Greetings from a recently new born lego fan ( 48 yr old male ) in New Zealand ...
I am working my way through the modular series, Pet Shop , Fire Station etc, I am up to date now but have seen some people selling plans to build extra buildings, but they are ONLY the plans , you have to buy the parts yourself...I have no problem in doing this but just wondered who has gone ahead and bought plans, were they easy to follow, and the cost of buying the bits separately ?
Thought and comments gratefully received.
Thanks
Brian
NZ

If you have the disposable money (a LOT of disposable money) to chuck at it then go for it...though it's not going to be recognised by the LEGO community or worth anything other than the price of the bricks when it comes to selling on...although saying that some "custom" builds do very well on ebay.

I can see the appeal of doing it, the challenge of actually following the plan etc and I commend you for wanting to do it, however it will be a veeeery expensive hobby (and that's saying a lot coming from a LEGO hobbyist) not that I'm "dising" all you rich folk.

First off, Welcome to Brickpicker. 

 

About the custom modulars, the plans I've seen for some of them on Ebay and around do look pretty cool, but as tubs89 stated its going to be expensive to link alot of those pieces unless you have an extensive bulk stash lying around. You also have to want to do it for you, because you may not be able to turn around and just sell it like you would a lego sanctioned modular. As long as you enjoy it though, I'd say go for it.  

have you tried building your own on LDD then bricklinking the pieces you don't have

Welcome! As you can see, my name is also Brian  For the custom instructions adventure you mentioned, you would most likely have to turn to a part out website, the main one being http://www.bricklink.com/. As long as you aren't building in rare colors or with rare pieces, you should be able to buy most pieces for between 2-25 cents a piece used or 5-40 cents new (special pieces will cost more).

 

If you can give me a link to the instruction (just copy/paste the URL) you are considering to buy, I can do some digging and find out about how much it will cost to buy the pieces. Have fun on the site!

Welcome to the site!

Welcome!

Many thank to the quick responses to my question, I have decided to not follow on and buy plans for building other modular buildings BUT !! ( there is always a but..... . )

I would now like to light up my modular buildings with LED light ( or what ever), I have seen some online but not sre where to start,. I would like to display my ' modular street' in a cabinet and have the rooms be lit at night as to give th effect of being lived in, any ideas gratefully received....

Thanks in advance

Brian ( in sleepy New Zealand . Ex. London , so you can see my point ...... )

While you can wire your own LEDs, if that isn't your thing then the website "lifelites" is a good place to start, they offer the standard lego light bricks in exclusive colors, light bulb pieces, lightsabers, torches, lamp posts and more. Their prices are (somewhat) reasonable and they have pretty good customer feedback, and are popular among MOCers. Here's the link:

http://lifelites.com/products/list/18

And here's an example of a MOC lighted (scroll down) with them:

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/277657

 

There are also other options, like using store-bought lights. The lighting in the MOC below was created using lights from ikea:

http://www.cultofmac.com/176950/fifth-avenue-apple-store-recreated-in-lego-pics/

Have fun and good luck!

While you can wire your own LEDs, if that isn't your thing then the website "lifelites" is a good place to start, they offer the standard lego light bricks in exclusive colors, light bulb pieces, lightsabers, torches, lamp posts and more. Their prices are (somewhat) reasonable and they have pretty good customer feedback, and are popular among MOCers. Here's the link:

http://lifelites.com/products/list/18

And here's an example of a MOC lighted (scroll down) with them:

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/277657

 

There are also other options, like using store-bought lights. The lighting in the MOC below was created using lights from ikea:

http://www.cultofmac.com/176950/fifth-avenue-apple-store-recreated-in-lego-pics/

Have fun and good luck!

I would suggest Lifelites as well. I've seen them in person and in my opinion they look great!

Here is another site that sells lights called Brick Lights. (I've never seen them in person and I don't know about the quality of them.) Link: http://www.artifexcreation.com/catalog

Here are some pictures of sets that have Brick Lights on them.

Welcome! (I am a bit late though...)

Greetings from a recently new born lego fan ( 48 yr old male ) in New Zealand ...

I am working my way through the modular series, Pet Shop , Fire Station etc, I am up to date now but have seen some people selling plans to build extra buildings, but they are ONLY the plans , you have to buy the parts yourself...I have no problem in doing this but just wondered who has gone ahead and bought plans, were they easy to follow, and the cost of buying the bits separately ?

Thought and comments gratefully received.

Thanks

Brian

NZ

Another Kiwi, we get everywhere. or are you an Englishman looking for the sun. I grew up in Auckland it was not sleepy!

  

If you have the disposable money (a LOT of disposable money) to chuck at it then go for it...though it's not going to be recognised by the LEGO community or worth anything other than the price of the bricks when it comes to selling on...although saying that some "custom" builds do very well on ebay.

I can see the appeal of doing it, the challenge of actually following the plan etc and I commend you for wanting to do it, however it will be a veeeery expensive hobby (and that's saying a lot coming from a LEGO hobbyist) not that I'm "dising" all you rich folk.

A custom modular recently went in the UK for

I bought a couple Brick Lights. They Rock!

I bought a couple Brick Lights. They Rock!

They are pretty cool, but pretty expensive for my taste. I've been thinking about getting some blowoffs that are being discounted from Target [LEGO compatibles, but meant to be light up. All pieces are clear]. Anyone else seeing these things? They are in these nice all-black boxes, but it seems like they are all wired together or something. Might try one out soon for a MOC or something.

Welcome welcome