How I Make the Raised Baseplates for my Modular Buildings

 

Hey brick fans!  

Some of you have asked me about the raised baseplates I'm using for my modular buildings, so this blog post will be a small tutorial and  closer look at how they are constructed.  Hopefully it will inspire you and give you some ideas for your own modular buildings.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm slowly migrating my modular building collection from classic baseplates to raised baseplates.  Classic baseplates have a tendency to warp over time and tend to flex when lifted. Raised baseplates give my buildings a cleaner and consistent appearance in addition to providing more structural integrity underneath.  

Just to be clear, my raised baseplates are not MILS plates, since mine have no connection points that allow the modular buildings to be connected to other plates such as roadways or other buildings.  Here's an example of what MILS plates look like: https://www.brickaddict.net/road-plates.  I don't need to have all my buildings attached to each other, because I like to rearrange them all the time for picture taking.

Today, we will look at how I make a raised baseplate for a 16x32 stud modular building, but the technique is the same if you have 32 stud wide modular buildings.  

Essentially we are making a sandwich structure with some blocks placed in between two sets of plates.  On the front of structure we place some SNOT bricks / technic stud bricks to which we will attach a fascia plate.

More on SNOT bricks here: https://bricknerd.com/home/snot-basics-geometry-techniques-and-pitfalls-3-18-2021

Here are all the parts you will need.   First we start off with a classic baseplate (that's the thinner single sided ones.

We then place some bricks on the classic baseplate.  It doesn't really matter the type of bricks that you use as long as you can attach them to the classic baseplate and then attach the regular plates on top.  For our example today, I'm using two pieces of 16x16 plates to place over the bricks, but you could use whatever you have on hand.  

You can use whatever technic bricks you have on hand, this is an example of 3 types of bricks you could use.  The 1x2 brick above will give you the greatest clutch power for attaching the front fascia. For most of my builds, the 1x1 brick with hole and blue pin is my preferred choice.

Here is example one.

Here is example two.

And here's example three. As I have said earlier, it's up to you to use whatever you have on hand and see which method works best for you.

Place the remaining plates on top.

These are the pieces we will use for the front fascia, 1 piece of 2x16 plate and 8 pieces of 2x2 tiles.  I've used dark gray for my fascia but you could use a different colour, just make sure that the plate and tiles are the same colour.

The completed fascia.

The raised baseplate with fascia attached.  It doesn't fit flush to the ground because of the lower baseplate and there's a bit of a riser where it meets your sidewalk.  I kind of like the setup though.

Now just finish off your sidewalk for your modular building.  It probably looks better if you have a contrasting sidewalk colour vs. fascia.  I'm using light gray tiles on my sidewalks so I use dark gray on the fascia.  But you can choose to make yours any colour you want.

There you go, that's how I make my raised baseplates with fascia for my modular buildings.  Hope you have found this information helpful and hoping to see how yours turns out.   Feel free to leave me a comment or question below.  Thanks for looking, bye!

Here's my review of the Briksmax BX016 LED light kit for the Lego Downtown Diner

Hey brick fans, welcome back to my blog!  Today I'll be reviewing the Briksmax LED Lighting kit BX016 for the Lego modular Downtown Diner.

Thanks to the very kind folks at Lightailing.com who sent me the lighting kit for this review.

If this is your first time lighting a building block set, you are in for a treat, as a lighting kit will make your Lego set really stand out.   Plus, getting a LED lighting kit is a great value because if you were to buy all the individual components separately, they would cost you a lot more.

With the lighting kits you get from Lightailing or Briksmax, you will get free shipping for orders over $49, and they will replace any missing or faulty items, just contact their customer service team to help you out.

The lighting kits are customised for each particular Lego building block set so for this review we will get all the parts necessary to light up the Downtown Diner modular building and make it look spectacular.

There are two manuals for this kit, a User Guide and Serivce Card.  If you want to see what the Briksmax User guide looks like, you can check it out here on the Briksmax website.

There are 14 bags of different parts for the BX016 light kit.

They include an assortment of light strips, led dot lights, expansion boards and connecting wires.  Also included is a separate streetlamp and USB plug.

You also get a tweezer tool, a battery pack and spare parts using real Lego.

The instructions are very detailed and shows you visually how to connect up the light kit.

First we work on the the pink Cadillac from the Downtown Diner as it gets lit up headlights and taillights.  The wires are mounted under the chassis.

Next we swap out the original streetlamp and put the Briksmax provided lamp in.  It contains an LED light and wire that you connect to the expansion board.  I always test out each lighting component as I install them to make sure there are no defects.

The Jukebox gets two flashing multi-colour lights, a very cool effect!

Following the instructions, I added some strip lighting to the front of the building and some uplighting for the Diner sign.

There's an LED light for the lamp on the back stairwell.

Use some more of the LED strip lights and attach them to the underside of the second floor to light up the interior.

Repeat the process of attaching the LED light strips for the second and third floors of the diner.

Here are some sample pages from the instruction manuals.  As you can see they are not difficult to follow.

Not sure if I placed the led lights in the right location under the Art Deco arch?

There's even a flashing red light that gets added to the rooftop spire.

I'm now on a quest to try to light up all of my modular buildings, because the Briksmax LED light sets work so well.  For comparison purposes, my Town Hall modular is lit up using a kit by LeLightGo and the Palace Cinema uses a light kit from Kyglaring.  You can see that the Briksmax kit for the Downtown Diner is a lot brighter.

If you want your Lego city to have a greater impact, you have to add light kits to all of your buildings, they just make such a big difference!  I'd highly recommend you try out one of the Briksmax light kits for yourself and see how it improves the look of your city.

