L@go

Thanks, guys - so far, you've mentioned the lorry, Gone Overboard, the Tine Tanker, Blue Eagle, the 3 Wheeler, Sinister Surfer, the boattail speedster, Ruby Roadster, the two rally cars, the modern 6653, and the 4x4 coupé as favourites - which means I've built something for several different tastes. That is what always amuses me most when I post a new batch of vehicles: The different favourites people pick. Thank you for your nice words! I also like that retro and hot rod stoff more and more :)

V-LV-67D to V-LV-69E, V-LC-20E & V-LC-20F Hi again, my fellow Eurobrickers! It's a bit unusual for me to start three topics in such a short time, but then again it's also a bit unusual for me to build as much as I've done in the past couple of months. In addition to my two entries in the Modular Madness contest, I've also been working on another batch of city vehicles, to accompany the ones I've posted earlier: Here (four cars), here (eight), here (five), here (eight), and here (fifteen). Like last time, I've built a mixture of cars and a few trucks, some looking a bit like the official models Lego is offering these days, some more hot rod-like; and I'm really, really pleased with a few of them. When I look at what I've built, I think I can see progress in my building, which is nice. I've snapped pictures of all my latest sixteen vehicles, edited them and gradually uploaded them to my Flickr, but I wanted to present them to my community here as well. So here they are - incidentally just in time for my birthday - one by one :) And before you ask: All stickers are from official Lego sets - I may have cut some of them, but they're all Lego! 1) The 4x4 Pickup. Starting off with six cars built on the regular 4x12 vehicle base - this first one is a small 4x4 pickup truck: Nothing special, really, but it ended up looking distinctly American, with that big square nose. It's the first time I've combined those balloon tires with that base, and after testing it in MLCad, I thought there would be enough clearance between the wheels and the brackets that hold the head- and taillights. I was wrong, so I decided (sacrilege!) to sand down the edges of the brackets to make room. And that wasn't the last time I modified a brick during these builds... 2) Turbo Tiger. This is a sporty convertible with a very striking colour scheme: If I'm not very much mistaken, the owner's name is Luke, and he's from somewhere far away... The rear spoiler is built using one of the new 1x2 - 1x2 brackets, which I've found to be really useful for a number of different purposes. 3) Zebra R. Another sleek, low-slung, sporty convertible, this time with a driver sporting what I think is my favourite hairpiece from the Friends sets: The main novelty feature on this one is the use of the front spoiler piece upside-down as a rear spoiler. This required a bit of fiddling around with different solutions, but I came up with one that's quite sturdy and leaves just enough room for the rear wheels to turn freely: 4) The 4x4 Coupé. An attempt to build something vaguely BMW X6-esque, a sporty SUV - which I added a spare wheel to just because I thought it looked cool: The spare tire is mounted on a minifig head - it's a perfect fit, topped off with a 1x1 round tile. I like how the colour scheme turned out on this one, regular and lime green go surprisingly well together. 5) World Rally Car II. This car and the next one were built to go with my modern interpretation of set number 6634 - this is the modern equivalent of set number 1496: It uses the #2 tile that was also found in the original set. I'm particularly happy with the front lamp arrangement on this one. 6) World Rally Car III. Another rally car - this time an updated version of the car from set number 1497: I've tried to make the three rally cars so similar that they could clearly have been built according to the same homologation rules, but still so different that it's obvious that they are from three different manufacturers. The rear wing design is one example of that - it's different on all three cars. Here they are all together: 7) The Lorry. This one is a bit different - I built it to go with my earlier Streamliner, which I based heavily on snaillad's design. It belongs to a sheep farmer, who bought his sheep from the biggest sheep dealer there is: BrickForge. I'm quite happy with the way the fence pieces blend in with the rest of the wooden cargo bed. Also, the white stripe along the middle was a neat bi-effect of me wanting to use that castle window as a grille (with an official sticker from an old idea book) - because it only comes in a few colours, and blue is not one of them :) 8) The Modern 6653. This is a pet project of mine - I've updated a few other vans from classic sets, and this time I picked the highway emergency van, set number 6653: I managed to get hold of an unused sticker sheet for the original 1982 set (it's 30 years old!) in amazing condition on BrickLink. Admittedly, it did cost me a bit of money, but it's really what I needed to make this look the way I wanted. The worker's got plenty of tools in his cargo