Mini-modular Church

I have largely been working only on sets since exiting my dark ages, but a contest over on Toys N Bricks got me interested in trying my hand at a MOC. The challenge: build a micro-scale modular that would fit in with the official Mini-modular line.

Here is my attempt at the contest, which I designed as a church-like building. Every city needs a church, right? Sadly, I have a feeling my build was a little too light on details. Many of the contest entries made use of the 300-part limit much more effectively. In the voting so far, I think I've only managed to pick up one point.

On the build itself, I started by using Lego Digital Designer (LDD), a great little program that's free on LEGO.com. This was the first time I had used the program, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to figure out. My only complaint about LDD is that it's very difficult to pull a parts list for your design. That was a bit of a pain when it came time to inventory the parts I needed and order what I was missing.

The front is supposed to resemble a traditional church facade with a sweeping archway entry, some greenery, and the large stained glass windows. At this size, detail in the glass was too difficult. I just tried to use alternating 1x1 trans plates to give a good mix of colors.

The inside of the building was built up using trans blocks once I reached the window levels. This was intended to at least let some natural light filter through to make the windows shine. If I had a light brick, I might have attempted to use that to give that "lit up" effect. Instead, I just set up a small LED flashlight behind the building and took a picture that way.

The back was kept pretty simple. You can't really see it, but there's a door in the back of the courtyard with an awning over it. The trees kind of shield it too much though, so the detail does not really come through that well at this scale. Granted, most of the full-sized modular building don't have that much detail on the backs either.

I think the final product turned out about how I imagined it from the start. I was pleased with the build, even if others offered some very creative and detailed entries of their own.