Calling all CCC makers

Discussion of personal LEGO Castle creations
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Dragon Master
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Calling all CCC makers

Post by Dragon Master »

I'm expecting to get a Blacksmith shop (new style) for Christmas this year. That along with my other castle buidlings and with help from my local lego store (I'm very happy about that!) will help me to accomplish my dream of making a city of my very own.

I know a lot of you have made cities yourselves. I am asking for your help on this.

First off how do you begin? do you make the city shops and homes first, and then the walls? or do you wall a city then put the buildings in last. Which method would be more practacal?

My second question is about exactly what defines a CCC buidling. From my interpretation any set and MOC can be, just so long as it is not on a raised baseplate. For instance couldn't I take my Dark Dragon's Den and put it into a CCC town. Also how exactly are the buidlings attaced, and is it neccesary to attach them.

Thanks,

DM
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Glencaer
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Post by Glencaer »

3CS Houses have to sit on a plate rather than a baseplate - but otherwise it is fair game.

For me, I started just by building different shops - and then later (when I had a display where it could be set up - no room at home), built the walls and did the layout.

For the most part, I haven't designed my cities at all, except while I'm setting them up at a display. I try to make sure each of the major medieval buildings are present: Inn/tavern, blacksmith, marketplace, etc - but then just try to have fun with what I am doing.

According to 3CS - a shop can be attached to the baseplates however is easiest, including little 1x1 plate feet on the shop. Personally, I dont use anything, as there really is no need for a secure grip - also, when showing people the houses, I can easily pick them up and show them off.

Hope that helps.

-Lenny

Shows/Towns I've done:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=63107
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=65688
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wlister
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Post by wlister »

If you are short of building materials, you can always make your shops as a combination of home and business. As to building walls, that depends on your building materials as well, right now my village has a partially built wall, with some random bricks around the ends to give it the air of construction. Good luck with your village DM.

Will
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Magnus
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building a town

Post by Magnus »

I've never built a town, but I am working on a large castle, and perhaps a similar approach would work for a town. I built things roughly in the sequence in which they would be built in real life. So I started out with a Keep, and then built the curtain walls, and now I've built so many curtain wall sections that I havespace in the middle to build an inner wall which is my next great project. If and when thet gets done, I will do things like give the outer wall a new an improved gatehouse with barbican etc. The advantage of this is that if you run out of bricks, (or steam), the project never really looks unfinished. Until I build an inner ward making my castle truly concentric (kind of like some of Edward Is castles in Wales), it looks like a perfectly good keep-within-a-curtain wall type castle.

For a town, I'd start out with some key buildings ilke a town hall, a church, a general store and several dwellings. The more specialised buildings can wait for now. If you run out of bricks and your town consists of 7 houses, 2 stores, a church and a town hall, with no outer wall, it will still look awesome. But if you run out of bricks and your town consists of a large mainly finished curtain wall surrounding 4 different shops and one house, and lots of empty space, it will look a lot less convincing.

I'd also like to say something about CCC. The CCC was started in order for people to be able to put their stuff together at conventions and stuff like that. If you are building in CCC standard, there isn't really a need to build your own complete town or village. If on the other hand you want to set youself a project to build a whole town, there is less reason to adhere to the CCC standard to begin with. I think CCC is a great idea communitywise, but the scale is too small for my tastes, and I'm a big enough control freak that I prefer to do evrything myself. So I build in a different scale altogether. If I wanted to join my walls to a CCC walls, I could always make an "adaptor" wall section though.
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Post by lar »

All the towns that MichLUG/LTC have done so far have been without walls, and our metric (shame on us!) has been... pick some space, start plopping buildings down till there are no more buildings, then juggle till it "looks good", then start laying tan/brown/grey plates on the baseplates to define the roads/alleys/streets/paths

None of this making sure you have the right mix of buildings or planning in advance. Randomness is your friend.

IMHO anyway.

Hope that helps!
Larry Pieniazek
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DaveOhare01
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Building Towns

Post by DaveOhare01 »

Dragon Master! Hey Hey!

Well, I think starting off with a plan is the key thing. The decision I had to make was: is the town part of a center peice or just a stand-alone town. If you are going to have a castle as part of the scene, with walls and everything that goes with it -- I think the town takes on a slightly different flavour, rather than just a grouping of buildings.

Also, I really hate to build 'flat' -- so for my current project I am spending a lot of time and bricks building up a very large sloped area for the town. If you are thinking about adding in a LOT of landscaping, this can change how you end up building houses and streets quite a bit -- you actually have to plan the two together (at least leave flat spaces on the hills where you can plant the houses).

The only other thing to think about is how unique you want the scene. Not that there is anything wrong with the town layouts I've seen (they are ALL awesome) -- but I've seen them over and over. If you decide to do something different -- for example an all-tree town or a mountain-side town then that would be both different and quite excellent -- and would also require more planning than just grouping the houses together within a wall.

So, my suggestion is simply to have an idea from the start and then build around that idea.

Good luck! Can't wait to see the pics!

Dave O
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Post by Dragon Master »

Thanks so much guys. I'm reallly taking all your advice to heart. I can't wait to get the project underway. Hopefully I will be able to pick up some "32" baseplates this week from the LEGO store, and some containters of 1x4 and 2x4 bricks in gray, light gray, and maybe tan. I like the idea of "randomness" and think it makes for a good city.

My begining goal will be close to what you said Magnus. A decent amount of homes (probably all home/shops like Blacksmith shop), some open-air "market" stands, a small church, and a Castle building. I'll go for that.

I'd also like to say that Blacksmith shop literally changed my views on Castle and all LEGO for that manner. Blacksmith shop is now my #1 favorite, Dan Siskind should really work for LEGO, he rocks. Now realism is my new style. I weeded out all my "johnny thunder" toros (becuase of the guns and pockets) and some of my other figs and hastily constructed buildings will get the axe too. My new philosophy is quality over quantity. Give me one Blacksmith shop as oppsed to two "escape from Privet drives" From now on I will be only making realistic and historically accurate things. The Dragons and Wizards can stay though, I still love the DM line, I'll find uses for them. Blacksmith shop showed me the potenital of LEGO bricks. Sure I can throw them together quiclky, but the detail that people like Siskind and other people one this site have shown me that when put together nicely and with carefull attention to detail, LEGO can be art. Blacksmith shop is art, better than Yellow Castle even. I must pick up more of these before they are lost to the new KK2 line, I will only buy the small ones of that. LEGO has a way of giving in to children's demands and have also worsend their product for profit sake. They have lost their artistic nature in their sets. Thanks you CCC for assuring that the lost art of LEGO will live on.

Dragon Master
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Post by wlister »

I had started building my village before Dan came out with the Blacksmith shop, but I must admit it did influence a few of my buildings once I did purchase it. I am glad to see how one good set can affect the castle community. I hope TLC reads your post DM, maybe then they would see what the affect of one "good" set can have. Good luck with the village,

Will
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Post by Dragon Master »

Will,

I think I share the opinion of most of the lego community (at least AFOL's and TFOL's). Blacksmith shop has substance to it, over 600 bricks, where a comparable set can have half that. TLC should treat the CCC and AFOL's with some more MOCs.

Dragon Master

P.S. Cool gallery Will, that's the first time I've seen your non-army pics. I like the windmill best.
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Post by wlister »

Yes, I like the windmill too, I am working on a way to put a storage structure beside it on the top of that baseplate. It is one of the few items that survived my move. I plan on taking pictures of what I have left soon. I also have a few entries for the CCC contest almost ready so my gallery will be growing soon.

Will
After a long absence, I have returned. I can't wait to start building again.
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