My Winter Village Project

DarthMaum

alexwil said:

Alexwil, this is WONDERFUL! what a great idea; am going to work on my own in between making masks and avoiding the news!  Thank you 

LuLego

Gibbo1959 said:

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

I love this comment! Best laugh all day.

A very creepy set, indeed. Strange that Wilkinson’s are selling it in June too.

Bit early for leaks. But never too early for speculation! 

Last year’s gingerbread house and Santa’s workshop were both excellent although don’t quite fit in the ‘village‘. I‘d like to see more sets like these, personally.

So it’s early June, I’m happy to start the ball rolling with complete guesses based on thin air...

The Nutcracker Suite ballet in a mini theatre.

Penguin Suit family in an igloo.

Switchfoot55

I agree that the "fantasy" WV additions are fun and quite welcome in my opinion. A tricked out Igloo would be a really fun addition! 

I think I'm leaning toward some sort of Chalet/Log Cabin/Cottage Remake as a likely addition this year. Although there are a lot more business/"attractions" that could be added. 

I find it fun to speculate. 

Modeltrainman

Shame they wouldn't do a church. I really don't know why. I think somebody told me/said once, that the Taj Mahal could be considered "religious"...

Switchfoot55

I have a bit of a project in mind for my village this year and wanted to see if anyone had any photos or may have attempted something similar in the past and could offer suggestions/inspiration. 

I'd like to add a second floor to my Post Office, Bakery, and Toy Shop to help increase their scale a bit and size them up to be more in line with the other official sets. I know I've seen this before in my various looks through Google and Pintrest, but can't seem to find any right now. I scanned back through the history of this thread as well and didn't see any (though easily could have missed them). 

Semi-related, but does anyone know of any Stud.io files of the existing WV sets that I could download and play around with? I swear EB had a thread once upon a time, but I think it was LDD?

WhiteDove

Switchfoot55 said:

I'd like to add a second floor to my Post Office, Bakery, and Toy Shop to help increase their scale a bit and size them up to be more in line with the other official sets. I know I've seen this before in my various looks through Google and Pintrest, but can't seem to find any right now. I scanned back through the history of this thread as well and didn't see any (though easily could have missed them). 

Semi-related, but does anyone know of any Stud.io files of the existing WV sets that I could download and play around with? I swear EB had a thread once upon a time, but I think it was LDD?

This page has lovely two storey versions of some of the winter village sets:

http://lego.super-junk.com/

Yes Eurobricks still has that page - I usually get to it by googling the set name and LDD. You can import the LDD files into Stud.io; I’ve done this a few times and it’s worked well. 

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/41226-key-topic-official-lego-sets-made-in-ldd/&page=162

Switchfoot55

Thank you for both resources @WhiteDove! Just what I was looking for!

Switchfoot55

I just had the realization that it had been awhile since I last updated on my WV progress. I'm always interested to hear what others are working on as well! 

I currently am pulling parts for Charles Pritchett's (Brickmonster) Winter Village Cafe. He just released an updated version. I'll be going for a combination of both as there are elements from each that I like. 

Depending on where I land with parts orders, I'll likely building the Ski/Snowboard shop from his first Expanding the Lego Winter Village book as well. I might even throw caution to the wind and attempt Inklingbrick's Chocolate Factory as well. We'll see how it all turns out. 

I also have plans to expand my WV Train Engine and add a second floor to my post office. As I didn't fully disassemble everything last year, I should have more time to complete some of the projects between now and then. 

Of course, I'm anxiously awaiting the new WV set for 2020 along with some of the extras that have already been announced (Nutcracker BHz, Wreath, and Ornaments). 

