My Winter Village Project

tamamahm

I always like to build the original first before any modifications. Sounds like a good plan!

Switchfoot55

I wish I could post screen shots of my MOD from my work computer. I'm excited to get some feedback on it from the collective Brickset brain. It'll be my first modification so far. I stole some fantastic design.MOD ideas from @eMJeeNL on the right side (looking straight at the front) to extend the platform out an additional 8 studs and put another ramp there as well. I've also added an additional 8x16 studs of space, plus two walls/more roof, for the interior to make it feel a little more complete and not like the poor barista is going to fall into an abyss while trying to wrench her broom off the wall. 

I'll get pics posted one way or another!

eMJeeNL

Sounds really good! Also, where can I send the bill for the idea to? ;)

You can easily make some screenshots using "print screen" (windows) or CMD+SHIFT+4 (Mac) and post them here. Am really interested, I might borrow your ideas later!

Short status-update on my end: I am waiting for a BnP-order to arrive so I can also expand the "waiting area" outside with an extra roof-part; will post pic's later.
An extra addition i am working on is a water tower for the train:



It's a little on the reddish-brown side at the moment, so am looking into that. Really would like to keep it build with brick I currently own. Only forgot to order a lid for the tank in my BnP - I am also thinking about the "watering-mechanism" to get water to the train; drawing inspiration from the watertower in #79111. 

wardm

@eMJeeNL I’d use some dark bluish grey in there, to give it some more contrast! 

Switchfoot55

@eMJeeNL, I'm like the look of your water tower. Those are the fun details I'm excited to start building out for my village in the upcoming days, weeks, months, and years!

Regarding my MOD, it's not that I don't know how to get a screen shot, just that I never seem to remember to do it once I get home from work. Tonight is the night! 

I've decided that I want the building of the Village buildings to be a family event instead of a just-me event. That way everyone is invested in it. We had a bit of busy night last night and ran out of time to start the Station. So instead, I decided to start small. My wife and daughter built the set with the tree. My son worked on the set with the train while I handed parts to him. To date, it is easily one of my all-time favorite Lego memories!

eMJeeNL

Sounds good!  I build the Village Square one of the two sets above recently; am a little disappointed about the two stalls. They don't even fit the vendors you want to put in there. However, I could have known before by looking at the images, and it will be easily modified using a 4x6 and a 2x6 plate...

My sons are only 2,5 and 0,5yo, so serious building together will have to wait a little longer. my oldest can put minifigs together, so that's already being outsourced ;)

Switchfoot55

My daughter is 2.5, so I know what you mean. My son is 5, so he's now able to follow the directions and build solo. However, he has the attention span of a 5 year old, so there is a lot of reminders to either keep building or to come back to it later. 

I agree regarding the stands. I like them for what they are, and understand why the size limitations. I'll either mod them a bit, or combined them somehow into a larger vendor stand.

tamamahm

I am glad to hear you made it a family event. We have been doing that yearly, and it is quite a fun yearly item. We often build over Thanksgiving weekend, but the timeframe has been known to change. 

eMJeeNL

Build the little train with my 2,5yo yesterday. He hasn't got the strength yet to put e.g. the 2x3 and the 2x4 together, but with a little help he gets it done. He is able to correctly identify parts from the instructions and to see where they go (mostly...;)).

Proud daddy :)

eMJeeNL

Version 2.0 of my watertower:





Suggestions/tips much appreciated!

eMJeeNL

already redid the watering mechanism:

tamamahm

I think that looks much better than the solid brown. 

milamber

I've been reading this thread with interest and appreciate the ideas/tips. I've finally managed to get all the large sets for the winter village so want to display it properly this year. What do people use as a baseboard? You would think it would be easy enough to get large white lego or lego compatible baseboards, but I can't find anything other than the incredibly expensive 32x32 boards and I'd need an awful lot of them. I really need to fix everything down if possible as we have a herd of marauding cats who prefer lego bricks to their own toys. It would be fine if I was doing a furry Godzilla theme........

