My Winter Village Project

Speedman29

@alexwil thats immense.

We just run the WV train around the base of the tree with the station tucked away. Last year it was an oval, which we added points to and made a loop around the lounge.

PeteM

Speedman29 said:

@alexwil thats immense.

We just run the WV train around the base of the tree with the station tucked away. Last year it was an oval, which we added points to and made a loop around the lounge.

Sounds similar to us - a simple loop around the tree for ‘every day’ but incorporating some points, then when my wife goes out for any reason, my daughter and I get the rest of the tracks out and cover the living room floor! 

JudgeChuck

Brilliantly inventive @alexwil !

Regarding the white baseplate, is there any rumoured release date, or is it going to be a 2020 set and therefore be unavailable for this year's Christmas displays?

Like @SilverLove, I use 1x1 round plates, 1x2  and 2x2 jumpers to give a bit of texture and to allow non-straight positioning of figures. With a few white 32x32 baseplates (hopefully), I'm going to need to grab a load more white plates, I think, to make the snow a little more natural-looking.

SilverLove

JudgeChuck said:

Brilliantly inventive @alexwil !

Regarding the white baseplate, is there any rumoured release date, or is it going to be a 2020 set and therefore be unavailable for this year's Christmas displays?

Like @SilverLove, I use 1x1 round plates, 1x2  and 2x2 jumpers to give a bit of texture and to allow non-straight positioning of figures. With a few white 32x32 baseplates (hopefully), I'm going to need to grab a load more white plates, I think, to make the snow a little more natural-looking.

Everywhere i read about it, it says relase 2020, so sorry, not for this years winter villages.

Thank you for the tip about jumper plates!

Switchfoot55

@alexwil, I saw you post your photos on the Facebook group. Absolutely stunning! I showed my wife and kids and they all loved it! Top notch creation!

Here is my most recent update: 



I redid the snow blanket on the platforms about 15 times until I landed on this layout. I still have a TON to do. Tunnels to be cut/built, a couple more buildings to build, and entire town square to layout, roads, snow, ponds, etc....

Also added the table skirt and decided to make it a fort for the kids (they were going to end up under it anyway, so might as well make it official). We put up some Christmas lights, added some blankets, pillows, and books. They've pretty much lived under it for the last week! 

I've already decided that, depending on what next year's set is, I'll probably have to pull one of my modified buildings to make room for it. I would have thought that 8 more square feet was going to be plenty. Apparently not...

560Heliport

So if the kids are living under the table, have you taken over their rooms yet? :)

Switchfoot55

^See, that's why I need this forum! It's full of thinkers!

560Heliport

^ glad I could help! 

Cymbeline

bandit778

The new Christmas Tree fits in nicely with my Christmas display. 
Needed some lights to make it pop though.

benbacardi

@Cymbeline What's the hole under the ice rink for??

Cymbeline

@benbacardi The ice rink is motorized and the skaters twirl around the ice. The base hides the motor and battery. It is based on the Trammel of Archimedes and I got the idea from JK Brickworks but the idea of making an ice rink with skaters is mine.

vanvonfull

Video? That’s awesome. 

Cymbeline

@vanvonfull I've taken a video of the skating MOC on my iPad but I can.'t add it to my comment as it says that the "file format is not allowed". If anyone knows how I can convert it to an allowable format please let me know. The format is IMG with a suffix of .mv4. I've taken a photo of the back of the MOC showing the set up.

eMJeeNL

Started filling our cabinet with WV-goodness:

Also decided the firehouse (an Inklingbricks design) is too small now, so MODding the MOC:

Still waiting for some parts, but the beginning is there; quite pleased with it actually. It is a challenge finding the right spots to mount the angled roofplating, haven’t really figured that out properly.

 Bummed i cant expand the livingquarters/hose-tower upwards to match the bulk of the garage; as you can see, there simply isnt the space in my cupboard (which is where i set up my WV...)

eMJeeNL

Looking at the pictures, only now I notice I forgot the put my converted-to-apartments #10263 in there. Also, i have no space to put my WVtrain or station... I need a different solution next year!

vizzitor

I usually bring in some Lego to decorate in work each year.


There's a few Lego baubles hanging from the ceiling and the more ornament type sets are on my desk.

Anyone that has come in to take a look I've asked if they want to make a minifig to put in the display. A few have played around with the figures, even setting up a polar bear to attack the Gingerbread baby.
I found the ghost dog Spencer from Hidden Side makes a great cold, soaked pet trying to help his owner.


