![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The art of masonry or laying bricks to build walls has been around since ancient times. The reason of course, is that it is a lot easier with LEGO to simply stack bricks, than it is to try to mimic the actual internal structure of a real skyscraper. My LEGO models of skyscrapers however, are built very much like conventional masonry structures with walls created by stacking bricks. These exterior walls make up the façade of the building but don’t actually support any weight. Instead, they have a steel framework to which “ curtain walls” made of brick, stone or glass are attached. What separates modern skyscrapers from the tall buildings that preceded them is the fact that, unlike masonry-built tall buildings, skyscrapers don’t have load-bearing walls. In fact, the scale I pick is usually the smallest one that would allow me to accurately represent the floor count and the window count of the original building (a scale that usually ends up being around 1/200). I try to find the sweet spot with my skyscraper models-a scale that is somewhere between the small scale used in the LEGO Architecture series and the huge scale used for the models you would find in a LEGOLAND Miniland. On the other hand, using too small of a scale can force you to compromise on accuracy (probably more than you would find acceptable). But too large of a scale can also result in a massive, unwieldy model with a prohibitively high piece count and cost. The bigger the scale, the more accurately you can represent all the elements of the original building in your LEGO model. Of course there is a trade-off involved here. well, let me not get too carried away here!Īs far as I am concerned, picking the right scale is the most important decision you need to make when you are designing a LEGO model of a real building. Armed with a good understanding of scale and proportion that my training as an engineer had provided, I set to work designing my first-ever MOC: a model of the Empire State Building. The best part of course, was that we could use the same LEGO pieces that my daughter had been playing with-but we would need many more of them. And as awe-inspiring as this model was, it also looked like something that would not be too difficult for my daughter and I to build (and hopefully we could put our own unique spin on it!). ![]() Something about this model appealed to my lifelong fascination with skyscrapers. One model that really grabbed my attention was a model of the Empire State Building built by Sean Kenney. An innocent query from my daughter about building a “really tall” building out of LEGO prompted a Google search that led me to stumble upon the world of AFOLs and all the amazing MOCs out there that have been built out of LEGO. In my case, I was completely in the dark about LEGO (having never played with it as a child) until I discovered it as a 40-something dad to a then six-year-old who had just started playing with LEGO. Many AFOLs talk about a “dark age” that they emerged from to rediscover their childhood passion for LEGO. It took a few more weeks to figure out how to capture the Cathedral of Learning at such a small scale.My name is Deep Shen and my journey to AFOLdom has been a little unusual. Ultimately, I finished a satisfactory prototype of US Steel Tower which felt like an appropriate height for a skyline model. The two buildings that dictated the scale of the set were US Steel Tower due to the technical complexity of the triangular shape, and The Cathedral of Learning due to the complexity of the many stair-stepped setbacks as you get closer to the top. While I quickly settled on this set of buildings, I also did some early sketches of a few buildings that were not included in the final design.īuilding sketch models is important in identifying the most difficult details to re-create using LEGO, and identify when complex building techniques will be required. In the meantime, here’s a short answer:įor this model, I created many “sketch models” for various buildings I wanted to include in the model. I am working on a follow-up article which will explore topics like establishing the scale for your model, selecting which landmarks to include, and related topics. ![]()
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