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Anyone think you can brick build reindeer?
got your back, man
Any input on the theme(s) for our winter village for the Greenberg show? Will it be a conventional town, next to winter in the Shire, next to a snowball fight on Hoth, next to an Ice Planet “Light up Night” or what? Matt, will you create a map for it? Will it include a Polar Express or even some other vehicle that moves on tracks? Could white table cloths by used to save a huge expense of making a snowy foundation out of LEGO parts?
Greg, I would like to continue what you and I had been previously discussing in doing some sort of North Pole Village with Victorian houses and a possible Santa castle and workshop. I could probably come up with a half-decent Polar Express as we would definitely want movement (several loops of track would be ideal, especially for the Greenburg Show). We could also do a “regular” town decorated for Christmas using at least one of your churchs and some of my houses (some of which I had a KidsFest last year in my town display). The Polar Express could run on a loop between the North Pole Village and the Town (through a forest with white wolves, etc.). White table clothes would be an excellent idea and would help keep with the wintery theme.
We need to decide fairly soon how big of a display we want to do, both so we can start working on it and also so we can finalize the application for space to Greenburg. I have some ideas on that based on past train shows that I did with RichLUG and will post those ideas here soon.I would like to continue what you and I had been previously discussing in doing some sort of North Pole Village with Victorian houses and a possible Santa castle and workshop.
And the Swiss buildings from my alpine village, all with white roofs, are ok? They all have white roofs but are only “built” on three sides … the back is a solid color to prevent seeing through them.
A while back, I posted a picture of a white castle that I started. Should that be finished?
I could probably come up with a half-decent Polar Express
Sorry I did not mean to make more work for anyone, its fine if we use trains that we already have. Of course, if you really wanted to make one, others have blazed the trail:
And the Swiss buildings from my alpine village, all with white roofs, are ok? They all have white roofs but are only “built” on three sides … the back is a solid color to prevent seeing through them.
A while back, I posted a picture of a white castle that I started. Should that be finished?
I think the alpine village building would be perfect. They could be situated so that the backs would not show. I was considering doing Santa’s castle in gray and brown (with lots of red and green trim). But a white castle would also be sweet, perhaps the Prince’s castle from The Nutcracker?
Sorry I did not mean to make more work for anyone, its fine if we use trains that we already have. Of course, if you really wanted to make one, others have blazed the trail:
More work is good! Actually, I had looked at Mr. Sava’s Polar Express before. Thanks for the link. I think I could cobble together an ok facimile of his very good work using my Emerald Night as a foundation.
SCLUG, I would like to join in this collective venture… Just let me know what the final plan is, and what I can do to help out. I look forward to working with you all.
Attached are some basic table layout ideas. In looking back through this thread, I think something along the lines of the “Combo Alternatve #1” may work best. Since we are thinking of having multiple “themes”, that layout provides four main display areas for each “theme”. The 1 deep tables can hold the connecting displays in which the main themes are blended into each other.
For example, one of the main display areas could be the North Pole/Victorian/Alpine Village while another could be a contemporary Town. The table connecting them together could be the Forest through which runs the Polar Express, thereby connecting the two main displays.
An Ice Planet/space/robot display could be another of the main theme areas with either a winter Shire (the White Winter?) or Hoth or Narnia in Winter or other idea as the fourth (I’m just spitting out stream of conscience ideas here trying to kick start conversation).
I can definitely commit to working on the North Pole, Contemporary Town, and the joining Forest areas.
The Emerald Night is an excellent starting point. Perhaps once you develop a single passenger car for the Polar Express, other LUG members can make additional passenger cars. Each passenger car might need as many as 18 train windows and 2 train doors. Looks like it will be drafty inside my Hogwart’s Express and red soccer bus for awhile. 🙂
The Emerald Night is an excellent starting point. Perhaps once you develop a single passenger car for the Polar Express, other LUG members can make additional passenger cars. Each passenger car might need as many as 18 train windows and 2 train doors. Looks like it will be drafty inside my Hogwart’s Express and red soccer bus for awhile.
I like the idea of using it because it has the working pistons on the wheels and it is not an insanely large locomotive. I think it could be adapted fairly easily to make a Polar Express that would be identifiable by the general public (but probably decried by trainheads – oh well).
Let’s make the train doors white! I think I know where we can get a few white doors! 😀
What are the dimensions for the cars/would our Polar Express have freight cars hauling gifts?
We would have to work out exact dimensions (as Greg suggested, someone may need to build a prototype train car that others could then replicate). We would likely keep our cars similar to those produced by Lego in the Emerald Night and Horizon Express sets. Gift cars sound like an excellent idea, either for the Polar Express or for a second train (perhaps a Santa train?) running between the North Pole and the Town.
I have no objection but the actual polar express did not have freight cars. Apparently someone else moves the freight on Christmas Eve.
Anyone like the idea of having trans-yellow bricks inside the windows of the passenger cars to look like artificial lighting?
What about a brick built clear monorail for Santa?
Greg, are you saying use clear to simulate the sleigh “flying”…?