compartment, although this is what he's normally up to when he thinks nobody's looking: 9) The 3 Wheeler. This one was inspired by Morgan's new interpretation of their own classic three-wheeled sports car, which I was lucky enough to get to sit in at the Geneva motor show in March last year. I knew that it needed to be dark green, or British Racing Green, to be exact, and I'm particularly satisfied with the rear end - that flag piece and the taillight cluster is held together by a 1x2 plate with handle (type 1) and a single 1x1 plate with horizontal clip. 10) Sinister Surfer. There's a certain Hot Wheels quality to this next one - it's a surfer's hot rod: The jewel pieces work well as taillights. I actually thought the CMF surfer girl had dark purple highlights in her hair, but it turned out to be dark pink instead - the colours still work well toghether, though, so I'm happy with how it all turned out, especially the rounded rear end. This one tilts quite heavily to the front, which gives it an aggressive stance, and I finally found a place to use those chrome silver lamp holders. 11) Gone Overboard. A hot rod with a maritime theme - red and yellow are the colours of the signal flag for "man overboard": I also thought I overdid this one a bit, so the name was quite appropriate. The owner doesn't seem to be particularly mainstream, either. The observant viewer might have noticed how I've modified the windscreen on this one - I took to the saw because the glazed-in look that the original windscreen gave the car just didn't look right - especially not with suicide-style doors. I'm sorry if I offend anyone with my parts-butchering :) 12) The Tine Tanker. I bought an extra sticker sheet for set number 1029, the Tine truck, and had been thinking about doing a tank truck for a while. This is what I ended up with: There's a rear hatch for access to the controls for the tank. Just like when I built my modernised Tine Truck earlier, I based the cab design on Thomas Selander's trucks, but I also used a picture of a real Tine tank truck for reference - and I'm very happy with this one. The chromed cylinder pieces are from set 4654, and they're yellow underneath that chrome coat, so I had to hide the ends, which was easier than I thought. I added quite a bit of extra chrome, to make it look realistic - the BL seller Chrome Block City came in very handy for that. Here are my two Tine trucks side by side: 13) Afterlife Express. There really was no serious idea behind the next one. It's an evolution of the design of my Ace of Spades hot rod pickup, and I asked for opinions on the front end design here on EB, but at the time I didn't know what to do with the rear end. And then I got a ridiculous idea... The owners of VIP Funeral Service take good care of you after you've passed away, and make sure to whisk you on to the afterlife at express speed. Hence the name of the hot rod hearse. The bonnet (hood) opens to reveal a six-cylinder engine, and there's a coffin in the back. Obviously, with a ride as spooky as this one, something like this was bound to happen: 14) The Boattail Speedster. Another evolution of my Ace of Spades design, this one is a sleek vintage boattail-style speedster that, in my opinion anyway, suits its dark blue colour scheme very well: What could be better than a little picnic when the sun is shining and you've been driving around all day for no other reason than that you can? 15) Blue Eagle. A compact, low-slung, sporty vintage coupé with a spare wheel mounted on the baggage rack: This is one of my personal favourites among my builds thus far - the dimensions are just the way I wanted them, the colour is nice, and there's just the right amount of details in it, while it still remains pretty simple. I hope you'll agree :) The roof is removable, for a bit of good old-fashioned open-top motoring: 16) Ruby Roadster. And finally, a low, sleek, elegant vintage roadster with a certain Jaguar-ish vibe to it: This started out as a hot rod, but turned into something altogether more classy during the design process. I think those angled metallic silver clips work quite well as a front bumper, and to give the car an extra finish I added a bit of chrome. And yes, I have cut a 2x4 mudguard in half - and it does make the car look much better :) The gentleman who owns it certainly seems satisfied with having been able to acquire such a fine motorcar: So there you have it, sixteen new vehicles for my shelf. And, as it would be shelfish to keep them all to myshelf, I will, most likely, bring them to the Lego Fan Weekend in Skærbæk in September, so if you like them (or, for that matter, if you don't like them at all), you can see them up close and personal there. This will probably be the last from me for a while - I've been building a lot over the past few months, and that's quite expensive, so now I'll just turn my attention to the Town Hall that waits patiently in its box. But thanks for looking - some constructive criticism (or all-out praise) will be appreciated! More pictures, as mentioned, in my two Flickr folders: Cars and Trucks and vans.

