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.

Famous towers in London skyline recreated at 1:650 in LEGO

Anyone who’s ever visited London will be sure to recall the city’s amazing skyline with its mixture of historic buildings and contemporary skyscrapers. Czech builder Milan Vančura has picked two of London’s more unique towers to recreate at 1:650 scale, including this model of 20 Fenchurch Street.

Nicknamed the ‘Walkie Talkie’ for its bulbous shape, 20 Fenchurch Street opened in 2015 with much less fanfare and a whole lot more criticism than its architects had imagined – including concerns about a slight solar glare problem which caused sunlight reflecting off the building to reach temperatures of over 90 degrees Celsius at street-level and melt the paint off parked cars. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a city resident who would describe the building as anything other than bloated and inelegant. Nevertheless, the LEGO builder has done a fantastic job recreating the Walkie Talkie’s distinctive design in LEGO form, even including the sky garden which occupies the building’s top floors.

Milan also built one of London’s more eye-catching (and much less controversial) skyscrapers, the Gherkin located at 30 St. Mary Axe.

The builder does a nice job using 1×2 plates to capture the swirling architecture of the Gherkin. Impressively, the LEGO model is completely hollow with only a central pillar and several horizontal beams to support the structure. Milan tells us both models are part of a project to build a microcity exhibit by Czech LUG Kostky. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for more great additions and for the entire exhibit once it’s finished.

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Like a bridge over troubled lava

Whilst collaborative building is often all about massive displays for LEGO shows, sometimes it can result in something smaller, but no less cool. Eli Willsea and Grant Davis follow up on their impressive tropical island megabuild with this microscale scene of two cities separated by a river of fire. This would be an impressive little creation anyway, but knowing it was put together by two different builders somehow only adds to it. There’s a real sense of two different cultures and architectural styles confronting one another from either end of the bridge.

He-Man gets whitewashed

By The Power Of Whiteskull! Grantmasters has the Power! Or he certainly appears to, based on his latest piece of LEGO microscale building. The skull sword hilt is put to excellent use here, and its textured elements give an impressive sense of depth and scale to the tiny castle’s entrance. However, don’t miss the use of skeleton legs, wheels, and a good old-fashioned LEGO maxifigure’s arm in the creation of the rest of the keep’s towers.

You really don’t want these neighbours to knock on your door

Neighbours can be a mixed bunch; some can be horrid if they play their music loudly at night, while others will mow your lawn while you’re on holiday. I think it is safe to say that the neighbours in this inspired microscale scene by Cecilie Fritzvold are more of the silent type. There are a few ingenious parts used in this scene, with a “sunken” technique used to give certain parts a new lease of life at this scale.

The grave stones are a mix of ingots, 1×1 plates with teeth, and blaster trigger mechanisms surrounded by a fence made from grille tiles. I love the nearby church whose structure includes a pair of 2×3 pentagonal tiles sitting at different heights to add depth. The white houses all have roofs made from minifigure laptops; so simple and yet so effective.

Building in microscale is a great way to utilise LEGO parts in different ways, even when a part may seem to have a very specific purpose when first encountered. For example, did you spot the minifigure rollerskates posing as microscale cars? And can you work out how Cecilie has made the trunk of the tree to the left of the church?

Tiny LEGO scene is right up our street

The modular buildings have established themselves as one of LEGO’s most popular product lines (check out our recent review of 10255 Assembly Square, the latest and largest modular set). However, not everyone has the ready cash to hand for these lbigger sets, so de-marco has come up with a lovely microscale town — all the modular buildings you could want, for a fraction of the money!

The wonderful replica of the Ghostbusters firehouse occupies a prominent corner site in de-marco’s version of LEGO Main Street, but it’s the frontages on the bakery on the left, and the Amsterdam-style townhouse on the right which caught my eye. This is excellent microscale that makes me want to go and build tiny towns for myself!

All aboard the micro Hogwarts Express!

