Adding the Police Station to your modular street
Posted by Huw,
10278 Police Station is designed to connect to other modular buildings, of course, so I've taken a few photos of it next to last year's 10270 Bookshop and 2019's 10264 Corner Garage so you can see what they look like together.
It's suggested on the back of the Police Station's box that it's placed to the right of 10270 Bookshop, so I've tried that, and added 10264 Corner Garage on the right of it.
The problem with this arrangement is that the sand green section of the police station is set a long way back from the front of the corner garage, and the Soap Suds billlbord can't be seen properly.
Putting the station between the two halves of the bookshop resolves these issues, although the house doesn't look the best between the station and the garage. There are probably other configurations that will look better but I don't have others at my disposal to try with.
So, this is how I'm currently displaying it, and I think it looks nice and balanced, although ideally the street lamps would be further apart.
Once you have it for yourself I am sure you'll enjoy finding the optimum position for it in your modular street.
I was not entirely satisfied with the photos of the police station, and those above taken earlier in the week, so I've decided to revert to a grey background. I ordered a new backdrop from eBay which arrived this afternoon. I think it helps the colours 'pop' more, partly due to the lack of reflections on the shiny bricks. Let me know what you think.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the Police Station for this article. All opinions expressed are my own.
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42 comments on this article
I'm honestly a fan of the first arrangement you have most. I like the little alcove between the police station and the garage : ) Adds some depth to the buildings!
If you still have other modulars built, it might be really nice to have a full "arrangement of the modulars" article at some point, going over the best-looking possibilities. Just a thought!
With a building immediately to the right hand side of this set (looking at the front), the best option for having the bilboard visible would probably be Downtown Diner or Market Street
Oddly enough, the more I look at it the more I like that building. I wasn’t on the anti black packaging bandwagon, but now that I think about it, that box somehow makes it look plain.
Is there an official or suggested way to display all the modulars together?
Posts like this make me wish I'd jumped on the modular bandwagon. These really look great.
And if you need a large evidence room or additional prison cells for Modular streets and CITY layouts with an above-average crime rate, you could perfectly attach the Police Station to the IDEAS "Basement & Sewerage" Modulars underground extension set:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/d5c2a435-8082-40f6-a76c-697b14ae7317
My plan is to put it to the right of Green Grocer, where an entrance to the (now downsized) park is. I like the idea of having a newsstand next to it, and I think the lavender & sand green will work as well, that way a person can buy their paper then go relax in the park. We’ll see how it actually turns out when I get my hands on it.
The green part of the building with the newsstand looks like it's a bit deeper than I expected. While it does look nice on its own, it might not work out as great with all of them, like shown above with the very forward Corner Garage blocking the billboard a bit. I think the Parisian Restaurant might have its facade pushed back just enough to fit. Or maybe the teal house from the Bookstore.
But yeah, great build otherwise, I'm so excited for January 1st!
@DavidBrick said:
"I'd go Teal House, Station, Bookstore. I love how the teal and the purple look next to each other."
I was thinking the exact same!!
@Legoguy29 said:
"My plan is to put it to the right of Green Grocer, where an entrance to the (now downsized) park is. I like the idea of having a newsstand next to it, and I think the lavender & sand green will work as well, that way a person can buy their paper then go relax in the park. We’ll see how it actually turns out when I get my hands on it. "
As soon as I saw the sand green of the recessed section I also plan on trying it next to the Green Grocer. I’m the hoping the alignment of the facing will look good.
From what I have available, I think to the left of Parisian Restaurant or Downtown Diner are the best bet, to ensure the billboard can be seen.
I currently have the Corner Garage by itself in the left corner of my room. It sits across from the Brick Bank, which allows the laundry to join the Detective's Office and the rest of my modulars in a row.
I intended to place the Police Station in the corner and slide the Corner Garage forward. I thought donuts would be perfect next to a garage, the police department would be ideal across from the bank, and a jail in the far corner might be best for my Lego citizens. But thanks to these pictures, I'm thinking that if I do that I will never see that green section or the advertisement. Back to the drawing board.
The Police Station has now sold me on the Bookstore. Modulars are dangerous like that..
Grey background is defiantly the move
I'll try Diner, PetShop, Bookstore, Police Station, Parisian Restaurant, BrickBank
What about just expanding the block chronologically? Corner garage on the left -> Bookstore -> police station.
If you go back to slightly less recent modular buildings, Brothers Brick's review positioned it quite attractively between the Brick Bank on the left and the Downtown Diner on the right. The Diner's position helps the billboard remain prominently visible while putting the Brick Bank on the other side complements the shared storytelling elements in the two sets.
You can put it on the rightmost end of your street(on the other end from the Corner Garage) so the billboard is maximally visible to the viewer. If you have Cafe Corner, it should be on the opposite side of the street, and maybe diagonal across the intersection, so that the viewer also sees the correct side of the "HOTEL" sign.
Honestly, I'd put two 8x16 baseplates on the right side and make a sidewalk.
