Leavenworth, WA is a small town about 100 miles east of Seattle styled as a “Bavarian village,” with the world’s largest collection of nutcrackers and an annual Oktoberfest rivaling Munich’s.
Catherine (LegoQueen) created a trio of buildings inspired by our faux-German neighbors to the east.
The scene needs more drunken tourists eating frozen cheesecake, but I love the variety of rooflines, and the green and brown building in particular.
Jeramy Spurgeon and the team have just released a double issue edition of RAILBRICKS magazine covering all things LEGO trains. It has in-depth articles on a few models we’ve featured here on TBB.
This 100 page issue was a long time coming, but features an interview with UK
builder Carl Greatrix, more Steam tips & Tricks, the Indiana Jones Circus
Train MOC by Brian Williams, Billund’s Miniland Trains, and much more!
Check out the website to download or read the magazine.
With my latest model I went public with what I usually keep private: my building stages. Since the photos and comments were up I thought it might be interesting to share this process with TBB as an example of how I (and I imagine many other people) build something.
I then made an LDraw rough draught of the building to try to get the basic layout and proportions as well as the most prominent details. I also wanted to get an idea of how many dark orange bricks I would need to build it to see if I had to order any.
Following comments from ‘the commitee’ I proceeded to make a slightly more refined model with some of the details included. You can see that the roof has been vastly improved and the entire model has become one brick taller.
For my final work-in-progress (WIP) stage I substantially altered many of the details and added still more. It should be noted that at all stages so far the model doesn’t have a back. At this stage I also learnt that the model was a) not a model of what I thought it was and b) not at all valid in its current form. I then conspired (away from the commitee) to remedy this for the final, secret, version.
Finally I spent many hours of back-ache transferring the CAD to brick and adding on all the final details (as well as a back). I changed the design from a coal drop to a small railside warehouse as I’ve always wanted to build one and it made more sense. I also altered bits of the design to allow various components to pop out for added playability.
And thus a model was born. I hope I satisfied the commitee as well as everyone else. Have fun spotting what has remained throughout the design process.
This six axle crane, by M Longer, is more than ready for the task. All that orange is pretty sweet too.
I’m working on my second LEGO creation, which is in the Cafe Corner standard, so I’ve been looking around for good examples of that theme and am especially enjoying any builds that incorporate all kinds of interior details. “Page*s Books” by notenoughbricks sure fits the bill. It’s been under construction for over a year, and looks like it was well worth the effort.
The exterior has fun little details, including a flower piece as an apostrophe and nice use of a DUPLO water barrel, but the interior is what won me over for sure. The ground floor is a bookstore complete with genre sections, reading couches, stepping stools and a cash register. The upper floors are an apartment, including a big screen TV (with specs, just in case you needed them) and a nearly functional bathroom.
Also, it’s just wonderfully colorful and if I were a fig, I would love to live in this apartment above a bookstore. Wouldn’t you? Check out the whole photoset for details.
In 1963, The LEGO Group spun off a company called Modulex to create planning tools for architects, including a completely separate system of bricks. Though Modulex still operates today (still based in Billund, making modular corporate signage), they no longer manufacture little plastic bricks.
Nevertheless, Modulex bricks continue to be sought-after collectors’ items among LEGO fans. Some fans even have enough in their collection to reproduce contemporary LEGO sets, as Marion has done with her collection.
The limited palette of bricks in the Modulex system doesn’t stop Brixe from an excellent recreation of 10182 Café Corner and 10190 Market Street.
Even though Brixe’s Modulex version is nearly a stud-for-stud clone of the LEGO set, this comparison shot shows the difference in scale between the two systems (LEGO on the left, Modulex on the right):
My local auto mechanic was forced to leave their current location across the street and the shop has been destroyed to make room for a grocery store and mini-strip mall, the bane of suburban America, moving into my inner city ‘hood. The only upside is that while waiting for my bus, I get to watch big earth moving machines at work. So it was great timing when someone recommended the creations of ZED, who entered several Caterpillars in an alternative models build for DoubleBrick, his local LEGO group. He built this Caterpillar 385C excavator . . .
. . . out of this Caterpillar D11T bulldozer:
Very cool. Thanks to Igor Makarov for the heads-up. Good call.
I went to college in a town with a heavy agricultural focus and a large number of migrant farm workers, who labored in the apple, onion, cherry and grape industries, so this little scene by Chris Blessing (Mdrn~Mrvls) really appealed to me.
There’s a lot to love in one small scene, but I especially like the brick-built ladder and that the cherry crates stack up on the back of this fantastic truck.
Johan van den Heuvel (Teddy) uses his master LEGO architecture skills to create this public library that fits well into a modular town layout. The Greek revival style of the building is truly well done. Check out the gallery for more photos showing a peaceful courtyard in the back.
Tom Snellan goes into the hotel business in a big way with his latest creation. This hotel has a very nicely understated facade and the roof has an intriguing texture to it. The nieghboring buildings are an added bonus. That sandgreen one is incredible.
Tom has also given this scene a lot of life with his street scene. The breakdancer is a nice touch. I do feel sorry for the fig on the roof though. Looks like he’d better learn to fly real soon.
Ah, the Rock Island Line. Peter Norman (Swoofty), build this great Rock Island E6A 630 engine as a commission from his boss. Thus the splurge on metallic silver.
I’m keeping post details to a minimum because I’m sick and have a tendency to screw up any and all attempts at facts when I blog sick or tired.
