Lepin 15003 Not Lego Town Hall Set Review - Part Three

I'll admit it. I've been procrastinating.  I finished building the Lepin Town Hall last week, but just haven't gotten around to posting the pictures.  Today, I promise to wrap up this blog post.  It's the last of the three part review of the largest Lepin modular set (well, not counting the Ghostbuster's Firehouse or the upcoming Haunted House).  If you missed the first and second parts of this review, you can find part one here, and part two here.

Day Nine

Here's how the Lepin Town hall looks after nine days.  I'm currently at step 30 of the second storey.  If you include the 62 steps of the first floor, I've just completed 92 steps of the instruction manual.

The last ten steps have been pretty mundane, as all I've done is to build up the walls of the second storey and add a few doors and windows.  Pictured above is the new elevator door and buttons.

 The mayor gets some privacy with the addition of a door to his office.

Second storey windows look onto the open atrium.  Not sure why the designers didn't continue using fixed pane windows on the back wall.  The ones provided have opening panes but nobody is going to open and close them at this height.

Front windows and glass door for the small terrace installed.

The administrative assistant will have nice views from her desk.

The mayor also gets an arched opening in his office overlooking the atrium.

Back wall of the town hall.

There were another three more steps to finish building the town hall's second floor, so I completed the remainder of the build.

Here's a few more views of the completed second storey.

Day nine is a wrap, second storey complete.

Day Ten

The first ten steps of the third floor.

A very quick build today.  Just laid out the floor and foundation perimeter for the third storey.

Third storey placed on top of the second storey.

Day Eleven

The walls are going up on the third storey.  This floor is one giant board room.  Sparsely furnished with a grand table, a throne like seat and other chairs.  I don't understand why the elevator on this floor needs an up button, as there's no other floor above this one.  

Installed the rear facing windows using the same design as the second storey.

 Town Hall, rear view.  One hundred and fourteen steps of the instructions completed.

Day Twelve

 On day twelve, we finished the third storey of the Town Hall modular.

The front of the town hall.

Last look at the finished boardroom.  Looks like a super villain meeting has already been booked.

Almost there!

Day Thirteen

The roof.

Roof added to the top of the town hall.

Two skylights made from garage door panels.  These were very tricky to install properly.

Day Fourteen

So all that's left on day fourteen is to build the clock tower.

There's an extension ladder to be used for clock maintenance.

The clock tower attached to the roof.

Here's the steeple with bell inside.

Clock tower and steeple completes the roof of the Town Hall.

The completed Lepin Town Hall, rear view.

Front view of the Town Hall.

These were the leftover parts from the Town Hall build.  I was fortunate in not having any missing pieces.

Here's the Lepin Town Hall next to the Lepin Cafe Corner.

Final Assessment

Design wise, I really like the elevator and the roman columns.  I also liked the twin skylights, but found that there was still not enough light going into the building from the roof.  The Town Hall is adequately furnished, which is on par with the Lepin Fre Brigade.

The build quality of the Lepin Town Hall set was excellent.  No problems with any loose or ill-fitting pieces.  I found that there was hardly any residue on the bricks, which was more noticeable on the Cafe Corner and Fire Brigade.  No missing or damaged parts.  

I paid about $90 CAD, making it my most expensive Lepin modular purchase to-date.  If you don't have this set yet, go buy it now.  You won't be disappointed.

Lepin 15003 Not Lego Town Hall Set Review - Part Two

Hello and welcome back to the construction of the Lepin Town Hall modular building.  Sorry for the taking so long to get to this second update.   Part One of the Town Hall build can be found here.     Without further ado, let's return to the Town Hall to see how the build is progressing.

Day Five

Most of this day involved constructing the Town Hall's elaborate facade which includes the columns and support system for the portico.  

 Interior wise, not much has changed on the main floor.  We find our mini figure couple in the auditorium having a lively exchange.  Let's hope they're not bickering about something already.

In the previous post I thought that the first floor was pretty much completed, but I was wrong.  There's another couple of rows of dark gray bricks that were installed with more windows at the back of the building.  Wow, this first floor is almost as high as the main floor of the Fire Brigade modular.

Did a preliminary test of the elevator and it's working fine.  I'm really looking forward to the completion of the main floor front facade.   That's it for another ten steps done!

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Day Six

Day six was probably the most challenging part of the Town Hall build because it is between steps 48 thru 61 where you will recall from my previous post that the Lepin instruction manual was incorrectly put together.   The area that was specifically affected was the portico that protrudes from the front of the building.  I improvised as much as I could, before going on-line to confirm the proper brick placement.

Here is the completed facade and I must say that this is my most favourite element of the Town Hall.  

Here's a closer look at the exquisite details of the portico.  My only nitpick is that the front doors can't fully open because of the proximity of the columns.  

I would love to rebuild the front so that it protrudes out further giving some space between the columns and the front walls.

At long last the ground floor is finished!  We started to lay our first orange-brown bricks.

Here's the helicopter view of the completed main floor.  Day six done.

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Day Seven

On Day seven, we start a new level, yay!  Although it's still ten steps, it doesn't look like we accomplished much today, other than laying down the foundation of the second floor.

A lamp post and landscaping completes the front of the Town Hall . I install the second floor onto the first for a quick test fit.

Unlike the first floor which was mostly light and dark gray, the second floor will be composed primarily of the red brown bricks.  This is a unique colour for me, as I don't have any other bricks in this colour in my collection.

Looks like the mini figure couple is taking some preliminary photos on the steps of the Town Hall with their professional wedding photographers.  I guess they can't wait for the Town Hall building to finish construction.  Sorry for the delays!   Day seven over and out.

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Day Eight

The second floor walls are starting to take shape and they were quick to bring in the furnishings, such as the office desks, lamps and rug.

Everybody is already testing out their workspaces before the second floor is even completed.  Luckily the second floor railings are in place so nobody accidentally falls into the first floor from all the excitement.

The original office administrator's (we don't say secretary anymore do we?) was a tad too small for her impending workload, so I gave her a L shaped desk and gave her some technology in the form of a computer.

Here's a closer look at the admin's desk.

Hey wait, is that Spiderman paying us a visit and posing for pictures? Cool!

At the back, the window sills have been installed to support the second storey windows.  So this was a fairly long blog post that covered the activities spanning days five through eight.  I guess there will need to be a third blog post to report on the final completion of the Lepin Town Hall.  Stay tuned and thanks for looking!

Update: here's the third and final post for the Lepin Town Hall review