiples of to build towering sky scrapers as you can add extra floors from each set. Once you get a feel for how TLG does it, then try to make some of your own. If you don't want to buy them, at least download the instructions and use what pieces you have to build something similar, that is how I started. There are also numerous people who sell, or even freely distribute, the instructions for custom creations. Or even just take a look through all the wonderful MOCs on here and get inspiration that way.

Well, I should comment on here about delays more often. Now, I really am surprised by the result. Sure, birds was a no brainer, but Big Bang Theory? I love the show, but it definitely is not suitable for children, though the marketing this will open up for the LEGO is huge. I can just picture it, Wolowitz makes LEGO versions of everyone, and somehow manages to get the set made by LEGO. They will base a whole episode on it, I sure hope enough get made and we don't suffer the shortages like we did with Research Institute. Apple Store was never going to happen, there is no way they'd want to alienate the Android users by forcing Apple onto them. BTTF train I am disappointed in, that would be great, though I guess the higher price point struggled to fit the business case. And Dr Who? still waiting? are BBC really that hard to deal with? Probably not a big seller for the kids, but the number of adults who ask for Dr Who stuff, and they amount of AFOLs that incorporate the CB sets into their displays would create demand, at least for a small batch. Maybe that's the problem, licencing fees are too high for the number of sets they think they can sell.

Ok, so it's been over two months since the start of the new review period, at which point LEGO announced that an announcement on the previous review will be out in the coming weeks. Just how many weeks constitutes 'coming'. Just how long do they expect to hold out before making some form of announcement. It has already been show that they are willing to say that a product is still in review when the official announcement is made, so what's the hold up? If the previous review is still ongoing, does that mean the new one hasn't even actually started yet? I seriously doubt that the Ideas team wait until the end of a period to start the review process on projects, some basic viability review is surely undertaken as soon a project hits 10,000k votes (if not before) I'm leaning towards the fact that none of the previous batch have passed, so they are holding out to make an announcement until they have some good news. I do believe the news that they will not be making a Dr Who set is going to cause a lot of commotion in the AFOL world, and possibly some bad vibes that they would rather reduce with other good news. I like the idea of Ideas, but if they can't come up with, and stick to, an effective timetable, people are going to become more disillusioned then they already are with the process. Considering it's been a month since the last post on this topic I think that disillusionment is already setting in.

Consider Lego loves Bike Shops in their city, it's about time one came out in modular form. They went half way with the recent Creator 3-in-1, so why not go all the way next. Seriously though, even if it is BS, a Bus Station would be pretty cool. A train station would be hard to work with in with the format, but they could do something for buses, though size constraints may still be an issue. I do hope the announcement comes soon, between waiting for this and the prolonged wait for the next Ideas review, the suspense is getting hard to bare. I also hope the rumours of the Detective Agency are true, that sounds like a very interesting build.

We just use 6 foot bi-fold trestle tables. These are generally 180cmx75cm which equates to 7x3 32x32 baseplates with only a couple of studs overhang on the width. You should be able to find them at any larger office supply store or hardware store. They are relatively cheep, saves you having to make something yourself and easily transportable as they fold up. This does sometimes cause some issue though as some of them don't quite sit level, but that's what you get for ease of use. Custom built tables would be great, we have used them in the past, but they require assembly at each show if you make them small and portable, or you have trouble transporting them if you make them too large. We did try a large plywood table top that sat on smaller tables, but transporting it proved too much of a hassle due to the size and just settled on trestle tables instead. We do 4-5 shows a year, so something easy to transport is important. If I was to have a permanent display, a custom built table would be the way to go. I do have a couple of plywood raised sections that I use on my display to vary heights, they work great.

Wow, what a blast from the past. This was one of my first building MOCs and his slowly been demolished for the parts to be used in other things. I was very happy with the look of the sloped roof, so I am glad everyone liked it as well. I may have to rebuild this some time, and since my brick collection has grown considerably since those days, i will be able to use something other than red.

