Arc de Triomphe (Architecture)

I have redesigned the border of the roof section - the 1x1 flat circular tiles are a little large for the scale of the model. This change actually reduces the brick count and gives the correct number of circles around the top of the monument

Here are the revised building instructions for the roof section

Just to complete the story of the build I had a couple of surprises when moving the design from LDD to brick.

Free extra detail - the 32 grey clips which make up the roof fence came with a small moulded recess on one side of the base plate. By making sure this side was facing out you get a little more detail on the model.

Stud conflict in brick - the bottom row of bricks (4070) which make up the large arch originally attached directly to the smaller arch bricks. However, the raised 'Lego' moulded on the 4070 stud just touched the arch brick next to it, fractionally forcing it out. This would not have passed review. They now attach to a 1x6 plate which has a flat plate next to it - no studs to touch now.

One change I have made to my own model is to change the bottom row of brick in the large arch from 4070 to 6541, which is the 1x1 brick with a technic hole. There are two reasons they do not appear in the final design, firstly they may be 'illegal' connections, and secondly LDD will not connect them together (so it couldn't appear in the instructions). Lego have used the connection on several of their sets, but it has always been one stud into one hole. If you took the 1x4 brick with three holes and pushed a 1x3 plate's studs into it you get a connection which is very difficult to separate, and does not meet Lego's guideline that a child should be able to disassemble the parts. In my model the connection may be 'legal' as there is no combined friction, the four individual 6541s can be separated from the strip quite easily. Why did I make the change? The base of 6541 looks more like the base of the 1x1 plates that make up the rest of the inside of the large arch (Although there are only a couple of viewing angles where you can see the difference in the finished model). If you stick to the instructions you will have a Lego 'legal' build.

Should anyone decide they want to make their own Arc de Triomphe, I hope you enjoy the design and building experience.

Regards

Eiffleman

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Final section