In 2023, I set out to create one build to rule them all (at least, bigger than any project I’d done before): a microscale map of Middle-Earth depicting every major location from the film trilogy. Follow along the journey of creating each microscale location!
The Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson are easily my favorite of all time. I had been toying with the idea of a massive LOTR-themed build for some time, but wanted to do something in my wheelhouse. Giant LOTR dioramas have been done to amazing effect by other builders, so I decided to focus my project around microscale vignettes that capture all the essential details of the locations I love.
I was inspired by the LEGO Lord of the Rings video game and its open-world map that really helped me learn the geography of Middle-Earth. I loved how the style, culture, and mood changed as you journeyed across the landscape, and I wanted to capture that feeling in these micro-builds. In true Tolkien fashion, it all had to start in one place: in a hole in the ground, where there lived a hobbit.
1. HOBBITON & BAG END
This micro-build started with the most famous feature of a hobbit hole: the round door. I wanted the iconic green door of Bag End to pop against the mostly-green surroundings, so I knew it had to be framed by another round plate (in medium nougat), accompanied by the English cottage-style trappings of the Shire. I had fun with the stairway leading up to Bag End built with jumper plates, and the little gate outside with no admittance except on party business. The trickiest part was creating the slope on the left side of the hill. It took some engineering to get a chunk of the hill attached to clips that could slant down, yet still blend with the rest of the hillside. Overall I am very happy with the look of this build and its recognizability — however the size of the Hobbit door I settled on made it not quite in keeping with the “microscale” of the rest of the vignettes; it’s a little large for the little folk of the Shire!
2. BREE
Getting the Tudor-style buildings to have the right lines and style was a fun challenge in this one, mostly achieved by brackets. This build also includes a little shout-out to my favorite cameo in the series — Peter Jackson eating a carrot, represented by a single orange stud!
3. WEATHERTOP
In this build I went all-in on some curved wedge slopes I happened to have a lot of; they created the sharp, ruined look of this abandoned watchtower. I also decided to include some Nazgul on the platform with a flame. The smallest of the vignettes, but a necessary location!
4. RIVENDELL
This was one of the earliest microscale LOTR projects I attempted, well before I came up with the idea for the map! In fact, it was one of the builds I was working on right before Lauren & I went to be on LEGO Masters. I re-did some of it for this project, trying to capture the right blend of colors for the foliage and cascading waterfalls. Even though it has some traces of an older building style than I have now (like the not-so-hidden “big ugly rock pieces”) I think it carries the spirit of the Last Homely House!
5. THE MINES OF MORIA
Moria was by far the most difficult location of the series to make in microscale. I knew I wanted the Doors of Durin, and that idea crystallized when I started messing around with translucent cheese slopes at different angles to create the door’s design. I then included the tentacles of the sea creature in the water (at first it had a lot more, but ended up looking too busy!) To top it off I made some gnarled trees to frame the doors, using Harry Potter wands and minifig hands as branches. Then…a whole month later I decided to add the Mines below — it just felt like it was missing something (only the namesake of the entire location!) I included the Bridge of Khazad-Dum and a microscale Balrog with a Batarang as his wings. Tiny Gandalf is perched on the bridge to tell him he shall not pass. Seeing as this location doesn’t have an iconic structure, it’s probably the hardest to identify at first, but if you look at the details hopefully it’s recognizable!
6. LOTHLORIEN
This was the location that kicked off the map project; originally I wanted to just have three microscale LOTR builds of the last Elven realms on Middle-Earth: Rivendell, Lothlorien, the Grey Havens. But I loved building this so much that I had to keep going. I had been wanting to use a spiral of jumper plates in a build for a while, and the spiral stairways leading to the treetop flets felt like the right place for it. The build also includes Galadriel’s mirror at the base of the mallorn trees! I oscillated on the color of the trees, seeing as this is the “Golden Wood,” but decided to stick to more classic colors as it seemed to more closely match the films. This ended up being one of my favorite builds of the series.
7. THE ARGONATH
This was my first attempt at building a replica of a Middle-Earth location, three years ago at the time of this writing! I had always loved the Argonath sequence the most out of all the movies, and was always disappointed it never got an official set, so I had to make one myself! The original iteration was much more clunky in the rock work, using whatever pieces I had available in tan at the time. I decided to re-do the build for this project, keeping the statues almost exactly the same but changing the rocks to dark tan and making them cleaner sloped builds. A last-minute addition were the trees along the rim, which gave a pop of color and life to the build.
