Microscale is a style of lego building which allows you to create extremely small versions of very large things. It works well when you are attempting to replicate large buildings such as the Empire State Building or the pyramids, but it can also be used to create aircraft, huge spaceships and space installations etc.

When working with minifigs, you are building to a scale of roughly 1:48. In microscale, it can be anything, depending on how big the subject is; while a plane might be 1:128 (like the size of a plastic kit model) a huge building could be as much as 1:1250!

Because you are working with limited space in all dimensions with a microscale model, it helps to use unusual and innovative building techniques to create something which looks good. Even with a small number of bricks it is still possible to have a lot of detail - just check out these examples:

An elegantly constructed microscale jet fighter (click photo to see more)

A colourful "futurama-like" city made in microscale (click for more pics)

As microscale models tend to be small and use few pieces it is not always possible to include every detail of the subject, so the main aim is to recreate the general shape of the object in miniture. For example, if you were to build a model of the Empire State Building you would not be able to include every window, but you could build the general shape of it and use a pattern of bricks to give the impression that there are windows.



Using microscale is great for lego builders who don't have a limitless collection, or who don't have enough space to store a minifig scale empire state building!

Okay, so this guy did have enough bricks to make a super huge Empire State Building, but notice that even he did it on a scale much smaller than minifig 1:48! Just shows that not all microscale models have to be tiny.

Microscale City by almaxr (click image to take a look around)