Blog with custom builds etc

JayB-SoCal

Hopefully I keep this going - knowing people are looking will encourage me.

Here is a blog I put up yesterday:

http://www.brickblvd.com/blog/

I'll put up pictures of my builds there as the main type of posts for now. I have a few different ones to upload, 2 are up already. First one was just super-simple practice and the 2nd is a micro apartment complex which took a few hours to get "just right".

Markyd7

Looks like you're off to a great start.
You'll probably find that you never have enough Lego. There will always be that 1 part you need!

Have you discovered Pinterest yet?

JayB-SoCal

Thanks, I just put up my church build:

http://www.brickblvd.com/blog/the-church/

JayB-SoCal

Have you discovered Pinterest yet?

Oh yes. I keep adding amazing build photos to it! So many inspirational builds, the artistry of some people blows me away.

Markyd7

Some of the tips blow me away!

Andy´s Brickstore

Nice builds and a good blog layout. I start to like these smaller scale buildings more and more and play with the idea of a little modular city myself. Unfortunately my free time is rather rare at the moment.
Do you also plan to do "how to's" and building technique related stuff? I always like to see how people achieve specific designs and solved occurring problems.

And of course keep up the good work!

JayB-SoCal

I'd like to, it will just need more planning when I build. Maybe I could write about how I go about the way I build first - thought process and visualizing.

I agree with Andy, the smaller scale builds are more appealing to me right now because they require a little more creative effort while using fewer bricks. Even with over 20,000 bricks, it's not enough to do decent medium-scale builds and certainly not enough for many minifig-proportioned builds.

I have a build of Griffith Observatory that's about 1/2 done which is at a medium-scale build size (about 30% minifig scale) and although it's looking decent it's going to take A LOT of filler bricks for the landscape side and doesn't feel as clever as the micro version I did in 2 hours. I'll still try to finish it but I have a feeling I'll just end up taking it apart and using the bricks for a number of smaller builds.

Markyd7

I brought this from Amazon the other day.
The LEGO Architect
Only just turned up, but looks really good. Has a small section on scale.

Have started looking into creating a modular city. Thinking about using 8x8 plates for the buildings and then the roads/paths would be 4x4 for the cross roads and 4x8 along the sides of buildings.
Want to do approx 30 buildings with roads and paths around each block. Worked out at about £200 for just the bases, roads and paths! Might have to do the buildings in blocks of 4 to save a bit of money.

JayB-SoCal

Yeah I've seen that book, haven't bought it yet. I just love all the little clever solutions people have for certain architectural treatments. Sometimes for certain builds I wonder how the person was able to even source all the necessary parts, and in the proper color - some things that I would think are "common" to be able to find end up being unavailable directly from Lego, not in any recent sets, not available in-store PaB and very rare to find here. I might try BrickLink but that site is horrendous to navigate to purchase parts through.

Markyd7

You might want to join a LUG. Lego User Group.
They can order parts in bulk from Lego, it might not be any cheaper though.

http://thebrickblogger.com/2015/10/lego-lugbulk-the-best-way-to-build-big/

https://lan.lego.com/static/build/docs/LEGO_Ambassador_Network_-_The_LEGO_LUGBULK_Program.pdf

JayB-SoCal

LUGs seem like a big pain unless they offer a means to get rare parts in bulk that otherwise can't ever be found in new condition from small stores like the ones on this site. That plus the fact that the whole process from start to finish requires pretty much 2 years (1 year for a LUG to exist & another year between order prep & delivery). Joining an existing LUG if there happens to be one in my area would still mean that if it's past Feb 1 (which it is now), it will be no less than 21 months between the time of requesting an order and getting it - not accounting for the ambassador to receive & separate out the orders for everyone.

Lego purposefully makes buying parts a pain. There are pros & cons to their business strategies. They keep the value of their products high by both maintaining a string brand and limiting supply to their curated channels. This is helpful to all kinds of people who sell Legos (including chain stores or specialty toy stores). On the negative side, it means people who are most interested in building with Legos and not so much the commerce side are left having a hard time sourcing parts to build anything interesting with unless they spend tons of money. Even if all the parts between this site & BrickLink were added up, it's like a tiny fraction of a fraction of a % of all the bricks ever manufactured by Lego and still very hard to find certain parts.

I need to go to garage sales & such I guess as an extra source of supply.

bricksinbins

I'm pretty sure I saw or heard somewhere that LEGO is discontinuing the bulk buying program. I could be wrong though...

JayB-SoCal

I'd rather just spend the extra money to get the bricks needed with speed & convenience anyway. I don't know who would tolerate spending months & months waiting on specific bricks.