Every LEGO-loving home should have some brick-built decorations. Why not take inspiration from seb toutouille and build your own lovely little snow globe model? This is so sweet, with good use of unicorn horns and ice cream scoops to create snowy upper branches for the trees. The silver and gold microfigures add a nice touch of festive sparkle to proceedings too. I could just see this as a table decoration during Christmas dinner.
There’s two things LEGO Castle fans love to build: Trees and walls. Showing us interesting ways to do both is this microscale hideout by Dr. Zarkow. The wooden walls around the main structures are simple enough — just brown bars inserted into the hollow studs of flower pieces with some rubber bands for effect. The custom tree builds are the standout, providing a great reason why we need gears in every colour, and the two buildings are great little medieval builds. The base and the subtle twist of the chimney on the one building are nice touches too.
If you feel nervous about the future and dread the thought of grey concrete buildings taking over our cities, these beautiful microscale futuristic cityscapes by Jeff Friesen should calm your fears. Each unique scene is beautifully crafted, with buildings, transportation links, water, and features like bridges, parks, and flora. The colour schemes have been well thought-out and there are lots of clever details in each scene despite their diminutive size.
Take a closer look at these microscale cityscapes
As winter closes in up in the northern hemisphere, LEGO builders’ attention invariably turns to depictions of snow and ice — and for Star Wars fans, ’tis the season to be Hothy. Tim Goddard uses microscale building to great effect to depict the moment when Luke and Han get rescued after their impromptu overnight camping trip at the start of Empire Strikes Back. The little Snowspeeder is nicely done, but the highlight of this tiny scene is that tiny gutted Tauntaun — corpse-based sleeping bags never looked so good.
Fall is changing to winter, at least in North America, and it always seems to inspire LEGO builders to depict these changing seasons in bricks. emillide has put together a lovely set of tiny cottages, experimenting with many interesting roof and tree techniques, some of which are truly baffling.
Take this summer scene, for example. I am at a total loss trying to figure out how that tree on the left is holding together, but I love it. Also, each cottage has a different base construction, making a nice finished model.
Here’s a pair of cute and colourful microscale LEGO space racers from Victor. Great shaping, partly due to them being built around one of the new(ish) large-scale Nexo Knight figure torsos, but also from some smart parts choices — small angled plates, sloped tiles, and some curved Technic panels. The colour choices are brilliant, making these guys stand out from the usual crowd of grey spacey stuff. And I love the slight angle on the hull beneath the cockpit — that’s a class little detail. These wouldn’t look out of place in an R-Type or Gradius clone, and in my universe that’s a compliment indeed.
The changing colour of trees and their foliage can be diverse in Alpine areas, usually making the long, steep hike with a camera well worth the effort. Inspired while hiking in the Swiss Alps, Emil Lidé has built an artistic impression of these natural foliage changes by creating a beautiful slice of LEGO mountain. As the eye ascends his build from left to right, the colours change from vibrant green and lime though the autumnal palatte of oranges and reddish browns to peak at the stark, snowy summit.
We have blogged previous builds by Emil, showcasing his skill at capturing the natural world in LEGO. Have a look at his polluted ocean, Krakatoa’s volcanic eruption, changing seasons in microscale and fall in the Avalonian countryside.
I have no idea wether the tiny ship in this microscale scene by Andreas Lenander sails for these imposing cliffs out of religious, archaeological, or other reasons, but it sure looks like an adventure I would love to be a part of. The question is not only how the ship’s crew will reach the temples, but how exactly they were built! Realism and practicality aside, this scene is simply gorgeous, and very atmospheric too.
I love the minimalist temples made out of lightsabre handle pieces and the clouds surrounding the rocky island, as well as the well-placed fire at the top of a spike, which stands out in the best of ways. The water is done with a common technique of loose translucent pieces, of which the jewel pieces used by Andreas work the best, in my opinion – as far as the border goes, I am not sure wether I like it or not, but it does look unique and interesting, plus I will never say no to sand blue – and neither should you!
Paul Vermeesch created a microscale layout of his college campus at Wheaton College. Two years in the making, this amazing display consists of about 15,000 pieces and captures the details of all the landmark buildings on campus. There are lots of cool details to discover such as the lines in the football field, the miniature columns in the Greek façade, and the tennis courts.
See more views of this lovely college campus
Break out your magnifying glass for Patrick B‘s mountain village. This miniscule hamlet has a distinct architectural style, with black-clad longhouses of a faintly nordic design. From the palisade wall made of Technic pins to the longhouse butresses made of teeth and a crossbow, Patrick has put all manner of elements to good use.
While the pickaxe as a tiny footbridge is quite clever, and the scraggly wizard’s tower made of robot hands looks appropriately sinister, my favorite details are definitely the covered wagons made with half-round 1×1 tiles. The grooved edges of the tiles fit perfectly as wagon bows under the grey bonnet, and the tile’s hollow underside gives the illusion of an interior.
Sometimes it’s the smallest-scale LEGO building which best illustrates the most epic themes. In this cool little diorama, David Zambito depicts the early phases of humanity’s colonisation of Mars. Well, at least I assume it’s Mars because of the use of all those lovely dark orange pieces. The TIE-Fighter windscreens make perfect domes at this scale, and I like the stacked binoculars as refinery towers. The tiny rovers are cool, and the asymmetrical base adds a heap of character and visual interest. But it’s the use of minifig woollen hats as outlying domed buildings which caught my eye — nice touch.
This impressive 3-foot long container ship by Jussi Koskinen can transport over 700 2×4 brick-sized containers from across your living room to wherever you need them. The use of the curved slopes helps create the gently curved contour of the hull, which is reinforced with a sturdy Technic frame that allows one to pick up the ship from either end. Smooth sailing ahead!
