moc

Hangar Bays 3 & 4 – A MOC Made From 60304 Road Plates

Tuesday, 15th December 2020 By Caz

My latest review for New Elementary has just been published. It anaylses long-anticipated new Road Plate system found in set 60304. I also received some of the other new City line to review, but that article is yet to come. I won’t repeat my thoughts on the set here, but you can read it for yourself.

The major new components are an 8x16x2/3rds printed piece to make crosswalks; a 16x16x2/3 plate which forms most of the road surface; numerous 2×4 tiles with a white stripe to fill in the crosswalk and attach them to their neighbours, and a completely smooth 5x8x2/3 ramp to attach to the edges of the road system to give vehicles a smooth transition onto the floor or table top. There is also an unprinted variant of the 8×16 element.

Having examined the parts carefully, I was intrigued by the underside of the plates, which looked even more interesting than the topside! It reminded me a lot of industrial panelling, which gave me an idea. I was able to combine the new road plates from all five of the sets I was sent, giving me a total of 11 large plates, 3 half plates with printing, 2 half plates without printing and more than 18 end ramps. They quickly turned into Hangar Bays 3 & 4, the MOC you see here.

Meetup: London AFOLs February 2018

Monday, 12th February 2018 By Caz

What happens when you give a load of London AFOLs 400 Brick Separators (630) to play with?

This was my pretty feeble attempt – a Romulan Death Fish.

Brick Separator - Romulan Stealth Fish (Mine) — Brick Separator – Romulan Death Fish (Mine)

However, there were some amazingly creative builds from other people – here’s a little selection:

Brick Separator - Building In Action — Brick Separator – Building In Action

Brick Separators - Weird Thing! — Brick Separators – Weird Thing!

Brick Separators - Strange Purple Cow (Apparently) — Brick Separators – Strange Purple Cow (Apparently)

Brick Separator - Dragon Fly — Brick Separator – Dragon Fly

Brick Separator - Bunny & Snail — Brick Separator – Bunny & Snail

Brick Separators - Boats & Insects — Brick Separators – Boats & Insects

Brick Separators - More Boats — Brick Separators – More Boats

Brick Separators - Turtle — Brick Separators – Turtle

Brick Separators - Display — Brick Separators – Display

Brick Separator - Bug — Brick Separator – Bug

Brick Separators - Jon's Spinning Destroyer — Brick Separators – Jon’s Spinning Destroyer

Brick Separators - Jon's Cheesy Grin — Brick Separators – Jon’s Cheesy Grin

And here’s the Spinning Death Wheel in action!

All in all it was a pretty fun evening.

GBC: Big Bird & Pinball

Friday, 5th January 2018 By Caz

As a complete novice, I have been doing some research to find a fairly simple GBC module to build. I found plans for a Classic Marble Pump on Planet-GBC, then went rummaging in my parts drawers to see if I had enough bits to put it together. This is what I came up with!

The plans built me the input side, which I dubbed Big Bird. Then of course I had to add some wings and eyes! It is built from mainly System bricks apart from some gearing and the motor hidden behind. I didn’t have enough of the same coloured bricks to build it out of one colour, but who cares – multicoloured is more fun!

Then I had to get the balls back down again to the right height for the next module’s input. I decided on a pinball type board, built from Technic beams, with pins stuck in them in a triangular pattern, built to my own design. I think it works quite well. Tomorrow we are taking it to Caterham for a test run with other GBC modules made by the London AFOLs.

Virtual MOC: Crystal Condo

Saturday, 11th November 2017 By Caz

Shortly after completing the design for Alexa Apartments, I set about planning another luxury accommodation block for my virtual Micropolis. I came up with this creation, Crystal Condo.

It features an enormous glass penthouse suite and helipad on the roof. The poor old ‘copter’s rotor blades have fallen off, as I was going mad in LDD trying to work out how to attach them to the top of the craft. Oh well, never mind!

I’m not convinced I will bother to build this one, but it can go into the Virtual Micropolis gallery and we will see what happens.

Virtual MOC: Alexa Apartments

Thursday, 9th November 2017 By Caz

Having had a little success in building my first Micropolis module out of real bricks, I turned to virtual reality to see where my imagination could take me. I’ve only just started using Lego Digital Designer. I know there are other tools out there which can do more, but the learning curve for LDD was steep enough! And for the moment, it does all that it needs to for me, so I shall be sticking with it. Here are a couple of overview shots of the “front” and “side” views.

My first virtual MOC - Alexa Appartments — My first virtual MOC – Alexa Appartments

MOC - Alexa Apartments LHS — MOC – Alexa Apartments LHS

It has a fully-furnished lobby with reception desk, seats for visitors waiting for friends and a couple of elevators.

And of course, being an exclusive development, there is a private rooftop pool area where the residents can relax away from the noise and hubbub below.

I quite enjoyed virtually putting this one together. Whether it will ever get built remains to be seen.

MOC: NE:ON Mall

Tuesday, 7th November 2017 By Caz

I had a consignment of assorted coloured bricks arrive from eBay today. The lot was mainly from the Friends range and contained all sorts of bits and pieces in various bright colours with neon transparent bricks too. Included was the bonnet from a candy-pink car and a huge transparent raspberry pink umbrella. It was a bit of a motley pile, to be honest.

From my previous attempt at a MOC (St. Bridget’s Cathedral in Microscale), I wasn’t too optimistic that I would get anything decent out of it, but I have recently discovered the Micropolis Standard and instantly fell in love with the concept. Could I make a decent Micropolis module out of these apparent table scraps?

Actually, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Yes, it’s brash and bright but I like some of the shapes and forms I managed to achieve and give it a reasonable degree of consistency, despite the pot-pourri I had to start with.

I’ve noticed that most Micropolis builders have a little back story to go with each block, and this one is owned by brash Irish businessman Ned O’Neil. Most people think it’s called NE:ON Mall because of all the bright colours, but Ned knows better – it’s the first two letters of each of his names. The last laugh is clearly on him!

I’d be the first to admit this won’t win any prizes, but as it’s my very first Micropolis build, I have a soft spot for it and won’t be taking it apart any time soon.