Splitting up my Lego Compatible Assembly Square Modular building

 

Hey brick fans!

In my quest to transition all of my modular buildings onto raised baseplates (MILS), the Assembly Square was the next set to get the treatment.  I only have another five or six modular buildings left to convert. Anytime you switch to a raised baseplate, you have to move the first floor of the modular building, brick by brick from the old baseplate to a new one.

Since I had to somewhat disassemble it anyways, I was curious as to how challenging it would be to split off the Coffee shop onto it's own 16x32 stud baseplate. 

So here  is what it looked like after putting the separated Coffee shop building onto the raised baseplate.   

Other than some minor sidewalk changes in front of and on the side of the Bakery, this wasn't so difficult to do.  The interior spaces of the bakery, the music shop and the dance studio remain unchanged.  More pics below.

I started to think that I could also sever the Flower Shop from the Bakery building.  And I knew I'd have to create an entirely new wall section where the Flower shop and Bakery joined.  I checked my spare brick pieces and it looked do-able.

So the Flower shop got rebuilt it onto it's own 16x32 raised baseplate, moving the shop to the center of the baseplate as originally it was offset by two studs.  Most of the changes involved building the new wall and redesigning the rear part of the Flower shop and the second floor.

The above two pics were preliminary shots with updated pics later below in this post.

With the completed severance of the Flower Shop,  the Bakery/Dentist building was left with  a huge gaping hole and probably the most challenging part of the modifications was figuring out how to fill it in.  No minifigures were actually harmed in the making of this picture!

I transferred the Bakery brick by brick to it's own 16x32 baseplate knowing that I needed to rebuild each of the floors with new portions of walls, windows and floors to be added where there were none before.   We will see the final result later on in this post.

The Coffee Shop

As mentioned earlier, the only changes made to the front and side elevation of the Coffee shop was the sidewalk.

The arches and covered trellis joining the coffee shop and flower shop were removed, and any holes in the walls were filled in by bricks.

I've seen others who have split off the Coffee shop from the Assembly Square and it's a relatively painless process for the most builders.  No interior changes necessary for any of the floors.  Level of difficulty: Easy.

The Flower Shop

While managing to retain the fountain, the intricate tiled design needed to be sacrificed due to lack of space at the front of the Flower Shop.  This is due to the fact that the building needed to be moved forward to accommodate a rear staircase for the second storey.

If you are attempting to make the Flower Shop a standalone modular building, you will need to brick in the right side of all three floors.  Some of the bricks in my spare brick stash aren't quite the same shade unfortunately.

The original Flower shop had a side entrance, but I have relocated that doorway to the rear of the building. So the left wall needs to be enhanced as well.

The service entrance for the Flower shop is relocated to the rear.  An additional doorway was added to the second floor to what used to be the Photography Studio.  I've since repurposed that space to be the Flower Shop owners apartment, but will need to furnish it at a later date.  The Photography studio will be moving into my Camera store modular building. Also, the rear staircase is still a work in progress.  

Lastly, the third floor terrace receives a covered roof.  That covers off all the changes to the Flower Shop. Level of difficulty: Medium.

The Bakery

Last but not least, here's the final result of the Bakery modifications.  Also set on a raised 16x32 stud baseplate. 

New sets of windows were added to the second and third floors.  The roof detailing was extended.

The doorway that was actually at the rear of the building has now been moved to the side and the awning details above the window were replicated over the doorway as well.

I didn't replace the special tiling on the sidewalk at the front of the Bakery, so it's kind of bland looking.

Here's a closer look at the rear of the Bakery and Dentist office.  Side entrance of the bakery is also the entrance to the Dentist Office.  A window was added to the back just to break up the gray wall under the staircase. It's not the most pleasing to look at though. I might make some more changes in future. The second and third floor interiors stay the same.   Level of Difficulty:  Hard!

After my modifications, the Assembly Square can no longer be placed and displayed in it's original configuration,  mostly due to the realignment of the Flower Shop.  

This is what the sections of the Assembly Square buildings look like next to the Town Hall.

What do you think? Was the final result worth the effort?  Let me know in the comments below!

In my next blog post, I'll be integrating the Briksmax lighting kit into my revamped Assembly Square, but will it work?!

Anyways, thanks for looking, Bye for now!

Welcome to my custom FunWhole Newsstand Modular Building

Hi brick fans!

I made another Lego compatible modular building and I call it the Newsstand Modular. On the ground floor, I used the FunWhole Newsstand set F9023 and the top two floors are modelled after the design of the FunWhole Record store F9058.

You can get both of the FunWhole sets here:  https://www.funwhole.com/?ref=tN9EBQmQ

 

Here's the Newsstand modular building next to my other custom FunWhole set, the Chili Dog Stand.

I retained as much of the  original FunWhole Newsstand as I could but I had to sacrifice the ornate parisian style roof design in order to convert it into a multi-level building.  You can find my review of the original Newsstand set here:  https://bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com/2023/11/i-got-to-preview-new-lego-compatible.html

I sourced the coffee brown bricks from Aliexpress to make the upper floors.

For visual interest, I added some masonry bricks, also from Aliexpress, around the windows.

Each of the floors and the roof can be removed if desired.  I used random third party lighting elements to light up the interiors of each floor, however the top two floors have yet to be furnished (future project).

I've misplaced the original FunWhole minifigure, I probably used him in another set, so I just grabbed this older Stan Lee lookalike to takeover the Newsstand.

