Tag Archives: Microscale

Some say “Go big or go home!” but it takes real talent to compress something down to just a few studs and still keep it recognizable. Of course, many of the micro models we feature here aren’t so small after all, whether it’s a vast cityscape or starship.

A plucky little space patrol craft

Flying through space is not at all like dusting crops, junior. While any self-respecting spaceship tasked with defending a planet wouldn’t be seen without a decent cannon, there are other dangers outside the safety of the atmosphere. Alvaro Gunawan knows about some of these dangers, like solar radiation, and maintaining full power at all times, so they equipped their patrol ship with shields, solar fins, and a couple of big engines. This craft even looks like something NASA or SpaceX might come up with… maybe we’ll live to see something like this sweeping the space around our little rock someday.

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An intimidating armada responds to an alien invasion

If you are planning to respond to a garbled distress call involving aliens of unknown intent, it is wise to bring as much firepower as possible, as spaceship builder Ryan Olsen knows full well. Building a fleet that is recognizable as being part of a larger faction comes down to using certain design elements that can be repeated at different sizes to fit the design of ships with unique purposes, and Ryan pulls this off beautifully. Take the very back of each ship, which includes a blue stripe in the middle of a larger white stripe.

Repetition is another key building technique, and you can see several examples of a simple curved shape, or part, like the ski part used in several ships, and even re-created in brick form for the larger ship. In this close-up of one of the ships, you can also see how a simple part like the dark gray storage container (used as a thruster cowl), can add just the right amount of texture and visual interest.

The icy halls of the frozen north

If there’s one word that encapsulates Jeff Friesen‘s LEGO models more than any other for me, it’s “clean.” His builds always seem to have every single piece precisely where it ought to be. And his latest one looks like it’s from a picture book of the ideal Viking winter world (unlike hellish purgatory of Valheim that’s all the rage right now). This microscale creation doesn’t have any obviously new or even unusually innovative techniques, and yet it’s absolutely splendid from the snowcapped peaks to the tiny longships. The village spreading across the slopes with their tiny mounds of snow on top, and the two giant waterwheels give this settlement a fairytale aspect that I can’t get enough of.

Jeff was the winner of The Brothers Brick 2017 Creation of the Year and it’s well worth checking out the other builds we featured in our archives: Jeff Friesen LEGO creations.

Sphinx Secret Surprise in micro scale

GunnBuilding made a creation inspired by one of the sets I regret not getting as a kid. It’s the 5978: Sphinx Secret Surprise and it is done in micro scale. The set is instantly recognizable. With the grey Sphinx statute, the black tent, an Anubis statue and the classic desert car. There are obelisks, a fire place, a palm tree and this micro model even comes with a raised base plate, just like the original set. The Sphinx supports a classic minifig smile which seems more than fitting since the statue in the set supported quite a simple face too.

Ariandel inspired microscale church

I really enjoy it when a builder thinks outside the box. Nathan Hake shows us that he is very capable of doing so. For his micro-scale LEGO church, he used wheel cover with y shaped spikes for the main round window in the church tower. There are ice scates on the roof and the entrance is a plate with tooth which is brilliant in its simplicity. My guess is that this church is gothic inspired because it matches the 5 key architectural elements: large stained glass windows, pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and ornate decoration. The ribbed vaults are a bit hard to spot from the outside, but we can all imagine them there, right?

The tower of Barad-d’aww

How small can the dark lord get? This teeny, tiny tower of Barad-dûr from The Lord of the Rings was constructed by LEGO builder Hubba Blöoba, and it’s got all the right notes despite its diminutive size. A pair of grey bananas make the two spikes that ring the all-seeing eye, while clips and slopes make up the jagged tower itself. The atmospheric clouds elevate this little vignette further and give it an appropriate sense of foreboding.

Big Ninjago style in a little model

The Ninjago City modular sets are large, there’s no doubt about it. In fact, the latest set in the series, Ninjago City Gardens is one of the 10 largest LEGO sets ever released. When you line up the three sets together they take up quite a lot of space. Well, that’s not an issue with Adeel Zubair, who has built the latest city block in amazingly accurate details.

