2012 - Town Pavilion + City Hall mashup, LDC Kansas City, MO

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I wrote in my last post that most of this model design was a 3D model with LEGO-friendly measurements for the builders to follow. But certain portions of the design were quicker and easier to design physically and give to the builders to copy into the final glued #legomodel. For most #Miniland models in 2019 #LEGODigitalDesigner (and to a degree LEGO Brickbuilder) has by and large replaced the need for physical prototyping- elements can be quickly duplicated, and finished digital design files can be sent to any of our global model shops to be built. .

However there is still the odd model or detail here and there that we like to (or need to) mock up with actual #LEGO pieces to see how the real world tolerances actually work.

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This is a portion of Kansas City Missouri’s #CityHall#

#legodesign #merlinmagicmaking #legomodeldesigner #forwork #workflow #workprocess #portfolio

July 2019 - Gnome model process

This is several hours into the digital design process for the #LEGO #gnome gift model. We use proprietary #brickbuilding software for our #legoland model creation and I had challenged myself on this particular model to design it completely digitally with no physical prototyping, which is what I expected of my @merlinmagicmaking LEGO design team.

I hadn’t decided yet at this point how pointy the ears would be coming out of the female gnome’s hair and you can see the options on either side of this draft.

#legomodel #forwork #forfun #legognome #gnomelife #instalego #legodesign #legostagram #legofan #legomoc #wip #process

2012 - Town Pavilion + City Hall mashup, LDC Kansas City, MO

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At that point of my design career the #legoland #modelshops were generally transitioning to more digital design tools. #Brickpaper was still around but starting to quickly phase out. @LEGO ‘s own proprietary design and build software was maturing and becoming more common but not every model needed them.

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This model was designed almost entirely in #Rhino3D with some supplemental details built as physical prototypes for the builders to incorporate. We had a dimension template for Rhino that included LEGO-friendly dimensions for bricks, plates, and studs. You can see in this pic on little dimension near the bottom for “7.7 LB” which was 7 2/3 LEGO bricks or 7 bricks and 3 LEGO plates. All the dimensions in this 3D model were massaged around to reach LEGO-compatible measurements.

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This model also had the added challenge of needing to install in sections around a support column in the middle of #miniland, mostly hiding it in the final skyline view.

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#legodesign #merlinmagicmaking #legomodeldesigner #forwork #workflow #workprocess #portfolio

2012 - Town Pavilion + City Hall mashup, LDC Kansas City MO

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The completed #LEGO #TownPavilion + City Hall model before leaving for its proper home at the #legolanddiscoverycenter

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#legodesign #legobuild #merlinmagicmaking #joblikenoother #legomodeldesigner #forwork #workflow #workprocess #portfolio #legoarchitecture #legoskyscraper #skyscraper #instalego

2012 - Town Pavilion + City Hall mashup, LDC Kansas City MO

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The completed #LEGO #TownPavilion + City Hall model before leaving for its proper home at the #legolanddiscoverycenter

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#legodesign #legobuild #merlinmagicmaking #joblikenoother #legomodeldesigner #forwork #workflow #workprocess #portfolio #legoarchitecture #legoskyscraper #skyscraper #instalego

2012 - Town Pavilion + City Hall mashup, LDC Kansas City, MO

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#legoland #legomodels don’t just build themselves. The #TownPavilion + City Hall mashup model was worked on by a team of elite #legomodelbuilders who built stackwork (hundreds of component windows), assembled and glued the main model, and lit it up.

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A #funfact about this model is that lighting was difficult because we really figured out just how hard LEGO’s transparent blue color (trans dark blue on Bricklink) is to get light through. More than any other transparent color it sucks up everything you can throw at it. Keep that in mind when you see it successfully illuminated a couple of posts from now.

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#legodesign #legobuild #merlinmagicmaking #joblikenoother #legomodeldesigner #forwork #workflow #workprocess #portfolio #legoarchitecture

Legoland Discovery Centre coming soon to Arena Birmingham.

I mainly popped over to Arena Birmingham on a warm Friday afternoon to check out the Lego Giraffe outside the future home of Legoland in Birmingham!

It is due to open sometime in summer 2018!

Land Rover Defender - Merlin Magic Making

Lydia Duncombe (UCA) winner of 'Best Sculpture' sponsored by Merlin Magic Making.