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 without 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.  

Here's an example of one of my modular buildings with the front studs embedded in the MILS plate.  Without the facade, one would see the lime green baseplate I used under the sidewalk.

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.   

Here's a side view of how the facade looks after attaching it to the front studs.

Here's some more examples of MILS plates I have constructed for a few of my modular buildings:

Lumibricks Record Store on MILS

Lumibricks Barber Shop on MILS

Xbert Antique Store on MILS

This MILs system and custom facade 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.   👉. Don't forget to check out my other Lego compatible building set reviews at bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com. Thanks for looking, bye for now!

How to make a Raised Baseplate (MILS) for the Lumibricks/FunWhole Record Store

Hi brick fans,

After I posted my review of the new FunWhole Record store, I've had a number of requests across my different social media platforms, inquiring on how to construct the record store on a raised baseplate (some refer to this as a MILS baseplate).  

I'm assuming you are here because you already know what MILS baseplates are and how to make them.  If not here's a link that describes the MILS system: https://www.abellon.net/MILS/.

The foundation baseplate I'm using is not technically MILS, which is why I refer to mine as simply a raised baseplate.  Too see how I make my specific type of baseplate, see my blog post here: https://bricksandfigs.blogspot.com/2024/08/how-i-make-raised-baseplates-for-my.html

Caveats

Before we begin, the techniques used here are of easy to medium difficulty, but you need to have the right parts in your extra brick stash to effect the necessary changes.  You cannot make the desired changes with only the parts that come with the FunWhole set.

Next, make sure that you carefully review the instruction manual book 1 , pages 10 through 29 to understand how your raised baseplate changes affect the main structure.   Review pages 29 thru 38 to understand how the raised baseplate changes impact the swing away portion of the record store.  The remainder  of the FunWhole instructions should be followed as normal after page 37.

Lastly, I want to point out that my customisations to the Record Shop are not endorsed nor authorised by FunWhole, so please don't reach out to them if you run into difficulties regarding the raised baseplate and resulting impacts to the structures.  Just hit me up on my social media, and I'll try my best to help you.   

Alright, let's get started!

Step 1

You will need to provide a combination of studded and smooth plates to place the FunWhole Record store onto.

I will be placing the Record store on a standard 32x32 baseplate. In this first picture, I'm laying out the studded plates and smooth plates into the required configuration.  Know that the smooth plate area encompasses 10 studs wide by 23 studs long.  You can choose whatever sizes of studded plates and smooth plates you have and the colour of the plates doesn't matter either.   Just make sure that whatever you use, the plates are fully supported underneath by the center layer of bricks.

In picture #2, this is how the baseplate area should look like. Again you can use whatever size plates you have but make sure you have covered the smooth and studded areas precisely as I have done in the picture.

Before we move on to picture #3, I need to explain what we are doing.  We are raising the record shop higher by the height of 1 plate.  This is because the swing away part of the building needs to placed on it's own baseplate, so it will be one plate higher.  We are adjusting  the static part of the building just to make sure both parts of the building (swinging and non-swinging) are level.

In picture #3, I'm laying out the perimeter of where the main part of the record store will sit.  I'm planning on having more sidewalk area in front of the shop, hence, the store will only sit 2 studs from the back edge of the baseplate.  The length of the individual pieces you use doesn't matter as long as you match the layout shown in the picture.  Use whatever colour pieces you have on hand.   There should be 5 studs width of sidewalk on the righthand side of the record store, which is as per the original instructions.

The front of the Record store has two protrusions, one is for the window display and the other is for the supporting pillar.  Picture #4 shows the extra pieces you need to accommodate for the protrusions.  I'm deliberately using contrasting colours of plates to make it easier for you to get an idea of the layout.  

Now that we have laid the perimeter of the main building, picture #5 shows you the size of the plates needed to support the swing-away part of the building.  This portion should measure 8 studs wide by 23 studs long.  It's best if you have larger plates to use to provide better structural integrity and stability.  If you can find pieces of the same colour, it would be best as this part will be exposed when it is swung away from the main building.

