Bill Ward's Brickpile » My Models

Nice article about BayLUG museum show

Bill — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:13:10 +0000

A local newspaper has a great story on their Web site about the BayLUG/BayLTC exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto. The article comes with a gallery of photos and videos, and I’m pleased to report that three of the four videos show my models (City Park, Caltrain, and Scrambler). [Aside: I just noticed that the pages for those last two are out of date, and I never blogged about the Caltrain cars I've built... sorry I will update that soon.]

There are only three days left in the show: Fri-Sun, January 13-15. If you haven’t made it out there yet, best do so soon!

Gondola Car II

Bill — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:35:23 +0000

When I first saw the new bracket parts found in the LEGO Tipper Truck #4434, I realized I needed to use them to make a train car.

I used parts from 2 of those sets to make this, along with a few parts I had laying about from other sets I’d recently taken apart (mostly the Maersk Train 10219). It was a very simple build – the main part is just two of the tipper parts from the Tipper Truck set with just a few tiles rearranged. The undercarriage is just made of plain grey plates, and the wheel trucks are quite simple.

In 2008, I designed another Gondola car, using 1x2x2 panels with 1×1 bricks between for the sides. This was so much simpler, and arguably more realistic (thinner walls), though the older model has more details on the ends. Instructions for that older model are available, but the new part isn’t in LDraw yet so I can’t make them for this one for a while.

Happy New Year 2012

Bill — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:01:51 +0000

Happy New Year everyone!

Registration is now open for Bricks by the Bay 2012

My MOC featured in Australian housing article

Bill — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:16:18 +0000

My Yellow Victorian House MOC (“My Own Creation”) has been featured in an article about the housing boom/bubble in Australia. Since I use the Creative Commons licensing for my photos, that’s just fine with me, and they gave my name (“Bill Ward’s brickpile”) so people can easily Google me and find the rest of my work. That’s what Creative Commons is for!

Thanks to Tim “gambort” Gould for pointing this out to me.

Yellow Victorian House

Bill — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:03:53 +0000

This is the third of my LEGO houses that often feature in the suburbia section of BayLUG/BayLTC train layouts.

I built a couple of years ago, but like the last several posts, I never got around to posting about it here. There is a lot of detail work on the porch and bay windows.

Click the image below to see the set or view a slideshow.

Red House

Bill — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 02:32:43 +0000

This is one of those LEGO creations of mine that’s been around for years but never blogged about before.

A simple red house that I built a few years ago, which has been in may BayLUG/BayLTC exhibits but was never featured on its own until now.

Click the image for the gallery or view a slideshow.

Red Bungalow with Dormer

Bill — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:19:08 +0000

This little red LEGO bungalow with dormer was built about a year ago. This small house appears often in BayLUG/BayLTC train layouts, in the suburbia section.

Click the image to view the set, or view as a slideshow.

Sailboat

Bill — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:24:56 +0000

I built this LEGO sailboat to be a scale model of a 25 foot daysailer. It’s been built for a number of years and has appeared on BayLUG/BayLTC layouts when we’ve had a water scene.

Click the image to browse the gallery on Flickr or view them all as a slideshow.

White Trailers

Bill — Sun, 29 May 2011 22:05:59 +0000

LEGO Semi-Trailers made to go with my various tractors. Each one has a folding leg to support it when not connected to a truck, and all have the same interchangeable pin system for being towed.

Click the image for the gallery, or view the slideshow.

Cab-Over Trucks

Bill — Sun, 29 May 2011 21:45:51 +0000

Cab-over semitrailer tractors made in LEGO. Identical except for color, these trucks have been a fixture on the BayLUG/BayLTC city/train layout for years, but I never got around to photographing them.

Click the picture or view a slideshow.

Double Trailer Truck

Bill — Sun, 29 May 2011 21:20:16 +0000

A double semi-trailer truck made out of LEGO, featuring tractor, two trailers, and a dolly to connect the trailers together.

