WIP: City - Downtown half

[alienwar9]

Hi,

Just yesterday I finished the last section to the upper half of my large city in LDD and I thought now would be a great time to share it in the town forum. I also thought it would be a great opportunity to get feedback and help in deciding which section should be built first and brought to BrickWorld Chicago 2012.

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Please help me figure out what's the best to take! Vote for your favorite combination of sections that totals 50,000 pieces.

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The entire city, crassly photo-shopped together

From the white building in the center, everything to the right is finished in 7 separate sections:

(links to original LDD forum postings with additional pictures and information)

SECTION 1:

(includes 7 buildings, an underground subway station, and plaza with water fountain)

SECTION 2:

(includes 2 buildings, an underground parking garage, 2 river docks, 1 draw bridge -motorized-, and 1 stationary bridge)

SECTION 3:

(includes tallest 6 ft. skyscraper, parking lot, half of "lower Wacker drive", and double deck drawbridge with control tower -motorized-)

SECTION 4:

(includes second tallest skyscraper with exterior elevators and rooftop heli-pad, half of "lower Wacker drive", and double deck drawbridge with control tower -motorized-)

SECTION 5:

(includes third tallest skyscraper with rooftop pool, angled "Lake Shore Drive" highway, city parks with water fountains, and underground pathway with Lake-walk)

SECTION 6 (a,b):

(includes 9 buildings, a parking garage, a rooftop terrace, 2 drawbridges -motorized-, a small park, and a diagonal street)

SECTION 7:

(includes 4 buildings, El-line with station, underground street-car path, "San-Francisco" style roads, El-tracks through building, and multiple building advertisements)

Note that this whole part of the city is raised 15 bricks, so supports were built underneath. It is all built in CC style, meaning everything is detachable and every floor separates (even the streets are snot built attachments). Super easy transportation YAY!

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STATS

Piece count:

Section 1: 38,768

Section 2: 17,635

Section 3: 26,428

Section 4: 21,649

Section 5: 28,079

Section 6a: 29,084

Section 6b: 19,924

Section 7: 27,565

Project start date: 9/23/09

LDD start date: 2/11/2010

Contrast work start date: 3/04/11

Contrast half way point: 4/17/12

Original Post with more information

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What's Left

The lower half of the city, including re-workings of all CC buildings, industrial area, highway, and docks.

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What's Next

Brick World is coming up. I have reserved a table. But now I need to figure out which section(s) to take. I can make a total of 50,000 pieces for the event, give or take a few thousand. So any combination that adds to that will work.

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Again, please help me figure out what's the best to take! Vote for your favorite combination. (Preferably sections that are next to each other, but they don't have to be.)

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And to help you out, here is a map of where the sections are:

Thanks and hope you all enjoy!

[medib]

This a really sweet layout. I can't wait to see what this will look like in real life.

If you want my opinion, I would say section 5 and section 7 are a good starting point.

Its a bit over your maximum brick, but they are the best two sections imo... they

will probably get the best audience reaction, in my opinion.

Edited April 18, 2012 by medib

[L@go]

Let me first say that you must be clinically insane to keep this unbelievable project going. In this case, being clinically insane is definitely a good thing. It's massive! I'd love to see any part of this in real life - but I'd go with medib's suggestion of 5 and 7, or maybe 5 and 6b.

This is going to be one of the world's greatest town layouts when it's done - if not the greatest.

[The Blue Brick]

This project is indeed enormous. I can't even imagine how much time you have spent on this.

I really like section 1, but sections 6 and 7 are very unique. Anyways, anyone of these would be great to see brick built.

[lightningtiger]

Mind blowing AWESOME 'alienwar9' , and which section to build first.....start off easy, I say section 4. That is one cool looking cylinder shaped structure.

Good luck building this city of yours 'alienwar9' and I can't wait to see the photos.

[prateek]

And you want to make this out of real bricks?!?! I'm sure you'll need government funding for such an endeavour!

To be honest, though, you could contact Lego and show them this project. Maybe if you're lucky, they might be willing to supply you with the bricks for low cost, or even no charge. Try making this a public event that would give Lego some publicity. Organize a charity event even? Just trying to give a few suggestions to lighten the load on your wallet. Good luck!

[Ricecracker]

Great project, alienwar9! I can't wait to see some of this at Brickworld. My vote would go towards sections 5 and 6b.

I've also added a poll to more easily see what people are interested in. If you'd like me to change it, feel free to PM me.

[medib]

@ Rice... thanks for setting this up... alien needs his time to work on his LDD projects...

speaking of clinically insane. I had a couple of "largish" projects that I want to brick or in the process of bricking in

real life, but nothing in comparison to the scale and depth of this entire endevor. Even my kind, understanding, loving wife

of mine questions my sanity with what I'm doing....

[Vindicare]

Wow, an immense build. It certainly looks promising. One thing that stuck out to me. On section 5, the road split with all the light posts...I think you could take every other one out and it would look better. It's a bit of an overload and unrealistic to have so many, in my opinion. I want to see how you build the slanted streets.

[alienwar9]

@ Ricecracker: thank you for setting up the poll!!! I had this imagined in my head as a poll and you have made my dreams come true

@Legocrazy81: thanks for pointing that out! I cannot believe that I kept all those there . A leftover from a previous design I guess.