The inverted brown flower stem makes great tree roots, and the hot dog makes a perfect bridge. One more detail that I love, is the teal corner tiles used for those fancy sloped parts used in the control tower.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Adeel has shrunk the entire series of Ninjago City blocks.

There’s a house on my street, and it looks real neat

There are times when a LEGO fan starts building, gets into the groove of things, then finds it hard to stop. Especially when the build is a small street that keeps growing with each mini modular building placed on it. When I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) attended my LUG‘s (LondonAFOLs) monthly meet-up via Zoom, the theme was mini modular buildings. Every year since 2007, LEGO released a large modular building, each of which can be arranged into a street layout. As a fifth anniversary to the lineup, LEGO created a microscale version of the first few buildings. I started to build a micro modular for the meet-up, and then I couldn’t help but build more. A few days after the meet-up, I ended up with a whole street.

Click to see each micro modular building in detail, along with the build process!

Today’s tiny houses, LEGO edition

I’ve always admired the tiny-house movement and its adherents; it’s always wonderful seeing these little homes while out on a drive. Therefore, unsurprisingly I am also delighted to see minimal LEGO houses often done as mini-builds or in microscale. Patrick’s tiny LEGO house certainly takes LEGO minimalism to the next scale!

In order to execute this build, Patrick uses a combination of vintage and new elements as well as a mix of unique and common pieces. The snowy ground the house rests on is comprised of a few white 1×1 bricks, slopes, and plates arranged by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique. The body of the home mainly makes use of the 2×2 pentagonal plate – a very interesting and not so common piece. Two types of feather pieces are utilized here – the single feather which renders smoke coming from the chimney and the plume feathered headdress which Patrick uses as snow-covered trees. In another build featured below, similar use of old and new, common and unique, is also used.

Teeny-tiny castles for teeny-tiny knights

I loved chivalrous romances and fairy tales as a kid, and as a teen, I delved deep into epic fantasy novels, so it should be no surprise that as an adult, my primary building interest in LEGO has been the castle theme. It seems that Aaron Newman‘s primary interest has also been castle, as his earliest builds are castle builds (and he designed his own unofficial castle theme). Now, he’s a top-notch builder, and he’s branched out into every other theme over the years, but it’s always nice to see someone returning to their roots in an impressive way. These miniature castle scenes are just that. I can’t decide if I like the floating village with a windmill or the picturesque watermill the best, but they’re all stunning.

Don’t miss more of Aaron Newman’s LEGO builds, and be sure to browse the LEGO castle builds archives while you’re here. You are sure to be inspired. And if you just absolutely love these tiny scenes, Aaron has provided free building instructions for them so you can put them on your desk at work or home.

A Quaint Season’s Greetings Scene

Winter is here, and I’m sure many folks are transitioning from holiday cheer to some peace and quiet. This little A-Frame micro-scale build by KitKat1414 certainly embodies the more quiet nature of early January.

Although this model is on the smaller side, there is so much to love. The base is built using the SNOT (studs not on top) technique, while the cobblestone pathway leading to the small home utilizes slopes and tiles placed on their sides, not making connections to studs. The use of the crutch element as a doorway is particularly clever, and I also enjoy the croissant piece in white used to render snow. The little builds comprising snow-covered evergreens and the brown leafless tree add the perfect winter touch to this mostly snowy white build. This model certainly feels a lot like winter.

Will budget cutbacks lead to more small-scale warfare?

The governments of the world spend a lot of money on military hardware. Maybe they should look to Aaron Newman for ways to save some funds. I mean, LEGO is expensive, but it’s not THAT expensive. And these micro-machines look pretty capable to me. Aaron has shared three quality builds, each with clever scale reductions. Standout details include the guns on the battleship made from modified 1×1 round plate, the curved sand-green slopes on the wings of the plane, and the modified cone in the tank’s barrel. If you’d like to build your own, Aaron has made the instructions available for free.

LEGO may not produce official military sets, but that hasn’t stopped the fan community from building their own. Our military archives feature some great builds ranging from the historic to the fantastic. (As well as reviewing the sets that LEGO sort-of-but-not-quite let slip through the cracks.)