Building the Batcave in Lego! *Update*

Hello Readers,
My last update was almost 1 week ago, there has been a legitimate reason for this, as i was waiting on the arrival of my Lego Power Functions pieces, and obviously as the end of the project draws closer the updates will be bigger but spread out and less frequent.

On with the pictures and goodness hey? Here as always is an updated list of what has changed since the last update of 19th of January, followed in sequence by the pictures to reflect those updates.
Added Features

*changed the design of the Grandfather clock, added pendulum and painted it gold.
*extended the wall piece and included a custom painted gold picture frame.
*assembled and installed the furniture for the Study Room, including personal computer & desk, bookcase, lamp & couch.
*added the 3rd floor exterior wall to the study.
*finished the left hand side of the exterior wall and replaced incorrect colour bricks to the 3rd floor.
*finished the back monitor display for the computer room.
*added the 1x2 Grey corner pieces into the Elevator Chamber. (this isn't so noticeable but is quite intergral to the support between the 2nd and 3rd floors).

Elevator Development!

It has taken the best part of 24 hours to work out the mechanics of the Elevator and despite many frustrations, with the help of some online friends i was able to assemble a working elevator, you can see this from the pictures links below.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7171/6754808273_f589fdb4ae.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6754809381_141ba310c9.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7022/6754809139_86d9b263f7.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7158/6754808805_c461c93999.jpg

Also i've uploaded a very short video showing the elevator working, some points of note:
This is a preliminary design, intended to work out the mechanics, the next step is to reduce the bricks and size and try and install it into the batcave.
The elevator car appears to stick at the base of the chamber, i'm intending to modify the holding chamber so the car slots in and moves alot more freely, i'll possibly use tile pieces so there isn't as much friction.

#Lego Elevator Video here>> http://youtu.be/b7QaKVv91uU

Looking ahead

I am pretty close now to a final model, with the exception of the tiles and plates needed to finish the study and furniture (replacement of correct coloured bricks) the exterior wall and windows to the study and the installation of the Batcave its pretty much finished.

My intentions to keep adding to the batcave would be to install a small driveway and rockery to cover the entrance, for the Batmobile, this will come at a much later date though so expect there to be a substantial gap between the main building development and the driveway.

I hope you liked this update, if you are a Youtube user please add my account and request my friendship, it's always great to have more creative friends to talk to and share projects with. Comments and feedback are always welcome.

In friendship
Rich (Superiorraw/Urban Saboteur)

Bruce Wayne's Study Room

As some of you have been following my developments, I have extended the 3rd floor to include a study for Bruce Wayne, so that while working in his Study he gets a call and walks out onto the 3rd floor Balcony in front of the Grandfather Clock.

Today I spent some time figuring out the space i had on the 3rd floor, as well as working out the size of each furniture pieces and where they will go, I'd originally planned a bigger study but due to the space requirements some of my other ideas had to be culled. Never the less i think this layout works aces anyway and it will look great when it is installed.

Here are the WIP pictures, obviously the Grey you see for the bookcase and sofa will be swapped out with Brown.

I hope you like the update, Yesterday I put an order through for the Power Functions Pieces and when they arrive i'll begin major work on the lift and elevator chamber. This will be the most complex and challenging part to the whole of the Batcave, I have also recently modified the Grandfather clock and done significant work on the 3rd floor balcony, however I am having to wait on Paint Apps drying before I can take a full photograph.

They'll hopefully be some clearer shots of this in tomorrows update.

Rich

Batcave Update: Renovated 3rd Floor

I thought i'd post a new update today, to let you all in on what has happened with the development of the Batcave in the last 24 hours.
Added Features
*Added the Telephone to the 3rd floor, mounted on a hinge brick so when flipped back it reveals the switch/button to the Elevator/Secret Clock Door.
*Added a clothes prop/hangar to the Changing area so Bruce Wayne can change to Batman.
*Swapped out 1x2 brown bricks on the base of the secret door/grandfather clock, replaced with a 1x6 brown brick to make the base stronger.
*Due to an unforeseen problem with the 3rd floor baseplate, an 8x11 plate I ordered wasn't taking so well to the 2nd floor support beams, i've swapped this out with the original plates i'd intended to use for the study, as a result the 3rd floor is now more secure, the entire plates for the 3rd floor were reconfigured.
*finished off the Elevator outer walls and main facade of the building, added the spire at the top.
*due to the swap around of plates on the 3rd floor balcony, the facade to the left of the clock has been extended by about 3 studs to cover the corner.