@prateek: I'm actually praying that I can get some help from TLG or something. The whole project idea is to auction this off for charity in the end. I had a post long ago discussing how I could approach this, but back then I seemed more like a mad-man rambling on a crazy idea, and it was my first MOC so I really looked insane. The idea is to get at least a section done on my own and show it as proof-of-concept or something and see where it goes from there. But I am fully willing and ready to fund this entirely on my own (I just have to work harder this year )

Thanks for all the kind words! So far it looks like section 5 and 6b are the favorites.

Any and all feedback are super duper welcome! (the highway is now comfortably lit)

[Farnheim]

Wow, that's enormous! What an eyecatching layout. That would be a lifetime-project, I guess! Not because of the time, but of the money...

That would be fantastic to see one of these segments made of real bricks one day.

Well, my favorites are 6 a,b and 7.

[mrlegoman]

OMG! This is superb! I love the diagonal street. Good luck and look forward to see the buildings in real life.

[Stefano]

nice layout, good luck building it cant wait to see it

Wow, an immense build. It certainly looks promising. One thing that stuck out to me. On section 5, the road split with all the light posts...I think you could take every other one out and it would look better. It's a bit of an overload and unrealistic to have so many, in my opinion. I want to see how you build the slanted streets.

Road split by an enormous ammount of streetlights, where have i seen that before, oh i got it Belgian Highway xD

http://static.freepik.com/vrije-photo/belgie-snelweg_2779131.jpg

http://www.rnw.nl/data/files/images/lead/snelweg%20luik.jpg (click link and you will see)

Edited April 20, 2012 by Stefano

[Andy D]

Actually this will not be that over the top expensive (well, yes it is), because it will take at least 10 years to build and if this is a 20K$ project, about 2K$ per year is about what many of us spend anyway.

A couple of questions...

Where are you going to put such a massive structure?

Are you married?

If not, you better make sure your future spouse is willing to marry this structure as well as you, and your kids will love it!

If you are married... how does your spouse feel about this construction?

Overall I think this is a wonderful design and I would like to see it completed.

I hope you are able to make it happen and I wish you all the luck you need to do it.

Great looking project, thanks for sharing this with us,

Andy D

[Abu Dun]

I'm following that project for quite some time now and it's really incredible how you're pulling through. It's so massive that it, once finished, rivals even some of the smaller layouts in the themeparks of LEGO

For the convention I'd choose section 5 and/or 7 because those two seem to highlight the city the most. Especially that elevated railroad as well as the white skyscraper are sure to attract lots of attention and could help you in gathering the support you look for.

Regardless of which sections you choose, though, I'm certain that it will look amazing in real bricks

[Vindicare]

With all those lights, your citizens wouldn't ever know when it's nighttime.

[alienwar9]

@Andy D: This is going in my basement (only place with enough room). Funny thing, the tallest buildings will have to go in between the ceiling support beams . I am planning on finishing it this year and also auctioning it off for charity, so I don't think I have to worry too much about spousal objections .

@Legocrazy81: I'm hoping they won't. That's why I plan to actually put LED lights in all the ...lights.

Looks like 5 and 6b have been overtaken by 1 and 7. Note though, that unless I take out the subway in section 1 (which I might have to anyway), that would be the only section I could make since it is almost 50k pieces by itself. The only possibility would be section 1 and 2, and it looks like section 2 is not a favorite.

I highly suggest taking a look at the original posts for each section to see more pictures (all links are above the section pictures), or just check out the brickshelf folder. I admit that 1 picture is not enough to get an idea of the section.

Thank you again for all the kind words ! I have to finish the lower half of the city (what's left) in LDD before I can start ordering parts, but I will keep you updated until that point.

P.S. Any good shops on bricklink for large quantities?

[alienwar9]

I wanted to do a quick update for everyone on where the project is at. I've just gotten through ordering 52,000 pieces on bricklink, going to multiple Lego stores and butchering the pick-a-brick, and even getting some full stock boxes for the pick-a-brick wall.

And if you haven't heard bricklink went down for a day and got hacked. But, for me, it felt like a week, because my pieces were stuck in stasis in the Wanted-List, un-editable (Wanted-list is still not fixed). So I had to go down hard on bricklink manually, and with 3 computer screens, over 20 windows, and over 60 hours of purchasing (47 of those in 3 days), I managed to get roughly 45,000 pieces from over 50 stores. By the way, this was my first time using bricklink...and my first day was the day it got hacked. Just my luck huh?

Some of the stuff has already arrived. Some stuff is coming, and some stuff hasn't even been paid for and might not make it in time. I'm hoping all the important pieces come in time, but I have to say, I wish I had another week.

Preparation holds no grounds to bad luck.

On the bright side, the sections are picked, color corrected, realistically rebuilt for real pieces, and modified for cheaper pieces. I've even built some support pillars and a wall.

Anyone want to help build???

Hopefully you will all get to see the finished results at Brickworld, and for those not attending, pictures will be up afterward.

Oh, and you'll get to see how I cheated

[Ferrik]

That's incredible! All that detail is just amazing. My favourite was Section 1 as all the buildings there were very interesting and it'd be great to see the subway. Well done!

[Ricecracker]

Anyone want to help build???

Come find me at Brickworld. I've got a lot of on-site building to do myself, but I can probably make some time to help you out.

[chuckie8646]

:wub: WOW! this is sooooo beautiful!. I really can't wait to see pictures of it totally built!. I really don't know what to say about it I'm just aw struck!

I have two questions though what program is this designed in? and I keep seeing the acronym SNOT what does this stand for?

Again very nice work I really like it.

Charlie

[Luap31]

Incredible! Can't wait to see this at Brickworld.