I built this a year or two ago and it’s been at a bunch of BayLUG/BayLTC events but has never been photographed and blogged before.

Click the photo to view the gallery on Flickr or view as a slideshow.

Mail Trucks

Bill — Fri, 27 May 2011 20:46:09 +0000

United States Postal Service trucks in LEGO. Designed by me in 2003, and featured on many BayLUG and BayLTC layouts since then.

I posted instructions to build this in 2007 on Brickshelf, but never posted any photos until now (except of course for the occasional candid shot in a club layout).

Click the photo to view the set on Flickr or view as a slideshow.

Fifth Wheel RV

Bill — Fri, 27 May 2011 20:31:11 +0000

I built this many years ago (2003 or so?) but never posted it online before. It’s been on many BayLUG and BayLTC displays, though. I’m still fairly happy with it, though it could surely be improved in a number of ways.

The trailer attaches via a Technic axle to a bracket in the truck bed, and is a “toy hauler” – it contains an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) for off road fun. It has two slide-outs, one in the bedroom in the front and another with a dinette in the center.

Click the picture to go to the gallery on Flickr, or view them as a slideshow.

Admin note: Over the span of the next few weeks I plan to post a bunch of older models online. After Maker Faire I brought all the boxes of models that have never been posted into the house, and am slowly working through them doing photo shoots and blog entries, and in some cases to make LDraw files for building instructions. So while the quality of construction might not be as good as stuff I would build today, they’re still models I like enough to show at train shows and events like Maker Faire. I hope you enjoy them.

Log Cabin 3X

Bill — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:26:50 +0000

I really like the relatively new LEGO Log Cabin set #5766 with its three different models of log cabins. I bought three of this set, and built each of the versions, and for a while had them setting on a table in my living room together. But as I was looking at them it seemed to me that they were just a bit too small, and that the parts from these sets could be combined to make a much bigger, nicer cabin. So I took them all apart and used the parts to make this:

Click on the picture, or view a slideshow to see all of the photos (including pictures of the cabin on display at Maker Faire last weekend).

Here’s a picture of the original set for comparison:

Jumping the Shark

Bill — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:10:24 +0000

A couple of years ago I created this scene depicting the famous “Jumping the Shark” scene from the TV show “Happy Days.” Here, Richie Cunningham drives the boat pulling the Fonz on water skis as he leaps over a shark to prove his bravery. This is the origin of the phrase often used to describe the point where a TV series becomes lame.

This has been featured in a few of the Bay Area LEGO Train Club displays over the past couple of years, and I have included some of those photos in the photo set on Flickr for this model. To see the pictures, click the image or view a slideshow of the pictures.

Here’s the original video:

City Park

Bill — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:53:14 +0000

At train shows, we (the Bay Area LEGO Train Club) have developed a standard city block system, where our downtown area is divided up into blocks that are 2 by 3 32 x 32 baseplates in size (i.e., 96 x 64 studs). For some time now I’ve shown my Blackburn Hotel and its accompanying city block (but I have never done a proper photo shoot of those buildings either, I just realized) at various shows and conventions and you have probably seen that featured here a few times.

For Bricks by the Bay and the upcoming National Train Show in Sacramento, I’ve built a second city block. But instead of tall buildings, it just features a city park. Each of the six baseplates has its own feature:

Tree and picnic/grassy area
Playground with swingset, slide, merry-go-round, and carousel
Life size (for minifigs) chess set
Flower garden
Basketball court
Tennis court

In addition, there is a fountain in the center and various tile mosaics and other decorative aspects. The whole thing is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with gates on each of the four sides.

I haven’t done a proper photo shoot of the park yet, but I did take detailed pictures of it at the most recent BayLUG meeting. I hope to take better pictures soon, but for now, take a look at these (click the image to view the set, or click here to view a slideshow)

Bulkhead Flatcar

Bill — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:24:29 +0000

This Railroad flatcar with bulkheads was inspired by the NMRA 2011 official HO gauge car for this July’s convention in Sacramento.

