MetaFilter posts tagged with miniatures

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

brundlefly — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:30:02 -0800

Some nifty special effects models

jiawen — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:03:20 -0800

Steve Howarth has made a lot of practical special effects miniatures, including work on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie, Moon, Crystal Maze and many more projects. Perhaps the most interesting is his work on Red Dwarf. He includes pages on props for Red Dwarf VIII, a supporting ship, close-ups of the big ship's hull and the work process.

To build the future, we looked to the past.

filthy light thief — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:43:24 -0800

"You may find my actions extreme, but for a crew of sufficient numbers, if a suitable destination could be found, no return destination would be needed. Therefore, I have had to improvise, with our ship, with our crew." The goal was to make a short sci-fi film, but without CGI, greenscreens, or other digital trickery, instead relying on camera tricks, miniature photography, and stop-animation. And now it is done: C 299,792 km/s The film cost $40,000, collected from two Kickstarter fundraisers. The movie website has some information, and Wired has more details of the making of the film, including an interview with one of the two brains behind the film.

Tools for the 1/12 scale craftsman

Harald74 — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 03:20:00 -0800

The Toolchest Site does what it says on the tin. Possibly the most mind blowing tool chest on the site is this masterful 1/12 scale reproduction based on the Hewitt chest at Colonial Williamsburg, done by celebrated miniaturist William Robertson. Everything works like the original, down to the lock and the included tools like the plane and the folding rule.

“It might be easier to build a giant match...”

quin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:57:25 -0800

How to Make a Tiny Kitchen Knife. [via]

Tiny Food

Gator — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:45:07 -0800

Incredibly detailed miniature food sculptures by Shay Aaron: Flickr, Etsy.

Paper Ligers

absalom — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:08:04 -0800

Fantasy Paper Minatures does exactly what it says on the tin. One Monk Miniatures has more variety. Papercraft previously.

Master of Miniature Guns

Slap*Happy — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:53:25 -0800

"What we are talking about here are models that reproduce real guns in details. These are acting mechanisms and real copies of guns decreased 4-4.5 times. They could fire if real bullets were used."

The World's Largest Model Airport

Trurl — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:01:52 -0800

Frederik and Gerrit Braun, energetic twin brothers with no shortage of dreams, have just finished construction of the world’s largest model airport. With 40,000 lights, 15,000 figurines, 500 cars, 10,000 trees, 50 trains, 1000 wagons, 100 signals, 200 switches, 300 buildings and 40 planes, Knuffingen Airport is both a wonder to behold as well as a technological tour de force. The best part of Knuffingen is that it’s alive. Forty planes and 90 vehicles move about autonomously.

Your Diorama Should Be So Lucky

nj_subgenius — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:04:11 -0800

Alan Wolfson's Canal Street Cross Section, the latest of his urban miniatures, will be exhibited, along with many other works of a similar vein, at New York's Museum of Art and Design June 7 through September 18 (previously).

Morgan Fisher's Miniatures - The Blog

carsonb — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:44:55 -0800

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of his awesome abstract compilation album Miniatures, Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople fame) has started going through the 51-track masterpiece from the beginning in, well, minute detail, updating readers on the current status of the featured band, providing relevant links, explaining his compilation process, and, of course, streaming each track. So far the first 7 tracks are featured, but start here with the bonus track added to the 1994 CD re-issue of Miniatures – "The Miniatures Miniature". After he's done with Miniatures, it's on to the 60-track follow-up released in the mid-'90's, Miniatures 2. Salud feuilleton!

Put that in your White Goddess and smoke it...

quin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 07:46:00 -0800

Meerschaum pipes are amazing! Meerschaum is a soft white mineral often found floating in the Black Sea. Because of its unusual properties, it is ideally suited for detailed miniature carving, and for several hundred years it has been a preferred material for carving pipes. And the level of detail is astonishing.

Rewarding Attentiveness: Street Level Urban Art

cross_impact — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:56:47 -0800

Ben Wilson's Chewing Gum paintings and Slinkachu's sculpture rewards the attentive pedestrian. The former paints tiny pictures on sidewalk gum. The latter sets up tiny urban tableaus with humor and sly social critique. Pays to watch where you walk. (hat tip -- Raw Vision)

Marwencol is a fantasy world created by Mark Hogancamp.

dobbs — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:33:48 -0800

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark Hogancamp built a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populated the town he dubbed "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and created life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helped Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds from the attack. Through his homemade therapy, Mark was able to begin the long journey back into the "real world", both physically and emotionally - something he continues to struggle with today.

There are no small parts. Only small sets.

Thin Lizzy — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:11:29 -0800

On the Set: Miniature recreations of famous television studio sets such as Cheers, Seinfeld and The Price is Right built by Charles Brogdon. Each complete with its own lighting rig and indexed by studio.

Real people... MADE OF PLASTIC!

Manhasset — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:22:54 -0800

50 Beautiful Examples Of Tilt-Shift Photography - "Tilt-shift photography is a creative and unique type of photography in which the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model."

Inner City Snail

jonson — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:30:03 -0800

Inner City Snail is the sister site of the (previously Mefi'd) Little People ongoing outdoor art installation. Like the Little People project, it takes place in London & features tiny figures, only these ones are alive & vandalized.

It seems wrong to call a gun 'cute'...

quin — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:21:07 -0800

Minature gunsmithing is an amazing art form. The firearms are exact replicas of their full sized counterparts, down to the smallest details, and the creation of one was often a requirement to be considered a master gunsmith. Though if you want to collect them, they are not inexpensive.

The total value of all your mines, mills, money bins, and so fourth is one multiplujillion, nine obsquatumatillion, six hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty-two cents!

JBennett — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:42:10 -0800

A miniature of Scrooge McDuck's money bin. (in the words of the model maker) This is a set of images documenting a model of the world's richest duck's money bin, built by me, using blueprints created by the great Don Rosa and Dan Shane.And remember Carl Barks - the mind behind the idea of a man storing all his money in a giant concrete bin.

Insect Vs Fairy To The Death

jonson — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:26:51 -0800

Artist Tessa Farmer sculpts nightmarish scenes of winged insects being attacked, harnessed & even ripped apart by tiny skeletal faries. Partially found via.

Miniature Hogwarts

jonson — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 23:33:14 -0800

Sally Wallace creates highly detailed miniature dollhouses, including several from the Harry Potter films (Olivander's wand shop & Honeydukes, Hogwarts, The Stairs). Via. Warning, every single annoying web 0.9 trick in the book is employed somewhere on this site, including but not limited to: embedded midi files, that java fake reflecting water deal, virtual exploding fireworks, etc. ugh.

Tiny Buildings in Austria

jonson — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:40:41 -0800

Minimundus is an Austrian theme park with seemingly all the major architectural wonders of the world rendered in miniature; while their primary site is woefully low on imagery, here's three pages worth of photos of their better exhibits.

Miniatures!

nj_subgenius — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 21:10:06 -0800

M i n i a t u r e s!

The incredible shrinking artist

jonson — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 23:24:29 -0800

Urban Fiction is the ongoing art project of Xing Danwen, who takes photos of miniature buildings and then photoshops tiny versions of herself into the frame, doing mundane things amidst the tiny scenery(click the "Detail" images to see a zoomed in shot).

Ladybird

cali — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 21:59:53 -0800

Ladybird (aka Helen Nodding). You might have already heard about her moss graffiti project, but she has other projects worth checking out. Interview here.