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MOC: Air & Space Museum

Saturday, 24th February 2018 By Caz

75038 Jedi Interceptor
75038 Jedi Interceptor

As I have built more and more Micropolis modules, I have found that often, it’s one or two seed pieces which give me an idea. These can be far-removed from their original intent or use in sets they came with. A prime example is the Star Wars Jedi Interceptor (75038) which I dismantled in early November last year.

I have already used one of its four solar panels on my Micropolis MOC, Butterfly Batteries & Solar. But in that model, its purpose was the same.

However, I looked at the bubble canopy (10312pb01) from this set, plus the printed transparent black dishes (3960pb013) from this and Yoda’s Jedi Starfighter (75168) and thought, I must be able to use them somehow…

On 7th November I built my first Micropolis module, NE:ON Mall, which was effectively constructed from a load of table scraps. But the Micropolis bug had bitten. The next day I received the excellent Women of NASA set, complete with a tiny Space Shuttle. That looks about the right scale for Micropolis, I thought. I put it next to the canopy to see what their relative sizes were.

Space Shuttle Ssed
Space Shuttle Ssed

Soon after, I saw Magnus The Great’s super Pluppsala Science Block. I loved the classic space colours and those transparent yellow Brick, Modified 2 x 4 No Studs, Curved Top (6192) he used for skylights.

Pluppsala Block 5 - Science

In my head, an idea was forming… and all those things were suddenly coming together. How would the canopy look for the entrance to my Air & Space Museum? I set to work with LEGO Digital Designer and noodled about with the building for a few days before I arrived at a structure I was happy with.

VIrtual MOC: Micropolis Air & Space Museum Designed In LDD
VIrtual MOC: Micropolis Air & Space Museum Designed In LDD

The downside was the cost… When I parted out the design on Bricklink it was suggesting I needed to spend a fortune on three elements – trans yellow bricks, blue grille profile bricks and those skylights I so admired. So I left the design on the electronic drawing board for several months.

Having acquired a pot with loads of regular blue 1×2 bricks in my Watford haul a few weeks ago, my thoughts returned to this design. I’m now a bit more savvy about ordering stuff from Bricklink, and realised I was better off making several orders (even accounting for postage costs) for the most expensive parts, rather than bankrupting myself by taking the algorithm’s suggested stores – which often work out much more expensive. Even so, I had to order the skylights from Germany and some of the blue grille bricks from the Netherlands. I slowly gathered the remaining parts and waited for postie to deliver the bulk orders. And today the last pieces came!

MOC - Air & Space Museum Overhead View
MOC – Air & Space Museum Overhead View

I have refined a few details here and there while building it for real, but the basic structure and design were mostly ironed out digitally, a first for me working this way. I’m more likely to fiddle about with a load of bricks from my drawers and see what I can come up with. But I am delighted with the way this has turned out.

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Front
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Front

That canopy makes a striking entrance space, complete with rocket, telescope and real space suit exhibits underneath. The Micropolis visitors are then encouraged to tour the three floors of exhibits in the main hall.

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Right
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Right

Those skylights make the space inside bright and airy, I’m sure!

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Rear
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Rear

The visitor is then lead across the bridge to the Annex where there are more exhibits about the future of Space travel, before they come down to the ground floor restaurant with access to the Rocket Garden where they can see the Shuttle, boosters, Apollo Command Module and Astronauts’ Memorial up close before returning to the exit via the Gift Shop in the main hall.

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Left
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Left

Museum entrance details…

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Entrance Details
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Entrance Details

The Astronauts’ Memorial in the Rocket Garden, where the Eternal Flame never dies.

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Astronauts' Memorial
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Astronauts’ Memorial

The Shuttle nose points towards this fine example of one of the Apollo Mission Command Capsules which brought the astronauts safely back to Earth… [No, I don’t have a headless Star Wars droid in my Minifig collection. Honest.]

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Shuttle & Apollo Command Module
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Shuttle & Apollo Command Module

Shuttle Endeavor has pride of place in the Rocket Garden.

MOC - Air & Space Museum - Rocket Garden Exhibits
MOC – Air & Space Museum – Rocket Garden Exhibits

It’s been an interesting journey for me, remembering how all these disparate things came together. I would be so excited to visit the Museum if I was small enough to fit inside! And it seems to be popular with bigger folks too – my pictures on Flickr were blogged by ArchBrick – I’m in very esteemed company, as I’m usually in awe of things I see on that!

