SketchUp have problems creating faces that are smaller than one square millimeter.
It has no problem Showing already created small faces though.
The solution is to make a component and copy it and resizing the copy. After that you model in the enlarged copy and you will se the correct result in the original component.
At last years SketchUp basecamp in London Felix Heuman & Anders Lyhagen showed how they created classic architecture in extreme detail. They worked with columns that were 1 km high to get the level of detail they wanted.
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=179%26amp;t=62983#p576780