Still Raindrop

I often feel the same sort of intimidation; it's important to realize that everyone has different building style, and that comparing yourself to others really doesn't do any good--you can be inspired by others, but comparison just makes you feel bad (I'm still learning that)

Thanks for the great review! I'm now wondering, though--how do these cars look next to minifigures, scale-wise? Would you be willing to take a picture?

Welcome! I think it really depends, actually. I don't personally use any official LEGO buildings, but I do use lots of techniques that I see in those buildings. I don't use official ones for two reasons: 1. The ones that I can afford aren't the same style of building (my town is on the modular scale) 2. I'm a married college student, so buying the actual modular buildings aren't really an option for me However, it's really your decision what to do with your town. You can mix official sets and MOCs, or modify official sets, or use the pieces from the sets to make entirely new buildings. That's the beauty of LEGO, really.

Very nice car! I love all the detail in the small space. And the scale of this one is actually really great--stand next to a sports car (or even an average sedan) and it won't go very far past your shoulders.

icy brick, I've been trying to make an alley, but it's proven more difficult than I thought. I want it to look nice and fit in, but so far all the designs have been too plain and drab. Maybe I'll use my iron fence when I try again....

Thanks! I changed the top part--more pictures later (but for now you can see what it looks like in the main Rossville topic)

Hi, everyone! For a while, I had the 5920 Island Racer in the streets of Rossville; however, I thought that I could make some improvements to make it fit into the town better. I wanted it to still be recognizable as based on that set, so I haven't changed it completely. Let me know what you think!

I made a few changes to the building to make it look a bit more interesting; let me know what you think. The old version is on top, the new is on the bottom.

I've made a few changes to a few buildings and the layout of the street itself; here is the new compared with the old (the old is on top):

Very nice! I really like how the town looks all together. The use of classic town styled buildings is great; you've been able to make them very realistically detailed--quite impressive!

Thanks for the great review! Is the zookeeper's hair regular reddish brown? That could come in handy. I'm still conflicted about the lumberjack's shirt. I do love the detail; however, it makes all other shirts with patterns on them look bad, to an extent that even back printing didn't do. I had this same qualm with the mime--these minifigures have striped or checked sleeves, which is great until I put them next to a minifigure wearing shirts like this one or this one or this one, for example (or even if you put him next to the detective from the same series!). It even makes me pause when I use yellow arms to represent short sleeves. If we could get common torsos like these with printed sleeves (and even some printed short sleeves!), I would like the lumberjack a lot better.

Thanks, everyone! I'm so glad you like it! I think that making it an ice cream shop has made it much more lively than it was as a soda shop. enrgie, I might have to do that--currently I only have those pieces in the amber color of the hazmat guy's suit, and I don't have any 1x1 round plates in that color for the cooler. Sputnik16, I asked the ice cream store owner about his yellow ice cream, and he has informed me that it is lemon-flavored. Fires-storm, I did indeed use a 16x32 baseplate; I'm glad it works and looks good! I used this size for most of my modular buildings simply because I don't have enough bricks to make many buildings on 32x32 baseplates

Thanks, everyone! Already I've made some changes to the exterior to make it less plain and more interesting; I'm still deciding whether I should keep the top floor of the building blue, or whether I should switch to brown. Any thoughts?

Thanks, everyone! I'm still fine-tuning the red roof on the little tower; I want to make it out of the 1x1 cylinder pieces, but am having trouble making everything fit together and still look nice. Anyone have any suggestions? I think it's kind of funny how some of the things that people commented on were actually driven by necessity . I chose the color scheme, for example, because I had a large number of yellow bricks and wanted to make a building that could conceivably use that much yellow (the red tiled floor was due to a lucky buy at a pick-a-brick last year--they had red 2x2 tiles, and I just couldn't pass the opportunity up, even though I didn't have any use for them at that point). As for the wet cement, well, I ran out of light grey 2x2 tiles, but didn't want to leave the baseplate exposed . I'm glad someone understood why I chose that particular name for the restaurant, too.

I did some fine-tuning and some rearranging--pictures will be up before too long. I also just got back from LEGOLAND and took a couple hundred pictures, so I've got a few new ideas of how to make the town more visually interesting

Thanks! I always feel rather inadequate looking at the towns of many other members here--my designs are much more simple, and I make more use of brighter colors, but I figure I've got my own building style. Still, I'm trying to add more detail to the flower shop, in particular.

B-OM-20C My first modular building was a soda shop; however, I decided I'd rather have an ice cream parlor in my town. So I changed a few details on the soda shop and changed it into an ice cream shop. Yum! Here is the exterior: And the interior: A freezer where customers can buy tubs of ice cream: A nice variety of ice cream: Another satisfied customer: I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about it. Thanks for looking!

