Lego Modular MOC: The Sandgren Villa

On the outskirts of the city, near the waterfront, sits an old abandoned building: the Sandgren Villa. Originally built by the explorer (and alleged pirate) James Sandgren, it was used by his descendants for many years. As they settled into a more peaceful lifestyle and as the city grew, a lighthouse was added to the building and the Sandgrens became harbour masters. In recent years, noone has lived there, but somehow the flowers are being looked after. And the building seems to attract people of a certain hue …

Sandgren_01

This building started out as a baseplate. Inspired by the buildings in Stockholm, which are often aligned along rocky outcroppings, I wanted a house built above street level, and I found one of those really weird 48×32 plates with all kinds of bumps on it. Not only does it save parts for a foundation, it’s also a challenge to build around the existing mold. After mostly plastering over all the pits, I started on the house itself.

Sandgren_03

I’m a big fan of the sand green colour, so when I was able to buy a lot of it, I decided to use it for this build. Most of the walls are fairly straight-forward. The lighthouse tower isn’t complex but took a bunch of rather expensive parts. I specifically ordered the top row of sand green macaroni parts as a luxury – those are crazy rare, from a single set in 2006 back when Lego didn’t make smart business decisions. I also found that 1×2 palisade bricks can be used to form a mostly solid rounded wall along with the macaroni parts. Inside the tower is a simple winding staircase made from 1×3 plates.

Sandgren_04

I kept the roof simple for functional reasons. At one point I wanted a display in the center with a sand green King Neptune statue, but it became much too bulky. Since I have so much stuff to display in my city, I need a flat rooftop to place things on. That’s also the reason for the exterior surfaces. There’s a small garden to the right, which adds a straight side to connect to the next building. The little area outside the front door is tiled and uses white minifigure heads along with those excellent 1×1 round plates with holes for the railing. There was always a plan to plant this building in my city and provide an interface to the water baseplates where I currently keep my Imperial Flagship, so the steps connect to a small pier. The rocky sea barrier extends to block the road and makes a natural end to my street. Placing the Little Mermaid there seemed like a fitting homage to the home country of Lego …

Sandgren_02

I needed to order a bunch of special pieces (most notably the macaronis and the black roof parts), but most of the decoration was designed to use up pieces I rarely use otherwise, including a bunch of unused Moria stickers and a ton of the cheese slopes left from the Sydney Opera House. I didn’t make much of an interior, although there is a dining room with a trophy display, a tiled stairway and a little study upstairs.

This was a pleasant build, mostly constructed in November-December, and I’m quite happy with it. This extra-wide building adds some variety to my city. Next, I’m thinking something extra-tall …

Lämna ett svar