How about all of you? Any new visions, MOCs, inspiration?

panchox1

I'm planning on building a mountain with a tunnel for my train. was going to have the ginger bread house on the top of it but now it will prob get the new club house. I may not add the ginger bread house this year. have to see. I think what I'm planning is going to be built in the den, which I'm not happy about but the wall space is better. I would much prefer it to be on display where it would be seen and enjoyed more. but it is what it is I guess. I also need more white base plates......

mustang69

When I put in my last BnPs order I got a few white arches so I could also do a train tunnel/mountain. I'd love to add Santa's workshop on there but I'm planning on modding the Hidden Side high school into a bigger workshop so I dont know if that will be feasible. Though I still need to source a ton of white bricks for the mountain itself.

560Heliport

mustang69 said:

When I put in my last BnPs order I got a few white arches so I could also do a train tunnel/mountain. I'd love to add Santa's workshop on there but I'm planning on modding the Hidden Side high school into a bigger workshop so I dont know if that will be feasible. Though I still need to source a ton of white bricks for the mountain itself.

IKEA Bygglek boxes!

bricktuary

This year - and I realise this is super boring - I'm going to keep a large space in the middle and have little scenes with the people. I'll have a skating lake, some stalls, maybe a ride or two. Like a big Winter Village fete. There'll be a snowball fight. Plenty of snowmen. The buildings will be relegated to second billing.

I'm planning on a massive tree as the centrepiece. 

mustang69

560Heliport said:

mustang69 said:

When I put in my last BnPs order I got a few white arches so I could also do a train tunnel/mountain. I'd love to add Santa's workshop on there but I'm planning on modding the Hidden Side high school into a bigger workshop so I dont know if that will be feasible. Though I still need to source a ton of white bricks for the mountain itself.

IKEA Bygglek boxes!

Lol, I considered that when I saw the reviews on here but I think they might be a little too much bulk. Though I havent ruled them out. I guess I should start searching for ideas or pictures that use them and see how they end up working ;)

MeganL

Switchfoot55 said:

How about all of you? Any new visions, MOCs, inspiration?

We're moving into a new (to us) house in the middle of October.  In the process of packing I dismantled all of my built sets; so to get my WV up I'll have to rebuild everything.  I'm kind of looking forward to that.

I've also just managed to acquire 25 new (to me) pieces of 9V track (I like it better than the new) so will be able to have a larger train route throughout the Village.

eMJeeNL

Going for the new WV set, as well as 3 builds from Charles' latest book (Hotdog and Treestand, and the Grocery shop). Also have @inklingbricks  Rollercoaster-instructions on the list, but probably will save that for next year.

Hoping to find space (and compassion from the Mrs) to actually build a table and not just fill the spaces in the cupboard this year, as to have more of a chance to fit out everything properly :)
Also, starting immediately after Sinterklaas (6th of december), so I don't run out of time!

mic27

It was around last holiday that I began emerging from my dark ages. I want to do a Winter Village set up! They all look so cool and I have been looking up different displays to get some inspiration. I did have the Winter Village Bakery from before my Dark Ages, as well as the original 2006(?) Holiday Train. Plus a few holiday polybags and last year's advent calendar. Unfortunately, when I tried to sort my bricks to rebuild my old Fire Brigade modular, I realized I somehow lost a LOT of pieces and have no clue how that many can just disappear. So I am not sure if I will be able to recreate either set, but here's hoping for at least the bakery. I've found some major chunks of it at least :). I definitely will not be buying the old retired sets because of the prices. I definitely want the Elf Clubhouse and the little winter vignette. I'm not sure if I want to grab the Fire Station quickly before it disappears or the Gingerbread House (or both or neither). I wish there was a way to picture what these sets would look like next to each other before I actually make any purchase. I can only imagine them clashing right now. What kind of village only has a bakery, fire station, and an elf house?? LOL. 

KungFuKenny

mic27 said:

Unfortunately, when I tried to sort my bricks to rebuild my old Fire Brigade modular, I realized I somehow lost a LOT of pieces and have no clue how that many can just disappear. 

You can find that set on Bricklink, “part out” the set into a wanted list, then go cross off the pieces you have to see what you are lacking—-the wanted list will also make it easy to buy the pieces you need.

mic27 said:

What kind of village only has a bakery, fire station, and an elf house?? LOL. 

