18 May 2023

Flowerfest: Caz Mockett

Posted by Caz Mockett
Having introduced the sets that we have been using in our Flowerfest back in April, I've enjoyed seeing the MOCs built by my fellow contributors Eero OkkonenTom Loftus and Thomas Jenkins. It's now up to me to follow their fantastic articles and close our festival with some creations of my own.

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After building the bouquet, table centrepiece and daffodils, I carefully disassembled them again and roughly grouped the parts together to see how inspiration would strike. As you can see, 10313 Wildflower Bouquet and 40646 Daffodils display a vibrant spring-like palette. 

But the elements which vied for my attention initially were those from 10314 Dried Flower Centerpiece:

This set offered parts with a far more autumnal feel, and I began experimenting with a few tablescraps - firstly using the 4x Wheel Arch, Mudguard 2 x 3 x 1 1/3 in Nougat (6330588 | 49097) which I thought made a couple of excellent legs for a coffee table, along with Plate Special 2 x 4 with Groove and Two Center Studs (Jumper) (6307618 |65509) as the top. My mind got stuck in furniture mode, and before I knew it I had made a nice collection of chairs, tables, lamps and ornaments with just parts from this set.

1970s-inspired LEGO furniture

My LEGO furniture all had a 1970s vibe going on, so I decided to photograph the models as if they were featured in a vintage furniture catalogue; setting up a little room scene with some suitably beige wallpaper and hideous brown carpet.

I was on a roll with this theme, and fashioned a few more items to furnish a trendy 1970s minifigure home. Garish lime-swirled wallpaper and a mossy green carpet help to set these pieces off to perfection. 

I'm not sure that the paddle-end sofa looks very comfy, but since minifigures usually sit on studs, so I don't suppose they will mind very much. Maybe I can use these builds as stock for a trendy retro furniture shop for my city in the future?

Daffodil Street Transport Interchange Micropolis model

The Large Figure Shoulder Cover with Bar (1686) in Nougat (6431730) and Yellow (6420923) have been popular during our Flowerfest, and they caught my eye too. I used a couple of the Nougat elements to build bucket seats in the furniture MOCs but there's eight Yellow ones in Wildflower Bouquet, which meant I could experiment even further.

I played about with ways to attach them together as I thought they would make a good roof canopy for a microscale build.

The construction starts with two Plate Special 1x2 Rounded with 2 Open Studs in White (6210272 | 35480) which are pushed onto the bars on two pieces of the Shoulder Armor, studs facing each other. This connects a pair of Shoulder Armor pieces either side of the main spine. Then each pair of these is connected via the antistuds of the rounded plates with Weapon Hilt Symmetric (66909) and a hollow stud plate alternately at each end of the hilts.

I had hoped to just use the hilt without the studs, but the spacing was just a bit too cramped without the extra stud distance. I also tried using the dark tan hilts from the Centrepiece set but I didn't think they worked very well with the yellow, so I found some regular tan examples from my own collection. It would be nice to have them in white, but sadly these don't exist yet.

A couple of 1x1 plates with clips on top fix to the weapon hilts between each pair of Shoulder Armor sections, and these are then tied together with a regular 1x2 plate underneath. This gave me 3 attachment points for pillars to hold up the roof - all I had to do was think of something that needed such a canopy!

Transport infrastructure is always a serious consideration when planning any city layout, and Micropolis is no exception. This is Daffodil Street Transport Interchange where the main rail lines run in tunnels beneath the streets. 

The big yellow canopy provides some shelter from the rain for commuters while they await their train. I used two Minifig Shield Ovoid in Yellow (6426171 | 2586) from the Daffodils set to cover the entrance arches into the station half way along each side. Two Hinge Plate 1x12 with Angled Side Extensions and Tapered Ends, 7 Teeth in Dark Red (6426471 | 53031) cover the Bus Station end of the build with an impressive cantilevered structure.

 

Removing the roofs gives a glimpse of what is going on below, with several trains pulling into the station, while buses and taxis are waiting at their respective stands.

 

Here's a closeup of the action - it looks like it might be rush hour.

3D LEGO flower picture


In case you are running out of horizontal space to display any of these sets, I have you covered - providing you still have some wall space left to hang a picture. I enjoyed creating all sorts of different imaginary flowers for this 3D image, which uses many elements from the sets along with a handful from my own collection.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have made from the elements within 10313 Wildflower Bouquet, 10314 Dried Flower Centerpiece and 40646 Daffodils. The sets themselves show that unusual elements can be used as flowers, and we hope that we have shown that these elements can be even more versatile than first impressions may suggest!

Are you inspired to use them in MOCs of your own?

READ MORE: Flowerfest: Thomas Jenkins

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2 comments:

  1. The furniture is particularly lovely and uses those parts in a way I never would have thought to do myself.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the great comment! I hope it's inspired you to experiment with similar pieces :-)

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