Micro-Scale Landscaping
Posted by benbuildslego,
LEGO bricks tend to be pretty square. Nature…not so much. This reality coupled with the challenges of building at micro-scale can make designing landscapes challenging.
In this article, I will describe some basic tips I have discovered while building my own micro-scale MOCs.
Change Up Your Slopes
Creating a rocky terrain with LEGO bricks is simple enough with a combination of different slope pieces. However, simply placing slope pieces on top of each other can quickly start to look repetitive and simplistic. To help avoid this, you can take your build to the next level by using studs not on top (SNOT) techniques to create a wider variety of angles.
You can see the effect this variation creates in the Naboo section of my Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy skyline.
You could also fully commit to SNOT techniques and build an entire rocky terrain in this manner. You can see this sideways approach in my “Beauty and the Beast” skyline, where I used the Modified Plate 1 x 2 with 3 Claws / Rock Fingers (27261) all around the castle to mimic a steep rocky slope.
Lastly, for imitating rocky terrain, I have often found that slopes alone can appear bland. You can further spice up their appearance by adding trusty 1 x 1 Round Plates (4073) whenever possible. This simple addition can help break up the monotony of slope pieces.
You can see this effect clearly in the Southern Air Temple section of my “Avatar: The Last Airbender” skyline. Within this micro-build, I only allowed myself eight studs of width to represent each element (Air, Water, Earth, and Fire). While the dark tan slopes provide the basic structure of the mountain, the dark bluish grey round plates help provide a little extra indication of rocky texture.
Experiment with Wedge Plates
Slope pieces are the most obvious solution for creating inclines and changing terrain, but do not overlook the utility of wedge plates. The angles of wedge plates naturally add interest since they cannot help but cut against the generally square nature of most bricks.
Alternating between different sizes of wedge plates can provide a unique texture and gradient that simply cannot be accomplished with slope pieces. A clear example of this approach can be seen to the left of the Sleeping Beauty Castle within my Disneyland Paris skyline.
In the actual park, there is a fantastical, tiered hill that meets up to the side of the castle. When designing this skyline-style MOC, I knew I would be tight on space. But I also knew that just using regular slope pieces would look overly simplistic next to the intricate castle. As you can see, I ended up mostly using combinations of different wedge plates in different colours to craft this unique incline.
Of course, slope pieces and wedge plates do not need to be used entirely independently of each other; however, I have found that using predominantly one or the other does help define a style for the overall MOC.
You can compare the two approaches in my Hyrule Castle and Peach’s Castle MOCs. The world of Mario is cartoony, bubbly, and inviting. To drive this home, I employed mostly curved, gentle slopes for the rolling hills in front of the castle. On the other hand, the world of Zelda has a bit more of an edge to it. To highlight the rugged terrain, I used the wedge plate approach in front of the castle, which creates a more jagged effect.
Mix Up The colours
If you have read my previous articles, I am surely starting to sound like a broken record on this point. But it is still worth emphasising again: mix up the colours! A simple change in colour at micro-scale can automatically suggest additional detail.
What’s more, it also makes your MOC more interesting to look it. If you are building a wintery landscape, do not rely solely on white bricks. To mix it up, you could also include transparent tiles and light blue / light bluish grey pieces. Colour contrast is innately interesting to the human eye.
A simple example of this principle can be found within the side wings of my “Thor” skyline, which represent the icy world of Jotunheim and the New Mexico desert where Mjölnir has crashed.
You can see for the wintery landscape of Jotunheim is mostly communicated through stacking wedge plates of dark blue, dark bluish grey, and light bluish grey. Likewise, the New Mexico side is a combination of reddish brown and dark tan wedge plates. It is simple colour contrasts like these that can add an extra level of interest to any MOC.
Flowers Become Trees
Building in micro-scale opens you up to a whole world of interesting parts usages. What you can quickly discover is that minifigure-scale flowers become trees and bushes at micro-scale. Any foliage piece becomes a giant within a micro-scale landscape.
You can see in my skyline for “The Simpsons,” Round 1 x 1 Plates with Flower Edge (24866) play the part of bushes in several sections. Additionally, you can see you can make simple trees with a combination of 3L / 4L bar pieces, 2 x 2 round plates with axle hole, and 1 x 1 round plates (Bonus points to whoever recognises the two Easter eggs hidden among the trees!)
The recently introduced piece, Plant Stem with 3 Leaves and Bottom Pin, has become a favourite among micro-scale builders since it perfectly represents a micro palm tree. You can see this cute effect in my “Curse of the Black Pearl” vignette.
I hope these basic tips provided you inspiration for your own micro-scale MOCs. As always, I would love to see what you come up with!