As someone who has collected every single modular building released, I’m personally excited to try out the different combinations with the Police Station when I get it. I can envision it working well between the Brick Bank on the left and the Detective’s Office on the right, but it’ll be hard to tell for myself until I have received and built the new set.
Also, great article, as always!
What if you flipped the bookstore half and the house half, reversing which is on each side of the police station? So the order from left to right would be House, Police Station, Bookstore, Corner Garage.
I am pleased that I found a reason to buy some modular buildings. I don't have a city and don't intend to start one. Recently I realize that I do like the residential modular buildings so I got the Pet shop and Bookshop for the split build. It would be nice to see all the residential buildings line up together.
I want to see it by the Bank and Fire Station...
Those one door wide buildings look weird and uncomfortable to me no matter what. I'm really not sure why they split them up like that into a 3 building config instead of 2. I would have been much more interested if the donut shop was of more prominence. I'm not eager to add this much beige to my modular display anyway, so if I do acquire one it will likely stay in the box for quite some time. I am interested to see how others will display theirs though.
aren't there at least a dozen modulars out yet? There is plenty of space in all those I presume.
"So, this is how I'm currently displaying it, and I think it looks nice and balanced, although ideally the street lamps would be further apart."
This is an easy fix, its Lego after all! Just make some alterations to the sidewalk by rearranging the tiles and lampost!
I would like to build this set in a mirror stile and put it beside the corner café from The town square set. Two purple buildings will look great together.
OK, this will be a lot of work, BUT if you remove the cornercafe with musicstore and dancestudio building from 10255 Assembly Square, and stick the flowershop and bakery building to the right of the policestation, it will probably look pretty good. I suppose that leaves you with another challenge: what to do with the cornercafe building; rebuild it mirrored, and stick it to the donutshop?!?!
Or...
Just put Parisian Restaurant on the right side next to the policestation. It is not the same colour green, and I don't know how visible the Soap n Suds billboard still is, but I could live with that, I suppose, maybe.
I like to build in some gaps between the buildings for alleyways, bins, takeaway mopeds etc. as most streets aren’t just buildings butted up against each other so would probably build in an 8-10 wide tiled gap next to the corner garage to allow police vehicles to access the rear of the station maybe even wider to include a barrier and sentry box
New background is great.
I always thought you just add new sets to the right of the oldest building.
New Background definitely helps with all colors popping more! As for the Police Station, all the different configurations just seem awkward. They should have considered how it would look next to the Fire Brigade. But again, they would make too much sense! And the marketing team said this would make the most money!!!! Come one Lego, Let a modular go through Ideas so we can get a truly inspirational build from the community. Lets face it, the community has better ideas than whats going on over at Billund.
To get rid of reflections in the bricks I recommend the use of a polarizing filter on your camera
@patronics said:
"Is there an official or suggested way to display all the modulars together?"
The box for this new Modular shows an example that I would consider "official" but at the end of the day it's just a suggestion. Also see the designer videos that show lots of the modulars together.
Dark grey is definitely better.
@Fulinkazan said:
"To get rid of reflections in the bricks I recommend the use of a polarizing filter on your camera"
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe polarising filters are only useful for subjects lit by natural light/the sun.
Having watched the designer video for the police station modular, it's definitely growing on my.
I do like the idea of having a central building with narrow buildings either side - but it also creates a problem with trying to put the modulars side-by-side, as there really isn't anything designed with the recessed part of the police station in mind.
What would probably work best is a mirror build of the corner garage - so that the garage entrance can sit next to the police station, and the vets door sitting around the corner.
I’m dying to see what the police station looks like with the green grocer to it’s right.
Looks like the green of the new station will match up with it well.
Roll on January 1st!
I have a sort of town square including the town hall, assembly square and a couple of MOC's (including my partners shop - in lavender as she likes purple!) so the Police Station will form a further closing off of the forth side of this. Adjacent to where the olive green part is I have a small side street formed of 16x16 road plates so the billboard will be clearly visible from there. The narrow street contains the new Harry Potter buildings, adapted with rear walls added...
I like the first optioned setup. Seems to balance nicely with the Corner Garage.
@Huw:
Nope. Light sources produce unpolarized light. There are two ways that it can become polarized. One is to pass through a polarized filter. This is how modern 3D movies work, projecting one image through a vertical filter, and another through a horizontal filter (and the audience wears glasses with one vertical and one horizontal filtered lens so that each eye only sees the correct image). The other way to polarize light is for it to reflect off of a surface. The most famous example of this is when light strikes hot pavement at a really shallow angle, causing a mirage to appear.
"So, this is how I'm currently displaying it, and I think it looks nice and balanced, although ideally the street lamps would be further apart."
This is an easy fix, its Lego after all! Just make some alterations to the sidewalk by rearranging the tiles and lampost!
Not sure how to show above as a quote.
I've found with last couple of modulars I've had to move street lamps so that mini figures can navigate pavements without stepping in the road eg corner garage to left of Parisian restaurant.