Trains & Town skin

[BillytheKid]

Only the metroliner you can see in a little corner. It would be more niccer, if you add set 7740 and a blue 12v train also. Add maybe the sante fe train or de new 10174.

It looks great this way, only I miss trains here .

[keetong]

I've dismantled them since this banner was made. The pieces were needed to make my table-town modular...

I got to admit sometimes breaking down MOCs is sad, but when you've got a good idea, you got to go with you heart.

[Matn]

That's a great new theme for the LEGO Trains & Town forum. It's very refreshing, I like it!

[Rick]

Classic cuteness with an equal amount of female and male minifigs*

* if - in true classic town style - all minifigs with hats are considered male of course and all minifigs with long hair, pigtails, ponytails, and/or necklaces are considered female

[Zorbas]

Great job Hinckley! As others have already said, this skin is much better for the eye. The blue and green works perfectly. As for the banner, it's like a scene from an 80's catalogue! And that's a compliment of course! Excellent!

I think you've created one more reason for the members to visit the Trains & Town theme more.

[alex54]

So here the new skin!

I will start making my black sheep... Sorry Hinckley, but the first thing I saw in this banner was the hand of the first man: it's upside down! Once again, sorry, but this is the kind of details I very dislike! When I build a new set, the firts thing I do, is building the minifig and put their hands in the right way... Maybe I've got some psycological trouble with hands (I need to remember my chilhood for that...).

Exept that the new banner is more colorful and has this classic feeling everywhere even if you use some more "modern" pieces like the lion head or the arched window.

It seems that you've made an eco-banner. Your figs don't use some individual pollutant transports : there is no cars, just bike and public transport. And all this green (grass and lovely trees ). Good point!

And last but not least, a small details which has a lot of importance in a global view : the fonts, yes, I like a lot the fonts of the buttons like reply and other.

Great work Mr. Hincky!

[Bonaparte]

It seems that you've made an eco-banner. Your figs don't use some individual pollutant transports : there is no cars, just bike and public transport.

I didn't notice that before. Indeed, no cars and I love that. I'm not a car hater, but I don't like them much because they are noisy machines (I hate noise) and one nearly ran over me and my bike a week ago. I like this nice and quiet banner without any damn cars.

About the hand, the poor guy clearly has a handicap having his hand upside down. Still he's featured in our banner as we accept people as they are on Eurobricks. I hope that's a good enough story to justify the upside-down hand

[Natman8000]

I didn't notice that before. Indeed, no cars and I love that. I'm not a car hater, but I don't like them much because they are noisy machines (I hate noise) and one nearly ran over me and my bike a week ago. I like this nice and quiet banner without any damn cars.

Well, the taller people are, the faster they can cycle/run

About the hand, the poor guy clearly has a handicap having his hand upside down. Still he's featured in our banner as we accept people as they are on Eurobricks. I hope that's a good enough story to justify the upside-down hand

[Klaus-Dieter]

The new skin looks absolutely amazing, Hinckley!

I really it!

Imo it's much, much better than the old skin. It looks so lovely because of the classic minifigs and the brilliant MOCs you included in it!

Mainly this old yellow villa with the blue roof looks excellent!

Very, very well done! :thumbup:

Klaus-Dieter

[alex54]

About the hand, the poor guy clearly has a handicap having his hand upside down. Still he's featured in our banner as we accept people as they are on Eurobricks. I hope that's a good enough story to justify the upside-down hand

Don't worry about that, I'm a tolerant guy!

[Hobbes]

I have to step into Alex' footsteps and continue his black-sheep-ish comment (which wasn't all that black-sheep-ish):

I don't like the banner. At all.

You used a background similar to what LEGO used in their 1980s catalogs. That is nice, it gives the banner a "Town" feeling. But what you put in front of it doesn't fit at all.

The figs are from both the 1980s and 1990s which is ok because they mix well.

The train is from the 1990s, though, and was never pictured in setups with that background. The 1990s LEGO world was near the ocean, with rocky bays, beaches and race tracks. The town background needs 12V trains as Panda suggested.

The buildings look like smaller Creator buildings. They fit neither the 1980s nor the 1990s. The tan just sticks out as a relatively new color too much. It gives me the feeling that there is something "wrong" with the whole picture.

Brickminer used the steel blue background of the skin because he had a city in mind when he made it (we know his affection for cities rather than towns). You kept that blue, which is nice (the color and that you kept it), and the color mix of the skin looks good. But together with the banner everything looks like thrown together in five minutes, which it wasn't, I assume.

