I get a $50 budget.....where to start

[kingleorama]

Alright, I've been out of the loop for about 2 years. I have accumulated quite a few medievel themed lego sets over the years and would like to get building again. Only, my issue is that I don't have the right pieces to make anything that looks good...Any recommendations on what sets or individual parts I should buy to get going? I have a $50 budget, and ebay has nothing for me at the time.

[wobnam]

This is interesting; could you tell us a bit about what you have and what you want to build? Do you need minifigures?

[Medieval Guy]

Lego Pick a Brick is great, as is Bricklink, for individual parts. Fifty bucks won't get you very far with those, though.

[kingleorama]

I'm looking for a few figures, but mostly pieces for walls.. sorry I didn't mention that. Any grey pieces to make cliffsides, or just walls in general. Grey, preferably, because that's what I have a decent collection of.

[Medieval Guy]

You might check out this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19137

[AK_Brickster]

I'd recommend that you start building, and then when you have a good idea of what you need, go and pick it up from bricklink. It's pretty easy to blow $50 if you just go on there thinking "well, I sure could use 50 of this and 20 of this, and I'll probably need some of this eventually. While I'm at it, I might as well add this, this, and this!"
Take it from someone who has done that a few times, lol.
Also, make sure you're getting the right color gray to match what you have. If you've been out of it for a while, you might have a lot of "old gray", and if you plan on matching that, you're going to pay a lot more because it's discontinued.

[wobnam]

I feel pretty confident that unless you either a) have an extensive collection of old gray (which this thread suggests you don't) or b) have extremely strong feelings about old gray, the best solution is to forget all about old gray and start collecting bley (Light/Dark Bluish Gray).

As for what to get I agree with AK_Brickster, but if you can find Kingdoms (especially if on clearance) perhaps picking up a few before they disappear would be nice.

[Bluesecrets]

If you have a decent size collection of old grey, there are people around, like me who will buy it off of you at a decent price so you can pick up bley. Or, there are people, like me , who use bley for trade fodder. You just need to find the right person, who is willing to give you a decent deal. Turn old grey into cash, and your LEGO budget increases.

But to be honest, I do agree that starting on bricklink is a good place. Figure out what your project is, and hunt for some parts that you think would be good to have at a good price in good numbers. Oh and a little hint, if 1x2 light bley is what you are looking for, well this part:



in light bley is a heck of a lot cheaper than 1x2's and if you are building a solid building, those clips are easy to hide on the interior.

[Hayden.]

I feel pretty confident that unless you either a) have an extensive collection of old gray (which this thread suggests you don't) or b) have extremely strong feelings about old gray, the best solution is to forget all about old gray and start collecting bley (Light/Dark Bluish Gray).

As for what to get I agree with AK_Brickster, but if you can find Kingdoms (especially if on clearance) perhaps picking up a few before they disappear would be nice.

I disagree with needing grey or bley to build castles, I don't have very much grey or bley, so I use black and grey, its quite effective!
See-
http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/309194

[AK_Brickster]

While using black with gray to highlight the corners can look neat, be very wary of relying on black as your main building color. When I first started to come out of my dark age, I bought a ton of black because it was cheaper than grey. Well, it turns out that when you build in black, you can't see ANY of the features you put into it. It all just blends in with each other. You certainly CAN use black to good effect, but just keep in mind that it's a lot trickier, and you'll need to use some other color to highlight corners, windows, or other features that you want to stand out.

[Frank_Lloyd_Knight]

You might also consider using LDD or other software to design your projects, so when you do go to bricklink or wherever you can target just the exact pieces you know for certain you will need.

[mencot]

frank that is a good idea, I sometimes do that, sometimes it works, problem is if you don't find all the parts that you want from sameutta seller, you have to make many orders from diffrent shops.

[Hayden.]

While using black with gray to highlight the corners can look neat, be very wary of relying on black as your main building color. When I first started to come out of my dark age, I bought a ton of black because it was cheaper than grey. Well, it turns out that when you build in black, you can't see ANY of the features you put into it. It all just blends in with each other. You certainly CAN use black to good effect, but just keep in mind that it's a lot trickier, and you'll need to use some other color to highlight corners, windows, or other features that you want to stand out.

While I agree its harder to see details, it just makes you have to try harder to get the details to not only look better but to look more distinguished, the rest I agree with, use grey for the corners then using grey around the windows makes it look great!

[OverLoad]

I know you said you were looking for gray in order to put in walls and such, but I would suggest investing in a lot of green. Being that most castles were situated on nice green turfs of grass, and nearby forests, you'll need a lot of those if you plan on doing anything like that. Thats often what i overlook when shopping in bulk pieces; I go straight for the bley, tan, black and darker colors while I almost always forget green, dark tan, orange, and other earthy colors.