The baking sometimes gets a little out of hand and often they need the fire station to come to the rescue.  The elves are just there for comic relief...

560Heliport

Most winter villages I've seen, not just Lego but Dept. 56, etc., don't have enough houses to support all the other buildings- unless they're meant to represent just the downtown?

Switchfoot55

@mic27, welcome to the world of Winter Villages! If you go back through the pages of this thread you can find many pictures of people's villages all set up. Some only have the official sets, others have buildings they've redone to incorporate better, and others have added buildings of their own. I don't think there is a "wrong" way to Winter Village necessarily. 

As a fan of all the sets, I'd say jump on the two that are still in stock while you can. But, that's just me. I started just a couple of years ago after coming out of my dark ages. It didn't take long of hunting OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, and Ebay before I landed all of the official sets (except the original train and original bakery). The aftermarket prices are certainly steep. But, if you're patient, you can land some pretty sweet lots for a reasonable price. (I think I chronicled nearly all of my set finds in the first few pages of this thread)

Most of all, have fun! I get too worked up about it myself sometimes and have to remind my brain that it's supposed to be fun and enjoyable. 



As an aside, I just purchased Expanding the Lego Winter Village Volume 1 for the Ski & Snowboard Shop. Off to sorting more bricks from my parts collection!

mic27

KungFuKenny said:

You can find that set on Bricklink, “part out” the set into a wanted list, then go cross off the pieces you have to see what you are lacking—-the wanted list will also make it easy to buy the pieces you need.

Ahh thank you, that is very helpful. I had downloaded the PDF building instructions and just looking at the blurry piece list in the back and I got very overwhelmed. It probably did not help that I had already just spent the previous several days sorting my entire collection and my brain was fried.

I am hoping that I do still have the bakery pieces. I have found a lot of big chunks of it, and it is easy to find the loose pieces when the rare colors stick out. Even if I do not find every piece, it will certainly be much more manageable in this smaller set!

KungFuKenny said:
The baking sometimes gets a little out of hand and often they need the fire station to come to the rescue.  The elves are just there for comic relief...

LOL! Actually, soon after I posted that comment, I realized that a bakery and a gingerbread house DO go together pretty well, if the bakery doubles as a construction company. The bakery chef could even "deliver" the gingerbread baby! But now that you mention that, that would be a funny scene to create, and I think I have enough random fire pieces for my bakery to go up in flames...

Switchfoot55 said:

@mic27, welcome to the world of Winter Villages! If you go back through the pages of this thread you can find many pictures of people's villages all set up. Some only have the official sets, others have buildings they've redone to incorporate better, and others have added buildings of their own. I don't think there is a "wrong" way to Winter Village necessarily. 

As a fan of all the sets, I'd say jump on the two that are still in stock while you can. But, that's just me. I started just a couple of years ago after coming out of my dark ages. It didn't take long of hunting OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, and Ebay before I landed all of the official sets (except the original train and original bakery). The aftermarket prices are certainly steep. But, if you're patient, you can land some pretty sweet lots for a reasonable price. (I think I chronicled nearly all of my set finds in the first few pages of this thread)

Thanks! I have been looking through the thread and all of the displays are so beautiful and I'm so jealous! For the time being, I think I will try to stick to the set buildings. Growing up, I would always build Lego houses that were one brick tall (akin to playing The Sims with "Walls Down" selected), and focus more on interior details, so building an entire building is intimidating. But I definitely could probably do a lot of the smaller details, like benches and street lamps, and maybe a Santa photo op (giving the clubhouse elves a job!) and any other little details I can think of. Maybe I will check out that book. Of course, who knows when inspiration will hit. I really like the idea of a big central tree. Hopefully I have enough green bricks!! 