You can see all my micro-scale MOCs on Instagram (@BenBuildsLego) and Facebook.
If you browse Reddit, I invite you to subscribe to /r/DigitalLego, where everyone can share and discuss building LEGO on the computer!
If you are just catching up you can also review my previous articles on Brickset:
- Designing Skylines (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)
- Introduction to Micro-Scale
- Micro-Scale Architecture
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20 comments on this article
I adore that Simpsons vignette, not surprising considering the Simpsons House and Kwik E Mart are my fav LEGO sets.
Amazing work.
I'm also a big fan of @benbuildslego and have completed his trilogy of LoTR skylines (I still need to post pictures of RotK), so really enjoy these articles. Keep them coming!
I've spotted Bart's treehouse, but am not sure of the second Easter egg in the Simpsons skyline. Anyone?
LEMON TREE!!!
Love the microscale First Church of Springfield
The scenes you create are such wonderful miniature worlds that really capture and spark the imagination, and your articles are very informative and interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and knowledge. It's very helpful.
@piteous said:
"LEMON TREE!!!
Love the microscale First Church of Springfield"
Great catch! "Lemon of Troy" is one of my favorite episodes! :D
Thanks for the kind words! That's so great to hear!
I'm guessing that the 2nd easter egg is the treehouse (brown 1x1 square) in the tree behind the simpson's house.
PS: great builds again Ben!
He Super Mario and Zelda ones are beautiful.
They are all beautiful!!! For me, space is an issue, so I'm going to try your techniques. Thanks for sharing!
Truly amazing: congratulations for your great artwork!
I'm curious to know what parts you are using to create that beautiful steep grey rock pattern surrounding the base of the Beauty and the Beast castle. I've never seen this part before.
I’m not into micro-scale MOCing but enjoy seeing creations built this way. It takes extra imagination especially in the novel use of parts. Well done @benbuilslego and all those who create tiny wonders!
@dingbat591 said:
"Truly amazing: congratulations for your great artwork!
I'm curious to know what parts you are using to create that beautiful steep grey rock pattern surrounding the base of the Beauty and the Beast castle. I've never seen this part before."
As explained in the text :-)
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=27261&name=Plate,%20Modified%201%20x%202%20with%203%20Claws%20/%20Rock%20Fingers&category=%5BPlate,%20Modified%5DT=P
I'm down for that POTC diorama. I wish that was a set.
Wow! Amazing! I’m definitely going to try and build something in micro scale after seeing these. From my own experience of building full scale MOCs, I can see these micro ones are equally as challenging. You really have to know your parts.
@meesajarjar72:
Yup. For starters, it's impossible to pack as much detail into a much smaller MOC, so you have to judiciously edit certain details out and get to the core design. When you're trying to replicate an existing structure, this can be exceedingly difficult, as the reduced scale will drastically affect proportions, and what details can be achieved. For the latter, a good working knowledge of the existing parts _and_ at least one parts catalog are crucial. Even if you know 99% of the parts that exist, the absolutely perfect part may be in that 1% that you don't know yet, and you need to be able to dig through the likely categories in search of anything you might be able to use. There's also a lot less space to work with when it comes to complicated SNOT construction, so sometimes the right part may exist but there's no way to connect it.
@Huw said:
" @dingbat591 said:
"Truly amazing: congratulations for your great artwork!
I'm curious to know what parts you are using to create that beautiful steep grey rock pattern surrounding the base of the Beauty and the Beast castle. I've never seen this part before."
As explained in the text :-)
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=27261&name=Plate,%20Modified%201%20x%202%20with%203%20Claws%20/%20Rock%20Fingers&category=%5BPlate,%20Modified%5DT=P
"
Thanks very much, Huw. I apologize for not reading carefully: where was I looking?
After seesing these marvelous creations I really think that Lego should release Disney castles, Simpsons buildings, etc. in Architecture scale.
Well done, it is very difficult to get relative proportions right when micro-sizing as the pieces are only available in certain sizes. To make it even more difficult for yourself combine with other buildings or introduce slopes and hills, at this point you have to hand it over the experts and just appreciate the art. I especially love the wave effect on the Black Pearl to provide a sense of movement through water.
This would be useful as a landscape table in a war room, for battle planners to make tactics for a certain situation...
@JudgeChuck said:
"I'm also a big fan of @benbuildslego and have completed his trilogy of LoTR skylines (I still need to post pictures of RotK), so really enjoy these articles. Keep them coming!
I've spotted Bart's treehouse, but am not sure of the second Easter egg in the Simpsons skyline. Anyone?"
It is the Lemon tree