Eilif

Yeah, dust can be a problem in some houses. In my house, most of the dust seems to end up on the lower floor, but I'd still rather throw a cloth over the shelves as a dustcover than disassemble them. Still, everyone has their preferences.

Great job here. Your city is really growing. My favorites: 1) Elevating the yellow train station. I really like the concept here. I think it could benefit from having a back though. 2) The "Chili's" Pepper. Really creative use of parts! 3) The tan house is really classy! It's great to see a couple layouts with an elevated train. A great way to add visual interest to a town.

Brilliant, I love the simple color scheme, matched with alot of subtle, decorative details, and a very respectable interior. The white arched windows inset behind the tan arches is really effective, and I don't think I've seen that exact configuration before. Very nice! My only suggestion would be the addition of a bell and little bit of stained glass behind the pulpit. Even in the new world, I would assume that a church of this size would have a little bit of stained glass imported from home. Perhaps a bit of snot work with sideways oriented trans 1x1 plates? Really well done!

I did this when I first returned from my dark ages. I built 16x16 buildings on a shelf that was around 24 or 28 studs deep. I included a 4 deep sidewalk and the rest for road. My building ability has progressed quite a bit since then, but all things considered, it was a good looking town. My preference is always for larger buildings, so I would recomend making the buildings deeper than 8 studs. This allows for more interesting rooflines, and you can introduce more effective alleyways and even side streets. Also, 4-6 studs is more than enough space for a sidewalk. On my current layout (40"x120") I use 2 stud wide sidewalks! As to the size of the road, it all depends on how many vehicles you plan on building. At the time of my shelf town, I was building very few vehicles, so a one lane road was more than adequate. If I had less space, I would have dispensed with the road all together. Best of luck with the project!

"Eco-Friendly Cheapskate" for this quote in my "How to get LEGO for a penny a piece" topic. QUOTE (Eilif @ Oct 6 2008, 08:50 AM) Mini-sidetrack: I suggest bagging up the random toys and clone brick in a ziplock even if they are small- and donating them back to the resale shop. That bag of crap, can fetch a buck or two for a charity. In this world every cent counts, and every bit that goes back to the shop is a bit that doesn't end in a landfill.

Well would you look at that? I guess I am an eco-friendly cheapskate. I have to say that I'm suddenly rather proud of myself!

I recieved four of these in my latest PAB order. I've put them on a few figs, and I like them more than the originals. Obviously realism is not the first judgment when one is dealing with LEGO, but I do think they look more like a modern baseball cap. If I had the option I would use mostly the new caps, but as I have mostly old caps (in many colors) I think I will use the new cap mostly for kids and "young adult" minifigs, and use the traditional caps for grown-ups.

I don't know how I got my title. I mean I'm clearly a "cheapskate", but "ecofriendly"??? Someone enlighten me?

Woah, this is way inappropriate. A few reasons. 1) Religion. Touchy subject to begin with 2) Discussion of the practices of other forums. Most responsible forums do not engage in dissing or criticizing the behavior of other forums. 3) Gossip. Not cool. If you have a problem with a forum, raise the problem with that forum, don't go and complain at other forums.

Very much agreed. There are very few Online articles concerning LEGO that come anywhere close the kind of depth and quality that Brickjournal gets. You're very welcome! This is a big deal for me. One of the key indicators of a hobby's growth and degree of presence in the mainstream is whether or not it has it's own publication. The presence of Brickjournal goes along way towards that. This is what I hope LEGO is investigating. Joe has maintained for a long time that he wants to preserve the independence of Brickjournal. I hope that LEGO isn't moving to take over or compete with Brickjournal, but rather that they take Brickjournal into worldwide circulation. I think I might know the answer to this, but for those who named price as a factor for not purchasing Brickjournal, are you deterred by the price of the magazine, or the cost of shipping internationally? I ask, because compared to most magazines I read or used to read (Economist, Bass Player, etc), Brickjournal is more expensive, but when it's size, ratio of content to adverts, and quality is compared to similar niche magazines, it's an absolute bargain at the cover price if you don't have to pay huge shipping costs.

I don't have a specific plan. I just have some general guidelines for acquiring LEGO "within reason". 1) I try to shop Resale shops alot. 2) For the most part I avoid bricklink and utilize in store PAB and grab bags for my bulk brick. 3) I buy a couple sets a month, and I can often get my wife to ok the frivolous purchase of large sets that she thinks are really neat. (Cafe Corner, Market Street, etc, etc) 4) I also check the sales at the LEGO store often.