Here’s a picture of the prototype I based it on:

A bunch of us are planning to put together a large LEGO layout at the NMRA convention in Sacramento this July. If you want to join the effort, check out the planning wiki and sign up to participate.

Pink Fractal Tree

Bill — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:17:39 +0000

This is my first abstract LEGO sculpture. I was inspired by someone (sorry I don’t remember who it is right now) who brought several abstract art pieces to Bricks by the Bay last year made out of the dark pink 1×2 slopes, which were available at the LEGO store Pick-A-Brick wall. I always wanted to do the same and finally I got around to it, producing a series of small fractal models and eventually coming up with this monster.

I built this out of about two Pick-A-Brick cups’ worth of the slopes. It is what I call “lower-case F fractal” in that I don’t know if there’s any math behind it, but it does have self-similarity as I understand it. The basic element is 3 bricks stacked together with one going off to the side, and torqued as far as the slack in the parts will allow. Using that same angle (determined by the slack in the parts) I then built up 5, 10, 20, brick heights following the curve until it meets its neighbor.

This picture was taken on the final day of BayLUG‘s exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, CA (January 9, 2011) and is a part of a set of photos taken on the last day and during teardown.

Building instructions and buying my models

Bill — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:28:02 +0000

A while back I posted that I was considering how best to share building instructions for my creations. There were several comments on that post and also a few email exchanges I had with people over this topic, and I’ve also had a chance to discuss it in person with a few people at BrickCon in Seattle this past October. And what I’ve decided on is this:

I won’t give it away for free. Sorry if that’s disappointing, but although I am a big fan of open source software, the reason that works well is because the users can contribute back to the development of the software by adding features and fixing bugs, and submitting patches to the author. LEGO creations are fundamentally different from that, in that once I’ve created a design I’m really not interested in collaborating with other builders to change it. I might take some feedback and revise it based on that, but I’m not going to accept patches for my models. So the open source model doesn’t really suit my LEGO creations.
Similarly I am a fan of Creative Commons, but again the main benefit of that is the ability for people to incorporate my work (such as my photos, which are licensed with Creative Commons) into other works without having to jump through a lot of hoops to get approval. Some of my photos have been used by Web sites and even mainstream news sources because of this. But I don’t think that would translate into LEGO model designs.
I won’t use LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) because you give up too many of your rights when uploading the designs to LEGO’s site. It would be convenient to use Design By Me to create kits from my models, but then it would be LEGO profiting from it instead of me. Is that too selfish? I think if I’m going to go through the effort of creating instructions for a model, as opposed to just photographing it or even creating an LDraw file of it, I’d like to receive something for my efforts. (LDraw is the easy part, it’s making the instructions that’s harder – even though LPub does a lot of the work, there’s still a great deal of manual adjustment of the layout to get it to where I want it).
Selling kits of my models is something I’ve thought about a lot, and I may do it for one or two models, but the problem is obtaining the parts. It’s rare to find one BrickLink store that has all the parts for a model, so I’d have to order them from several stores – or deplete the parts in my collection, which again means going to BrickLink to replace them.
What I know I can do is sell PDF or printed copies of the instructions. To that end, I’m planning on setting up a store on Etsy.com and listing the instructions there in both ebook and printed format, and some kits for small and popular models I’ve designed.

So, watch this space for an announcement when I get my Etsy store up, and in the meantime let me know if there are any particular models of mine you’d like to get the instructions for. Prices for smaller models will be around $20. I’m not generally interested in doing custom work, but if the idea grabs my interest I may do it. But in general I would refer you to someone who does that for a living.

Big Yellow Taxi

Bill — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:12:47 +0000

I’ve built an iconic New York City yellow Checker taxi cab.

Throughout building this, the Joni Mitchell song has been running through my head…

Late last night I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi carried off my old man
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

As usual, click the image above to see all the pictures, or view them as a slideshow.