Useful Pieces for Micro-Scale
Posted by benbuildslego,
As a lover and designer of micro-scale MOCs, I often receive messages asking something like, “What are the best LEGO pieces to stock up on for micro-scale builds?” Since I mostly design digitally using Bricklink Stud.io, I have the advantage of nearly the entire LEGO brick catalogue at my fingertips.
Nevertheless, I have still found it useful to create and consult a file that contains the pieces useful when designing my MOCs. If you enjoy digital building, you can actually download this file here from the Bricklink Gallery for your future reference.
However, if you prefer building solely with physical bricks and you are looking to stock up on pieces for your own micro-scale creations, this article will cover my top recommendations!
The Obvious Necessities:
When it comes to micro-builds, you are going to need lots of smaller pieces. Obviously, that’s obvious. So, be sure to stock up on all the common pieces with 1 x 1 stud dimensions. You can see my top recommendations below. With innately small footprints, you can quickly realise these pieces are truly indispensable for micro-builds.
Over the past decade or so, official LEGO sets have become noticeably more intricate with the introduction of useful new moulds. And indeed, some of these pieces are fairly new to the LEGO brick inventory – such as the Slope, Curved 1 x 1 Double (49307), which was only just introduced in 2019.
- Column 1: Brick, Round 1 x 1 Open Stud; Plate 1 x 1; Plate, Round 1 x 1
- Column 2: Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Open Stud; Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Flower Edge (Four Knobs); Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Flower Edge (5 Petals)
- Column 3: Slope 45 1 x 1 x 2/3 Quadruple Convex Pyramid; Slope 45 1 x 1 Double; Slope 30 1 x 1 x 2/3 (aka “Cheese Slope”)
- Column 4: Cone 1 x 1 with Top Groove; Tile, Round 1 x 1 with Bar and Pin Holder; Slope, Curved 1 x 1 Double
- Column 5: Tile, Round 1 x 1; Tile 1 x 1 with Groove; Tile, Round 1 x 1 Quarter
You can quickly see how ubiquitous these pieces are in a comparison of my “The Wizard of Oz” Skyline-style MOC. I converted all the pieces suggested above to red – the Emerald City has become the Ruby City!
The Interesting Textures:
Aside from the basic 1 x 1 building blocks, micro-scale builds benefit from the inclusion of pieces with more interesting shapes or textures. As I have said many times in my previous articles, the textures provided by these pieces help add to the illusion of detail.
- Column 1: Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Grille; Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Masonry Profile
- Column 2: Slope 18 2 x 1 x 2/3 with 4 Slots; Tile, Modified 1 x 2 Grille with Bottom Groove / Lip
- Column 3: Utensil Ingot / Bar; Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Open O Clip Thick
Like with my “The Wizard of Oz” example, I have coloured all of the above-suggested pieces red in my MOC of Petra (aka the Holy Grail Temple from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”). In particular, you can see the usage of rear side of masonry bricks on either side of the temple to represent where rock had been carved out. Additionally, you can see the ends of clip plates about midway up the temple to add the suggestion of tiny carved details.
Anyone interested can download the instructions for this MOC for free over on Rebrickable!
Miscellaneous Essentials:
Finally, there are three sorts of miscellaneous pieces that I would also recommend for micro building: bricks with studs on the side, wedge plates, and jumpers. Each one of these pieces has their own unique applications in micro-building.
- Column 1: Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Stud on 1 Side; Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Headlight
- Column 2: Wedge, Plate 2 x 2 Cut Corner; Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with 1 Stud with Groove and Bottom Stud Holder (aka “Jumper”)
I discussed the utility of wedge plates in my micro-scale landscaping article. To recap: the varying angles found in different wedge plates adds interest since they cut against the generally square nature of most bricks.
As I testified in my Ideas 10K Club interview, jumper plates are actually my favourite LEGO piece! Since micro-scale builds usually do not take up much space, the LEGO pieces naturally gravitate towards a grid pattern. To correct for this tendency, jumpers offer the ability of half-stud offsets to break up the potential boring grid appearance.
Studs on the Side bricks open up whole new possibilities with sideways building. But aside from their sideways building usefulness, headlight bricks are well-loved among micro builders since they make for great windows or the suggestion of other architecture detail. You can see I utilised headlight bricks for this purpose in the World Showcase section of my Epcot skyline MOC. You can also appreciate the simple combination of jumper plates and 1 x 1 Flower plate (5 petals) in front of the French buildings to avoid too much of a grid appearance.
Of course, these recommendations are certainly not an exhaustive list of useful pieces – nearly every LEGO brick could conceivably be used in a micro-scale MOC. Let me know which pieces you are upset I failed to mention in the comments! :)
You can see all my micro-scale MOCs on Instagram (@BenBuildsLego) and Facebook.
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
- Micro-Scale Landscaping
154 likes
19 comments on this article
Excellent article
This is fantastic
Awesome Article! I build a lot of micro scale, and this is very helpful!
Thanks for the informative article, Ben!
One additional part that I have found notably useful is the 1x1 round plate with horizontal bar: https://brickset.com/parts/design-32828 This is not particularly associated with architectural models but is incredibly versatile for microscale building.
Nice article! I would add 1x1 brackets (both the upward and downward facing ones) as well as Harry Potter wands.
The piece I can't live without, is the 1x2/3rd brick with four studs. As I build at a 1/650th Scale, Some of these pieces I can't live without and others are a bit less useful.
Really useful, thank you
Thanks, this is something that I'll use later on.
1x1 brackets and minifig back plates as well
I thought Petra looked familiar... then I read the bit about it being the Grail Temple. I found this article surprisingly useful considering how I almost never create MOCs, especially microscale ones. Keep up the good work!
As someone who has dabbled in microscale building, I have to agree with all your suggestions. One of my personal favorites that I started using in microscale building was minifig hands.
Just picked up nearly 600 sand green 1x2 jumpers from LEGO retail, gonna take awhile to use those up
I don't do a lot of microscale (ok, none), but I would think those minifig rollerskates would be useful. A lot of the minifig-scale toys for the Winter Village line use them for wheels for cars, trains, etc.
It would be nice if lego did a Classic set with assorted parts useful for microscale builds, including instructions for a couple of builds
@Legonk said:
"It would be nice if lego did a Classic set with assorted parts useful for microscale builds, including instructions for a couple of builds"
I agree, though I wish they did Classic boxes with fewer 2x4 bricks and more plates, tiles and 1xn bricks would be great. Even as a child building multicoloured houses on a baseplate I would have preferred 1 wide bricks to the 2 wide ones. I assume they're partly there as filler/bulk? A box of tiny parts might look like poor value on the shelf compared to a box of bigger bits.
Ben, you are right on the money with your suggestions! Wish this article (and all these parts) would have been around 3 years ago when I started. You should also do an article on printed LEGO pieces useful for microscale. Things like:
3024pb010 Plate 1 x 1 with 1 Black Square Pattern
3004pb185 Brick 1 x 2 with 3 Rows of 8 Dark Gray Squares Pattern
"Obviously, that’s obvious." might be my new favorite quote
very interesting. i always wondered what to do with all my little pieces, now i know thanks.
I think you need to add https://brickset.com/parts/design-44842 : Plate 1X1 W. Up Right Holder as this appears 6 times in the Star Wars advent calendar, which is probably the best source now for microscale pieces apart from freebee magazine poly-bags. If you can wait the prices usually reduce end Dec. I really like microscale boats and islands with one of my favourites here https://brickset.com/sets/BL19005-1/Isle-of-Peril