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.

Take a small trip to this Studio Ghibli-inspired diorama

In the LEGO hobby, some builders like to be able to build everything and anything; but some pick a specialist subject and stick to it, forever improving their craft. It’s fair to say that Jeff Friesen falls into the latter category, with his superb microscale cities and landscapes. But what sets Jeff apart is the variety he is capable of capturing within that niche! We’ve seen everything from his steampunk cities to Viking villages, and now we have a Studio Ghibli-inspired diorama to feast our eyes on. This one was actually rebuilt from a 20×20 stud footprint to a 24×24 base before being called finished. Ever the perfectionist, Jeff!

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A little lunar liftoff

For the past few years, I haven’t had as much time to build as I once did. That’s a tale that’s no doubt familiar to many of our readers with careers and families. That also means that when I do find time to build, I’m working through the backlog of ideas that have been piling up in my brain. And so lately I’ve found myself returning over and over to microscale space, because my brain has a logjam of sci-fi scenes I want to translate to bricks before moving on to pirates or castle or any of the other myriad themes I enjoy.

Set in the same universe as my previous large spaceships Vanguard and Discovery, this simple diorama depicts a launch facility on the moon with an attached habitat. I built the rocket first as a standalone model, but I wanted a better way to display it, and what better way to display a rocket than with a huge burst of engine exhaust? And of course, any facility on the moon worth its salt needs a habitat.

Thai-style church gets the LEGO architecture treatment

While the LEGO Group may have only just released the first set based on a house of worship with 21061 Notre-Dame de Paris, churches have long been a popular theme for adult builders, whether coming from an interest in architecture, history, or faith. Inspired by a recent trip to Thailand, builder Anne Mette Vestergård recreates a landmark church very different from the cathedrals and chapels more often seen in LEGO: the Holy Redeemer Church of Bangkok. Built in 1954, the church is built in the style of traditional Thai temples, with square columns, stacked gables, enameled tiles, and decorative chofa along the roof edges. Anne Mette does a phenomenal job recreating the details in miniature, down to the microscale cars out front. Unikitty tails in white integrate surprisingly well as a Thai-style flourish. But it’s that colorful tile roof in the distinct Thai palette that makes the church sublime.

Danish builder Anne Mette creates large-scale architectural models professionally, mostly at minifig scale, for public viewing. Whether you’re interested in Nordic history, theme parks, or LEGo as a medium to explore current events, her works are well worth checking out.

Cruisin’ for a bruisin

TBB alum Mansur Soeleman is back with a heavy-duty LEGO cruiser that can dish it out with the best of them! Using only one technic plate, a slope, and two plates with bars, Mansur has built a gun turret that he’s peppered across the ship. I count seven visible, can you find more? Be sureake in all of the fascinating greebling between the armor panels on ship. And speaking of armor, gander at the tiny rounded indent just below the command deck, to the right of that turret. Mansur has added some extra texture using a pair of finger hinge pieces from yesteryear, likely to reverse the stud direction in the span of a plate. But, the star of the armor show is the 8x1x3 slope. Mansur has used six of them just on this half of the ship to create the angular and geometric paneling. With all of that done, all that’s left to say is “punch it”!

Baseball bat building built from bricks!

We’ve got a LEGO build here from Jonah Schultz and I gotta say he’s knocked it out of the park! His microscale skyscraper is all about bats that were only available in a minifigure pack from 2018. The minifigure bats make up most of the outer structure of the skyscraper, but did you notice that the power-line poles are bats as well? The sneakiest use of the bat is for that tiny tanker truck. The building isn’t the only heavy hitter; That whole road network below the building is brick-built. The dashed lines between the lanes are made from brackets embedded deeper into the road. Back to the building, did you notice how those bats make a diamond shape? Can’t be an accident when this build is a home run!

Hats off to this microscale Neuschwanstein Castle

This wonderfully detailed model of the famous Neuschwanstein castle in southern Germany by Geneva Durand is packed with nice part usage for sure, from the many different sizes of cone-shaped elements forming the tower roofs to the gears and teacups for the towers themselves. But one of my favorite details would have to be the many non-tree elements used to surround the castle with nature. Archer hats, ranger hoods, and the bottom jaw of a dinosaur are among the many cleverly used parts.

Microscale LEGO beacon of civilization

When building microscale, a certain eye is needed to find unusual uses of LEGO elements designed for a larger scale. Uncharted Fabrications demonstrates this with their masterful use of minifigure accessories in this ancient city nested among waterfalls and rocks. From the teapots used as gates to coffee mugs “holding” up the main angled roof to various bowls turned domed roofs, this build is packed with expert-level part usage. The rockwork which serves as a backdrop is also quite nice. Building with studs in multiple directions and a variety of curved elements, the terrain is almost as interesting as the city.

A miniature church with lots of charm

Microscale building is a great way to flex your creative part usage, and this lovely church by Jens Ohrndorf is no exception. The seed part in this model is a trunk lid from the Fabuland theme (the red roof of the main church) to match the red tower roof. Printed window frames from Harry Potter sets make great stained-glass windows, but one of my favorite details is the green minifigure hair pieces used for bushes.

Long have I desired to look upon this tiny LOTR diorama

In a film full of striking imagery, there’s one scene that nevertheless manages to capture the gravity, grandeur, and beauty of Middle-earth all on its own. I’m talking about the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring when the eponymous Fellowship takes the Anduin river past the towering Argonath, colossal statues that mark the ancient borders of Gondor. MorlornEmpire‘s fabulous microscale LEGO Argonath captures the moment in miniature. The (tiny) giant statues themselves are instantly recognizable, their outstretched arms captured with rounded tiles and plates, but it’s the tinier things (like the overturned 1×1 plate-with-tooth elements for boats or the lighter-blue SNOT plates for the boats’ wakes) that really make this build worthy of the great kings of old.

The Borg of Star Trek are never bourgeois

As intimidating as the Borg can be in Star Trek, the Next Generation, I still recommend lowering the shields for this gorgeous LEGO transmission by Pandis Pandus. It’s a stellar example of what we in the brick-building business call “greebling.” But unlike the Borg, don’t let this technical lingo scare you. Think of it as a “technical texture,” all pipes and tubes and grills serving some nondescript purpose on a spacecraft. And unlike the smooth exterior of a ship like the Enterprise, all these bumps and ridges don’t play nice with aerodynamics and the need to enter a planet’s atmosphere. On fact, you should use it on your next build -no, on EVERY build from now on. Assimilate. Assimilate.

Just an itsy-bitsy taste of nostalgia

If you need a little more nostalgia in your life, you can get some teeny-tiny doses from these LEGO builds by Rick Brickham! Rick has taken on the challenge of miniaturizing a number of classic LEGO sets from years past. Not only are these great representations of the larger sets, they are examples of great building techniques in their own right. Let’s take a look at each build individually!

Click here for some close-ups!

Pushing the boundaries in the Bio-cup

There’s nothing better than being surprised by a LEGO builder, is there? We’ve featured Eero Okkonen many a time on this here blog, and you might be familiar with his fantastic character builds in our archives. Personally, I was so familiar with them that I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he also built this awesome “Reactorback Strider”! It was built for the on-going Bio-cup competition, and it’s quite unlike anything he (or anyone else, for that matter) has built before. To my eyes it has one foot in the Horizon video game series, with the other firmly in Dieselpunk or retro-futurism. In reality it seems it’ll soon have both of them in that brutalist-looking microscale town, though. I love the way it looks, but even more than that, I love seeing a builder push their boundaries!

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