sid3windr

^ Winter Village ft. Meowthra!

tamamahm

^^ We have a white shelf in our hallway that is fairly long. I put our holiday sets on it. For winter, I use fake snow over it. My preference lately has been one I have found at Target that is almost like white flannel, which covers the entire shelf. I do not think that would necessarily work for you, since cats are attracted to anywhere they are not supposed to go.

milamber

tamamahm said:

^^ We have a white shelf in our hallway that is fairly long. I put our holiday sets on it. For winter, I use fake snow over it. My preference lately has been one I have found at Target that is almost like white flannel, which covers the entire shelf. I do not think that would necessarily work for you, since cats are attracted to anywhere they are not supposed to go.

Cheers. Yes, think we have now decided it's going in the spare room with the door shut!

mustang69

I use a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of plywood (cut in half for easy storing) secured to a folding table. It's covered in a soft white fabric.

I actually started setting up my village today. When I get a chance I'll post some pictures.

milamber

I've just started building mine. Apparently it's going to take 112.5 hours at the current rate of progress.........

LegoPondswald

My boyfriend actually build a table for the winter village (it's my first year of doing this too!). It's in the living room and covered with fake snow. Got some of the original sets and am now waiting for parts for some MOC's :). 

Got some pictures (and a video here):

Switchfoot55

@LegoPondswald, That looks great! I love the addition of some non-WV stuff. May I ask how you've powered the light on the Station? Or am I just seeing something? 

I've been debating between fake snow and fabric like @mustang69 suggested. I definitely want it all white. I have a handful of the large gray baseplates I got for a steal that will eventually be the base structure for everything. But and entire board covered in white plates is a bit beyond my budget at the moment!

@eMJeeNL, I like the upgraded watering mechanism a lot! 

I've decided that I'll be attempting to add lights via silver wire "fairy lights" to at least a couple of buildings. I happened to run into some this weekend and am anxious to see how easily I can integrate them into the buildings without taking away from what I'm going for. I think I may eventually have to customize some of my own so I can inset them into the studs and help the wire disappear a bit more. 

I was able to get to my first true building last night. Ended up starting way later than I had planned, so I didn't get to add my expansions. That will come tonight, so more pictures to follow!

I really enjoyed the build of the bus. I haven't built a lot of Lego vehicles, but it seemed to be unique from what I've seen. 

Two other note worthy items I wanted to see if anyone else ran into with this build:


It's ever so slight, but both of the 1x12 plates for the lift gates bow. It's most noticible when they're clipped into the holders and are in the "down" position. Is this common, worth contacting customer support over, etc...?

And lastly: 


Looks like I got the wrong town's newspaper. Did anyone else have the same issue?

Sorry for the multiple photos!

tamamahm

We have not built yet, so I am not sure if we are seeing the same things you are.

If your current light plan does not work...

- Battery-operated  tea lights. Put inside a building and switch them on. I do that for some of my Halloween sets. 

- Battery-operated mini lights. I can put inside the buildings, and switch the battery pack on. I lucked out one years, with a set with snowflakes, and almost drape over the buildings. The wire shows, but I am relatively okay with that, because one just sees the suspended snowflakes at night. I have also done some USB light up mini trees in the past.

It may take a year or two to figure out what you like the best in regards to snow. I have tried a few things, but my fav so far is a large white flat almost felt like material I bought at Target one year. It is large enough to fit on my shelf with a bit of folding. It is flat, so it is easy to put the sets on. I have avoided the fake snow after it getting on my floor a bit too much one year. Definitely check things out, though. The good part is that options are cheap, so easy to change it up the next year, if you do not care for what you end up going with. 

LegoPondswald

Switchfoot55 said:

@LegoPondswald, That looks great! I love the addition of some non-WV stuff. May I ask how you've powered the light on the Station? Or am I just seeing something?

Thanks! I'm also going to build some MOC's, waiting for the bricks to arrive as we speak.
And yeah, sure! I used lights from Lightstax.eu. They make street lights and light up bricks and it works great!

