I am afraid I will not be able to do your cost estimates. They are hard enough to do whenever I get asked for a commissioned project. So far most of my estimates have been too high for my potential customers, but I would rather lose a commission than work for a pittance or even at a loss.
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Originally Posted by alvaro1983
I really have no idea about the costs for the buildings. Would you have an idea about the approximate costs for the 1:100 and the 1:50 scale buildings?
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My general advice is to figure out a scale you might want to build in and estimate the number of LEGO parts needed. I generally assume a cost of 10 cents per part and then add an additional 50 - 100% for labor depending on how challenging the project is. Spencer, Arthur and others who do commissioned projects most likely charge for commissioned projects using different criteria.
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Originally Posted by alvaro1983
As for parts, that sounds like a good idea about the corner. Once I have a spending budget that'll be the way to start. Do you start your building with Lego Digital Designer at all or just hands-on?
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As you have probably seen, some builders use LDD but for me LEGO is a way to escape computers for a few hours. I take photos, draw a floor plan to scale, order parts, and then start building.
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Originally Posted by alvaro1983
For these skyscrapers, do they use the regular Lego blocks or the thin ones (or does it vary with scale)? Do you have any idea how I could achieve that curved look of the building?
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If you build in micro- or nano- scale you can use 1 stud wide plates or bricks with no problem (Spencer is the expert in that scale). There are often techniques employed such as facades consisting of sideways plates and tiles to add detail. Most of my structures have 2 stud thick walls with some internal cross beams. In my Fisher Building model (my largest model), the main piers between the windows are four studs thick.
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Originally Posted by alvaro1983
Do you have any idea how I could achieve that curved look of the building?
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If I were building that structure, I would look into simply stepping each floor in or out one stud near the top and bottom of the building and by 1/2 stud near the middle. There are various methods of creating 1/2 stud offsets. For example, there is a 2x2 plate with 1 stud in the center. You could put one of these at each corner of the top of the 6th floor for example and put tiles elsewhere along the perimeter. The 7th floor would then just cover those four studs and leave a 1/2 stud setback all-around.
From there just take whatever LEGO you have now (or order some) and start experimenting.
-Jim