February 1, 20169 yr Author Okay, by request, here is the original World Trade Center. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 1, 20169 yr Author I also decided to redo Two International Finance Centre. It was a bit too thick and the top portion was lacking in accurately representing the actual structure so at first I added curved slopes to the top portion of original model but then decided to take another stab at the whole thing and I'm much happier with it. The result has more accurate colors and shape, as well as less pages in the instructions but with a few dozen more pieces. I'm okay with that as it actually uses a lot less different kinds of pieces and that's generally ideal for any LEGO build. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 2, 20169 yr Author Thanks No problem! I love the requests, keep them coming Also, two more finished. I'm focusing on a bunch of mid-sized structures right now since a) I already did most of the super and mega tall skyscrapers and b) because they force me to be more creative with my builds and that will translate better when I go back to doing larger models. The Center in Hong Kong isn't anything too special but I like the way it turned out. The NYT Tower was fun since from the second I looked at detailed photos I knew exactly how I was going to build it. That's a rarity! Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 2, 20169 yr I'm from Melbourne, Australia. So if be curious to see the scale our tallest building would end up being if you made it (Eureka Tower), although I realise it's just shy of 300m and therefore not all that tall. It does have a potentially challenging shape though :)
February 2, 20169 yr Author I'm from Melbourne, Australia. So if be curious to see the scale our tallest building would end up being if you made it (Eureka Tower), although I realise it's just shy of 300m and therefore not all that tall. It does have a potentially challenging shape though :) City of Capitals is barely over 300 meters so while it would officially be the smallest one I've done, it's not out of the range. I'll take a look and see what I can do :-) On another but similar note, I was thinking about the fact that I've done 35 custom skyscrapers thus far and being from the States and seeing as we have 50 of them, I was contemplating what the tallest building in each state is and began to wonder how many I've already done. But the US doesn't have a lot of super tall skyscrapers so it's only a few. I've done a good number from New York, a few from Illinois, one from California and of course being from Philadelphia, I did Comcast Center so PA is covered - but aside from those four states, there aren't many others with cities that have notably tall structures. Seattle has the Space Needle...and I can't think of any others off the top of my head haha. Anywho, that just crossed my mind - a cool series would be every state's tallest building all lined up (or perhaps in five rows of ten with tallest in the back and shortest up front). But one thing at a time. By the time I've called it a day on this one, I'll probably have around 10 states represented and the rest will only be smaller and simpler builds, generally speaking. Edited February 2, 20169 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 2, 20169 yr Author Love the use of the skates on the Central Plaza, great parts usage! Thanks! I always browse through the mini fig accessories and other misc pieces before I start a model to see what I can possibly use. It doesn't always pan out but when it does, it's great!
February 3, 20169 yr Author New model finished, another US state down for the 50 in the 'side' collection - the Columbia Center in Seattle, WA! Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 3, 20169 yr Author While 'in Seattle' I decided to take a stab at the Space Needle in this scale. Boy, is this thing tiny in comparison to even the next shortest of the models I've built thus far! I never realized just how grossly mis-proportioned the official model is to the others that came out around the same time. With a sever lack of options for the three extra supports around the outside, I decided to use a combination of cones and Technic pieces to get the look while keeping the height to scale and still accurately representing the rest. I think it turned out nice - it's the smallest model yet by far and only 35 pieces! I like to think of these sets in terms of what they would cost as official sets and with most of them in the 100-200 piece range they are on part with the $20 skyscrapers that released in the very beginning of the series, but this one would likely be a $10 set. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 3, 20169 yr Author Another model finished, CITIC Plaza. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 3, 20169 yr Great job! I Just had another idea: the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy space centre, you might have some fun squeezing in an interior and a micro rocket ;) Edited February 3, 20169 yr by Bugbot2008
February 3, 20169 yr Great job! I Just had another idea: the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy space centre, you might have some fun squeezing in an interior and a micro rocket ;) I was going to say that even though the VAB is huge, it would be dwarfed by supertalls, but then I decided to build it myself. Turns out it really is HUGE! 259 parts, a few more would probably be necessary to make it stronger. Pretty sure I have it at the right scale!
February 4, 20169 yr Author Oh damn, that is huge! I mean, skyscrapers are super tall but per volume I think the VAB beats them all haha. How many feet high is it officially? Also, great job! So I had done this one awhile back and forgot about it since I couldn't get the right look at the scale but then took another stab and really like how it turned out! Of course it's not that tall in comparison, but again, being from Philadelphia, I wanted to take a stab at this one for the series. I'm just holding my breath until the new Comcast Building is done construction so I can do a Philly skyscraper that earns being on this list! Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 4, 20169 yr The tallest building in VA is the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, but it's tiny. Only 155 m. Second place goes to the James Monroe Building in Richmond, which is 137 m. https://en.wikipedia...ach_Town_Center https://en.wikipedia...Monroe_Building Edit: Here's a great list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_by_U.S._state Edited February 4, 20169 yr by Gremer
February 4, 20169 yr Author The tallest building in VA is the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, but it's tiny. Only 155 m. Second place goes to the James Monroe Building in Richmond, which is 137 m. https://en.wikipedia...ach_Town_Center https://en.wikipedia...Monroe_Building Edit: Here's a great list: https://en.wikipedia...s_by_U.S._state Awesome! Thanks for that reference, it's perfect. I was just arbitrarily searching by state on the SkyscraperPage.com database. Looks like Vermont got the shaft with a whopping 38m tall office building, haha. I'll probably work on this list from tallest to shortest. Already got half of the top ten done, it seems. Didn't realize Atlanta has the 3rd tallest building! PA comes in at #6, not bad - until the Comcast ITC is done, then we'll be #3.