LegoPondswald

Switchfoot55 said:

@LegoPondswald, That looks great! I love the addition of some non-WV stuff. May I ask how you've powered the light on the Station? Or am I just seeing something?

Thanks! I'm also going to build some MOC's, waiting for the bricks to arrive as we speak.
And yeah, sure! I used lights from Lightstax.eu. They make street lights and light up bricks and it works great!

Switchfoot55

^Well...now I'm intrigued! I wonder if they ship to the US

mustang69

@Switchfoot55 I had the same issue with the crossing gates. The clutch of the tiles on the front is causing the bend. I am going to try adding another plate to the back and see if that helps straighten it out.

eMJeeNL

Switchfoot55 said:

And lastly: 


Looks like I got the wrong town's newspaper. Did anyone else have the same issue?

Sorry for the multiple photos!

I had the same, but in my Old Fishing Store. They are sending me the correct part (according to the instructions). Apparently the design with the tree is no longer in production. Didn't notice it in the WVS, but will check later tonight!

LegoPondswald

Switchfoot55 said:

^Well...now I'm intrigued! I wonder if they ship to the US

I think they do actually!

milamber

LegoPondswald said:

Switchfoot55 said:

@LegoPondswald, That looks great! I love the addition of some non-WV stuff. May I ask how you've powered the light on the Station? Or am I just seeing something?

Thanks! I'm also going to build some MOC's, waiting for the bricks to arrive as we speak.
And yeah, sure! I used lights from Lightstax.eu. They make street lights and light up bricks and it works great!

How do those lights work? Are they individually battery powered or something else? I can't really make it out from the website. I'd like some, but not sure which set I need to start out as some of them seem to be expansion sets. Guess they don't work on their own?

Switchfoot55

^ I watched a video on the website. It looks like they either have to be powered directly through the micro USB port, or can be "stacked" on top of each other, or a small micro USB powered baseplate. Then there are contacts on the bottom and top, so power can transfer through all connected bricks. They can then be daisy chained along to extend the reach. 

I may have that all wrong, but I think in theory you'd just need the power source, the actual light bricks, and then jumper cables to extend the reach of the power?

kidatheart

tamamahm said:

^^ We have a white shelf in our hallway that is fairly long. I put our holiday sets on it. For winter, I use fake snow over it. My preference lately has been one I have found at Target that is almost like white flannel, which covers the entire shelf. I do not think that would necessarily work for you, since cats are attracted to anywhere they are not supposed to go.

Could you post a picture of the product from Target?

Switchfoot55

Alright, the modifications are complete! I learned a lot about modifying an existing set as well as bringing something alive from my computer to my table.

I welcome any thoughts or gentle critiques (my MOD self esteem is still in its infancy)!









I have more photos, but don't want to crash people's phones/computers!


Still trying to decide how I'll use the additional 8x8 plate to the right of the existing bench. I have elements for another bench? Maybe some crates and barrels? Any suggestions?

For the interior I'll be adding a sitting area for the coffee shop. I still need to conceptualize it a bit more.

Excited to keep building! 

LegoPondswald

milamber said:

LegoPondswald said:

Switchfoot55 said:

@LegoPondswald, That looks great! I love the addition of some non-WV stuff. May I ask how you've powered the light on the Station? Or am I just seeing something?

Thanks! I'm also going to build some MOC's, waiting for the bricks to arrive as we speak.
And yeah, sure! I used lights from Lightstax.eu. They make street lights and light up bricks and it works great!

How do those lights work? Are they individually battery powered or something else? I can't really make it out from the website. I'd like some, but not sure which set I need to start out as some of them seem to be expansion sets. Guess they don't work on their own?

Switchfoot55)

What you need is: a 4 x 4 Mobile Power Plus (and a Micro-USB charger). This is your power source, which you can recharge. Best thing about this: no wires!
Then you'll need some bricks, which you can buy in a set or one by one. 

How it works: you can light up the bricks by stacking them on top of the power source (and on top of each other). Other option is to get an extension cable and put one side on the power source, the other on the light up brick. 

