How to Make a MILS baseplate for my modular buildings (updated)

 

Hey brick fans,

Today's topic will be about MILS plates.  I've already discussed making MILS plates specifically for my Lumibricks sets, but this blog entry will be more generic and the you can you use it for any type of modular building.   

What Are MILS Plates?

MILS stands for Modular Integrated Landscaping System, a community-driven standard (originally from the HispaBrick Magazine folks) for creating huge, interconnected LEGO dioramas. At its core, a MILS plate is a 16x32 or 32x32 stud baseplate reinforced with bricks underneath for stability—think of it as a sturdy foundation module.  MILS plates add an extra layer to the base of your modular buildings to provide rigidity and stability.  It makes it easier to handle the modular buildings with the base flexing on you.

Advantages of Using MILS Plates

Enhanced Stability and Portability: The underlying brick support turns flimsy baseplates into rigid units that stack, transport easily, and hold heavy structures (like multi-story buildings) without sagging.

How My Version differs from others

The standard MILS system allows you to connect one baseplate to another so that the modular buildings are locked together using technic pins.  Since I'm always redoing my city layouts and moving buildings around I decided to forego that system.

My version of MILS plate uses the minimum amount of bricks while maximizing the structural integrity of the modular building.

We start with your standard 32x32 single sided baseplate.  This one might already come with your modular building set.  If not these plates can be found for under $2 CDN on Temu/Aliexpress or Dollar Tree.

Next grab a bunch of 2x4 bricks, 9 pieces to be exact.

Place the 9 pieces of 2x4 bricks spaced at the corners and center points along the baseplate.

Now I grab a bunch of 2x2 square or round (it doesn't matter).

These bricks provide intermediate support along the edges and center of the plates we will be using next.  We need 16 of them arranged specifically as above.

This step is optional, but it's what I use to attach the front facade on my MILS plates.  You need 3 of the bricks that are 2x2 with studs on the side. You'll also need 3 pieces of 1x2 plates and put them on top of the 2x2 bricks

Where I place these three bricks determine my front elevation. You can skip this step if you like and just place some extra bricks to line the front of the baseplate.

Now you will need 4 pieces of 16x16 plates. I typically cover up my plates with tiles so the colour doesn't matter to me. if you don't plan on making sidewalks in front of your modular building, just use the same coloured plates.

Press the 16x16 plates firmly down onto the bricks.  Note how the plates attach in relation to the bricks underneath.

Adding the two remaining 16x16 plates finishes off the raised baseplate.  

But we're going a step further by placing a front facade on the MILS plate.  To do this you will need two pieces of 2x16 plates.

Next grab 16 pieces of 2x2 tile and snap them onto the 2x16 plates.

Snap those onto the protruding studs on the MILS plate.  Now you have a finished facade.  So why is this facade necessary for my builds?  It's purpose to to hide the underlying colour of bricks and plates used to create the MILs.  Without the facade, I would be forced to use all the same colour for the bricks and plates, but with the front covered I can use whatever plates and bricks I have on hand even if they are different colours.

Here's one of my older pictures of my modular buildings.  You can see I used different coloured plates underneath the sidewalk tiles, which doesn't provide a cohesive look when you are placing different modular buildings together.

This MILs system will also work on a smaller modular building, say one that sits on a 16x32 baseplate.  Just adjust the amount of bricks and plates needed accordingly.

Hope that this little tutorial has helped you with your own modular building setups.   Thanks for looking!