I've never understood why Lego hasn't made a glass pane for these windows. They have lattice and a shutter, but considering how often the put them in sets with normal windows, they really do not a glass pane. Great work.

I know it's not purist, but this sword (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3847) with the hilt protection pieces cut off, and painted tan, would probably work effectively enough. No doubt you have a few of them in your collection.

I have two each of the GE, PS and PC, all of which have been used to make larger versions. GS & PC are on 48x48, each of the two PS builds are on 32x32, the brown building modified into an inside corner building. I currently have one PR, but do intend to get another one to make it larger as well, probably also onto 48x48. I only have one FB, no intention of getting another one. Haven't bothered with the TH, the colours are wrong for me.

I don't know what to do for the bat, that one is hard. For the minifigure, Homer Simpson's torso (white collared shirt) with plain white pants would be spot on, or perhaps the tennis ace from series 7 CMF if you want a bit of colour. There may be other plain white shirts out there, but they are two recent ones, and probably fairly readily available.

Brick Events is coming back for more! This time, we've hired the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre to bring you more LEGO than ever before. Over 40 separate displays are on show, along with a large build and play area. Bricks n Fun will be there with all the latest LEGO sets, along with sellers providing spare parts, minifigures, jewellery and accessories. Where: Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre - 2684-2690 Gold Coast Highway, Broadbeach QLD 4218 When: Saturday September 20th, 9:00am to 4:30pm Sunday September 21st, 9:00am to 3:30pm Price: Adults $12.00, Children $6.00 (3-15), Family (2adults & up to 4 children) $40.00, Children under 3 FREE with tickets being available at the door (cash & EFTPOS available). Contact: info@brickevents.com.au www.brickevents.com.au flyer by BrickEvents, on Flickr

I looked into this only a couple of weeks ago. There are a few free programs that you can download to use, and some web-based ones as well. Just find the one that you like to use. Most of them will turn a picture that you have into a mosaic using the colour pallette you choose and the size. Depending on what you want to produce, the more colours you use, the better it will look. And the bigger you go, the more refined the image will be. If you want to re-produce a photo or a detailed picture, the bigger the better. This of course pretty much ruled them out for me, I wanted to do a picture of Benny, but to get it looking half decent it would have to be at least 64x64, and that is quite expensive acquiring that many bricks. One program I found (sorry, don't know the name of it) will also tell you which size bricks, in which colours, you need to complete the project. It doesn't have to be all 1x1s

I would try to find the closest LEGO Certified Professional, they are authorised by LEGO to undertake these types of works. I would assume there are a few in the US.

An AFOL friend just picked up a bargain, the likes of which many in our LUG had never seen: From what she has shown in photos, she picked up: Cafe Corner Green Grover Creator: Model Town House Emerald Night Red Cargo Train Red Passenger Train Hogwarts Express White passenger train Slave 1 boats, planes and various other City, creator and Star Wars sets. All for the amazingly low price of $500 (Australian!!!) she felt so bad, she gave the woman an extra $100 when she went back for the second load as she couldn't fit it all in the first load - and she has an 8 seater van! Needless to say, we are all VERY jealous, she already has way too much Lego, but does create some amazing displays, so it is all going to a good home.

The view/support ratio is effectively meaningless. People who like a project and support it, will keep going back to it to check out the discussion board. This will create an extra view each time they go to the project main page. So views don't record the number of people who have seen a project, just the number of times the project page has been seen. I just tried it and gave some new project an extra 4 views. What the number of views does mean is that as this number grows, people are obviously coming back to see how a project is going, and probably interacting on the discussion board.

Broken nails are a given, sore fingers a definite. My worst injury (if you can call it that) was a cut thumb while putting 800 1x2 bricks together to form a circle 80 bricks around and 10 high. Left a little bit of blood behind on some of the pieces too. That creation is still together a couple of years later, really fascinates the kids as bending bricks like that is not something they normally see. It's bigger now too, put a couple extra rows of bricks and plates onto it. Must be around 1,500 pieces nowadays.

