Modular Custom Designs

Pitfall69

I'm sure most people have Fire Brigade in their row of buildings, but did you know that:

Functioning water towers are required by law in NYC buildings over a certain height. They are often enclosed in modern buildings so you don't notice them. They are necessary because of water pressure issues in Manhattan. Without water towers you would have difficulty getting water pressure on upper floors.

mikersoft

(Also, Detroit doesn't have rowhouses).

Sadly, there are more empty lots than houses in Detroit these days..

I live in Canton, MI...lol

I grew up in SE MI :-) I haven't actually lived there since I was 18 (nearly 24 years ago), but I always consider it my "home" and I have a lot of family still there.

-Mike

Pitfall69

I got married at the Fox. People from out of town that came to the wedding was appalled at the condition of Detroit. The Comerica Park area is great, but the surrounding area is bad.

graphite

Built my custom coloration of Cafe Corner this weekend.

Pitfall69

Nice. I can't bring myself to break the seal on mine.

graphite

^ I bricklinked all of it, which is why I went alternate colors. I dropped all the expensive hard to find color/piece combos. Plus I like the way the dark green window frames on the 2nd floor go with the yellow roof and the yellow is something that probably won't show up in any modular that LEGO designs. I've seen colors that bright used in similar ways on buildings before and liked it. Out of my dark ages last year and the only set I'd consider spending serious $$ on used is a UCS MF but can't afford to do that right now.

Pitfall69

There is just too much to buy. I love the modulars and they will come 2nd to any Star Wars Episode 4-5 sets that come out. I need to save for the summer wave that just came out.

Pitfall69

People have Bricklinked UCS MF for around $800 and alittle less if you make some substitutions. If you can buy a used MF for around $1,200, do it. The parts are only going to get more expensive.

With that said. I like the color combo on your CC, but I would have Bricklinked an exact copy of CC. Just like MF, those parts are going to continue to rise. At least you know you have an exact copy and if for any reason you need to sell it, you will get top dollar.

graphite

^ If I was to sell I'd just part it out. It's the 2nd of my BL-ed buildings to build and I have 3 more designs of my own that I'm collecting parts for. I didn't build this CC to have a CC copy for value I built it because I liked the corner design.

BuriedinBricks

oops...double post...sorry

BuriedinBricks

@graphite - I really like the black and white color scheme on the awnings. It looks great in that pattern.

Where are your birds though? ;)

graphite

^ forgot to order them so they're in my list of stuff to order.

Short_Round

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with a second Fire Brigade? I bought it for the bricks, with a plan to expanding my current one, but looking online it doesn't seem to be the easiest modular to modify; no offence to the builders, but one of the mods I saw was just 4 or 5 FB's stacked on top of each other, which looked a bit daft.

Anyway, my two ideas so far are either to build a training courtyard or some kind of out-house (did 1930's fire houses have them?), or to use this second FB as a basis for a custom police station, as I have an excess of dark blue elements in all shapes and sizes, but as this would be my first 'moc', I'm worried I'll just end up with the same building, just with a colour swap from dark red to dark blue :/

If anyone has any suggestions or can link to photos for inspiration it'd be much appreciated. I also want to keep the depth at 32 studs, so only want to expand upwards and sidewards. I don't use things like LDD either, just sit with bricks in front of me and build.

Jenni

@short_round what I'm doing with my 2nd FB is trying to recreate rocao's library which is on the second page of this thread.

Short_Round

^wow, I should have read the whole thread, that looks awesome. Cheers for the tip (and great job rocao).

ChanMcL

Here is one I just done.

Mini Police station, looking to do more soon, if I have money for the bricks.

I have got the instructions for the Manor House I have posted before, but I don't understand it, too bad.

ChanMcL

Has anyone got the mini pet shop instructions and part list??

Will be helpful if you can share it?

CupIsHalfEmpty

Short_Round said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with a second Fire Brigade? I bought it for the bricks, with a plan to expanding my current one, but looking online it doesn't seem to be the easiest modular to modify; no offence to the builders, but one of the mods I saw was just 4 or 5 FB's stacked on top of each other, which looked a bit daft.

