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Current "big sets" Chit Chat
MinifigsMe
Member Posts: 2,844
I've noticed that a lot of the threads are getting sidetracked on our current big buys/builds, so maybe we could have a chit chat thread for our little thoughts and opinions on these things.
I'm thinking specifically of the modular buildings and other above £50 sets, such as emerald night, other trains and the seasonals.
My first "big" build was the Fire Brigade a couple of nights ago. My hubby surprised me with it and we both fell in love. The kitchen area is incredible and I love the details, such as the bat in the belfry :)
Tonight, because we're so rock and roll this is what we do with a Friday night) we're doing the Grand emporium.
Only just starting out, sadly the base plate is curved up at each edge, anyone else have this problem?
I'm thinking specifically of the modular buildings and other above £50 sets, such as emerald night, other trains and the seasonals.
My first "big" build was the Fire Brigade a couple of nights ago. My hubby surprised me with it and we both fell in love. The kitchen area is incredible and I love the details, such as the bat in the belfry :)
Tonight, because we're so rock and roll this is what we do with a Friday night) we're doing the Grand emporium.
Only just starting out, sadly the base plate is curved up at each edge, anyone else have this problem?
0
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Comments
I hope you didn't make any monogamous commitments to the Fire Brigade, because if you loved it, you're going to have to break them for the Grand Emporium.
BTW, I'm not sure yet if this discussion is going to stay as a catch-all for all big sets (since those discussions might be better directed and compartmentalized) or be adjusted to just reference the Grand Emporium or Modulars, but we'll see how things develop.
Main thing I need to solve is space, as trains take up so much more of it.
I'm buliding out of context of the other buidings, theyre all packed away, but have no idea how I can bring it all together and make it work on a train friendly scale.
But I agree, I hadn't realised how much space the trains take up, I don't think I have room for more track than cargo train layout (with a couple of sidings perhaps). I've just bought a load of road plates, but I have no idea where I can layout a whole town like in my dreams. I guess I'll have to clear out the junk room, but I had hoped to do it all on my new huge table, but at 1 m wide it only just fits the track.
Is there a good way to attach the track to boards so that it can be stored away, but is still reconfigurable?
Back to the modulars. The grand emporium is beautiful. I let hubby make 2 of the 3 floors as it's definitely his 'thing' he's very excited about lego at the minute, so I'm making the most of it. The pet shop is eagerly awaited.
I bought a bulk buy that arrived yesterday, that included the BBQ stand: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=8398-1
I know it's easy to make from spares, but I'm still not very imaginative - looks great on with the ice cream seller. :-) (little things make me happy!)
The plate is still a little curved at the edges, but no crease marks, we rearranged the pavement to keep the edge next to the fire brigade pinned down, but the other side is still a bit floppy (I need roads!)
My dad was round today, he's got loads of normal model trains and always planned to have them in the garden (though has never got round to it, and probably never will), we agreed that the lego scale is much better suited to that, quite nice and chunky.
I wonder how well the track would tolerate the outdoors? It would be great to have it running around my patio, I think there's something so appealing about a lego town, with plants etc around it.
1. Just got the Fire Brigade and want to build it with my wife, is it possible to build at the same time or is that not really an option? Also how long did it take roughly?
2. I seem to recall you mentioning at some point on another thread about having a holiday train or something simular, did i imagine that, and if not is it a set or something you created? Want to make a Christmas village set that I can bring down every December and we can build as a family, the idea of a little Christmas themed train sounds really nice.
There is a holiday train - quite expensive on ebay (I paid £83 unboxed - no motor or track either) but it is lovely. The emerald night would make a fab xmas train though - and is really beautiful. you could easily create the toy and tree carriages from the instructions and bricklink.
The modulars are great for co-building - they come with 2 books and the bags for each book are separate - looking forward to hearing how long it takes you :)
Also I'd go with the toyshop and winter bakery (of course) and I'm going to add the MMV too :)
Hoping to get the toyshop next month and the bakery September time.
I have seen a few things about adding lights to sets, have you had any experience of this? Think a few well positioned soft lights could really make a Christmas set look 'festive'.