Being a FunWhole inspired set, I should at least include one Funwhole minifigure in my pictures.

A stack of newspapers sits on the curb.  Can you find the easter egg?

I'm just using plain old lighting wires for each of the floors. I wish I had some of those nice wireless contact pads that FunWhole uses in all their newer sets.

At the rear of the building, it's quite plain, with only a door and window, but there is a surprise.

Yup, I took a page out of the FunWhole Record Store design and turned the interior into a sliding compartment.  

So you can view the interior from above and if you want a closer look, you can pull it right out.  In this custom interior of the newsstand, I've added a computer workstation with mouse keyboard and seat.  On the wall I have some other newsworthy items.  There's also a table with a chili dog! and tunes from a sound system.

There are sliders on the floor to allow easy insertion of the interior tray.

A few more random shots.

Simply insert the tray back into the building.

I added an extra drink stand on the side, it will get lit up by the interior lights and will be visible through the side window.

More easter eggs!  There's enough room to squeeze a bed and night table behind the newsstand.

I mounted a crossbeam over the interior to attach a ceiling mounted light fixture.

Finally, here's the custom Newsstand modular building placed next to the FunWhole Record store.

Thanks for looking, bye!

How to make a Raised Baseplate (MILS) for the FunWhole Record Store

Hi brick fans,

After I posted my review of the new FunWhole Record store, I've had a number of requests across my different social media platforms, inquiring on how to construct the record store on a raised baseplate (some refer to this as a MILS baseplate).  

I'm assuming you are here because you already know what MILS baseplates are and how to make them.  If not here's a link that describes the MILS system: https://www.abellon.net/MILS/.

The foundation baseplate I'm using is not technically MILS, which is why I refer to mine as simply a raised baseplate.  Too see how I make my specific type of baseplate, see my blog post here: https://bricksandfigs.blogspot.com/2024/08/how-i-make-raised-baseplates-for-my.html

Caveats

Before we begin, the techniques used here are of easy to medium difficulty, but you need to have the right parts in your extra brick stash to effect the necessary changes.  You cannot make the desired changes with only the parts that come with the FunWhole set.

Next, make sure that you carefully review the instruction manual book 1 , pages 10 through 29 to understand how your raised baseplate changes affect the main structure.   Review pages 29 thru 38 to understand how the raised baseplate changes impact the swing away portion of the record store.  The remainder  of the FunWhole instructions should be followed as normal after page 37.

Lastly, I want to point out that my customisations to the Record Shop are not endorsed nor authorised by FunWhole, so please don't reach out to them if you run into difficulties regarding the raised baseplate and resulting impacts to the structures.  Just hit me up on my social media, and I'll try my best to help you.   

Alright, let's get started!

Step 1

You will need to provide a combination of studded and smooth plates to place the FunWhole Record store onto.

I will be placing the Record store on a standard 32x32 baseplate. In this first picture, I'm laying out the studded plates and smooth plates into the required configuration.  Know that the smooth plate area encompasses 10 studs wide by 23 studs long.  You can choose whatever sizes of studded plates and smooth plates you have and the colour of the plates doesn't matter either.   Just make sure that whatever you use, the plates are fully supported underneath by the center layer of bricks.

In picture #2, this is how the baseplate area should look like. Again you can use whatever size plates you have but make sure you have covered the smooth and studded areas precisely as I have done in the picture.

Before we move on to picture #3, I need to explain what we are doing.  We are raising the record shop higher by the height of 1 plate.  This is because the swing away part of the building needs to placed on it's own baseplate, so it will be one plate higher.  We are adjusting  the static part of the building just to make sure both parts of the building (swinging and non-swinging) are level.

In picture #3, I'm laying out the perimeter of where the main part of the record store will sit.  I'm planning on having more sidewalk area in front of the shop, hence, the store will only sit 2 studs from the back edge of the baseplate.  The length of the individual pieces you use doesn't matter as long as you match the layout shown in the picture.  Use whatever colour pieces you have on hand.   There should be 5 studs width of sidewalk on the righthand side of the record store, which is as per the original instructions.

The front of the Record store has two protrusions, one is for the window display and the other is for the supporting pillar.  Picture #4 shows the extra pieces you need to accommodate for the protrusions.  I'm deliberately using contrasting colours of plates to make it easier for you to get an idea of the layout.  

Now that we have laid the perimeter of the main building, picture #5 shows you the size of the plates needed to support the swing-away part of the building.  This portion should measure 8 studs wide by 23 studs long.  It's best if you have larger plates to use to provide better structural integrity and stability.  If you can find pieces of the same colour, it would be best as this part will be exposed when it is swung away from the main building.

In picture #6, I'm demonstrating how the swing portion will come away from the main structure, once you follow the normal steps to build the Record shop.

In picture #7, I've placed some smooth tiles down just to demarcate where the front sidewalk will be placed.  Recall I have offset the building backwards by two studs, so you will need additional smooth tiles to fill in the empty sidewalk space that results from the shift.

Other key items to note as a result of the changes:

1. the height of the front steps may need to be adjusted if desired (page 26).

2. I relocated the DJ turntables from the back of the building to the front, you may want to do same.

At this point you should be able to resume building the FunWhole Record store as per the instructions.  I hope you have found this small tutorial useful in constructing the Record store onto a raised baseplate.

Enjoy and have fun!   Bye for now!