Anyway, my two ideas so far are either to build a training courtyard or some kind of out-house (did 1930's fire houses have them?), or to use this second FB as a basis for a custom police station, as I have an excess of dark blue elements in all shapes and sizes, but as this would be my first 'moc', I'm worried I'll just end up with the same building, just with a colour swap from dark red to dark blue :/

If anyone has any suggestions or can link to photos for inspiration it'd be much appreciated. I also want to keep the depth at 32 studs, so only want to expand upwards and sidewards. I don't use things like LDD either, just sit with bricks in front of me and build.

In my personal opinion, FB was missing a hose tower. In the town I grew up in, we had an old fire hall built in 1911, very similar to what FB was designed after. One of the focal points of this old hall was the hose tower where they dragged all the wet hoses up in to drain out.

So if money ever permits, I will pick up a second FB and ad a hose tower.

ringleheim

CupIsHalfEmpty said:

Short_Round said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with a second Fire Brigade? I bought it for the bricks, with a plan to expanding my current one, but looking online it doesn't seem to be the easiest modular to modify; no offence to the builders, but one of the mods I saw was just 4 or 5 FB's stacked on top of each other, which looked a bit daft.

Anyway, my two ideas so far are either to build a training courtyard or some kind of out-house (did 1930's fire houses have them?), or to use this second FB as a basis for a custom police station, as I have an excess of dark blue elements in all shapes and sizes, but as this would be my first 'moc', I'm worried I'll just end up with the same building, just with a colour swap from dark red to dark blue :/

If anyone has any suggestions or can link to photos for inspiration it'd be much appreciated. I also want to keep the depth at 32 studs, so only want to expand upwards and sidewards. I don't use things like LDD either, just sit with bricks in front of me and build.

In my personal opinion, FB was missing a hose tower. In the town I grew up in, we had an old fire hall built in 1911, very similar to what FB was designed after. One of the focal points of this old hall was the hose tower where they dragged all the wet hoses up in to drain out.

So if money ever permits, I will pick up a second FB and ad a hose tower.

Great fire station! Brandon...home of the mighty Wheat Kings.

If memory serves, that is Bill Ranford's home town. I used to love that guy...

Cool man!

graphite

Finally finished gathering parts for my MOC modular theater and built it this weekend. Just in time for LEGO to put theirs out as the next in the series. I printed a bunch of the LEGO movie posters to display in the poster boxes outside the theater.

CCC

^ Nice. But where are the usual discarded drink cartons and popcorn boxes?

graphite

^ My LEGO town residents are very considerate with their trash. I should get a couple hundred yellow round 1x1's and sprinkle them around though to represent the dropped popcorn all over.

graphite

Finished another one. This one was my modular Brownstone. Designed similar to half of pet shop. I've only made one so far. Need to design another one at some point to even up my block once I fill it out. Forgot to take a picture of the inside of the 3rd floor but it was meant to be more of an attic and doesn't have anything special other than a black and brown 2x2 tiled floor.

Next up is my train station.

AnthonyC173

^
i really really love the movie theater, but my one complaint is that it is black ):
its just i rarely see any all black building and it takes away from the realism.

really digging the 2nd one you showed, love the checkered rug with the smaller black and white checker pattern.

graphite

Yeah the black thing bugged me when I first designed it as well. I did it just to get the design done and then I went through 3 or 4 colors and none of them looked right. From the inside it makes sense to me. Most movie theaters are a really dark color inside and you just never pay attention because they're dark to begin with. Unfortunately I'd have to make it double wall to make it different on the inside and outside and every other building is brown or grey and nothing else seemed right to me.

There are actually various buildings in different cities that are all black that you might walk by and not really think it stands out as black which is why I ended up not minding. It is a contrast to the variety of color in the modular series. Plus I have an all white church, the brown/tan brownstone above, I'm ordering parts for my "Red Grocer" modified GG, and my train station is all brown as well, so something different was fine with me.

Amberyl

I actually really love the black of the movie theatre!

bricksan

I've spent past few months building this one, it is based on the Fire Station but is double the depth and has launch raps for the sea, here are just a few of the images:







More details here: http://brickfanatics.co.uk/lego-city-project-coastguard-hq/

Si_UKNZ

That is awesome, those colours really lift it (compared to the rather dull fire station) and converting it to a boat house is genuis.

bricksan

Cheers pal, I was really happy with the outcome and it looks really good when connected with the rest of my City layout :-)

paul_merton

This weekend I rediscovered a few big bags of Modulex bricks (half of them have "LEGO" written on the studs, the rest have "M").