Watch the video on this Block by Blockhead:

Filed Under: Micropolis, MOCs Tagged With: 1 block, 6192, 75038, 75168, air and space museum, canopy, cockpit, digital design, downtown zone, jedi interceptor, yoda's jedi starfighter

MOC: Belville Place

Friday, 23rd February 2018 By Caz

When I first discovered the Micropolis Standard back in November last year, I did lots of research online to see the modules that other folks had built to get some inspiration. The Virtual Micropolis website was a great starting point, along with the Flickr group dedicated to it.

One of the modules which caught my eye was Belville Condominiums by Nathan Stohlmann:

Belville_Condos_4

I downloaded the LDD file to see how it was built, and soon after acquired the big pink lattice pieces in a random eBay lot (parts 30016 and 6165 which were both in an old Belivlle set, the Sunshine Home. Belville was a precursor to the Friends line, aimed at girls, hence all the sugar-pink elements). Then I left it as I needed loads of navy blue and trans clear bricks to build the main structure, which I didn’t have.

After my recent haul from Watford, I realised I probably had enough of the trans clear bricks and could use the blue ones instead of navy for my version of the block. But I didn’t want it to be exactly the same as the original, so I did some experimentation with shapes. After a bit of fiddling, I came up with this – with the two ends slightly staggered from the main straight pieces.

Belville Place - 1/2 Block 3D Sketch
Belville Place – 1/2 Block 3D Sketch

I worked on it some more and eventually my 1/2 block of apartments, Belville Place, was finished. I put in on the shelf for a couple of weeks.

MOC Belville Place - 1/2 Block
MOC Belville Place – 1/2 Block

A couple of days ago, an eBay lot I had won arrived (see Haul #13 for more info) and that gave me two more pink lattice corners. Bricklink orders which arrived on the same day provided more sand blue 1×2 bricks with groove (4216) and some 1×2 bley grill tiles – I was never quite happy with the black studs showing on the edges of the roof of the 1/2 block.

I set about expanding Belville Place to a whole block, with another small tower on one side and a sunken garden filling up the last 1/4 block. Voila! A very up-market development which will sit right on the waterfront of Micropolis.

MOC Belville Place Complete Block - Front
MOC Belville Place Complete Block – Front

It looks very nice from the “rear” view as well:

MOC Belville Place Complete Block - Rear
MOC Belville Place Complete Block – Rear

The sunken garden provides somewhere to relax for the residents, while admiring the sculptures.

MOC Belville Place Sunken Garden Details
MOC Belville Place Sunken Garden Details

Watch the video on this Block by Blockhead:

Filed Under: Micropolis, MOCs Tagged With: 1 block, 30016, 6165, belville, belville place, lattice, pink, residential zone, sunshine home

MOC: Holy Island

Wednesday, 17th January 2018 By Caz

I have been wanting to build a rocky outcrop island in the Micropolis bay for some time, and have been collecting together a few Big Ugly Rock Pieces (6082) that I got in a mixed lot recently. It also contained a load of other random slopes, bricks and tiles in old dark grey, so I thought I would use these as the basis for my island.

I envisaged high cliffs with tiny little houses nestling on ledges, just like you see in some Mediterranean countries. And I wanted to top it off with a fortified Monastery, but didn’t quite have enough parts in tan, or cone pieces for turrets, until I got the 2016 Christmas Build Up set, which had a couple of tiny castle builds as the models.

So finally I was able to finish off Holy Island:

MOC: Holy Island - Shoreline
MOC: Holy Island – Shoreline

There is a lighthouse on the seaward side to prevent ships from foundering on the rocky cliffs.

MOC: Holy Island - From The Water
MOC: Holy Island – From The Water

Here are a few details of the tiny houses built into the rocks.

Tiny Houses And Cliffs
Tiny Houses And Cliffs

Unlike the smaller 1/4-block modules, I used 16×16 baseplates underneath as well as the top plate, as I think they will make this bigger module, built as one piece, a bit more stable. I usually just use a few 2×6 and longer plates to cover the edging on the smaller blocks.

Watch the video on this Block by Blockhead:

Filed Under: Micropolis, MOCs Tagged With: 1 block, cliffs, ferry, fortified, holy island, houses, jetty, lighthouse, monastery, rocky, sailing boats, waterfront zone

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