Lastly there's a colleague retiring next year who goes above and beyond decorating the office each year and asking me for weeks leading up to December if I'm making anything. So I took too long to make a larger scale version of her desk (with a modified version of a Chris McVeigh office chair) and a section of her office with her decorations. There's even a cheap string of lights around the tree. I hate the version of her I made to put in it so she's partially hidden behind the partition.


Apologies for my complete lack of any photography skills and a terrible phone camera.

Cymbeline

@vizzitor Great display and I like your idea of using Spenser as a wet dog!

eMJeeNL

Version 0.9:

Needs some final tweaks, especially the upper part, just underneath the roof.

Switchfoot55

Latest update. Man I'm moving slow this year...



Progress should be pretty quick from here. Nailing down the location of the road and back row of lower buildings was what was holding things back. The town square in the middle will just be a matter of placement of buildings, smaller builds, and more white plates and tiles. 

I was able to add my three Brave Bears on top of Santa's workshop as well. Pretty happy about that. 

KungFuKenny

@Switchfoot55 - looking good!  Although I’m worried about this group of passed out minifigs... perhaps the cider was a bit too hard...

Cymbeline

KungFuKenny said:

@Switchfoot55 - looking good!  Although I’m worried about this group of passed out minifigs... perhaps the cider was a bit too hard...

Maybe they were all taken out by the minifig with the whip and the bone?

Switchfoot55

My money is on the Gingerbread Man hiding behind the Candy Cane. He's usually the culprit...

snowhitie

Been following the thread for a while and enjoying the pictures and getting ideas, been itching to start on my own, but we have to wait till Sinterklaas (6th of December) before Xmas decorations can go up.

Not build as much Lego as I did last year, but did manage to really go for it these last weekends and week. Really enjoyed making a proper project. My husband and son helped out a bit with building here and there but mostly by saying what should be improved! Hubby also built the train and laid the track though, and they both been having fun playing around on it.

We've pulled out the table to full length and the Xmas tree on top, 2 years ago (last year I never got a chance to make one) I built it all on the floor, but it's much better on the back having it on a table. Plus easier to hoover and doesn't get kicked about so much.

My son has been using the table like @Switchfoot55 for a cozy nook, but has now added his own train tracks for an 'alternative not Christmas world', don't have a table skirt though (never heard that before). But since the village is done, he's been playing on the top.

It's difficult to take a good overview picture! One side of the Christmas tree is the actual winter village. There are some Lego sets, some easy MOD's of Lego sets, some MOC's, like a skating pond, a bandstand, a little lake and bridge, well, you see for yourself.

I enjoy looking at lots of the details, so I've taken some different pictures from differnt angles and with more detail etc (since I've not been as organised as to post while I was doing it like other people here). You can see them in my Flickr album (here). They are alos full sized over there.

On the other side of the Christmas tree, there is the North Pole. On one side it's closed with a short tunnel that is actually part of the play-park with a massive slide! On the other side (where I try to keep the tree of the tracks) there is a big mountain tunnel.

The North Pole has Santa's Workshop, but I decided I needed a place to put all the presents and toys that came with all the Christmas trees and sets over the years. So I made an assembly line/wrapping station for the elves.

I've had great fun and hope I'll spread some festive cheer by sharing the pictures! Think I'm going to adapt @vizzitor 's suggestion of letting people who come by add a figure. I'm sure people will enjoy that. So pleased I ended up having enough baseplates (I'll be resisting buying the 32x32 ones next year since that will create height differences) but I definilty want to MOC a nice church by next winter like @Milamber.

Switchfoot55

^Really fantastic @snowhitie! I LOVE seeing everyone else's villages as it continues to give me great ideas for my own moving forward. Very impressive!

snowhitie

Switchfoot55 said:

^Really fantastic @snowhitie! I LOVE seeing everyone else's villages as it continues to give me great ideas for my own moving forward. Very impressive!

Thanks, yeah I love this thread, you did well starting it up all those years ago! I didn't get round to building a WV last year, so been collecting ideas and white pieces for a while so I could just go all out this year.

Astrobricks

Cymbeline said:

@vanvonfull I've taken a video of the skating MOC on my iPad but I can.'t add it to my comment as it says that the "file format is not allowed". If anyone knows how I can convert it to an allowable format please let me know. The format is IMG with a suffix of .mv4. I've taken a photo of the back of the MOC showing the set up.

@Cymbeline, most people upload their videos to YouTube then post a link here. This is also appropriate since people on slow connections don’t have to wait for a large file to download.

Cymbeline

@Astrobricks Thank you for the suggestion. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to posting pictures, videos, or social media in general and appreciate the help.