Because the bricks have a 1:1:1 aspect ratio (i.e. actually cubic), they seem ideal for making a modular Minecraft MOC, albeit a small one. If only real Lego were cubic!

Styer

I'm looking for some tips on MOCs in the "modular" style. I'm fiddling around with my first attempt at a MOC building whose upper stories can be removed whole from the lower stories.

My big question at the moment is is how do you actually build the floors of the upper stories. What I'm trying to build is a relatively simple, square building. It's 16x16 studs, and the bottom story fits simply onto my 16x32 baseplate, but I don't have any 16x16 plates that I could use as a floor for the second story, so I had to put a 16x16 surface together out of smaller plates. I'm allowing a black line in the midst of my white wall for the floor, so what I did, for now, was build a 16x16 surface out of black plates and then "filled in" the 14x14 area within the white walls with green plates that I figured might be excused as "carpet," but that seems an inelegant solution. When other people do these buildings, do you just have plates of the proper size, or are you connecting smaller plates in some fashion that I'm not seeing yet?

graphite

Best advice is to look at the instructions from the other modular buildings. Links to most instructions are available from the product pages for each set on this site.

brickmatic

A 16x16 plate? And just how are people supposed to get to the second floor? Fly in through the window?

StuBoy

I'd say you might need to check out bricklink and get some 16x16 plates. Even better, play around with your design on Lego Digital Designer and then order the parts you need that you don't already have.

brickmatic

None of the actual modular buildings have 16x16 plates. Floors are a composite of two plate layers. And if you want to stay true to the modular style, you make some kind of way to get to the upper floors, like stairs. That means your floor needs an opening for the stairwell and a large single plate piece would not work. But @graphite makes an excellent suggestion about taking a look at the instructions to get some ideas.

CCC

I always read the instructions online to get a feel for techniques used in modulars. And then build my own versions. You can learn a lot by reading them through and just building specific bits of the building to learn them. Much like reading a text book, then trying something out.

I said something similar here:
http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/138203/#Comment_138203

You will love a self-designed modular that fits with your interests more than a lego designed one.

I only own one modular (FB) but have build parts of the others (without buying them) to try out techniques. One problem with a 16x16 modular style is that the floor area will be quite small once you allow for a staircase or lift.

Styer

Yeah, the small size of the floor is definitely making a stairway difficult. I was thinking a little about it last night, though, and I think I know what to move to make room on the ground floor for stairs.

Stairs to the roof on the second floor won't be a problem because I have a lot of open space on my second floor.

akunthita

brickmatic said:

A 16x16 plate? And just how are people supposed to get to the second floor? Fly in through the window?

I remember when I was a kid my dad (he is an architect) told me that he had actually seen that happen. Somehow some architetectual firm screwed up and they forgot to add a stairs to a 4 story apartment-building. They didn't realise the mistake until the building was like half-built! They were the laughing stock of the industry for a while. So yeah, it happens even in real life...(c;

For modulars, elevators could actually take up less space then stairs, so you might want to try that too... (c:

mr_benn

Check out the instructions for Market Street - the footprint of the actual house is tiny (pretty sure it's 16x16) and the stairs come up right in the centre of the floor.

Briking

My start to MOC has been my interpretations of CC, MS and GG. Certainly think it has taught me ideas for further parts to my City.

Jasen

I actually keep the inside of my modularMOCs' hollow. I'm really only interested in the outside structure, although I make most of them to come apart by floors for transport :)

brickmatic

@akunthita That's funny!

bmwlego

After a while you might tire of adding staircases to your modular and just say the heck with stairs. No one is going to see the interior so why bother!
On the flipside, you will see the interior so it might bother you!

Best advice...use the instructions to inspire/educate/inform you and go from there. Most of my modulars are the same foot prints as the official ones because I was working right from the instructions for either the Pet Shop, Market Street or Green Grocer.

My 1st 2 modulars were completed before my brick collection had steroids injected into it so there are mismatched colors, old gray and new gray, etc. If I revisited them I wonder what I'd change besides aligning the colors.

