Subject:
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Re: 20 answers (Building, ideas, supplies)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle, lugnet.build
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Date:
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Sun, 6 Jan 2002 06:10:50 GMT
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Viewed:
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87 times
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> I'l tackle what questions I can and see what I can do!
Thanks for that, I know I had alot there :)
> We-ell, you never really can tell. Sometimes they appear, other times they
> don't. The BV accessories, e.g., were Europe-only for a long time and then
> became available for awhile. Are they not available anymore? That's a shame
> (they're awesome). Did you actually call them and check? Just because
> they're not in the catalog doesn't automatically mean that they're
> discontinued... I've had that happen. (I once found a 5571 at S@H in fall
> 1999, when it was long out of catalogs...)
I'll have to do that, I was just using the Lego S@H Web Page. Perhaps I
should call to make sure as well!
> You're right, it is the eternal question for everyone. ;-) The answer is
> not single, nor is there one "right" answer...
>
> For down-and-out bricks, I'd recommend grabbing as many 1200-pc. blue
> buckets as you can before they disappear. For accesories, well... desert
> adventurer sets if you can still find them are *great*, but they've been
> mostly gone for a few years now. It depends on where you live - some of the
> imagination stores or, rather, the outlet stores might still stock them.
Argh! I haven't seen one of those 1200 piece buckets anywhere here in
Rochester :( And as for Outlet Stores? Well, I've been to the one in
Downtown Disney twice now, but it's a few hours flight away, so I can't just
pop down there :( I think I have to scavenge for more stores to look at,
instead of just the Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, K-Bee, Toys 'R Us loop I
usually hit.
> That would be my exact answer. A lot of people *do* put in little "how-to"
> tidbits, so just be on a constant lookout. If you see something amazing
> that's not explained, ask! It's that simple. The best building techniques
> come with experience, trial and error, or from seeing what other people have
> done. And anyway, any "imitation" is just plainly the sincerest form of
> flattery, IMHO. If I saw people using my tricks I'd be thrilled, not mad.
Maybe we can get Jeff to start that furniture store he wanted to do :)
If I had that sort of time, I'd be all into it at the moment!
> Okay, here goes. Modulization is one of the most important thing for model
> builders (model as opposed to sculpture). Especially if you focus on
> interior detailing, having your buildings detach is *vital*. So, a few
> different methods, and their tips and tricks:
Very true, I want to see the nitty gritty insides of things!
> - Have every floor detachable. This case works really well when the
> building's area is not too large, and also when there are not *too* many
> floors.
What I'm doing currently, since they are small buildings...
> I recommend always using a double layer of plates for the ceiling/floor.
I really am skimping at the moment then, but lack of bricks makes it
necessary right now :( I need another $20K in Lego, now! :) I have the
bare minimum on the bottom layer to keep the top layer together! I haven't
tried stressing it much yet to see how well it holds, though I imagine not
too well :(
> - Separating a building into a few sections, width-wise. That is to say -
> have the building split along a vertical line. This can be acheived in a few
> ways:
> * Technic pins - I'm not too fond of this method, but it works.
I agree, I've though about using this in the future, but it doesn't seem the
way too go. I may stick those in for modulizing like the old Castle line
sets, just so buildings can be stuck together with some stability, without
actually sharing any pieces, but I may scrap that, only time will tell.
> * Hinge bricks - this works to an extent, but is not perfect. I'm talking
> about these pieces - <part:3830>, <part:3831> as a couple and/or
> <part:2429>, <2430> as a couple. Again, you can put them on walls (although
> that's not common practice, but Matt Verdier has a great example of that in
> his Wizard Tower), or in the middle of the building (there's a good amount
> of these examples).
This does seem to be the way to go when not making entire floors detachable.
It does look like this could cause problems for structural integrity and
parts which would stick off the wall into the inside of the model (ok, that
was an image I couldn't describe well...), interesting dilemmas...
> * Having your roof come off is *always* good practice. If you keep the
> roof simple, it's easy to have it detachable - for example, two
> hinge-connected plates resting on some slopes are easy to take off and put
> back on again. Dave Eaton has great examples in his peasant houses.
Yes, I loved those! I totally scammed at idea, and just did a 3 angle roof
instead of a 2 angle Peaked roof :
_
/ \
I hope the formatting comes out right for that, but with HTML it probably
won't, maybe in the newsreader it will :) An interesting problem with that
design though was this...
On the smaller building, the roof seems to work great. each section is 6
wide and maybe 12-14 long? It fits together great, and the top section
snaps on to a couple plates and holds the 2 angled ones nice and firm on the
3x1 slopes.
On the larger building, again using 6 wide sections but maybe 18+ long, the
sections seem to have some buckle in them, and when attempting to snap the
top layer on to hold them in place like on the smaller one, they seem to
stress and not fit right, often pushing the middle off the plates it's on,
or pushing on the plates around the base of the roof, enough to separate
them :( 2 Pictures are worth a couple hundred words here, alas the models
are not here, and I have no digital camera anyway!