The portal site isn't consistent with the forum, either. Phes' banner is more "generic" and thus it doesn't matter that his portal site and the forum aren't the same width. Your banner, though, is brutally cut off on classic-town.net. You notice at once when you go there or come from there. That's irritating. You should have just used Brickminer's skin for the portal page and not created a completely new one.

I know I'm hardly here anymore and don't really care, but that is too much of a change to not comment.

[Hinckley]

I have to step into Alex' footsteps and continue his black-sheep-ish comment (which wasn't all that black-sheep-ish):

I don't like the banner. At all...

...r with the banner everything looks like thrown together in five minutes, which it wasn't, I assume.

The portal site isn't consistent with the forum, either. Phes' banner is more "generic" and thus it doesn't matter that his portal site and the forum aren't the same width. Your banner, though, is brutally cut off on classic-town.net. You notice at once when you go there or come from there. That's irritating. You should have just used Brickminer's skin for the portal page and not created a completely new one.

I know I'm hardly here anymore and don't really care, but that is too much of a change to not comment.

Hey Hobbes. Good to hear from you. I know I can always count on you for honest feedback, so thanks. I do have to point out that you seem to be holding the skin up to superficial standards. I'm not BrickMiner and I'm not trying to stick to one decade or the other. I'm sure I'll be changing this banner in time and do hope to work a bit with the colors and perspective. I hope you enjoy the next one.

[Stash2Sixx]

Nice banner Hinckley. Looks like you put some time and thought into it. There are many different aspects, which is what a TOWN or CITY is all about!

[Captain Green Hair]

I like the new banner, it is busy, as any good town is. It gives me that 80's catalog feel, that i used to drool over as a child.

I see you made some kind of painting with perspective, i'd like to give some feedback on that:

The figures in front might be a little big and i don't like the fact that their head is cut off, they are a bit too 'visible'.

And the classic town.net tekst would have looked nicer in the right upper corner, so that the Metroliner is in full view. (That could have been a little bigger and running it's nose through the trees as well IMO)

As some might have said, the different years don't mix...??

That does not sound like a creative Lego mind IMO, Lego is all compatible and therefore can be mixed. It's actually Lego's best feature IMO. The forum is also about all town related years and sets, so this mixes this very well.

Keep up the great work you're doing Mark!

[Hinckley]

I like the new banner, it is busy, as any good town is. It gives me that 80's catalog feel, that i used to drool over as a child.

I see you made some kind of painting with perspective, i'd like to give some feedback on that:

The figures in front might be a little big and i don't like the fact that their head is cut off, they are a bit too 'visible'.

And the classic town.net tekst would have looked nicer in the right upper corner, so that the Metroliner is in full view. (That could have been a little bigger and running it's nose through the trees as well IMO)

Thanks, I definitely struggle with that when making skins. It's a very hilly road there. This is my first skin with this type of perspective. JP suggested blurring those hills which isn't a bad idea at all. The street corner still doesn't make complete sense to me and I definitely need some practice there. I'm also a painter, like you, but my work is all abstract and I usually don't deal with perspective.

The problem with the upper-right corner is that it's different for everyone. The bigger a user's resolution is the more of the metroliner they see. Some people only see the windshield and don't get the whole "visit classic-town.net." I looked at the 80's catalog's to get a feel for perspective, but they are all very different from such a rectangular space so that wasn't much help. I do believe raising the yellow house would help this a lot. But, I don't really like using those 3 MOCs in there in the first place. I'm happy with this banner, but I do look forward to building a new one in a few months and your comments are very helpful. The red in there is driving me crazy! I have found the correct way to configure my camera settings for my shadow box setup so hopefully we won't have that red problem in the future. Thank you very much for the constructive feedback!

As some might have said, the different years don't mix...??

That does not sound like a creative Lego mind IMO, Lego is all compatible and therefore can be mixed. It's actually Lego's best feature IMO. The forum is also about all town related years and sets, so this mixes this very well.

Keep up the great work you're doing Mark!

I agree 100%. I suppose the start of the classic-town blog caused me to stick with smiley heads and more of a classic feel and that's why people expect it to be one decade or the other. I like BrickMiner's original idea of making the skins look like the old catalogs and plan to stick to that, but perhaps I should really make it clear by adding some coast guard and Agents to the banner. That'll give me more action in it as well. I don't think it needs to match the blog exactly anyway. The Classic-Town blog isn't the exact same as the Town forum and we hope to add some more Classic Town resources to the blog to make that a little more clear.

Thanks Rick!