Once you've completed your first modular post a link here to show us your masterpiece.

Styer

Thanks for the guidance. A quick look at the official modular instructions cleared up the trouble I was having with the floors and with getting the second story of the building to come off without coming apart. I had been connecting the second story to the first story sort of how the roof assembly is attached to the walls in the Creator log cabin, though even then I was overdoing it and creating too much cling.

A little rearranging of my interior layout allowed for stairs from the first story to the second, and I did a ladder and trap door for roof access.

bmwlego said:

Once you've completed your first modular post a link here to show us your masterpiece.

It's hardly a masterpiece, but I'm pretty happy with it as a first attempt, and I plan to continue to fiddle with it as I come up with further ideas. It's very plain in comparison to either the official modulars or the modular MOCs that I've seen online. I don't think I mentioned that this whole thing started when my nephew dropped my Police Headquarters trying to move it from the shelf to the desk, smashing it into its component parts. The timing was good, though, because I was getting a little bored of that configuration and wanted to get my feet wet in building something myself, but was a little reluctant to tear down the set. The point, then, is that almost everything in this MOC came from the Police Headquarters set and it's a fairly utilitarian design. Also the change from facade to complete-with-four-walls building stretched the pieces pretty thin, so my result was more precinct house than headquarters.

I wasn't totally sure if posting pics of MOCs was welcome here, but since I have an invitation, I'll post some pics once I've shot them.

Joseph

^ Simply creating a thread saying "Hey, look at this MOC I did." is generally frowned upon; but MOCing itself and many threads related to it are not. Take these two threads for example:
http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/7544/the-christmasholiday-themed-display-thread#latest
http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/7449/november-2012-monthly-builders-challenge-mustache
Come to think of it, there's actually a thread to showcase modular MOCs

Styer

Thanks in great part to some helpful tips from other posters, I got my first attempt at a modular building to a point that it can be called "finished" this afternoon, though I will probably mess around with it a bit more here and there.

This project started when my nephew dropped my Police Headquarters trying to move it from the shelf to the desk, smashing it into its component parts. The timing was good, though, because I was getting a little bored of that configuration and wanted to get my feet wet in building something myself, but was a little reluctant to tear down the set. But, because almost everything in this MOC came from the Police Headquarters set and it's a fairly utilitarian design, rather plain in comparison to both the official modulars and the MOCs I've seen here and elsewhere on the web. Also the change from facade to complete-with-four-walls building stretched the pieces pretty thin, so my result is more precinct house than headquarters.

Here's the front view:

As I said, it's a bit on the plain side for a modular. But, I guess it looks a bit like your average glass-fronted building.

Side view:


Rear view:

Since I have no street, the cruiser has to park in the alley.

Interior, first floor:

At the urging of the community, I added stairs to the second story. It left me with a much-smaller holding cell, but it really did improve the build.

Interior, first floor:

He barely has any room in there.

Interior, first floor:

The desk sergeant is drinking his coffee.

Interior, second floor:

A detective perp sweats a suspect, who is foolishly talking to the detective without his attorney present.

Roof access:

A ladder on the second floor leads to a trapdoor on the roof.

Roof: here's the trap door closed.


Roof:

This is where I finally got a little greebly.

Roof:

I think it's clear that I'm looking forward to the upcoming Commissioner Gordon minifig.

Disassembled into its component modules:

Styer

Cool. I posted into the MOC showcase thread.

Thanks everyone for your awesome help.

givmellis

That is impressive! Did you only use parts from the original police headquarters or did you supplement? If it is the former, then I am really really impressed! :)

Styer

givmellis said:

That is impressive!

Thanks!

givmellis said:

Did you only use parts from the original police headquarters or did you supplement?

I definitely supplemented, but I'd estimate that it's at least 60 or 70% out of 7744, especially the facade including the hinged skylight, the four walls and the interior details. The baseplate, the tiles that form the sidewalk, the trashcan out back and the streetlight were all brought in as ringers. The trapdoor on the roof wasn't in the original set. Most of the greebly stuff on the roof is cobbled together out of 7744, but I did add a Batarang to kitbash a Bat Signal.

StuBoy

^ I really like the skylight roof section, and the Bat Signal of course!