With the new LEGO survey out, it seems like LEGO is taking a close look at Brickjournal. Why don't we do the same? To reveal my bias, I am a big fan of Brickjournal, and I think it is an awesome resource for the AFOL community. I think it would be interesting to see if/how EB'ers are using Brickjournal. Please take the Poll above. Some of the questions have a wierd last option, that's just because if you don't answer every question, it won't accept any of your answers. Thanks.

I should have been more clear. It may seem expensive, but it's not.

Brickjournal is a quarterly magazine edited by Joe Meno. It's targeted to AFOL's, and is very well produced. It might seem a tad expensive at 9 bucks an issue, but the issues are big and glossy, and the content quality is head and shoulders above anything else out there. Also Joe seems to be able to get stuff that doesn't appear online. I haven't become a subscriber yet, but I've bought all but one of the issues from LEGO stores, as well as two of the print compendiums of the pre-print internet issues. Worth every penny. http://www.brickjournal.com/news

I would find it maddening to have to search through all the minifig parts I have to build a fig. Thus, I have two racks like this: It really is a great system. Two of these racks can hold around 1000 minifigs on 8 32x32 stud shelves. It makes it extremely easy to find any minifig part, and when I need a minifig for a MOC, chances are it's already assembled and waiting for me. At least half the figs on these racks are not "official". As soon as I have the parts to make a halfway decent minifig I usually make one and add it to the rack, but I do have some minifig parts that are not assembled, usually due to lack of heads. In my drawer organizers, I have a drawer of torsos, and one one of legs. In the smaller size drawers I have my extra minifig heads, headgear, armor, and weapons. About half the drawers in this organizer are minifig accessories and bits.

Great Job here. For someone who hasn't MOC'ed in a long time, it certainly doesn't seem to have hurt your skills. I think your building is a particularly good example of a building that doesn't need a lot of colors because the detailing is so well done. I can't remember a plain grey facade that that I've found so interesting.

Very nice! LEGO lends it'self well to the Catalog order Kit homes from the first half of the 20th century. I built an Aladdin Kit home a while back for a show we had at a history center. It was based on an actual home in Geneva, IL. You really took it too the next level with your interior details and a really nice auto. Well Done!

I thought the exact same thing. It must be the cardigan.... Great job on this one. Was your rubber ducky in Brothers-Brick or Brick Journal? I'm quite certain I've seen it before.

Little Armory space weapons came first. I don't know if the Little Arms shop are ripoffs, or if there was some agreement originally between the two entities at one time, but I do know that there was some acrimony and bad blood in the not too distant past. I have a set of the little armory space weapons, and they are good accessories. A bit less detailed than Brickarms, with more obvious mold points, but I like them. The finish is a bit more matte, rather than the glossy color of LEGO. If that sounds good to you, you will probably like the Little Arms shop stuff just fine. As to the wait time, some of these shops are little one man operations, and they may actually have to mold or cut (depending on the process) orders as they are made. Some of them outsource 3d printers or molders, and you are essentially waiting for them to order and recieve the product and then send it to you.

I'm a big fan of the original market street, and I love what you've done for this one. The dark blue facade on the right is a great addition, and goes a long way to making it fit in well with the CC series buildings. I for one, love the strait facade of the top floor and the sloping back. It's a very good example of what frequently happens in the city when a more impressive facade is created (or added later) and the less ornate original rear of the building is left as-is. I must say though, that I'm surprised that you made it non-modular for transportation. I make all my buildings 16x16 MStreet modular and I find it makes for extreme ease of transport.

Wow! It's not often that we get european electric train MOCS here. You have a nice balance of SNOT and traditional building techniques. I really like the more muted color schemes you have gone with for these trains. I'm not well acquainted with the official color schemes, but it does give them a "vintage" vibe.

Ooh, I like this! I particularly like your use of SNOT for the transition from the hood to the sides of the car. The sideways use of a 1x1 handle brick, is especially nice. However I have to ask, can a minifig fit inside the car? Either way, thanks for posting it. I could definitely see myself using some of your techniques in the future.

Nice Job Brickster. You really managed to capture alot of the original in your version, and it's a definite improvement from the LGB DB style engine you previously had. An enclosed cab might be an improvement (with a removable roof perhaps?), but your version is quite nice, and with the large openings, I'm sure it's very playable.

Great job. Nice to add a bit of history to your LEGO layout. Very well executed. I would agree that the all-white for ground and base is a bit overpowering. If you didn't want to alternate colors, a single line of grey plate where the base meets the ground would make a nice visual separation, and it wouldn't require modifications that would change the historical accuracy.

Very nice. A simple structure that looks just as it should. This is the kind of little thing that adds realism to a layout.