For the lamps: they use a different extension cable, but if you order a pack of those you'll get two extension cables with it. 

I took a picture for you guys, because visual aids usually work better ;)



So what you have here is: the 4x4 Mobile Power Plus, a transparant 2 x 2 brick and an extension cable. Connect it all, press the button and it works!

tamamahm

kidatheart said:

tamamahm said:

^^ We have a white shelf in our hallway that is fairly long. I put our holiday sets on it. For winter, I use fake snow over it. My preference lately has been one I have found at Target that is almost like white flannel, which covers the entire shelf. I do not think that would necessarily work for you, since cats are attracted to anywhere they are not supposed to go.

Could you post a picture of the product from Target?

Try this link...if you scroll to the end you will see three products...
 https://www.target.com/c/wondershop/-/N-4s1z4Zex247#clearCategId=4s1z4&Nao=0&sortBy=PriceLow

there are snowflakes, a snow roll and snow blanket....
i believe the snow blanket is what I tried first and it did not work well. It was very fluffy and covered in glitter. If you look at the description, it mentions 1" thick. Avoid that one, unless you want more of a very deep fluffy snow. It made placing smaller items hard. 

I believe what I have is the snow roll, which the dimensions are listed at 36" by 8'. I believe I use the full 8' and have it folded about in half for my shelf. I am not 100% positive this is the exact product, since the snow roll says glitter, but I am pretty sure this is it or similar to it. You can see from the packaging how much flatter that package is.  I should be at Target today or tomorrow, so I can double check, but for the price, it is hard to beat, and far less messy than standard snowflakes. The size was also exactly what worked for me. 

I have photos around somewhere, but need to find them.

eMJeeNL

Switchfoot55 said:

Still trying to decide how I'll use the additional 8x8 plate to the right of the existing bench. I have elements for another bench? Maybe some crates and barrels? Any suggestions?

For the interior I'll be adding a sitting area for the coffee shop. I still need to conceptualize it a bit more.

Excited to keep building! 

Maybe use the bench from the little train stop that came with the train (i did)?

Tonight, I've got some time to modify my station further, and am very eager to use some of your ideas in extending the inside of the station.

mustang69

Here are some pics of my set up. It's not finished just yet. I have two santa's workshops, one I did a mirror build of but I never really did like the way it looked on the table side by side like that so I'm going to try to mod it into a larger workshop. So the stuff on the bottom right corner of the table isnt the final resting place for those things. 

The train in the middle I want to modify and add a couple small passenger cars, make it a little ride around the town square.

Like @Switchfoot55 said, I'd like to eventually get enough white plates to cover the table but unfortunately they arent currently on the PaB wall. When they come back though I'm going to grab a bunch.

Sorry, I didnt get a very good shot of the train on the outside (bottom of pictures). Its the original winter train from 2006 but modified with some constitution train chase #79111 train cars that have been christmas-ified. You can see the engine in the back of the middle pic. I'll try to add another shot of that at some point.
 
Looks like the cats of gotten to some of the pieces and I didnt notice when taking the pictures (was in a hurry).

(sorry for the size of the pics)

milamber

Looks great. I've just built the Winter Train so far. It looks great, but I really hated the way the cables and battery pack showed once installed. Also, like many others, I found the wheels slipped a little because of the light weight of the engine. I've extended the tender a little now and used the motorised wheels on that. It's about 2/3 longer which is slightly more than I would like and fractionally higher, but now fits the battery pack and receiver, hides all the wires and the weight provides additional traction for the powered wheels. It runs fine now on even the lowest speed and there are no issues pushing the engine. It's not totally finished as I had to use some bricks from the bucket of bricks from when the kids (and pets) were small with associated tooth marks and scratches. New parts coming Friday I hope

Switchfoot55

@milamber, could you post some pics of the extended tender? 

@eMJeeNL, the extra bench is a great idea from the train set! I also have one from the Sleigh Ride Holiday set I could put in there. 

