Hello - LEGO has hooked me again.

[twevans]

Hey, my name's Taylor, very new here. Just got back into LEGO and got hooked on the Castle theme, so after a few days of browsing CC I figured I'd sign up.

I was a LEGO kid in the 90's and am now coming back to them as an AFOL. Got pulled back in by playing LEGO Star Wars along with the combination of moving to a city with a LEGO retail store - So I jumped back in by digging up my old collection, which is sadly lacking Castle pieces and made up with far to many Tyco bricks I had to remove... So I started my new collection by picking up 7946 King's Castle and I'm hoping to grab Medieval Market Village before it becomes too scarce.

Got a questions for the hopeful MOC Castle in my future:
What do you guys usually use for a base on larger MOCs? The large baseplates or build up from scratch? Or some other technique.

[Bluesecrets]

What do you guys usually use for a base on larger MOCs? The large baseplates or build up from scratch? Or some other technique.

This is a good question. I think you will get a varied response. Some of us even build with multiple methods. Myself, I have put multiple baseplates together to start the foundation for one castle, others have had no baseplates at all, and still others have been restricted to one baseplate, depending on my mood, but I always raise my castles off the baseplates..at least 4 to 10 bricks high.

My word of advice is, to build what you want to build and don't restrict yourself to what others do. Being an AFOL is about being creative and doing what makes you happy.

[architect]

Hi Taylor,

Welcome to Classic-Castle. I hope you enjoy your time here.

I once used baseplates for my creations but find them too limiting now.

Ben

[Rogue Shadow]

Welcome to CC, and I'm relatively new also. I hope you have fun! I prefer to use 32x32 baseplates, because 1) there is quite a few different kinds to choose from. Green for grass, blue for water, tan for sand...

[Green Knight]

Welcome to CC, and I'm relatively new also. I hope you have fun! I prefer to use 32x32 baseplates, because 1) there is quite a few different kinds to choose from. Green for grass, blue for water, tan for sand...

I am new too! This is my first post.

[Rogue Shadow]

I am new too! This is my first post.

Congrats.

[Robin Hood]

Welcome Taylor.

As to your question, in just about every instance I use baseplates. I personally don't understand at all how someone can think they are limiting (yes Ben, I mean you ). Well, with builds smaller than say...32x32 aside. While the finished product might not end up having any of the baseplate showing, I find it provides a nice surface to build from, as well as added stability. I won't necessarily use the predeterminded baseplate sizes as my guild for the final size of the project, but, as it often happens, if I don't have a specifci size in mind, laying some baseplates out is a great way to get the ball rolling.

Dan

[Count Blacktron]

Hello and long live King Leo!

My personal favorite building challenge is to use the older raised baseplate variety for building. They are quite charming, and the best fun to me is to combine two or more for my MOC Castle creations. Can't seem to get enough of that after all these years.

Post your thoughts and creations as often as you have the time. It's awesome fun to be a LEGO AFOL.

[DNL]

Welcome to Classic-Castle!
I pretty much always use baseplates as the base of my MOCs, but I usually put a few bricks between the landscape and the baseplate so that i can easily add elevations to the landscapes and place rivers and roads lower than the 'grass'. I never use raised baseplates; they look too unrealistic and ugly compaired to the rest of my MOCs and limit the building possibilities around them. I also used to make bases for my larger MOCs out of smaller plates when i didn't have enough baseplates, but that makes the structure weaker in the end.

[LegoLord.]

Well, I buit this by sticking baseplates together to make a huge baseplate of 152 studs long by 96 studs wide. Many people have many different methods of building, and giant baseplates is mine.

It's always good to see new members of the Lego community, especially castle fans. Welcome, I'll be looking for your creations.

[twevans]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll have to pick up a handful of baseplates once I have the money.

Any ideas on how to get a bunch of basic bricks (1x4, 2x4, etc.)? Looking though my old collection I have a pitiful amount of black and gray bricks (need bley bricks now anyways). Is ordering them off bricklinks the cheapest way to go?

[DNL]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll have to pick up a handful of baseplates once I have the money.

Any ideas on how to get a bunch of basic bricks (1x4, 2x4, etc.)? Looking though my old collection I have a pitiful amount of black and gray bricks (need bley bricks now anyways). Is ordering them off bricklinks the cheapest way to go?

Bricklink is usually the cheapest alternative if you want to buy bulk bricks, at least if you try to find a good deal on there. Grey bricks are very expensive on bricklink, but it is still much cheaper than buying sets to get those pieces because sets often have few basic bricks and many large panels and bricks which you may not need, and the price per piece ratio is also higher with sets. If you want all kind of different bricks and don't have many bricks already it would be better to buy the currently available kings castle so you will get a variety of different pieces, like arches, slopes and windows/doors.

I don't buy sets basic bricks anymore, i buy them all off bricklink and i only buy large sets when they are on sale for 50% off, otherwise it is just not worth the money compared to bricklink. I can for example get 2000 basic bricks on bricklink for 50$, while i would have payed about 200$ for a set containing 2000 pieces. There is one exception though, and that is the medieval market village, that one is definitely worth the 100$ for 1600 pieces, but it doesn't contain many grey bricks, so it would probably not be an option for you.

[wobnam]

If you want to buy a good starter set that has a bit more gray than the Medieval Market Village, 10197 Fire Brigade has lots of light gray bricks, plates and tiles and a price/piece ratio that isn't far from the MMV.

BrickLink is great for getting specific parts, but don't buy too much at once. As you get more experienced with building, you'll (probably) find that some of the pieces you thought you needed aren't that useful, and some of the pieces you really need you didn't even consider before.

[OverLoad]

Any ideas on how to get a bunch of basic bricks (1x4, 2x4, etc.)? Looking though my old collection I have a pitiful amount of black and gray bricks (need bley bricks now anyways). Is ordering them off bricklinks the cheapest way to go?

You said you live near a LEGO store? You might want to try the PaB wall. While it's usually filled with odd colors like lime and orange, I've been able to get a LOT of bley bricks from my LEGO store's PaB wall. But otherwise, BrickLink is the cheapest and best way to get all sorts of basic bricks.

[twevans]

I haven't seen many bley bricks on the PaB wall yet, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the idea of the Fire Brigade, just looked at a review and it does have some nice parts. I've already got the new King's Castle and MMV should be arriving later today. A while ago I looked through bricklink to find pieces I thought would be nice, but looking back, since my collection is rather small seems buying sets with pieces I'm interested in would be the best way to go since I'll get a variety of other useful parts.

Thanks again for all the advice, I'm looking forward to starting on some MOCs.