Ahh it's so hard to decide. part of me is like, I know it is a cute set, but jeez do I need another fire station? But part of me is like, oh but you will regret it if you don't! And how on earth do you integrate a gingerbread family with regular minifigs?? Hence why I am looking at others for inspiration. I'll try to keep my eye on some of the older sets over the next year, but I've definitely spent too much on Lego already this year! :) 

eMJeeNL

mic27 said:

Ahh it's so hard to decide. part of me is like, I know it is a cute set, but jeez do I need another fire station? But part of me is like, oh but you will regret it if you don't! And how on earth do you integrate a gingerbread family with regular minifigs?? Hence why I am looking at others for inspiration. I'll try to keep my eye on some of the older sets over the next year, but I've definitely spent too much on Lego already this year! :) 

I redid the Fire station as an apartment building; as I already had the FS by Inklingbricks; you might want to look into that. Also provides you a building with a new function for the village!

Switchfoot55

Well, I just submitted my parts order for the Cafe and Ski/Snowboard Shop along with a few other odds and ends that will make their way into the village as well. So, 5-7 weeks from now, I should be able to start building and can post some pictures. 

I ended up with several parts changes and color swaps, but I'm thrilled to have this one checked off. All for about $100 less than I had budgeted originally! Leaves a little room for some of the seasonal extras. 

Speedman29

As i've said before on here, I don't have space for a WV setup over the festive period, but we do lay a bit of track around the tree and put the WV station out. I quite like the look of this years set and might have to add it to the side of the tracks. I have plans to build another wagon for the train after making the hot chocolate tanker the other year. I'm wondering if its time to make the reindeer wagon with the new animal mould available.

Switchfoot55

^The answer is obviously YES! :)

eMJeeNL

Switchfoot55 said:

^The answer is obviously YES! :)

Exactly.

eMJeeNL

This bugs me:

It says: Expand your Lego-Holiday Collection
This year we add the exclusive net Elf Clubhouse to the Holiday-collection, which already consists of the Gingerbread house (2019), the Winter Toy Shop (2018) and the Winter Holiday Train (2017).

This 1. doesn't correspond with the picture and 2. Isn't correct (2018 was the Fire House, 2017 the Train Station. Toy Shop was 2009 and 2015...).

Just... Argh. 

Sorry for sharing my pet peeves - but the Lego site (especially the Dutch version) doesn't really reflect the quality image of Lego, tbh.

Switchfoot55

A few days ago I received an exciting email that my parts orders all all processed and headed my direction. Considering it was only 9 days from order to shipping, I was beyond thrilled! I will hopefully have a Cafe and Ski/Snowboard Shop built in the coming week (give or take...)


Not being able to leave well enough alone, I had a thought come to mind for another project and was hoping to get some collective insight from the group at large. Depending on response, I may make a separate post about it. But, as it relates to my village, I thought this would be the best place to start. 

I think I'd like to tile/ballast my train tracks. Simple enough to say it, but a whole other thing to implement I imagine. My initial thought it to determine the cost per track piece (straight and curved) to run some initial math and determine what the actual cost would be. But, before I can get there, I feel like I need some recommendations on how to make this look/feel right. 

Does anyone have any resources they've used when going this direction? Are there other LEGO fan sites out there that breakdown this type of build? I have a lot of other questions, but feel the answers to these two will point me in the right direction for the others. 

I appreciate any feedback people can provide!



Semi-related, but as I didn't take all of my sets apart last year, I was afraid I wasn't going to have a lot to build this year (a fun family tradition). But, as I started going through my mental list, I realized I'll have quite a bit: Elf Clubhouse, my Cafe MOC, Ski/Snowboard MOC, Winter Snowball Fight, Wreath, Nutcracker BHz, a Wampa cave, modified train engine, modified train dining car, second level for my post office, and at least a few other items that I'm bound to come across. SO, maybe I should be more thankful for my decision to leave my sets together last year? :)

flord

^ That’s a lot. Me, I’ve been planning my winter village and I decided to Bricklink the Cottage, and just the cottage itself. I’ve got about half the parts in my collection. Just ordered the rest. I’m looking at $70 instead of $350 new.

eMJeeNL

1 combined PaB/BnP order and 2 BL'orders and I've ordered everything I need to build 3 additions to my WV; Charles Pritchett's WV Tree Stand, Hotdog Stand and his Village Grocer, all from his 3rd book. 