8. THE DEAD MARSHES
I had a plan for this build from the outset: to use translucent window pieces as the water that you can peer into and see the bones below the surface. I included some glow-in-the-dark pieces as well: “don’t follow the lights!” It was a good challenge to make the fell beast searching for the Ring from the skies — it’s built using only 7 pieces!
9. ISENGARD & ORTHANC TOWER
One of my favorites of the series, this is a relatively simple build and I was happy with the clean results. The sides of the tower are positioned on hinges to get that subtle slope, and the top section is built using an octagonal round piece with bars. At the base of the tower, I tried to create cracks in the ground showing the fires underneath, and capture the “metal and wheels” of Isengard on the now-barren landscape.
10. EDORAS & THE GOLDEN HALL
This build I had created before the map project as well; it was the first build I did after returning from LEGO Masters, and I remember being so happy to work with microscale detail again and not have to focus on massive structures, ha! For this map project, I added the mountain in the background with the beacons of Gondor lit. It was inspired by the Tokyo Skyline official set, and I was happy with how it added forced perspective depth to the model! This model was inspired by @benbuildslego on Instagram, whose skylines I also used as inspiration for Minas Tirith.
11. FANGORN FOREST
Another favorite in the bunch, I really loved building the microscale Ents! I made each one slightly different — one has a creeping vine as an arm, another has different foliage sprouting as its hair. I imagine Treebeard to be the one out in front, leading the Last March of the Ents!
12. OSGILIATH
An important historical location for Middle-Earth, and one much more featured in the movies than the books! It was an interesting challenge to create the ruined city of Gondor in microscale; at first I went crazy with tiny details, using every weirdly-shaped light bluish gray piece I could find. But then I realized I needed to make the structures about twice as big to match the scale of the other micro-builds — and it’s still a bit on the small side! I really like how the domed buildings came out, and this was another perfect place to include a fell beast flying overhead.
13. HELM’S DEEP
The spot of one of the best battle scenes ever put on film deserved one of the best micro-builds, so I really put my all into this one! It came together pretty quickly and easily, and I was happy with the result. I think at a glance, this might be the most accurate of the builds at this scale compared to the film. I made sure to include the sloped ramp coming down from the front gate, and it’s built into a ravine just like the actual location. I tried to add some ladders and machines of war to the battlefield at first, but I think it just cluttered the overall look, so I decided to take Gimli’s axe to them.
14. MINAS MORGUL
One of the most interesting stylistic creations for the film with its harsh angles and deathly glow, Minas Morgul definitely needed translucent pieces to distinguish the “dead city” and home of the Nazgul. It ended up coming together with a pretty simple construction of an octagonal bar piece with wedge plates clipped to it all around. The bridge was a fun addition, falling off into an abyss of translucent green. The structures are getting more sinister as we simply walk into Mordor!
15. MINAS TIRITH
Unlike its dead sister city, Minas Tirith is still clinging to life with the pride of Gondor. The most important part of this build was its unmistakable curved tiers, and large promontory of rock jutting out from the center. These were captured extremely well in a skyline by @benbuildslego, so I adopted a similar technique here. For the map project, I added an Oliphaunt charging across the Pelennor fields, which took many iterations to get right at this scale!
16. CIRITH UNGOL
A location name possibly more known to hardcore fans, this pass is also the home of the great spider Shelob, whose lair is a big part of this mini-build! It also includes the winding stair that Gollum leads Frodo and Sam to. The build has a feature where you can pull away the top of Shelob’s lair to reveal her webs within; it also has a little 1x1 round tile depicting Frodo ensnared in her web!
17. MOUNT DOOM
Here at the end of all things is a great mountain of fire — and one of the more challenging micro-builds! I realized I struggle with creating realistic-looking rock forms, and I had to do this build over completely to get the scale right. It has a little entranceway to the lava pit, as seen in the films, and the mountain is bursting fire from its summit. I included almost every translucent red and orange piece I owned for this build, and it also has a little red light brick inside to create the lava glow!
18. THE GREY HAVENS
The story concludes with my favorite microscale location to build: the Grey Havens on the shores of Middle-Earth. The plate-built sunset of yellows and oranges was a really important part for me to capture, and I also included some of those colors in the water to look like they’re reflected. I used a very intricate stair technique I saw in the Trafalgar Square official set, plus plenty of foliage in the foreground, which is intentionally larger. In the background are tiny towers perched in the mountains going off to the distance, which are smaller for the forced perspective illusion, plus the tiny boat sailing off to the Undying Lands.