Think the Fire Brigade may take us a while, as 1. this will be my wife's first shot at LEGO and 2. our 4yr old son is almost certainly to want to help too (TBF he is an awesome little builder but with something like this I think I will be paranoid of him dropping a piece) 3. our 3month old will likely interupt every few hours for feeding/changing (how inconciderate ay :) ).
Really hoping this will bring my wife into me and my son's little LEGO world. :)
He sent me a couple of extra photos showing the inner workings of the lights (LifeLights - http://lifelites.com/), which I can forward if you PM me your email address.
Matthew
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157625317196215/with/5197382732/
Don't get me wrong - I love their products, but the fixed cable lengths, and the sheer bulk of the cable started to become a concern. I've got some fairly harsh constraints on the surface where I build my dioramas/layouts. The whole thing is on a platform that needs to be movable in case we need to get at the chest underneath, and the platform that it's on is fairly flexible. So, I had to come up with a solution that didn't involve a "false floor" to hide the wiring. Essentially, I'm using copper tape & extremely fine wire to supply power to the lamps in the back row. It's very time consuming, and I only did the back row of street lamps last year, but since the copper tape is a semi-permanent fixture on the board, I'll just be adding to it.
What I put together has several advantages over lifelites:
It's extremely low power - the 5 lamp posts in the back row can run an entire weekend (50+ hours) on a pair of AAA batteries.
The copper tape is extremely thin. It can be run under baseplates without a noticeable different in height, and the connections to the copper tape can be made in the gap between baseplates when they're connected. This makes supplying "utility power" to a city or town layout quite easy.
And a few drawbacks:
The connections from the tape to the wire for the lamp posts is touchy. It's not a solid connection like the lifelites.
The system is most efficient when working with a single color of LED, as you add more colors with differing power requirements, it becomes less efficient.
It requires a fair knowledge DC circuits & about $20 in tools (I used a wire wrapping tool, similar to this one: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103243) to set up.
I was just going to strings some LEDs together with my dad this weekend, so food for thought. First I want to put lights in the modulars, then do some street lights and fairy lights for christmas. I was going to be sacrilegious and drill holes through bricks for the wires...
I tried drilling into bricks initially - I gave up on it. A drill press probably would have helped, but I don't have access to one.
In the setup I have pictured, each of LED has it's own resistor - so each lamp is it's own little circuit. That way, if one lamp goes out - the others are still OK. It also lets me add and remove lamps from the setup as I see fit, without having to re-work any of the power requirements.
This LED calculator makes life a whole lot easier: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
When you're all set I'd love to see some quick photos of what you ended up with, how you power your lights, etc.
For those of you doing Christmas scenes, I check out this set for the baseplates and 'snowdrift' bricks (slopes with a snow pattern). Usually v cheap on ebay - Ive just picked up 2 sets, each under £10 INC postage.
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=3538-1
You might also want to add a set or two from this series;
http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=Town&subtheme=Arctic
I've just bid on one of those - thanks Si (so hands off the one with 3.50 shipping - that's mine!) ;-)
I have some polar explorer sets that I can pillage for snow jackets and white plates at least :)
(not that I mind much, kind of nice to randomly 'chat' ... ) .. and on that note ..
Just completed the greengrocer - WOW - what a beauty!
Also, my second motorised tram came up bootiful - all issues solved, pics soon I hope.
Monorail city also looking good, just fixing issues with the 3rd monorail unit.
I'm planning to turn the fire station into the frontage for a rail/ monorail station when we build it, reckon it'd do the job quite well.
And yes, @georgebjones - the reason it's called the chit chat thread is so that we can talk about anything to do with our current builds/obsessions with out taking other threads off topic. Sorry yours is bent too - I've not emailed lego about it, but it is annoying me still! Stubborn board!
I have not built any of the Mod sets, or Market Street I have yet, but I am about to build a market street now....
Already have both the trams motorised (PF) ... only problem is they are very fast - not a problem in itself, but the doors fly open, knocking all the track supports over ... I reckon blu-tac along the bottom of the doors ....
also, might need banking curves, they're that fast.
PS can we have an update on your layout @Si_Dorking_Surrey_UK
It looks kinda small...lol
Really though ive been mostly (badly) replastering other rooms in the house so i can get the spare room back sooner and have room again for a bigger layout and link the monorail up to the trains. So not much to report im afraid. How about u?
and another one at shoulder height with your 'alternate' lego world :)