February 4, 20169 yr I was going to say that even though the VAB is huge, it would be dwarfed by supertalls, but then I decided to build it myself. Turns out it really is HUGE! 259 parts, a few more would probably be necessary to make it stronger. Pretty sure I have it at the right scale! Looks great! I like how you have one door open with a rocket coming out. How about using the minifigure roller skates for the crawler transporter? (Like they did for the little vehicles on the helicarrier)
February 4, 20169 yr Author New model finished from the mini series "US 50" (or so I've just now, off the top of my head, decided to call it). - the tallest in each of the 50 US states. Already had built them for a few other states, now I'm working on the rest of the list starting with the Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta, GA. This build started simple but near the top there is some more detail in the layers of the main building and instead of using a generic pyramid brick I opted to use a combination of grill plates and 1x1 cone. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 4, 20169 yr I haven't been on EB for a while, but was thrilled today to come and find this thread, every single building, dang, including the VAB (was just there last summer for a launch)...what kills me is here this thread exists and throws out what 30 at least buildings that could be easily made into real production sets. Don't get me wrong, I like the sets released so far and am looking forward to the 2 new ones, but how hard would it be to get these sets out as well. Count me in for very interested in instructions, etc... So my request, not a skyscraper or large building per se, but how would you do a St Louis Arch? And...do you feel you could feasibly do mini sports stadiums?
February 4, 20169 yr Author I haven't been on EB for a while, but was thrilled today to come and find this thread, every single building, dang, including the VAB (was just there last summer for a launch)...what kills me is here this thread exists and throws out what 30 at least buildings that could be easily made into real production sets. Don't get me wrong, I like the sets released so far and am looking forward to the 2 new ones, but how hard would it be to get these sets out as well. Count me in for very interested in instructions, etc... So my request, not a skyscraper or large building per se, but how would you do a St Louis Arch? And...do you feel you could feasibly do mini sports stadiums? 40 buildings as of the last one haha. Well, that's sort of the idea behind this project - LEGO can't feasibly make every building in the world so they focus on sets that will sell best which means for someone like me from Philly, I will never see a Liberty Place or Comcast Center set. They just aren't notable like the ESB, WTC, Willis, Hancock, Burj, etc. So the goal here isn't to complete a definitive series but to churn out (without sacrificing quality, of course) as many of the buildings out there as possible to eventually give people the chance to build them for their self. And I definitely am into the idea of doing non skyscraper buildings. I've actually already done 3 stadiums/centers - I build a huge Arch style model of Philly last year and also made 4 satellite models that weren't within the main area I chose to build - the first was the Phila Art Museum and the other three were Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park and the Wells Fargo Center. It's not the best image of the build itself but someone wanted instructions for the LFF so I put them together and this is the cover art I made for that. Here's the actual model (bottom Left) along with the others in a clean white look. Fun fact, there are exactly 10 tiles making up the football field - totally unintentional but made for a great look of lines across to represent the yard markers. And just for the hell of it, since my previous "Legodelphia" project begat this project, here's that model: Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 4, 20169 yr Author I realized after the fact that Central Plaza is actually a three sided building, not four sided. I somehow overlooked this but just redid it to be three sided. At this scale it was tough but I managed to do it! Unfortunately, no mini fig skates could be implemented on this version so the top portion is more representative than accurate. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 4, 20169 yr wow, love the stadiums and Legodelphia, although the all white doesn't do them justice by any means, I would recommend using green for the fields and colors in Legodelphia but that would be a ton of work to go back and update...however huge praise to you for this, amazing stuff
February 5, 20169 yr Author wow, love the stadiums and Legodelphia, although the all white doesn't do them justice by any means, I would recommend using green for the fields and colors in Legodelphia but that would be a ton of work to go back and update...however huge praise to you for this, amazing stuff I definitely debated using color, quite heavily. My thought was to make it look like an architectural model so in theory, the trees, grass and water could have been green and blue, respectively. However, the goal of the project for me was to represent the form of the city layout and it's buildings, so by sacrificing color overall, I was freed up to utilize seams between pieces for some features and a single piece to represent multiple colored features. Additionally, looking at the overall distribution of greenery and water sources across the full map, it would have been quite awkward imo to have shown those areas in color. Philly isn't known for it's greenery, and pretty much the only source of water are the rivers on the east and west side. I think any given building on its own looks great in color hence all of these skyscrapers are in color but as far as a full cityscape, a more uniform color choice I think works nicely to create a clean, professional model appearance. I actually built the digital model in full color and it just looks muddy to me since the actual city colors are duller versions of available LEGO colors and wouldn't do the actual colors the same justice. Plus, like you said, a lot of work to acquire different colors of pieces vs all white and clear. Just to give you an idea of what Legodelphia would look like in all color, here's the digital model. For example, the convention center (top middle of the model) is all white on top which washes out that entire 3 block section while the colors of each roof are almost impressionistic in appearance, which I think only defeats the display of form. It's much easier to read the shadows and highlights in the uniform version. However, looking at each stand alone satellite model, the color works nicely since it's generally limited to 4 or 5 different colors throughout. Edited February 5, 20169 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 5, 20169 yr Author Another one done from the 50 US states, this is the JPMorgan Chase Tower in Houston, TX. Pretty basic build, nothing special. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
February 5, 20169 yr Author I finally got around to taking a stab at the VAB as suggested (even though Matt The Tuba Guy churned it out before I even saw the request, haha). It is of course in scale with the other skyscrapers and is now officially the shortest structure I've completed just behind the Seattle Space Needle. I would have left one of the doors open but I didn't want to copy Matt TOO much. And it appears as though his was precisely to scale with the full series as well, I'm impressed with how close he nailed it! I added his next to mine for comparison. Edited April 23, 20168 yr by Doctor Octoroc
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