Here are the updated pictures.

As always to see this development in it's entirety it's best viewed on the project folder at Flickr.com here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superiorraw/sets/72157628767065715/ 

Rebuilding the c3 Batcave in Lego # Update

Hey Readers,

I really got stuck into the project yesterday, I started by tackling the most highlighted issues with the preliminary design, unfortunately due to the light restrictions and how poor the pictures turn out after nightfall I wasn't able to update this blog until today. The good news though is that today I can take you through the improvements picture by picture and the pictures will be nice and clear so you can see everything.


The first thing I changed was resizing the supporting archway struts on the 2nd floor, this is so that there is more clearance for Bruce to stand underneath the arch, this was miscalculated by me as in the c3 version the studs are x7 in height not x6 as what i done on the preliminary build.

Next I set to work on the Grandfather clock, removing the middle pieces and redesigning the hinges so that the door opens and closes as it should. I probably did have the right idea with the brick clips initially but i just didn't have them sorted in the correct order or aligned properly so they could move. I'll have to order another small amount of brown bricks from Bricklink to replace the grey and black you see in the photo.

In my next task I swapped out the bricks from the 2nd floor stairs to replace it with a standalone prebuilt stair piece in black, this pretty much takes him down to the supporting strut and i finished off the staircase with a small walkway step leading into the control room. The stairs still aren't finished, i'd like to add some more detail to them yet and its not a certainty they will stay like this. I just thought this would be a better more sturdy solution in the mean time.

The real big development from yesterdays build is the computer control room with consoles. I've completely gutted this room, i've rotated the original layout so that the entrance pillars are now either side of the stairs, when Batman comes down the stairs he'll be facing the control room straight away.

Next i redesigned all the consoles. I prefer this look to the original, the mismatched blue, black and two tone grey was awful, but it was only ever going to be a temp anyway. I've added more decorated technical tiles and computer screens as well as tiled the computer room floor and added a plug socket to the main monitor & server.

The final addition was something i created myself, a mounted two screen comp display over hanging the room. This is used to display various txt files and programs while Batman can be briefed on the main console screen.

This final picture shows the Batcave when you rotate the board, you can see the main archway and this is where the Batmobile will go. Obviously I don't know yet how big the Batmobile is, if i'm going to have an encased driveway for the batmobile my thinking is that i'll need a 2nd baseboard to achieve it. I guess the plan is to finish this bit off first but it's good i have some room there to develop it if need be.

I hope you liked all the pictures, comments, ideas and suggestions are encouraged. As always if you'd prefer to see the larger shots on flickr the Batcave project folder is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/superiorraw/sets/Batcave

Rich

Batcave ~ Work In Progress Pictures

So I thought i'd update this project as I got significant build time in this afternoon, first things first I apologize for the use of flash in the pictures, it got really late on here and the lighting in the house is incredibly poor, the pictures wouldn't of been worth showing if i'd not used flash. At least you get to see where i'm up to though :-)

The first thing I want to change is the foundation stud size, currently x6 in height they are too small and Bruce would have to duck to walk through them, I suspect this is a c3 brick to lego conversion thing, I probably miscounted how high the original pillars were, it's not a big deal as its really easily rectified.

*Note* if you see any mismatched colour bricks, corner pieces or plates these will be changed to a better colour at a later date, sometimes i've not had the exact grey so i've picked the closest colour, rest assured they'll be replaced in the final version.

I've reversed the control room so the monitor is facing the 2nd floor as opposed to the original. There probably will be a second baseboard accompanying this so when that is added it might very well be reversed back to the original position.
The Staircase you see is incredibly basic and yes I will be changing it. As noted in the first LDD shots, they were designed this way to get by some of the building restrictions for the software.