Now the wait. Oh, the wait. ;)

KungFuKenny

Switchfoot55 said:

I think I'd like to tile/ballast my train tracks. Simple enough to say it, but a whole other thing to implement I imagine. My initial thought it to determine the cost per track piece (straight and curved) to run some initial math and determine what the actual cost would be. But, before I can get there, I feel like I need some recommendations on how to make this look/feel right. 

One common way is outlined in this video...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0PKHo2khZvY

The Train Techopedia on Eurobricks has a ton of articles as well...

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/54563-the-train-techopedia-tutorial-discussion-index/

Switchfoot55

^Thanks @KungFuKenny!

Brickchap

@flord You managed to get all the parts for the cottage for just $70? No way. Everytime I bricklink parts I end up spending at least $150+ Thankfully for my wallet they are all just wishlists at this stage.

Switchfoot55

I've only just had time to review the YouTube video above and then ran some quick numbers using Bricks and Pieces. 

Every piece of straight track would run about $4.64. Every curved piece $4.54. Although the straight track uses far less pieces, the 2x8 parts on BnP is $.26/each. Using 8 per track is nearly half the cost. 

I will certainly continue to review other options. I'd want to add significantly more greebling between the ties and along the ballast on the side. There is also the issue that this technique still does not allow for the curved tracks to be fixed to the baseplate and would therefore still be floating (something I'd like to avoid if possible). 

With my current WV layout and track that is exposed, It looks like I'm right around $80 or so just for the parts outlined in the video. Having not done a lot of research yet, I'm going to guess one could use slightly less parts, but only slightly. And clearly there are more part intensive ways to go about it. I'm going to guess with additional 1x1 plates, round plates, tiles, etc... it would easily bring it up to $100. (Clearly, if I could find the right seller on BL, I could cut down at least some of this cost)

Hmm....I'm not sure if that's better or worse than I was expecting. I may need to set up display up this year and then decide which way I want to go. 

KungFuKenny

Switchfoot55 said:

(Clearly, if I could find the right seller on BL, I could cut down at least some of this cost)

A quick peek on Bricklink shows the 2x8 DBG plates running $ 0.06 to $ 0.08 apiece (in stores with 20 or more), so I suspect you could do it for quite a bit less there rather than B&Ps

autolycus

But if this is for a winter village, should all the plates in your tracks be DBG, or should there be white between the cross ties?

flord

Brickchap said:

@flord You managed to get all the parts for the cottage for just $70? No way. Everytime I bricklink parts I end up spending at least $150+ Thankfully for my wallet they are all just wishlists at this stage.

I’ve spent a few hundred on Bricklink in the last month as I have a few projects on the go.

As far as the cottage goes, I did not get the red door, the 1x4x3 dark green windows, or the minifigs. Basically everything else I had, just not in enough quantity.

KungFuKenny

autolycus said:

But if this is for a winter village, should all the plates in your tracks be DBG, or should there be white between the cross ties?

Hmmm, maybe so - looks like the white 2x8s are only $ 0.10 apiece so BL might still be the best option...

Switchfoot55

@autolycus, yes, the plates would end up being white. Although in the referenced video, there are 4 used under the tracks that ultimately aren't seen as other plates are placed over the top of them. So, I could likely do 4 white for the sides and then 4 of whatever other color is cheapest? 

I think I'm game to move in this direction even at the full BnP price. So, being able to cut down on that by even a little is just a bonus. 

bandit778

Due to Halloween being a bust this year, started work early on my Christmas display (don't judge, Secret Santa has started so it's officially the festive season).
The evolution of my Christmas Train.
2016-2017 was just the standard set.(stock photo from Brickset).

2018-2019 - 2 sets and some added parts to make it more train like.