@mustang69, I love the setup! I hope to add the Disney Castle to my village too someday! ;)

@LegoPondswald, thank you for the additional explanation and photos! 

tamamahm

Yes. I like the addition of 'size' to your overall station. I may need to look at doing something similar if I have the correct color pieces here.

For the part on the right I could see a small vendor cart selling hot pretzels, hog chocolate or cider. A few people waiting in line...

Switchfoot55

^My son actually put up two of the little vendor stalls from #40262 (ChristmasTrain Ride) up there for a moment last night. It didn't look half bad. 

I'll have to play around tonight and see what I can come up with.

mustang69

I want to expand my station as well, though I dont have the extra parts at the moment so it'll have to wait. But this does give me some ideas :)

eMJeeNL

eMJeeNL said:

Switchfoot55 said:

And lastly: 


Looks like I got the wrong town's newspaper. Did anyone else have the same issue?

Sorry for the multiple photos!

I had the same, but in my Old Fishing Store. They are sending me the correct part (according to the instructions). Apparently the design with the tree is no longer in production. Didn't notice it in the WVS, but will check later tonight!

Ha! I got the original in my WVS-set, so the paper with the tree. :)

;)

milamber

Switchfoot55 said:

@milamber, could you post some pics of the extended tender? 

@eMJeeNL, the extra bench is a great idea from the train set! I also have one from the Sleigh Ride Holiday set I could put in there. 

@mustang69, I love the setup! I hope to add the Disney Castle to my village too someday! ;)

@LegoPondswald, thank you for the additional explanation and photos! 

I can do certainly, but give it a few days for me to get the correct new pieces. It's functional for now, but the scratched/chewed/elderly bricks look a bit sad. I just used them to check the feasibility before ordering some new bricks/parts. It's certainly better than having all the wires dangling and filling the cab though.

milamber

If anyone is still looking for anything slightly unusual to put into the winter scene there is a nice Thanksgiving Harvest set 40261 which can be adapted. It's in browns and greens, but has a nice minifigure woman in red with a bucket, a super turkey, an angry looking farmer with a pitchfork (I'm going to have an 'escaping Christmas Dinner' mini scene), a really nice cart/trap (sadly no horse), lots of lovely vegetables to pop on to a market stall with a wooden veg basket. Not sure about how to mod the tree or incorporate the crow or scarecrow yet! It's £8.49 on the UK Lego shop. https://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Thanksgiving-Harvest-40261

LuLego

Apologies for the large photos as I’m on my phone. I’ve been working on this one since the summer...

milamber

Can someone help with posting photos, please. Now that Photobucket is defunct, I'm not sure how to do it. I've finished the extended tender to fit all the power functions.

tamamahm

@LuLego
That is absolutely wonderful!! I love it!!!

LuLego

Thanks @tamamahm
I started it in the summer, buying as many cheap incomplete copies of Santa’s Workshop as I could when the prices were much lower. It was a fun project although my family was baffled that our dining room was covered in Christmas lego in mid August!

milamber

LuLego said:

Thanks @tamamahm
I started it in the summer, buying as many cheap incomplete copies of Santa’s Workshop as I could when the prices were much lower. It was a fun project although my family was baffled that our dining room was covered in Christmas lego in mid August!

How did you get the sleigh and reindeer to fix? I can't see anything obvious. It's a great idea

milamber

Here's my alterations to the tender. Kept it very much the same, but just a little larger

https://flic.kr/p/GJ9kec
https://flic.kr/p/ZjncMB
https://flic.kr/p/ZjnhnZ

Can't work out how to show the photos, but hope the links work. It's just big enough for the battery pack, remote sensor and all the wires. The motor wheels are on the tender now instead of the engine

mtpelepele

For those looking for a "snow" base, I like to use white Styrofoam sheets.  You can get it from your local building supply store (or Amazon!)  and cut the edges to a nice curvy shape with a hot wire cutter (available from a craft supply store, or, again, Amazon).  Makes for a nice sturdy base, and you can stack multiple sheets before cutting the edges to create hillsides and such.