There isn't much to change, maybe some of the slopes will be redesigned in the final version, i'd like to swap out some of the colours and as above it maybe reverted to its original configuration.

Ok first error here is that i didn't anticipate the clock door not opening (ha) but i'll figure that out quickly enough, I also want to redesign the clock too, its a little too basic and i'm sure with some experimenting with the bricks i can get a more accurate grandfather clock/door.
I might re-use the method I used for an opening container door on my shipping container build, or go for something entirely different.

There isn't really much to change out here, i'm happy with how this part looks, the only missing pieces are the 1x3 bricks in blue that i'm still waiting on, here would be a good point to check the left side balcony over the stairs, this is where i intend to extend the 3rd floor to include Bruce's study.

I hope you enjoyed looking at the photographs of the Work In Progress model. I'm pretty satisfied that from this point onwards i'll be able to recreate a fully functional Batcave i'll just keep chipping away at the tasks and things I want to change.

As always when I have a significant update on this model project i'll post up pictures and plans.

Rich

New Pictures!

Hey Readers,
So as promised this is a follow up to my previous post, I'd taken shots of Ghost Rider, Martian Manhunter & Robin the other day but they didn't turn out how I wanted, so while doing a retake I'd also received my ebay parcel from USA.

The Minimate Gallery has been updated and you can see all the photographs here:
My Minimate Gallery

Today I added:
Beast
Ghost Rider
Hulk
Martian Manhunter
M.Bison (P2)
Mr.Sinister
The Spectre
Spider-Man
Robin
Vision
Wonderman

Also because I re-acquired New Wolverine & Phoenix the older Gallery pictures are now added as well. This Gallery shows my full Minimate collection to date, the only omission right now is Iron Man from Series 6. I am waiting for a replacement piece on him.

Batcave Preliminary Build Update

Yesterday was great, I got about 6 or so parcels in from Bricklink, spent the whole day listening to Green Day & Hinder *singing badly to them* and building the Batcave. I'm most of the way through it, due to a hold up with one of the sellers on Bricklink by about 2 days, I'm still missing vital corner pieces to finish this off properly.

Most of the foundation structures are in place on the 48x48 baseboard now, the 2nd and 3rd floor are mostly built minus the corner bricks, I've got some minor alterations to do to the archway pieces, the grandfather clock (it doesn't open) and i'll almost certainly modify the staircase as i said i would, right now its mostly 2x4 black bricks just stacked to the 1st floor, this wasn't me not trying it was simply a way to get around some of the building restrictions in Lego Digital Designer.

Hopefully I'll have some preliminary build pictures for you to gawp at, I only have 3 more parcels left from bricklink to arrive and the prelim build will be completed.

Rich

Ongoing Minimate Gallery

Hey Readers,
this isn't so much as a lengthy update but more a brief post to share with you my ongoing Minimate Gallery, as the weeks pass I'll be adding more pictures to my Gallery of the Minimates I have added to my collection.

I can work on this inbetween waiting for deliveries of Lego Bricks for the Batcave, I really cannot do much else inbetween this time.

Today I have added The Flash, Hawkeye, Dr.Doom & Human Torch, I did take pictures of Phasing Vision, Ghost Rider & Robin but they turned out rather awful so i'll retake them at some point tomorrow.
If you would like to see the Gallery in full here is the link: Minimates Gallery

Comments and feedback are obviously appreciated, my recent Lego build has inspired others to get involved which is always nice to hear, I am currently waiting on a small shipment of Minimates, that I purchased off ebay from a seller in USA, it cleared on the 2nd of January so i'm expecting a delivery of them any day now, here is a list of the Mates i am expecting in:

Jack Bauer (24)
Wonderman (Wv16)
Hulk (MvsC)
Wolverine (Wv6)
Mr.Sinister (Wv41)
M.Bison (SF, P2)
Amazing Spider-Man (Wv24)
Spectre (DC)
Beast (Wv34)
Phoenix (Wv6)

I am most looking forward to getting Mr.Sinister, Spider-Man & The MvsC Hulk figures. The Jack Bauer I know very little having not watched 24, but i plan to use this for a custom Minimate.

I'll post up some more updates and photographs as and when I get them in.