Small, or far far away?

Some LEGO builders return over and again to the same subject — obsessively tinkering with a particular design, fiddling with the structure or details in an endless quest to “improve” their creation. My particular obsession is with microscale Star Wars — the attempt to capture iconic spaceships and movie scenes in the minimum number of pieces. Microscale building can be a dangerous time-suck of a pastime, as the smallest tweak in part choice or connection can make all the difference in the final appearance of a model. For as long as I’ve been an adult builder I’ve been fiddling around with tiny Star Wars scenes. I must have built these subjects in microscale dozens of times, but on every occasion, the design gets tweaked and revised and tightened. Maybe someday I’ll be content with them, but in the meantime, here are the current iterations. First up, Episode IV: A New Hope

LEGO Star Wars A New Hope

And naturally, you can’t stop with scenes from the first film in a trilogy. You have to complete the set. From the classic original movie, we head straight to Hoth, then on to Dagobah and Bespin, in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

V

And then our galactic tour continues, back to Luke’s home planet of Tatooine, then to Endor, and down into the depths of the Death Star, in Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi

VI

Is my microscale LEGO Star Wars journey over? Absolutely not. I guarantee I’ll revisit these models again, trying to make them better, sharper, smaller. And then, out beyond the Original Trilogy, there’s the Prequel and Sequel Trilogies waiting in the wings, tempting me to tackle them too.

7 comments on “Small, or far far away?

  1. jeremywilliams

    I love these, Rod and have always admired your SW microscope builds. Fancy issuing some instructions for these? They’d go like hot Bantha cakes…

  2. Rod Post author

    Hey Jeremy – thanks. I’ve done some breakdowns and parts lists for some of these models over on Instagram – @thatrodgilliesbloke

  3. Rod Post author

    “Barto: I designed a similar model in LDD with, in my opinion, a better, or more accurate wheel design. You can check out an LDD pic here:”

    As I said in the article, this is latest in a long line of revisions. The sandcrawler was one of the very first SW micros I built – the first version back in 2012 used that design for the wheels. Your design is remarkably similar to that one from 2012 — inevitable I suppose when the builders use common sources of inspiration. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24681250@N07/7132875761/in/album-72157629942859971/

    I made a conscious decision to move away from that track design this time round. I wanted a smaller, tighter model with a cuter feel. I felt the binoculars delivered that well, and allowed me to further shrink the rest of the sandcrawler in proportion.

Comments are closed.