If you do hold one, make it the same weekend as ours next year, to really cause confusion. Then maybe we could set up webcams and stream live to each other's shows. Though with the time difference, we'll probably just be looking at empty halls most of the day. You really should get together with your fellow AFOLs and put on an event though, they really are great to do.

Yeah, had that issue last year. Don't worry, Google Maps tried to say we were over there too. And I will repeat what I said then - If you fly in from overseas to visit our show, I'll shout you free entry. Just produce something to prove you weren't here for other reasons anyway.

Do whatever you want with them, that's what Lego is all about - build to instructions, mod, create your own, provided you enjoy it, it is the right thing. Luckily here in Australia, most of the general public haven't seen these buildings, especially the kids. They aren't generally available in retail stores, and we don't have any Lego branded stores, so most people don't even know they exist. I am lucky that in my LUG, I have been the only one who does City, so mine have been going solo. We also discourage people just showing the same sets as everyone else, so duplication is not an issue. Most of my modulars are heavily MODded anyway, only the FB and PR are to instructions, and the PR is only that way because I was limited to one when I first bought it from S@H. Hidden walls get raided from time to time for parts, why waste perfectly good bricks when no one will see them anyway. Last show my modded blue Pet Shop was little more than a facade with framework and a roof, though the walls are back again as I have re-modded it. I don't own the TH, don't like it. If I had use for all that dark orange though, I'd buy if I could find it on sale. I did buy the Tower Bridge (yeah, ok, it's not a modular, but same rules apply) purely for parts, never even opened the instructions. There is nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with keeping them prestine either, do as you wish, just don't get annoyed if other people think differently to you. Hawkman, at a past show I did see the modulars trashed in a mid-apocalyptic, alternate dimension monster invasion display, it was really impressive. They actually look really good half fallen down.

Brick Events is returning to Ipswich (Queensland) this weekend (July 12-13) The Ipswich Civic Centre, cnr Limestone and Nicholas Street. Tickets available at the door. Doors open 9am

Looks good so far, it always helps when you have a custom made table, that fits baseplate size exactly. I agree with Hobbythorn. Switch the empty grey baseplates over so that the road is in the centre and put the spare shops on them creating a mall. Then continue the laneway over the track, then place the Haunted House in the corner of the layout (hopefully it fits) and build a track between it and the laneway. This should give you a nice row of shops between the airport and the train station, with the HH on the 'wrong' side of the tracks. Trains do take up a lot of space on any layout, and are very hard to work around, especially for smaller ones. The option I went for is to build a raised platform over my main table and put a subway in. The city centre sits atop the subway, the train then comes out from the tunnel into the suburbs. Probably not necessary for you just yet, but if you do ever manage to afford the modulars, it is a space saver.

That depends on the MOC. If I don't really like it, or it was built only for a special, once-off purpose, it won't last long before it's pulled apart to be reused. Other MOCs, especially modular sized buildings, tend to last as long as the fit into my town. As long as the MOC is useful, and I still enjoy looking at it, it will last. Same as for official sets really.

My City layout is split level, with the main city (modulars) around 15 bricks higher than the suburbs (general City sets) I created a sloped road simply using two straight road plates placed on a technic frame set at the appropriate angle, and the angle was fine for a main road up a hill. At this angle, the sloped road is around 1.5 baseplates long, so I just sat the bottom on another road plate so that it continues on to the correct dimensions I guess it comes down to how much higher the top level is, whether a sloped road will work. The higher it is, the more room it will take. You could save some space by using the 8x16 tiles and making it a one way track as well. Considering Lego themselves aren't above not including stairs in multi levelled buildings, I'm not sure it's really a problem if there is a road or not. To keep it realistic though, and to save space, the idea of a lift is a good one.