I have no objection but the actual polar express did not have freight cars. Apparently someone else moves the freight on Christmas Eve.
I’ll have to ask at work. They’ll know who’s running the freight trains!
Anyone like the idea of having trans-yellow bricks inside the windows of the passenger cars to look like artificial lighting?
That would look sweet!
Gregory Schubert wrote:
What about a brick built clear monorail for Santa?Greg, are you saying use clear to simulate the sleigh “flying”…?
Zackly! I was trying to remember how many 1×2’s it takes to make a circle. I think its around 200. I think we’d need at a minimum, two rows of 1×2 bricks and one row of 1×2 tiles. Of course we can try it out on colors we already have first.
Zackly! I was trying to remember how many 1×2′s it takes to make a circle. I think its around 200. I think we’d need at a minimum, two rows of 1×2 bricks and one row of 1×2 tiles. Of course we can try it out on colors we already have first.
Circle? Wait, are you talking about building the whole track out of clear? I was just thinking on top of the monorail car bases, use a couple rows of clear so the sleigh “hovers” an inch or so above the car base… are we thinking differently here?
Wait, are you talking about building the whole track out of clear?
Yes, but it could be a long term goal. Maybe it would be better to simply work on integrating the monorail base and track that you already have. In the same vein, we already have lots of trains, we don’t HAVE to build a Polar Express just yet.
Yeah, good point. I’m thinking for this year, I’d rather stick to the standard track & just customize the train itself. But long term, sure, we could make it pretty awesome.
I’m all for ambition, but also don’t want us to bite off more than we can chew. My focus this week and next is contributing to the Future Tenant gallery, and after that, I’ll start working on Christmas stuff, and see what happens.
Wait, are you talking about building the whole track out of clear?
… and I am still thinking about how to do this flying Santa monorail. Clear 1x2x2 panels might work as long as the span between supports is not too great but then there is the pesky problem of turns … unless we create robotic turntables, hidden inside a building at each end of a long straight track. The turntable could rotate Santa and the reindeer around so they face forward and travel down the same long track that brought them into the building. 🙂
OK, I’ve done a preliminary study for the Town section of the Display using the MILS standard. The street is brick built and laying on its side. This allows the sidewalk to be one plate/tile higher, creating a curb. The sidewalk is primarily 2×2 tiles on top of 2×4 bricks, although a brick build sidewalk (like the street) would also work (so long as a row of plates was attcahed to the baseplate thus raising the sidewalk again 1 plate higher than the street to make the curb). I also added some “snow” piled up against the building.
Overall, I think this type of layout will work well. I can definitely provide two parallel brick built streets connected by a cross street (I’m thinking in the shape of an “F”) and also the buildings for the downtown. I also want to do a separate row of small residential houses which would be the pick up spot for the Polar Express.
Circle? Wait, are you talking about building the whole track out of clear?
TO further clarify, the circle in the photo has three layers, each with ninety-three 1×2 bricks.
Greg, call me dense, but what is the point of the circle? I don’t see how it relates to a monorail at all.
Tim, as usual, you’re way ahead of most of us… nice work.
what is the point of the circle? I don’t see how it relates to a monorail at all.
The circle, which has about a 64 stud diameter, merely demonstrates that a curved closed loop can be constructed from 1×2 bricks. When constructed of transparent elements, and covered with tiles, that loop would serve as the monorail upon which a “brick built” Santa’s sleigh could fly when furtively elevated to roof level of the winter village.
I’m moving this over from the “Greenburg” thread since it is dealing with building ideas, etc.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Evan wrote:</div>
Other things to consider…<br><br>
-It would be a huge help if we knew a good way to turn a modular building into a MILS unit. We could fill a lot of space with those!<br>You can build supports underneath using 2x plates and tiles. I’ve done this before where I wanted to elevate a building built on a baseplate so that baseplate would be 1 plate/tile above the road (thus forming a curb). I used to have a fair number of these supports but took them apart awhile back. The only problem using this technique to elevate the modular buildings is that you can see the edge of the green baseplate. We could maybe solve that problem by constructing a separate curb. Hard to explain without a picture. Let me see if I can put together a quick study and post some pictures.
OK, I expanded my study to incorporate in a modular building into the MILS standar. Here are some pictures demonstrating this. Anything built on a baseplate (like the modular buildings) can be supported by two rows of supports – an outer row 32×32 and an inner row. This raises the baseplate on which the modular building is built to one plate/tile under the “surface”. Thus the baseplate is completely hidden and the sidewalk tiles on the modular building match up with the MILS level sidewalk tiles.
The circle, which has about a 64 stud diameter, merely demonstrates that a curved closed loop can be constructed from 1×2 bricks. When constructed of transparent elements, and covered with tiles, that loop would serve as the monorail upon which a “brick built” Santa’s sleigh could fly when furtively elevated to roof level of the winter village.
So the monorail is like the DeVaLUG monorail except the supports are made of trans clear, right? That would be pretty sweet having a Santa sleigh going around but that will take a whole lot of 1×2 trans clear bricks and plates. 😛
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