Non Est Colosseum

Buford · Post by **Buford** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:14 pm

I got a lot of arches in on my last order. What can one make with a lot of arches?

I found photos of the Colosseum on line. Three main levels, 64 exterior arches per level. Isn’t that 192 arches?

Forget the interior, that must require another 800 arches.

All I can say is the Romans must have had an unlimited supply of LEGO.

LEGOFREAK · Post by **LEGOFREAK** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:34 pm

arches arches arches. hmm
what about bridges, a (smaller) cathedral, monuments, a whole boatload of smaller houses?

and yes, the romans were FAMOUS for their lego.

Buford · Post by **Buford** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:55 pm

I actually started a large scale arch bridge this past weekend. Each arch was 30 brick tall, spanned 60 pins and approximately 12 by 6 pins in section.

I am not too good making large arches by eyeball so I planned the whole with graph paper.

When one gets far up the archway the building gets very difficult. After two days I gave up.

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:08 am

Monumental architechture seems to be your forte. There is a very immpressive Colosseum out there in white. Maybe Kevin or Bruce NH have the link? Little help here guys. They always have links. Post what you did with the bridge and maybe one of the gang can offer some constructive criticism (get it? constructive? Haha, you know, construction, Legos? Ah well I'll work on the timing). We're all in this hobby together.

Buford · Post by **Buford** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:34 am

Thanks,

The arch bridge did not get along far enough to photograph. As the arch rises the offset keeps increasing. I was using mostly 2x4 bricks and when the offset is four or more pins level after level not much holds the whole thing together.

I could place an occasional 2x8 brick or 2xn plate but in the end it was still a weak mess. I still have the plans I drew up. I could post those.

I also tried to form a semicircle with hinged arches to form the choir end of a church. Scale was determined by my most populous arch the PN 2339 1x5x4. But a semicircle of those arches will consume a whole 48x48 pin grey plate.

Actually the Colosseum was to be my first micro scale, I have a mess of 1x3 and 2x3 arches. But yikes even allowing for the current version in ruins one needs 64 arches just for the first layer and I don’t have that many.

Teup · Post by **Teup** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:12 am

I love arches, in this one there are now over 350 arches.

Maybe you can make some cool rib vaults by making 'trees' of arches on the sides of the nave of a church. At least that'll take alot of arches

Also, you can stack some archivolts (arches in arches in arches.. that surround the entrance and tympanium of a church)

Buford · Post by **Buford** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:44 am

Teup,

I love your work, but could not find the arches at the link provided. I spend a lot of time in old churches admiring all the intersecting arches, but converting that into LEGO has so far eluded me.

In theory the PN 2339 1x5x4 half-arch lend themselves to intersecting arches but not as part of a repeating system because they can’t be stacked 2x2 and turned 45 degrees?

Well they can be turned; I could use a 2x2 turntable as a base plate? I may play with the idea.

But the other problem is very different I am not using arch pieces but making HUGE arches out of bricks and maintaining a strict curvature to scale.

This deep link may give you an idea what I was trying to do.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=929160

Archivolts are difficult because all LEGO arches are flat on top. I have seen folks turn plates sideways and on end to make Archivolts but with the pins on one side it is not very pleasing to the eye.

Legomaat · Post by **Legomaat** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:08 am

It is possibe to make arches and barrel vaults by using various inverted slopes. Start with a 75* , then 2 or 3 45* and then 1 or 2 23* ones. (dependent on the span) Not a real curve,of course, but it looks acceptable. . Advantage is that the under site is closed. It will do if the span is not too big (16- 24 studs.)

I did it in my gatehouse, and well, it looks not that bad.
Is is a pity that there are no inverted slopes like 55* ,18* and 82*. That would give you a real nice arch..

Post by **Bruce N H** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:21 pm

Buford,

The Adrian Egli bridges are a great inspiration in huge arches out of all Bricks.