Herostratus

One of my favourite threads on the website, everyone is so creative.  It has inspired me to finally join the forum and show my own winter village setup. This is the second year building a winter village so I have been a bit more ambitious and decided  to add a mountaintop Santa's workshop.







My first time creating a hill & tunnel. It required a lot more bricks than I realized so it evolved into more of a hillock than what I had originally envisioned. I also had to raid my collection for every last white brick I could find meaning there is quite a bit of yellow & brown snow on the hike up to Santas grotto.

mustang69

^ I really need to do something like that with my village, but first I need to get a bigger house :) 

That looks awesome! And welcome to the forum!!

Marshallmario

I was sold on the hilltop in the first picture, by the time I got to the third picture I was amazed!
Very cool setup. Pretty sure it would take me another year to gather that many white bricks and 
base plates.

mustang69

Yeah, this has me searching on Amazon for white baseplates now :)

snowhitie

Nicely done @Herostratus and welcome to the forums, always great to see creations!

It's always surprising to see how many bricks go into things when you start Moc-ing :)

KungFuKenny

Herostratus said:

I also had to raid my collection for every last white brick I could find meaning there is quite a bit of yellow & brown snow on the hike up to Santas grotto.

By the way, don’t eat the yellow (and especially not the brown) snow...

Cymbeline

@Herostratus What a wonderful idea putting Santa's Workshop on a mountain with the train going through. I'm eager to see what you will come up with next after replenishing your stock of white bricks.

Herostratus

Thank you all for your kind comments, the winter village is complete for this year!




So Ferocious!




Just purchased a gallon of peroxide and a bucket of oxyclean to clean up after Santa and his elves

Switchfoot55

Your pack of Weiner Dogs is fantastic! The village as a whole is pretty spectacular as well. Great job!

evantyler

@Herostratus that's fantastic! 

brickventures

I bought this Ikea table specifically for my winter village layout this year.  The train is out of commission and Santa's reindeers are missing.  My son used the parts for his mocs last year.  He also staged some of the scenes ;)

I love the pics that folks are posting in this thread, so many creative ideas! Keep 'em coming! :)
 

KungFuKenny

I’ve neglected posting pics of our Winter Village... time got away from us and we couldn’t finish 4 of our sets, but I did have time to make a custom Gingerbread House (since it was out of stock when I started building) and to include Duplo and Fabuland in the mix.  I’m proud to say that our villagers are very tolerant of those that might look a bit different than them!

benbacardi

I love that Duplo addition! I have to say, I don't think there's enough Duplo love on these forums. Although I do think Duplo could do with a few more SNOT options..

KungFuKenny

benbacardi said:

I love that Duplo addition! I have to say, I don't think there's enough Duplo love on these forums. Although I do think Duplo could do with a few more SNOT options..

@benbacardi
I think the toddlers are supposed to provide the snot...

tamamahm

I was way behind in everything this year. Lego did not get up. I am lucky our tree was put up and decorated on 12/24. I think I will put up our winter sets (Ski/snow/cottages) instead in a few days, and maybe a few gingerbread items.

WhiteDove

@tamamahm, you aren’t the only one. I was in the exact same position as you this Christmas, for the tree as well. Hubby even created a small extension for my winter village table. Unfortunately he didn’t finish it until he was on leave, so it wasn’t ready until Christmas Eve, but also we had other projects going on that unfortunately took precedent over winter village.  I was going to put it up after Christmas anyway, and start my changes for next year, but my 7yo son absolutely loves Ninjago and begged me to start on our long promised ‘collaborative’ Ninjago city layout. So we are building that instead.

I was sad that I couldn’t put mine out this year, especially as I have big plans for it - MILS modulars and full landscaping. I have at least finally sorted all the pieces I have been collecting for ages,

Anyway I have absolutely loved seeing each and every photo that you have all uploaded. So many fun, interesting and pretty displays. I have much inspiration for next year’s build!!

LuLego

My eyes hurt, Wilko!

Brickchap

Any news on this years WV set?

bandit778

LuLego said:

My eyes hurt, Wilko!

That's a surprisingly similar footprint to the original. Just as well they missed out the sleigh or people would think they were copying. :/

Switchfoot55

^It can't be a copy, the clocks clearly show different time as well!

@Brickchap, I wouldn't hold your breath for now. The last couple of years have been leaked/revealed in late August/early September.

autolycus

Switchfoot55 said:

^It can't be a copy, the clocks clearly show different time as well!

The tree is built differently, there are TWO candy canes by the door, the elves aren't wearing hats, the reindeer is brown instead of tan ... It's totally different! LOL

Gibbo1959

Also they’ve missed an O and L from the product name.