Everyone dreams of heading down to platform nine and three quarters and jumping aboard the magical train waiting there. But for those of us who never received our Hogwarts invitation (Obviously, my owl got lost on the way to my house) however, ForlornEmpire‘s amazing microscale LEGO Hogwarts Express is as close as we are going to get.

Empire’s microscale English countryside scene is quite lovely and the mini Express is spot on. All that’s missing from this adorable little scene is some billowing smoke from the egnine.

Microscale LEGO model evokes the indie game Journey with just a few pieces

The adventures of Master Chief and Marcus Fenix I get as an Xbox player are great and all, but it’s becoming clear I’m missing out on great games on PlayStation like The Last of Us and Journey. Mel F. shows love for the critically acclaimed indie title Journey in a vignette full of clever parts usage. Unikitty tails in tan and the arms of the chicken suit minifigure show the flow of a sandstorm, and a dark red minifigure fan as the playable robed character also evokes movement.

This Fernsehturm can make any LEGO micropolis look like tiny Berlin

“Aha, that tower again” my friends mumble rolling their eyes each time I tell them about one of the most famous and unusual towers in the world. Fernsehturm Berlin – which we’ve already seen in the [amazon_link asins=’B017B198E4′ template=’TitleOnlyLink’ store=’tbbwpplugin-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e4759542-e190-11e6-8d87-99954932bf15′]- has a very distinctive shape and Υubnub perfectly captures it at 1:650 scale.

Technically speaking, the tower itself has a pretty plain exterior of concrete and a sphere of steel in the middle. So what makes this build especially good is a couple of buildings on the ground, including a remarkably well executed Pavilion at the base of the tower. Garnished with a several very original varieties of micro trees, this small diorama is ready to shape a perfect skyline of any LEGO micropolis.

It’s freezing out there, let’s stay inside

What better place to snuggle up inside, safely out of the wind and snow, than noggy85‘s cosy LEGO cottage? This is a lovely piece of microscale building, with “baby bow” curves and 1×1 slopes used effectively to create snow-laden trees. And don’t miss the use of a white croissant as smoke coming from the cottage’s chimney…

We’ve seen some good winter-themed microscale LEGO creations this season. I’d like to see even more before Spring.

Rescue the Chancellor in this microscale Jedi Interceptor

Hot on the heels of his smart little LEGO TIE Fighter, Tim Goddard is at it again with a nice microscale rendition of Anakin’s Jedi Interceptor. The model captures the shape and styling of the Eta-2 fighter brilliantly, but the undoubted highlight is the teeny tiny R2D2 — all set to take care of any nano-sized Buzz Droids.

The explosion heard ’round the world

The volcanic eruption in 1883 that destroyed most of the island of Krakatoa was so violent that instruments recorded the blast wave traveling around and around the world several times. Scientists estimate that anybody within 10 miles would have been deafened immediately. Emil Lidé captures this catastrophic natural disaster in LEGO with a beautiful microscale diorama. A bright blue sea and tropical jungle encircle the doomed peak, while flames erupt from the top of the mountain.

Emil demonstrated his mastery of miniature LEGO landscaping with the LEGO tree instructions we featured a few months ago, and these even tinier trees look fantastic.

Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York in LEGO microscale

If you walk along Front West Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario you will see the impressive Fairmont Royal York Hotel. On June 11, 1929, the hotel officially opened. The Royal York changed names and ownership a few times since its humble beginnings as the Ontario Terrace, which consisted of four brick houses, in 1843. Jeff Van Winden has captured the architectural essence of the hotel in LEGO microscale. The sense of scale is emphasised with the busting street below with adorable little microscale vehicles.

I particular like Jeff’s clever solution to the intricate arched windows on the three main blocks at the front with this upturned minifigure basketball stand. Just be sure to book early if the Royal Family are in town, Queen Elizabeth usually has an entire floor reserved for her and her entourage and occupies the Royal Suite herself.