In picture #6, I'm demonstrating how the swing portion will come away from the main structure, once you follow the normal steps to build the Record shop.

In picture #7, I've placed some smooth tiles down just to demarcate where the front sidewalk will be placed.  Recall I have offset the building backwards by two studs, so you will need additional smooth tiles to fill in the empty sidewalk space that results from the shift.

Other key items to note as a result of the changes:

1. the height of the front steps may need to be adjusted if desired (page 26).

2. I relocated the DJ turntables from the back of the building to the front, you may want to do same.

At this point you should be able to resume building the FunWhole Record store as per the instructions.  I hope you have found this small tutorial useful in constructing the Record store onto a raised baseplate.

Enjoy and have fun!   Bye for now!

How I Make the Raised Baseplates for my Modular Buildings

 

Hey brick fans!  

Some of you have asked me about the raised baseplates I'm using for my modular buildings, so this blog post will be a small tutorial and  closer look at how they are constructed.  Hopefully it will inspire you and give you some ideas for your own modular buildings.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm slowly migrating my modular building collection from classic baseplates to raised baseplates.  Classic baseplates have a tendency to warp over time and tend to flex when lifted. Raised baseplates give my buildings a cleaner and consistent appearance in addition to providing more structural integrity underneath.  

Just to be clear, my raised baseplates are not MILS plates, since mine have no connection points that allow the modular buildings to be connected to other plates such as roadways or other buildings.  Here's an example of what MILS plates look like: https://www.brickaddict.net/road-plates.  I don't need to have all my buildings attached to each other, because I like to rearrange them all the time for picture taking.

Today, we will look at how I make a raised baseplate for a 16x32 stud modular building, but the technique is the same if you have 32 stud wide modular buildings.  

Essentially we are making a sandwich structure with some blocks placed in between two sets of plates.  On the front of structure we place some SNOT bricks / technic stud bricks to which we will attach a fascia plate.

More on SNOT bricks here: https://bricknerd.com/home/snot-basics-geometry-techniques-and-pitfalls-3-18-2021

Here are all the parts you will need.   First we start off with a classic baseplate (that's the thinner single sided ones.

We then place some bricks on the classic baseplate.  It doesn't really matter the type of bricks that you use as long as you can attach them to the classic baseplate and then attach the regular plates on top.  For our example today, I'm using two pieces of 16x16 plates to place over the bricks, but you could use whatever you have on hand.  

You can use whatever technic bricks you have on hand, this is an example of 3 types of bricks you could use.  The 1x2 brick above will give you the greatest clutch power for attaching the front fascia. For most of my builds, the 1x1 brick with hole and blue pin is my preferred choice.

Here is example one.

Here is example two.

And here's example three. As I have said earlier, it's up to you to use whatever you have on hand and see which method works best for you.

Place the remaining plates on top.

These are the pieces we will use for the front fascia, 1 piece of 2x16 plate and 8 pieces of 2x2 tiles.  I've used dark gray for my fascia but you could use a different colour, just make sure that the plate and tiles are the same colour.

The completed fascia.

The raised baseplate with fascia attached.  It doesn't fit flush to the ground because of the lower baseplate and there's a bit of a riser where it meets your sidewalk.  I kind of like the setup though.

Now just finish off your sidewalk for your modular building.  It probably looks better if you have a contrasting sidewalk colour vs. fascia.  I'm using light gray tiles on my sidewalks so I use dark gray on the fascia.  But you can choose to make yours any colour you want.

There you go, that's how I make my raised baseplates with fascia for my modular buildings.  Hope you have found this information helpful and hoping to see how yours turns out.   Feel free to leave me a comment or question below.  👉. Don't forget to check out my other Lego compatible building set reviews at bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com. Thanks for looking, bye for now!