LEGO SKYSCRAPER SERIES

LEGO SKYSCRAPER SERIES

I try to find the sweet spot with my skyscraper models-a scale that is somewhere between the small scale used in the LEGO Architecture series and the huge scale used for the models you would find in a LEGOLAND Miniland. On the other hand, using too small of a scale can force you to compromise on accuracy (probably more than you would find acceptable). But too large of a scale can also result in a massive, unwieldy model with a prohibitively high piece count and cost. The bigger the scale, the more accurately you can represent all the elements of the original building in your LEGO model.

Of course there is a trade-off involved here. well, let me not get too carried away here!Īs far as I am concerned, picking the right scale is the most important decision you need to make when you are designing a LEGO model of a real building. Armed with a good understanding of scale and proportion that my training as an engineer had provided, I set to work designing my first-ever MOC: a model of the Empire State Building. The best part of course, was that we could use the same LEGO pieces that my daughter had been playing with-but we would need many more of them. And as awe-inspiring as this model was, it also looked like something that would not be too difficult for my daughter and I to build (and hopefully we could put our own unique spin on it!). Something about this model appealed to my lifelong fascination with skyscrapers. One model that really grabbed my attention was a model of the Empire State Building built by Sean Kenney.

An innocent query from my daughter about building a “really tall” building out of LEGO prompted a Google search that led me to stumble upon the world of AFOLs and all the amazing MOCs out there that have been built out of LEGO. In my case, I was completely in the dark about LEGO (having never played with it as a child) until I discovered it as a 40-something dad to a then six-year-old who had just started playing with LEGO.

Many AFOLs talk about a “dark age” that they emerged from to rediscover their childhood passion for LEGO. My name is Deep Shen and my journey to AFOLdom has been a little unusual.

Lego skyscraper