Questions to experienced builders.

loloveslegos

Hello all,

I am hoping that some of the more experienced or well seasoned builders on this site will be able to point me in the right direction. I am trying to get more serious about my lego building and really do something I am passionate about. I, up until recently have been buying complete sets. While these are great, I would like to start being more creative and take on more of a challenge. I do have a few questions:

* Could you recommend a great starter set up or quantity of certain bricks I should accumulate before I really start designing and building?

* Is there any tutorial available on how to use the LDD program?

Any tips or tricks you have for a beginner like myself are also greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Lo

Si_UKNZ

Where its best to get bricks depends on what type of thing you want to build - do you have any ideas?
Creator sets are a good source of general bricks, also try searching ebay for "lego kg" or "lego lb" -depending where you are- and just start building up the numbers of bricks.

loloveslegos

thanks for the response! Although I do have several ideas, before buying anything specific I really wanted to establish a "work area" of sorts. I will take your advice and search for lego lots on ebay.

davee123

There really isn't an amount you need before you start building (as long as you've got a few thousand elements)-- however, your collection will dictate WHAT you can build. Travis Kunce was a great example of a phenomenal builder, whose collection I always assumed to be 100,000+, but who in actuality only had about 30,000 or something.

The problem that a lot of builders have is that they immediately want to build REALLY big REALLY fast. They want to build a huge castle, or a giant starship, or something else spectacularly large, without having a large collection to back it up. The result being that they don't put in nice detail work, and often put in things that they feel are "good enough", given their collection size. So my advice will be to build what you CAN build-- not necessarily what you WANT to build (until later).

As for what to buy, that depends on what you want to build. Do you like building landscapes? Buildings? Vehicles? Do you build SNOT? Studless? Organic? Once you figure out the types of things you like building, discovering which sets you should buy actually becomes a no-brainer. You'll just naturally gravitate towards particular themes and elements that look appealing.

DaveE

loloveslegos

I have always gravitated towards the star wars sets and do enjoy building larger things. I am trying to explore other options and find my specialty. I would like to start doing busts and playing around with the human form in legos.... now if only technology did not hate me and could use that pesky LDD program....

legoDad

Not an expert builder but I suggest drawing/sketching out your ideas on paper...roughly. Then you can look an evaluate basically what you need brick wise. You can visualize the size/rough shape of the model, etc.
Stock up on many discounted sets to fill your parts bin too.

Si_UKNZ

To give an example of some good ways of getting bricks right now (in the UK at least) this set is heavily discounted
http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-Prince-Persia-7572-Sands/dp/B002Q4U76A/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1321863299&sr=8-9
and has loads of grey so is good if you want to build castles in particular, also star wars and general town stuff - basically anything with a lot of grey - which is the most useful colour to start with IMO.

It has lots of 'cheeses' - small triangular pieces which are great for finishing a model. search on bricklink.com to find out the pieces in each set, e.g.
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=7572-1

Just do this for any set you see on offer and you'll start to get a picture of what you'll get from each.

I reckon you need at least at least 50000 pieces to build with, but you can cut this down considerably if you specialise in a particular theme.

Silber334

You can just start off with something small. It doesn't matter how easy it is. It'll still stimulate your creativity. Of course, you can add on minor details or perfect some structures after completion.

loloveslegos

Thank you all for your help and suggestions! I am so excited to get started and see what I can create.

tdhbr

Sounds familiar ... just where I was several months ago. I got really excited about designing an old Gothic cathedral in MLCad. I got about 25% through it and realized I was already at 2,000+ pieces (it would've been 4' long and 3' wide, complete). Oops.

More recently, I bought a few lots on eBay (assorted brown, tan, and dark red pieces), plus a Log Cabin, made a couple small Bricklink purchases, and filled a few PickaBrick cups at the Lego Store. I set up my own building spot away from the "family Legos" where the kids do all their stuff. I probably don't have any more than 3,000 or so pieces in "Dad's Legos," but I've made a little house and car, and part of a castle tower. Plus I've done a small schoolhouse in MLCad that I may get parts for after Christmas ... and the kids and I are making my wife a Lego jewelry box as a present.

I've found that there is a lot I can do with not too many pieces. I plan on expanding over time, and maybe someday I'll get around to building that giant cathedral.