TINY WONDERS

Making detailed microscale models is a challenging process, so to produce a book full of them is no mean feat. Bricks catches up with expert builder and author Mattia Zamboni to see just how it’s done

Words: Mark Guest Photography: Mattia Zamboni

The last decade has seen the popularity of LEGO building grow beyond belief, placing it firmly in the pop culture archives as a universally-accepted interest amongst the masses. This has led to a buoyant secondary market of unofficial LEGO-themed products for fans to further fuel their LEGO lifestyles beyond the brick. There is probably no better testament to this cultural change than the publishing world, where each year we are treated to a broad selection of LEGO-themed books, with seemingly higher quality each year. With this ever-raising bar, it is harder than ever to stand out on the bookshelf, yet the latest No Starch Press release from Mattia Zamboni seems to have done just that.

Tiny LEGO Wonders: Build 40 Surprisingly Realistic MiniModels! is the second book from Mattia, although he has contributed to several other titles and it focuses on building. Within its 208 pages are detailed, easy-to-follow instructions for 40 different microscale models including a selection of planes, boats, cars and military vehicles.

Pooling the talents of 11 highlyskilled builders from around the world, Mattia has compiled one of the most addictive, keepable books of the year in our opinion. All the models are of a high standard and use easily-available pieces, leaving you with only one dilemma: which to build first.

Taking a break from building these mini-marvels, we caught up with the man himself and find out how this went from concept to reality.

Hi Mattia, tell us how did the book come to be?

Well, I had the idea for this back in 2012 even before I created my first book, The LEGO Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles. Everything started when I saw Jarek’s tiny fire brigade (which we included in Tiny LEGO Wonders). I found the detail he was able to pack into such a small scale inspiring and fascinating and I thought it would be cool to create a collection of similar models.

Who is this book aimed at? (Every model seems very ‘buildable’ and it’s good that you wouldn’t have to BrickLink too many parts.)

My goal was to make it appealing to kids and adults. For kids, I wanted to provide cool, tiny models that are fun to play with. It also appeals to adults because I have ensured the models are detailed and use a variety of - sometimes unusual - techniques.

Was there a limit to the number of pieces or building steps per model that you gave the builders?

Not really. The most limiting factor was that we were creating a physical book. Creating building instructions for electronic distribution is one thing – creating them for a printed book is another, because there are way more constraints. In a book, space is limited and to keep the beginning of each chapter on the same side of the book, the number of instruction pages has to be even. This means sometimes you have to reduce the number of steps or squeeze them on a page and conversely, sometimes you have to expand them to better fill the space so it is aesthetically pleasing.

“I ENJOYED CREATING EVERY PAGE”

I didn’t provide the builders with specifications as I generated the instructions myself and could control the number of steps.

How did you decide which contributors made it in?

The decisions were model- rather than contributor-based. I wanted to include a comprehensive set of cool models from cars to trucks, ships to planes and so on. So I browsed the web and selected the models I liked the most. For models I couldn’t find, I either designed them myself or asked another contributor to.

What was the process for bringing all your contributors, and their work, together?

Once I selected the models from the web, I started to reach out to each of them, asking whether they would agree to have their work featured in my book. Some of them were able to provide the models already in digital form but more than half simply granted me permission to use their models in the book. I then rebuilt them by reverse engineering and created the model on the computer.

What problems occurred when it came to bringing people together from across the world?

Language was a barrier at times and the fact that not everybody had easy or immediate access to email was a challenge. But we made it and I am so glad - the team is so spread out!

How did you decide what models made it into the book?

Personal taste really, which is certainly influenced by the fact that I am an engineer. This does mean however that I set the bar quite high in order to have the Wonders live up to their name.

Did the contributors do their own printing or supply their own imagery?

No, they didn’t. In fact, none of the pictures in the book (including the dioramas) are real pictures. They have all been computergenerated by creating 3D models (i.e. built with LEGO Digital Designer), using some conversion software first and then running them through self-developed custom software. I decided to do this in order to have good consistency within the book and simply because I love 3D graphics and photography.

Who designed the instructions?

I designed all of the instructions. I must admit that when I decided to do this, I heavily underestimated the job. I assumed that since the models were tiny, the instructions would be easy to generate. Man, I was so wrong! For some of the most complex models it was a real challenge and believe me that successfully fitting the instructions of the A380 in just two pages, or the freighter in four pages, is close to a Guinness World Record.

What models in the book are your creations?

To be honest, I wasn’t initially planning to include my own models but after I failed to find satisfactory models for some chapters, I decided to give it a shot. I had so much fun that by the time the project was complete, I ended-up building six models.

These were a muscle car, several trains, a helicopter and a rototilt aircraft, all of which were built specifically for the book. I wish I could have built more but I already had enough work in creating the instructions and graphics for the book.

Is there a section of the book you particularly favour?

I enjoyed creating every page of the book but I admit that even if working on the dioramas proved to be one of the most challenging parts, it also provided me with the most satisfaction. With this book, I decided to raise the bar and try my hand at rendering larger-scale dioramas rather than just creating renders of the stand-alone models. There were a lot of technical issues to overcome, such is the nature of rendering up to 100,000 bricks but eventually, the dioramas became my favourite part.

What are your favourite individual models in the book?

This is a very tough question for me to answer; because I handselected all of the models, I truly love all of them. I must admit that I might have a slight preference for the smaller ones in proportion (like the ships, planes and trains) just because it is even more challenging to make them accurate and recognisable.

Were there any problems that arose during the making of the book that were completely unexpected and unusual?

Well, I personally started using virtual software like LEGO Digital Designer and similar programs several years ago. When I reached-out to the contributors and asked for their models, I assumed that the majority of them would have been able to provide me their work in digital form but this was not always the case. I perhaps underestimated how few of the fans are practising virtual building.

Has the book achieved what you set out to achieve?

My goal was to prove how fun it can be to build in a small scale and how accurate the models can be, even at this tiny size. I am personally pleased with the result. Whether the goal has been achieved, it is up to the readers to say.

What are your top tips for working in microscale?

The best tip I can think of is to be aware as much as possible of all the existing LEGO parts. Building a micro- (or mini-) scale

“ALL DECISIONS WERE MODEL-BASED”

model doesn’t necessarily require less time than building a bigger one. You sometimes need to invest a lot of time to try all of the possible solutions in order to get the best shape in a specific part of your model. Models are so small that it is crucial to get the most significant traits right.

The standard of build is really consistently high across the book. How many builds were submitted and were there any that didn’t make it that you would like to - or are prepared to - share with us?

I did initially select several models that didn’t make it into the book. I had to drop some of them for several reasons: Firstly, the book was getting too big; secondly, some used unorthodox building techniques and thirdly, I wanted to have a nice variety of models and not, for example, a ton of planes. I had to drop several cars, trucks, planes and military vehicles but some can actually still be seen in the dioramas.