Lon and Flora Gardener love gardens and everything in them. After Lon retired from his banking position, he and Flora purchased a little shop and turned it into Gardeners' Store. The store sells lots of flowers and gardening accessories. Let's take a look! Here is the exterior of the small building the Gardeners bought: I hadn't actually seen the skylight of the Pet Shop set when I made this one, but the technique is the same: Here is Flora Gardener standing behind the counter: Here is the cooler where cut flowers in vases are kept: There are more flowers in the greenhouse out back (I haven't built it yet, but the door leads to it). Here is Lon, about to head to the greenhouse: Garden accessories are on the top floor; a customer (whose name is Tilda Ground) is looking at seed packets. In the background you can see garden gnomes and a flamingo: Shovels, spades, and watering cans: Garden hats and flower pots: Hope you like it! I would appreciate thoughts and comments, if you have any to share. Thanks for looking!

Castilla Amarilla is Rossville's most popular Mexican restaurant--once you've tried their burritos, there's no turning back! Here are a few exterior shots: Here you can see the kitchen/service area. Burrito artisan Juan Mora is busy wrapping a burrito for hungry customers while the chef cooks more meat. Customers can make special orders or just use the menu on the wall. A father takes his son out for a celebratory meal after the son's little league team won a game. The kid is proudly grasping his trophy. Behind them is the soda fountain, as well as extra hot sauce in bottles and packets. Overall interior view: I had wanted to include things like a dish pit and restrooms for a more realistic restaurant feel, but I wanted a one-story restaurant, and I decided to focus on the actual restaurant part of the interior. Maybe one day I'll make it taller and have the eating area be on the top floor, but for now it's complete. I'd appreciate comments and thoughts, if you have any to share. Thanks for looking!

Welcome to Rossville! My LEGO town (named by my wife) has been growing for quite a while, and I thought I'd make this topic to showcase the town itself; I will also link to topics for individual buildings from here. Here is the view of the main street: Here are the individual topics for the buildings: Rossville Vision Clinic Castilla Amarilla Mexican Restaurant Gardeners' Store Ice Cream Parlor I have a few more areas of the town that I'll post later (they're not part of the main street).

I used to be more bothered by the trans-light blue for glass, but I'm more OK with it; I have enough trans-black to use for most of my cars, and the ones that I use trans-light blue on actually look pretty good. I've found a solution to the tire size/overhang problem by using these wheels with these tires; the mudguards still look a little too big, but it's a big improvement. I think it's funny that, in the one area where it would be better for LEGO to be inconsistent (it would be nice to have smaller mudguards and wheels for cars, bigger ones for vans, even larger ones for trucks, etc.), they use the exact same pieces no matter what the size of the car.

Absolutely brilliant--you've nailed the look of the house, the stair car, and the characters (except, perhaps, for George, but there aren't really that many faces that look like Tambor). Keep on building, and look out for the hop-ons.

As I've been building my town, I've noticed that LEGO's design, particularly with cars, is pretty inconsistent--even for sets that were produced in the same year. There are the more minor things, like whether the headlights are trans-clear or trans-yellow (I prefer trans-clear, but one could argue that trans-clear represents a car with its headlights off and trans-yellow represents one with its headlights on, so I classify it as minor), but there are also bigger things. Take the cars, vans, and trucks from the City 2011 sets, for example: The vehicles in 3366 Satellite Launch Pad, 4645 Harbor, 7286 Prisoner Transport, 7288 Mobile Police Unit, and, strangely enough, one of the two vehicles in 7498 Police Station all have doors; the other vehicle in 7498, as well as 3648 Police Chase, 3658 Police Helicopter, 3661 Bank & Money Transfer, 4643 Power Boat Transporter, and 7285 Police Dog Unit are all without doors. Similarly, the vehicles in the Police Chase set, the Power Boat Transporter set, the Prisoner Transport set, and one of the two vehicles in Bank & Money Transfer and Mobile Police Unit all have side mirrors; the rest of the sets (as well as the second vehicle in Bank & Money Transfer and Mobile Police Unit) all contain vehicles without side mirrors. How do you deal with this, as far as creating a unified aesthetic? I find it weird to have a modern car with doors and side mirrors driving next to one without either, so I modify all my vehicles to have both, if possible; If I can't do so, I try to make them at least have doors. What are your solutions? And why do you think LEGO is not more consistent with this?

Thanks! I figured the only way to make a glasses display was to find something apart from helmets that those goggles attached to. The solution still leaves them a little loose (they're in place now, but a little jolt has them slipping downwards), but they stay attached nicely. The new phoropter was a complete accident (the chair was a deliberate change, but not the machine itself). I was looking through my printed tiles looking for a way to make a menu for my Mexican restaurant, when I noticed that the tape piece could serve nicely as a phoropter, too. It's a tough call, but I think I like my new design better; it looks more like the real thing to me. I'm pretty much finished with the artist's apartment (although seeing the John collection on flickr made me want to re-do some of my furniture), but the vision clinic interior is still a wip. Still, I like the changes I've made so far.

Thanks, everyone! I'm glad you like it! And thanks KielDaMan for supplying the link to the picture of the real thing. I used photos in our wedding album to get the shape. Since they're all ground photos, some of my details are a little off, but I'm glad it's recognizable--it was tough to do in such a small scale, but I'm pretty pleased. I tried to do it twice on LDD with little success, and was about to give up. However, two days ago while she was at work and I had a day off I sat down and started building.