> * A totally different approach, which works especially well with
> half-timbered houses, is to have every wall built separately and the corners
> are 1x1x5s. If they are only loosely fitted to the floor and ceiling (e.g.
> part tile, part plate) then each wall can be taken off for easy reach to the
> interior. The only building I've sen made this way is Chris Maddison's mayor
> house.
I have seen that one, and I liked it, though I'm not sure exactly the idea
with the approach. Maybe an .mpg demonstration? ;) The detachable floors I
have in my one building are part tile, part plate, but it is not a half
timbered house and doesn't have any 1x1x5s, so I'm thinking my approach is
unrelated :) I'll have to read more on this one to fully appreciate it I think.
> That's a toughie. You're right, it makes for *such* realistic settings. The
> more plates, the better - don't let it look "blocky", as you said. And use
> different colors, mix them a lot - green with tan, tan with grey, green with
OK, green and tan baseplates? So, where do you get this mythical pieces? :)
I got some tan plates from cheap Landspeeders, but $3.32 each for a couple
tan plates won't get me too far right now :( That's ok though, have to
build up slowly. But green plates? Wow, I used to think I had a lot of
Lego, but that sure isn't the case seeing the things out there :)
> grey and brown... but in good taste. If you're building a large setting, use
> mega-bricks every so often so that you're not wasting plates on all that
> space.
I've never used Mega-Bricks? Just how good are they, and how cheap,
compared to Lego? I haven't soiled my collection yet (though I do have som
Loc-Blocks in the basement, but those are from before there was any Lego in
the house :) ). I can see using them for a few underplatings, and then
topping it all off with Lego? Also, is there any good way to "hollow out" a
hill or mountain? I've seen some strange multi-color scaffoldings built in
some larger mountain's to give them some stability for example...
> It's fine to use bricks - just "hide" them with plates. Chris always
> says that if you just start putting things down without really thinking too
> much, it comes out the best - organic, not planned, rough and natural. You
> just gotta experiment.
I'd better remember that, I have a thing with "symmetry", which isn't good
for natural landscaping!
> As for buildings on inclines - I haven't seen many examples for those. Chris
> and I had a really lovely one made for this Brickfest, though, IIDSSM. We
> built the building first on plates alone, and only later landscaped and
> added the house on it all. We even had a built-in cellar, which was totally
> cool! (My idea, of course! ;-) ). There aren't many pictures of it up, but
> I'm hoping to get some taken soon...
Please do, I'd love to see!
> You're right, that *would* be a great idea. I don't think anyone's done it
> before, *but* I would recommend browsing Heather Patey's brickshelf gallery
> for ideas. She's got some awesome stuff. Bram Lambrecht does too, but he's
> more town-and-space. Maybe *you* should compile a page with all those links,
> whaddaya say? ;-) Ahh, if only one had the time...
Ooh, I've seen Heather Patey's before, I remember seeing the "round door",
thought it looked pretty neat! And a nice spruce tree as well. Of course,
I've never seen that hedge maze before, that's a great idea! The only thing
I don't like about it is the prospect of ordering more trees and bushes :)
> Heh, likewise here! Take care! Nice talking to you. What a ramble! Thanks
> for the excellent questions - I really had to jog my brain for some of those.
Thanks for the time and ideas, I hope I can put some of them to use sometime
soon!
plucky
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: 20 answers (Building, ideas, supplies)
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| <snip> (...) Brett, megabricks are those great big (LEGO) bricks you find under a lot of the Fright Knights and Ninja sets, as well as most recent others. Look at <set:6097> for an example. All the big green bricks at the base are referred to as (...) (23 years ago, 6-Jan-02, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.build)
| | | Re: 20 answers (landscaping)
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| (...) heya, i think id like to insert some wisdom here. i, too, love landscaping.. and am trying to use it in more of my creations. ive found that hollowing is the best way to get the most out of your brick. in my town glen caer ( (URL) ) there are (...) (23 years ago, 6-Jan-02, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.build)
| | | Re: 20 answers (Building, ideas, supplies)
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| (...) Hi Brett, Another Rochester AFOL? Wow, that's at least two of us. If I ever come across any blu tubs, I will let you know. I'd suggest dividing the city up into fiefdoms for clearance bargain hunting, but I'm trying very hard to stay on a (...) (23 years ago, 7-Jan-02, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.build)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | 20 answers (Building, ideas, supplies)
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| Hey Brett! I'l tackle what questions I can and see what I can do! (...) We-ell, you never really can tell. Sometimes they appear, other times they don't. The BV accessories, e.g., were Europe-only for a long time and then became available for (...) (23 years ago, 5-Jan-02, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.build)
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