Feel free to check out all of the unique LED lighting kits at Lightailing.com!  And as a special bonus use my affiliate code ITSNOTLEGO2023 to save an extra 10% on all your purchases.

Hope you found this review helpful, see you in my next blog post!   Bye!

The Kumamon House is converted into a Lego Compatible Modular Building!

 

Hello, brick fans! Welcome back to Bricks and Figs, my blog about LEGO-compatible sets, MOCs, and minifigures! Today, I'm excited to present another modular building MOC: a Japanese-style two-story building with a rooftop garden. As with all modular buildings, the roof and floors can be removed for easy access to the interior.

The Inspiration and Objectives

This new creation is a teardown and rebuild of the Panlos/Inbrixx 880018 Kumamon House, which I reviewed last fall from Afobrick.com. The original building exudes the charm of an old Japanese akiya house, complete with a traditional garden. However, it didn’t quite fit into my LEGO-style Japanese cityscape, as my other modular buildings are either 16x32 or 32x32 studs wide, while the Panlos Kumamon house is 32 studs wide but only 16 studs deep.

My primary goals were to rebuild the Kumamon house to match my other modular buildings and to retain as many of the original features as possible. This includes the exterior and interior accessories. I listed the unique features of the Panlos Kumamon house that I wanted to keep:

• Roof design
• Windows
• Japanese garden with bamboo plants
• Color scheme
• Kotatsu (dining table)
• Ikebana (flower display)
• Interior furnishings and wall hangings
• Lighting

The New Design and Layout

Like my other modular buildings, the redesigned Kumamon house is situated on a raised baseplate. My challenge was to incorporate as many original features as possible while adding a sidewalk and new front entrance.

The Japanese garden, featuring a stone lantern, small bridge, koi pond, and bamboo plants, has been relocated to the backyard. This allowed for a decent footprint for the building structure while still providing a staircase to the second floor. There are two access points: a front entrance and a rear entrance leading to the backyard. The unique windows are now a focal point at the front of the house. The two-story house also includes a rooftop garden accessed via another staircase from the second floor.

The main floor interior is dominated by an ikebana display wall that also hides the staircase. The center of the room features a low table with a teapot and mugs, along with a TV, radio, and a small console table. The second floor includes a bedroom with a decorative shoji screen, wall closets, and a colorful fan above the bed. The kotatsu table is set up with food offerings in front of the bed. The rooftop garden, accessed by an outside staircase from the second floor, includes a partially covered area with gardening tools and various plants.

The finished model

Here’s how it looks after the rebuild:

• The unique windows, two lanterns, and small balcony on the second floor have been retained.
• New flowerpots adorn the front facade.
• Tan-colored bricks construct the walls, while dark orange accent bricks and a teal blue-green roof have been maintained.
• Roof tiles were reworked to fit the new building. 

Here's the small balcony on the second floor.

I think he wooden screen is really cool and this was a must have in the new building.

I didn't want the extra windows to go to waste, so I placed on the side of the building.  You won't normally see these however, if all of my Japanese themed buildings are placed side by side.

Here's a view of the back and right side of the building.

Full view of the new building rear elevation.

I tried to keep as much as I could of the Japanese garden from the Panlos set.  

The rooftop staircase.

I managed to keep both of the wooden screens.  The smaller one is used in the garden.

Some views of the rooftop garden.  I have a large collection of Lego compatible flowers and shrubs, so I put some of the to use here.  I put a sink with water tap to facilitate watering the plants.

Removing the roof, we can now see the interior of the second floor.  The fan decoration, the shoji screen, the bed and the wall closets have been rearranged to fit into the new second floor layout.

The kotatsu dining table was reduced in size by 50% to fit into the bedroom area.

The wall calendar was saved and put into the new bedroom.

Here is the overhead shot showing the layout of the second floor.  The new sand green floor tiles were chosen to represent tatami mats and not part of the Panlos set. BTW, the underside of the roof is where I've attached a light brick. It's used to light up the second floor as we will see later.

Here's the interior of the first floor with the rest of the building removed.  The first floor light brick sits on top of the ikebana display.

Here are a few more views of the first floor layout and furnishings.   The center table and freestanding fan was not part of the OG set, it's just my creation, but all of the other accessories are from the Panlos set.  There weren't enough of the tan coloured floor tiles, so I added some extra ones to complete the flooring.

Here you can see that this is indeed a modular building.

Lighting

The light brick on the first floor has three light strips attached to it.  I used one to light up the rear stairwell, one over the flower display and the last one under the front awning.

The second floor light brick has 2 light strips attached to it.  I use one of the light strips to illuminate the centre of the room and the other light strip is affixed to the underside of the awning.

Rearview of the building with lights on.

And here is the front elevation all lit up.

Just in case, you were wondering if the new Kumamon house is minifig scale or not, here's Murakami-san watering the plants in the rooftop garden.

Mrs Murakami is setting up the meal in the bedroom.

So the short answer is yes,  you can display minifigures with the new Kumamon house MOC.

Converting the Kumamon house into a modular building was challenging, requiring the addition of many extra tan-colored bricks, floor tiles, and flowers. However, the result is a beautifully integrated modular building that fits seamlessly into my Japanese cityscape.

Please feel free to check out the wide variety of building block sets on sale at Afobrick.com.   And don't forget to use my coupon code ITSNOTLEGO to save an extra 5% off all your purchases.  

Thank you for joining me on this build journey. Please let me know what you think of the new building.  Bye!