tedbeard

Ah, so you were going for the time of...never. Given the ambush scenario and proper armaments the French MUSKETeers would obviously win.

TRU @ Mayfair Mall in Victoria has CM Series 5 (or did two days ago when I picked some up). They also had a couple of reasonably full S4 boxes as well.

Are you going to be at any conventions coming up? Especially BrickCon the first weekend in October?

Why? The purpose of building a MOC should not be, IMO, to gather lots of "feedback" on EB or other forums.

What to say, this is amazing. I especially like the angled windows in the merchant shop. You have done, all by yourself, almost exactly what I am hoping to do as a collaborative build using the Port Brick Standard for BrickCon in October.

Hello from the Left Coast! What part of Canuckistan are you in?

Welcome aboard! You are lucky enough to be near an official LEGO store (assuming you are near Calgary). Certainly closer than us here on the Left Coast, our nearest official store is in Seattle. Maybe we will see you @ BrickCon one of these years.

Sitting down and rebuilding is an opportunity for connecting with your kids, teaching them how the models go together, reminding yourself how they are put together, getting new ideas for building with the elements in the model and teaching them some responsibility ("if you play with daddy's LEGO you have to put things back together when you are done.")

Fantastic gun carriages and impressive battery! DO you have working caissons as well?

I think the stability of the 2-wide track makes it a better system. The 1-wide track lets the train wobble too much on the curve. Great for cheap-factor but making it 2-wide would still be a lot cheaper than using official monorail track.

Very nicely done. I can imagine the yankees preparing to storm the ramparts. Some more details of that very nice cannon would be appreciated.

Then my work here is done. I hope BrickForge will be @ BrickCon again this year so I can pick up a bunch of these to go along with some of those guardsman torsos. I need to build the musical ride. Currently I have just the one:

The stetson was introduced to the official uniform around 1904 (when they became "Royal") and after the Boer War where it had been worn by ex-members serving with Lord Strathcona's Horse and the Canadian Mounted Rifles. A white pith helmet is more historically accurate certainly for the early years of the force.

Great use of the new guardsman torso! And lovely little scene. The revolver in the skeleton hand is very effective.

Just had to say how much I like the bay window in the main building. It is so nicely integrated into the timber-framework. Hopefully I can use that in my next pirate/castle building. Thanks.

Good point. The lack of certain colours is a nuisance.

I wonder why they made the officers hat? I love the printed version but is there really a large enough market for an accessory that LEGO already produces? Certainly it is more detailed but you can get the LEGO version (black) for us$.10 each in bulk. I guess BF sees a market that makes it worthwhile. Of course, given the amount of bottles and martini glasses I plan to order they will certainly be making money on the latest wave of new releases overall no matter how many hats they sell.

OK, so what you are talking about is called a contest (if there are prizes) or a challenge (just for fun). In either case you find a couple of people who will help, come up with your guidelines and post about it. Try to make your rules clear and set a reasonable length of time. Make sure to acknowledge people who enter and stick to your own deadlines. I would suggest looking over other sets of rules and borrowing liberally from those that have come before. It's just that easy. OK, not really but if you start with a small challenge you can see how it works.

I prefer the new train and the new rocket launch site. In both cases the newer versions look more like the real thing. I cannot stand ether version of the Police Station. Until they do a Modular Housing Standard version to go with the Fire Brigade I just find them all terrible. Of the rest the older sets range from marginally to vastly superior. Especially when it comes to boats I find the modern designs really lacking character for lack of a better word. I do prefer the six-wide automobiles but too often the flashy add-ons ruin them.

That torso with the kilt really gives a good Amazon warrior effect.

Are you talking about physical displays like the Classic-Castle City, Moonbase and the newly proposed Port Brick Standard or are you talking about online challenges or contests where someone sets a theme and rules and people post pictures of what they have built?

Ah, thanks for that. I just watched the regular video not the video with bonus features.

I think "enablers" may be more accurate.

How do you find the fence as a barrier? We have been using simple rope barriers but we have to keep pushing them out as kids (and parents) move them forward. I would think the fence is quite high for kids to see over.

Mine is more like a boss.