Dang, Blue Knight gave me a challenge and I'm not recalling a specific colloseum. Hmm, . . . searching . . . here's what I find off-hand: Stefan Vorst, Brendan Powell Smith. Aha! You probably meant the one by Erik Wilson.
For the record, Ancient-theme.com is a great resource for MOCs along these lines.

Bruce

lemon_squeezer2 · Post by **lemon_squeezer2** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:46 pm

Arches?

Well, this is a bit simplistic, but one of my first thoughts was an aqueduct. With some nice landscaping, that would be pretty neat. As a matter of fact, that gives me an idea for my next project...

Of course, bridges, arcades, and any other mentioned architectual structures would work as well.

fcarcanague · Post by **fcarcanague** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:33 pm

I have tried making an all arched ceiling for my Dwarven project.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=671377
Putting the arches on a central collum is tricky, there are several different collums in this MOC.

Fred

Buford · Post by **Buford** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:04 am

The Adrian Egli bridges were my inspiration, his genius, and my lack there of, is demonstrated in that he made high narrow arches which work much better than my long span wide arches.

Lesson learned.

Thank you for posting the links of Coliseum models, I enjoyed them all but those by Brendan Powell Smith I particularly enjoy with all the “all-too-human” detail which he does so well and I can’t do at all.

With an arch bridge the inverted slopes, or lack of; did not bother me. With a 30+ brick tall arch the eye fills it in. I assume the use of inverted slopes does nothing for structural integrity.

RE: systems of arches, I can make a system of repeating arches perched on 2x2 columns and even do fancy stuff because not all arches are located at the same elevation. What I can’t do is this.

Put in a matrix of arches, running N-S / E-W. In a church or Cathedral there is also a system of arches that intersect in the centers like big “X”s. I have seen folks attempt that with hand crafted arches but not with off the shelf arches.

The Eric Wilson Coliseum was great, but I think he used about 30 arches a lift, ( not 64) and had no interior before he ran out of bricks of every kind. Still it is a work of art I envy.

I thought of an aqueduct too, The Romans made some neat 2 tier or 3 tier designs to die for. The thought of making the ravine that the aqueduct crosses slowed me down.

Fred I loved your Dwarven project, what you did with the arches and lights, well the whole thing was just great.

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 4:58 am

Bruce N H wrote:Buford,

The Adrian Egli bridges are a great inspiration in huge arches out of all Bricks.

Dang, Blue Knight gave me a challenge and I'm not recalling a specific colloseum. Hmm, . . . searching . . . here's what I find off-hand: Stefan Vorst, Brendan Powell Smith. Aha! You probably meant the one by Erik Wilson.
For the record, Ancient-theme.com is a great resource for MOCs along these lines.

Bruce

Eric Wilson's was just the one! Nice catch. I have tried vaulted ceilings like the kind in most castle basements, but they always end up taking up way to many arches. I didn't know about a "arcivault" was that the word? I have built them, but didn't know the name.

Post by **Bruce N H** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 9:57 am

Hey,

I spent some time playing around with the intersecting arches built out of bricks and plates last night, and came up with these.

It was easiest to make a convex version:

The pattern is made with each layer increasing the number of plates. So the top couple of layers are only one plate high, then a layer of 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 plates as I build outwards (if that makes any sense).

After I got the basic pattern of steps down, I built a concave version, by going directly off of the convex version:

This is much harder to photograph effectively, but I was happy with the overall shape:

These were extremely part-heavy to make, however, so I couldn't make anything of any greater size without tearing apart a lot of things I've got made currently. Unfortunately much smaller than this and the pattern looks too steppy (e.g. look at the underside of the convex version.

Full folder upon moderation:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=100329

Buford · Post by **Buford** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:31 pm

Your work is most attractive and very clever. Thank you for sharing it.

>These were extremely part-heavy to make.

I see that that as the big issue. One or two arches of modest scale is do-able, as size or quantity increase it can become a very expensive proposition.

Last night central IL had a frost, I did plan to wash my car. I may just pay to have the car washed and unpack a few LEGO and watch football today.