That's gorgeous. I like the use of the chest lids on each side of the door!

This was close to impossible. I don't think I've ever seen so many amazing entries in a contest. But I had to choose, and these are my votes: 2. cimddwc - 1 11. Darkblane - 1 14. alex54 - 1 27. Myko - 1 29. Kristel - 1 There are many more that deserve to be mentioned, but I can't name them all :)

A lot of nice entries here, but for me these three stand out: 10. LegoJalex - 3 5. Caparica - 1 20. DarthNick - 1

These are my favourites: 12. moctown - 2 16. kciR - 2 17. Cecilie - 1

Excellent work! Those columns are indeed something special, but I also love the oven and those dark red tables.

Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you like it - I still don't have very high hopes for the contest as the competition is absolutely fierce. But it's fun to participate, right? And I got some more modular practice, which is always handy. I know! That's why I keep urging people to visit the photoset on Flickr... :)

It's a lovely, clean design. I like the fact that the walkway isn't straight, and the water fountain is a very nice addition. The best detail, however, is probably the basket full of cherries :)

Yeah, that's possible, although without the big black lamppost it might have been OK. Still, I'm happy with it the way it is now :)

Thanks! The toilet is a shameless rip-off of the one found in the Pet Shop, and the piece in question is this one: - in white. Very useful for that exact purpose.

Thanks for the nice comments, guys - I'm glad you like it. I was hoping it'd be something people would appreciate - I thought the idea was a nice one, anyway. ...is not something I normally aim for with my builds, but with this subject I guess it was inevitable :) Funny how the bunny (wow, a rhyme) is a favourite - it was just something I thought of along the way. But he does fit perfectly into the scene. Regarding the bathroom: I figured that there would probably be a lot of entries into Category 3 that would be missing a bathroom, so why not add one to a building where nobody expects one? Thanks! I considered removing the big black lamp - I still think it might be a bit over the top. An addition that would have been nice, however, would be a small tree on top of that tiny hill. But I thought of it too late.

That's a very different way to go about designing a modular building, but with those connecting pins it does fit - I'd love to see a picture of it next to some official modulars to see how it looks! The building is gorgeous in all its modernity, and the interior details (computers, projector, elevator, water cooler) are excellent. Well done!

I love the facade! Dark blue and tan is a perfect colour combination for this. Well done - and the best of luck to you.

Another fine entry! The exterior is nice, but the interior is great - I really like those bookshelves.

Nice! I like the colour combinations and the roof terrace. Good luck!

Nice one! I'm guessing the easiest way to explain what the spjoingy thingy is (funny way to put it) is to call it some kind of rocking horse?

This is brilliant! The exterior design is beautiful, and the inside is packed with details. And that Mercedes Rescueline ambulance is spot-on :) Well done - are you planning to keep this for a while? Would love to see it up close in September or November. I'm guessing he's probably claustrophobic. I've never been inside such a machine, but I hear it's a very common reaction :)

I agree - that's just about the perfect way to create a water fountain effect. Inspiring!

I like that you've mounted the building at an angle - it adds a bit of realism. Nice!

This is very nice! I've been toying with the idea of adding a church to my row of modulars, and I've been thinking that space would probably be an issue with a 32x32 footprint. You've solved that quite well here, it doesn't look all that cramped. My favourite parts of it are the stonework and the roof, although the interior is nice, too. Well done!

