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MOC: St. Octavius’ Church

Saturday, 24th February 2018 By Caz

Boat Studs Cladding
Boat Studs Cladding

A while ago I was messing about with some transparent boat studs (2654) and thought they would make interesting cladding for a Micropolis building. However, the difficulty using them is having to build the walls with plates facing studs-inwards. No the end of the world, but not as easy as studs-out would be.

It’s very straightforward to build square stuff with LEGO, but I also wanted to challenge myself to build something a little different, so I opted for an octagonal shape, mainly due to having an octagonal plate with open centre (6063) in my parts drawers, which I thought could possibly form the basis of the roof structure.

Octagonal Technique - Bodged Brackets
Octagonal Technique – Bodged Brackets

Getting the geometry right to make the plates fit snugly under the roof plate was tricky. I spent ages faffing about with various designs. The sides which were aligned orthogonally with the studs weren’t too difficult, but those on the 45° were proving to be a right pain. Eventually, I came up with this bracket arrangement. It wasn’t terribly stable and required some packing behind (the white plate and magenta tile in the picture) to stop it from wobbling.

The assembly was also quite tall, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to cram in another one lower down for stability. This would be required as otherwise the walls were liable to collapse at every opportunity. It was getting rather frustrating.

Octagonal Technique - Internal Bracing
Octagonal Technique – Internal Bracing

Eventually I came up with this internal bracing arrangement, connected in the middle vertically too, in order to stablise things as much as possible.

I got all eight walls up and the roof plate attached. So far so good. But then I put just a little bit too much pressure on one side when I was picking it up and – boom! – it was in pieces again.

Annoyed with myself, I gave up and went to bed.

Octagonal Technique - Walls Up But Fragile
Octagonal Technique – Walls Up But Fragile
Octagonal Technique - Revised Bracketing
Octagonal Technique – Revised Bracketing

As is the way with these things, a good night’s sleep brings fresh ideas. I kept the orthogonal pillars the same and reworked the angled versions. These are all held onto the plates via a stepped-off jumper (lime green in the picture) pushed into the hole of a 1×2 Technic brick (blue and bley).

The originals (with yellow bricks) had a decent gap between fixing points at each end of the big red plates. But the stud geometry, and the need to have a jumper plate on top of the diagnonally mounted walls meant they were a little closer together for those (see pillar with pink bricks). However, both versions were still much more stable and less prone to collapse than the first right angle bracket bodge had been. So I pressed on and reworked all four of the pillars for the 45° walls.

Right angled walls were held in place on the floor by being 1 plate lower than the tiles the remaining structure rests on. Diagnonal walls are mounted on an open stud at the bottom. The lowest plate’s middle tube underneath rests snugly in the hole in the round stud.

Octagonal Technique - Floor Tiling & Pillars
Octagonal Technique – Floor Tiling & Pillars

At the top under the roof, each of the yellow jumpers’ studs key into the single square extra pieces of the octagonal plate – marked in red here.

Octagonal Technique - Under Roof Attachment
Octagonal Technique – Under Roof Attachment

It’s much easier to see what’s going on from this low angle picture of a half-built structure.

Octagonal Technique - Try It For Size
Octagonal Technique – Try It For Size

As the roof wasn’t one continuous plate, I decided to put a pillar in the middle too, so it could rest on that if too much pressure was exerted in the wrong place on the roof. Once all the pillars were in place, it required a little bit of jiggling to get them all to line up with the underside of the roof plate, but when they do, it’s all rock solid!

Octagonal Technique - Walls And Central Pillar In
Octagonal Technique – Walls And Central Pillar In

I had proved the structure, but I didn’t want my building having red walls. Also, I didn’t have enough boat studs to cover them all, and what would it be?

In the course of ordering boat studs from Bricklink, I chose four different colours and thought they would look like stained glass windows. With some white versions around the base, I decided this would be a modern place of worship, St. Octavius’ Church. A few days later all the bits arrived and I am pleased with the way it has all come together.

MOC - St. Octavius' Church Front
MOC – St. Octavius’ Church Front

The main entrance is on the corner of the intersection, with a statue outside. Landscaping and flowers around the sides give another splash of colour. I wanted the structure to have a bit of stature too, so I left it on the 12×12 plate it had been designed on, and added white tiles to give a little step up all around the building.

MOC - St. Octavius' Church Rear
MOC – St. Octavius’ Church Rear

Watch the video on this Block by Blockhead:

Filed Under: Micropolis, MOCs, Techniques Tagged With: 1/4 block, boat studs, church, cladding, downtown zone, octagonal, snot, stained glass windows, studs in construction

Ninjago: Ninjago City (70620)

Sunday, 4th February 2018 By Caz

I got home from Bluewater yesterday very excited. Not only had I found some great items on the PAB wall, I also had the lovely Ninjago City (70620) to build! There are a LOT of bags, but I set them all out on the table and sat down to begin.

Ninjago City -All The Bags
Ninjago City -All The Bags

I will show you a picture at the end of each bag’s worth of parts, so you can see how progress went. At the end of bag 1, I was really impressed with the “under water” technique of putting various plates on the baseboard to give you variations in tones in the water. It’s going to look great when the tiles go on top!

Ninjago City Bag 1 Done
Ninjago City Bag 1 Done

By the end of Bag 2, those tiles were on and looked great. Plus the little boat to float on top was also complete. I liked the technique for the bamboo jetty too.