2020 version - I was never entirely happy with the standard green so decided to change to Dark green. I also wanted to put all the Electric gubbins in the tender to tidy things up so ended up with a total rebuild. Still waiting for a couple of bits to finish it off but more than happy with how its ended up.

Switchfoot55

Love the expanded engine! I've been meaning to get to mine as well and just have never gotten around to it. Last night, with inspiration from seeing your post, I at least was able to expand my dining car. Nothing overly original about it as it's just an expansion of the official design. But, I'm happy with it as it brings the scale more in line with my expanded tender. 

Switchfoot55

Last night I was able to find some time to put together my first new WV building. This is the Ski/Snowboard shop by MonsterBricks (AKA - Charles Pritchett) from his Expanding The Lego Winter Village Volume I. I made a few small changes from the original design mainly due to what I had on hand in my parts collection. Overall, I'm thrilled with the results and can't wait to add it into my village this year!

eMJeeNL

So... completed 3 of Charles’ builds, and furnished a little with in-stock trucks, figs and accessoires:

Still going to add the ECH, snowball set and all my old builds later, when I’ve got proper space.

Switchfoot55

Well, thanks to @eMJeeNL, I've jumped on the Charles Pritchett train too. In addition to my Ski/Snowboard shop above, I finished his Cafe last night. It's a combination of the older and newer designs. Should be a nice addition to the village!






And, after a long wait, I managed to complete #40082 2013 Holiday GWP Tree Stand. I'm thrilled with it!

mic27

Just a little update on how my village prep is going. If you remember correctly, I couldn't decide which (current) sets to get vs not get for my first village set-up. I decided all of them! I now have the Elf Clubhouse and the Fire Station, but have not yet been able to get the Gingerbread House. Hopefully those come back in stock anywhere sometime soon, but not the end of the world if I have to wait until 2021. I also got a few white baseplates (might need more) and some other wintery stuff I can pull out of my collection.

I also started going through my collection to pull out the pieces from the Bakery! This will be the first time I have ever rebuilt a set, so that's exciting. Thank you to KungFuKenny who had originally told me to do it via Bricklink... it only took me a few hours instead of a few days because of that shortcut. Luckily, I did still have the vast majority of the pieces (I believe I am missing only 8 pieces! and those that ARE missing can be substituted for another color for now and are fairly common pieces so if I do decide to ever replace them, it won't cost tooooo much). The only missing piece I am truly upset about is the Christmas tree stand stickered(?) tile. However, what is making me upset is that I KNOW for a fact that I saw it a couple weeks ago when I was sorting!! So I know it has to be somewhere in this room! And that one is a little harder to try and sub out in the meantime.

KungFuKenny

mic27 said:

The only missing piece I am truly upset about is the Christmas tree stand stickered(?) tile

Hopefully you are able to track it down... if not they run about $3-5 on BL

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=87079pb104&idColor=86#T=S&C=86&O={"color":86,"loc":"US","iconly":0}

erasetheclouds

I've been displaying my Winter Village sets for a few years, but this is my first time trying to create an actual village display. You guys make this look easy! It was really hard for me to create a cohesive village in the space that I had, but I'm happy enough with how things ended up. There will always be more space next year... right?

Switchfoot55

^I find that to be a fantastic layout! And, careful about that last statement...it has had a way of coming true for me each year.

bricktuary

My WV dreams are shattered.... :) we were supposed to be moving house but the sellers have COVID so it's off/delayed, so my Lego remains mostly in storage and we've no place to set up anywhere in the house we currently rent.

Although I will probably still make the Gingerbread House and Elf hut thingy that I rashly bought from Lego assuming we'd be moving, so it's not a total disaster! 

Switchfoot55

Bummer! But...at least you got the Elf Club House. I'm still crossing my fingers I can snag it at all. Stupid temp OOS...

Speedman29

As in previous years, I really don't have space for a WV layout. But we'll put some track around the tree and put the train and station out. I was going to build another custom wagon for the train this year but that never happened. I have instructions for a reindeer wagon, so when I can gather a few of the new animals from the Elf Club house we might build one.