B-OM-29D Hi again, fellow Eurobrickers! I was photo-editing like crazy when I realised I wouldn't manage to finish all my pictures until the deadline. So I picked the five I wanted to enter for the contest, and here they are. My Flickr, and specifically the B&W Building photoset, have now been updated with many detail pics, so feel free to drop by for a closer look. There are a lot of details that I'm very happy with, that you really can't see very well in the pictures (after all, we were limited to five), so I'd love it if you'd pay a visit :) The B&W Building is an attempt to design a building that's relatively clean and simple, architecturally, and in that matter you could say that I've been inspired by Eurobricks member snaillad, especially regarding colour choices. I'm reasonably happy with the result, exterior-wise, but as is always the case with my modulars, I like the inside better than the outside - so let me once again urge you to have a look over at Flickr :) Here's a couple of exterior shots: And now, the part that I like the most, the interior: The ground floor contains, to the left, a lamp shop selling all sorts of interior and exterior lamps. Their inventory is pretty extensive, at the moment there are no less than 15 different lamps on display in the shop, in addition to various colour-shaded light bulbs behind the counter. To the right, there's a small café/coffee shop with two tables (not visible in the picture) and stools by the counter. There's also the mandatory coffee machine. I've given each of the two shops a colour theme: The lamp shop is tan/brown, and the café is dark/medium blue. The colours are used on the floors and, to break up the grey, in the stripes along the walls. Underneath the stairs there's a couple of storage rooms. On the first floor, a small architecture firm called Brickson & Brickson resides. To the left, there's a filing cabinet with a gold fish bowl on top, a desk where the two architects have their workspaces, a small landscape model of their current project (not visible), kitchen facilities, and a tiny toilet underneath the stairs. The top part of the staircase comes off for easier access. The company's dark red/dark green logo can be seen on the wall, and the colours are also used in the rug on the floor. The top floor is the real pièce de résistence. The penthouse contains a spacious living room with a sofa, a glass table, a widescreen TV and stereo set; an open kitchen in the left corner; a small bedroom with a big closet; a bathroom with toilet, wash basin and glass-walled shower; and not least, the most eye-catching feature: The jacuzzi on the terrace. Not visible in this picture is the sliding door that allows access to the terrace from the penthouse, and the big window beside it. There, I've presented my latest modular design, just in time for the deadline. Now it's up to you to decide how much you like it - personally, I don't dare to expect much, especially after having seen the huge pile of marvellous entries that has grown over the past few weeks. But hopefully you had fun looking at the pictures - and as I said, there are many more on my Flickr! :) The best of luck to all participants in the contest, and a huge thank you to the people at Eurobricks who are hosting such a great competition. It's certainly brought out the best in everyone!

That's a truly great train station - well done on building something so big and realistic. It looks just like the real thing! I'm always amazed by people who dare to take on such huge projects. My favourite part is the dome - it does look like it's just a little bit tall compared to the real station, but curvature is something that's not easy to achieve with Lego. All in all a fabulous model!

B-OM-30D Hello, fellow Eurobrickers! Let me introduce to you my entry into Category 2 of the great Modular Madness competition: The Petting Zoo. So many people have wanted a Lego zoo for years, so I thought, 'why not cater to everybody's needs'? The problem is that you can hardly fit a proper zoo on a 32x32 baseplate. A petting zoo, however... So, the zoo contains three small enclosures for a goat, a rabbit and a couple of chickens, and a bigger enclosure, with a tiny grassy hill, for a horse and a cow. It's also got a little cabin that serves as a restroom for the staff. Total piece count: About 1,000 bricks. The letters on the pavement should clear away any confusion regarding what's behind those 'brick' brick walls. At the gate, visitors are welcomed by an overgrown bunny that seems inexplicably happy to be there. The sign is made up of a Z and two O's from an official POLIZEI sticker sheet, to comply with the rules. At the back, there's an entrance to the bigger enclosure, in order to easily get the animals in and out. They're transported back to the farm at the end of each day. To the right, there's a maintenance area. The roof of the cabin comes off to reveal a little restroom, a wash basin and a tiny toilet. And finally, a picture of the zoo between (how fitting!) the two buildings of the Pet Shop. This way, children who have fallen in love with the cute little bunny can pester their parents as they pass the pet shop on their way home... You can also just see the sweater that one of the employees is wearing - it's designed to fit the pattern of the sign above the entrance. Or vice versa. Hope you've enjoyed it! I certainly enjoyed building it, it's the first thing I've built to go along with modular buildings that's not a modular building! If that made any sense. There are more detail images in my Petting Zoo folder on Flickr. Thanks for watching! And good luck to all other participants in the contest. I'll be posting my Category 3 entry in a few hours :)

I really like it! The dispenser and espresso machine are very well done, and the split staircase is a nice touch. Great job!