Ninjago City Bag 2 Done
Ninjago City Bag 2 Done

By the end of Bag 3, the foundations of the bridge were taking shape nicely.

Ninjago City Bag 3 Done
Ninjago City Bag 3 Done

Bag 4 finished and Sweep the little garbage robot is complete, the bridge arch spans the canal and the two ground floor shops are looking good.

Ninjago City Bag 4
Ninjago City Bag 4

Bag 5 gave us some columns to support the first floor shops, and the start of the elevator shaft at the back.

Ninjago City Bag 5 Done
Ninjago City Bag 5 Done

Bag 6 brought us to the end of the first book of instructions (there are three!), with the top floor of the Old Town done. I particularly liked the techniques for making the small overhanging roof sections on each module – all different and all very creative.

Ninjago City Bag 6 Complete
Ninjago City Bag 6 Complete

Bag 7 gets the Crab Shack well under way, one of the bigger builds on the second floor. It has a fun play feature with the grill which can be turned from the rear to cook the crabs!

Ninjago City Bag 7 Done
Ninjago City Bag 7 Done

Bag 8 was familiar as this was the section I had helped to build at the London AFOLs Meetup last month. It makes the tiny but incredibly detailed Comic Book Store and behind-the-scenes structure for the clever ATM mechanism – which can be loaded with 13 $100 bills!

Ninjago City Bag 8 Finished
Ninjago City Bag 8 Finished

Bag 9 finished off the front of the Crab Shack and poster storage area in front of the elevator shaft:

Ninjago City Bag 9 Complete
Ninjago City Bag 9 Complete

Finally, by the end of Bag 10, the raililngs are done, along with the advertisements and the half upper storey of the Comic Book Shop – which had some great SNOT techniques for making the shop sign.

Ninjago City Bag 10
Ninjago City Bag 10

With that stage topped off, Bag 11 started the Gift Shop section on the next floor up. It carries an eclectic mix of stock, but I’m sure it’s what the citizens of Ninjaco City need! It’s also good to see the revival of the big curved trans clear window piece (2572) which hasn’t been in a set in that colour since 2009!

Ninjago City Bag 11
Ninjago City Bag 11

Anyway, onwards and upwards… To Bag 12, which provided the parts to build the erratic cherry tree growing out of an abandoned room next to the gift shop, and the sideways-snot window façade on the front side of the elevator shaft.

Ninjago City Bag 12
Ninjago City Bag 12

Bag 13 – unlucky for some? Well not for Lloyd Garmadon and his mum, as this provided the pieces to make their tiny, intricate apartment, which perches atop the cherry tree room.

Ninjago City Bag 13
Ninjago City Bag 13

Next up (literally) is the start of the rooftop and Sushi Restaurant – mainly giving us the structures which will be build upon for the main part of the floor:

Ninjago City Bag 14
Ninjago City Bag 14

Bag 15 and the fabulous Sushi Conveyor is finished! I loved it when I saw it at the London AFOLs meetup, and I love it even more now I’ve actually built it for myself. In fact, I think it’s probably my favourite feature having done all the others – and there are many highlights to this set.

Ninjago City Bag 15 Complete
Ninjago City Bag 15 Complete

And finally, after at least 10 hours of building over 2 days, it’s done! Bag 16 tops off the roof with a little loo, some signage and a mad communications tower.

Ninjago City Compete - End of Bag 16
Ninjago City Compete – End of Bag 16

Well, what can I say. I hate the over-use of the word awesome, but it definitely is an under statement for this set. It had so many different techniques and little details to delight as you were building. While it might not be the LEGO set with the most pieces, I’m pretty sure it’s the one with the most different elements. There was a huge variety of pieces in the set, and a mind-boggling number of bags to open and sort, but the clear instructions made it a hugely enjoyable experience.

I have now populated the City with a few extra minifigs from my collection, to make it a bustling metropolis.

Crab Shack Customers Arrive
Crab Shack Customers Arrive

Spot anyone you know here?

Sushi Restaurant Is Popular!
Sushi Restaurant Is Popular!

With rumours of another big Ninjago-themed set coming in the summer of this year, (Ninjago Dockyards 70657) which will apparently connect to this model via the Technic pins on the base, I’m really excited to see where this theme is going. Let’s hope the new set is as good as this – although it’s a very hard act to follow.

Filed Under: Ninjago Tagged With: 70620, modular, modular building, ninjago city, snot

Haul #10: Bluewater PAB

Saturday, 3rd February 2018 By Caz

I visited the LEGO store in the Bluewater shopping centre today, for the first time. I was pleased to see a good variety of smaller elements up for grabs on the PAB wall, and filled one large and two small cups with goodies. Here’s what I got:

Haul: Bluewater Pots, 3rd Feb
Haul: Bluewater Pots, 3rd Feb

Some very useful 4×4 and 4×6 plates in varioius colours; 1×2, 1×3 bricks and 1×1 round bricks all in lime. Red and yellow 2×2 tiles (for a future project I have in the works); some 1×2 red and white plates, and most excitingly 1×2 modified plates with three “teeth” in tan, plus a few 1×1 yellow bricks with stud on the side – great for SNOT applications and Micropolis windows alike.

Haul: Bluewater Contents, 3rd Feb
Haul: Bluewater Contents, 3rd Feb

I can feel another Micropolis build coming on… but first, I have to put together a big set I also bought at the shop. More on that tomorrow!

Filed Under: Haul, PAB Tagged With: bluewater, kent, pab cups, plates, snot, tiles

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