There is an essence to humanity in this type of work: "I'm doing this because I enjoy the way it makes me feel and nothing else". It's inspirational and I love looking at it. Keeping doing what you love, it also brings joy to others.
Sublime work OP. Love the sheen control, the glossy coffee.
Since they're clearly a warhammer 40k fan, a recent discovery of mine for mini painting: artist gouache or artist watercolor are awesome for pin-lining and recess shading the way oil paint or enamels are often used for those tasks, but only water is needed instead of white spirit. And they're indefinitely "editable" with a damp brush / qtip. The only downside is that you need to varnish to seal the watercolor before painting over it. A black and a burnt umber alone will get you really far. Make sure the gouache or watercolor use a gum arabic binder.
The acrylic will set. Water will indefinitely reactivate gum arabic binder paints (gouache, watercolor) including a wet brush full of acrylic. The watercolor will move and blend with your acrylic. Nifty if it's what you intend, annoying if you liked where the watercolor was.
New gift for my SO unlocked. I’ve been getting into 40k minis recently and they helped me with a space marine, so maybe a Rolife set will push us both over the edge! Thanks for sharing!
This is very cool and inspiring! A hobby I could totally lose myself in. However lately my near sight is going and bending over a bench to do intricate work kills my back. I recently spent 2 hours replacing the charge port on an iPad and afterwards I couldn’t stand straight for two days.
Hey! If there is something to lose yourself in and it's good for you, then when else are we going to get this inspiration back?
I build all sorts of stuff at my desk, random minutes I get, or those melancholic Tuesday evenings.
There is this Japanese company I like, BGMLife[1]—local artsy craft stores carry these—where you can put tiny stickers on a canvas, creating whole scenes of a packed restaurant or a quiet library!
Excellent work with the tiny cafe! I'm enamored of miniatures like these. Very different vibe but Alan Wolfson [0] makes gritty, grimy urban environments that I have a soft spot for, being from NYC.
It’s time that I want paint miniature of dnd to take small break at the developer work.
Help to mantain focus? Anyone can suggest getting start guide? I have also a resin 3d printer
Ah yes! His hamster is so cute and I think sometimes of the episode where he made him the world's tiniest hamburger and a full meal with a cocktail at the end. It's hard to get this sort of a tactile feeling when we spend most of our days staring at a bright source of light, just like the human evolution we went through had always intended for us.
I'm sure you know Thomas Demand, the German artist who works with miniature models of crime scenes. if not check him out. Also the Austrian artist Bernd Oppl works with miniature architecture, but he uses the models for his videos and installations
Ah neat, my daughter likes to do this too, with Rolife. I let her borrow our camera with our 105mm macro lens to take artsy shots of her builds, and it was a fun learning and creative experience together. Highly recommend.
Also, dust and hair at that scale looks hilariously huge, so you might want a cleanroom. :-/
I have one kit from Rolife half-assembled for over an year, and I don't see myself finishing it anytime soon. But, man, they look so beautiful. Even more when built carefully, like this one.
Unrelated:
> My to-go order is always just an Americano.
Yep, same for me. But not because I like it, it's because most places around the world call themselves "coffee shops" and don't know how to brew any kind of drip coffee. I've been to a few coffee shops that had drip coffee makers on display and they told me "we don't know how to use it" or "it takes too long to brew, so we don't use it".
At some point I was good at making coffee using a moka pot. Strong coffee.
I learned to stop worrying and bought a full-auto machine: I put whole grains in it and coffee comes out. And as a bonus it's cheaper than, say, Nespresso-style capsules (ultra expensive) or drip coffee (if you buy grounded coffee, it's pricier than whole grains).
Neighbor has got the whole professional machine at its place and making coffee is a long ritual for him: it's good if you like to obsess over that kind of thing.
But full-auto coffee machine is easy peasy and I'd say it's 99% of the result (especially with quality grains).
My friend bought a high end full auto machine and I gifted him a bag of my favorite dark roast (which is really a very medium roast, not overburnt oily crap).
I tried adjusting his grind and other settings on the full auto machine and I couldn't get anywhere near what my Bianca does.
The one button convenience is amazing but yeah I do love the ritual.
The tiny newspaper and individually assembled tulips got me. There is a strange amount of joy in details that almost nobody will ever notice unless they stop and look closely.
When I was a child I'd spend many hours building, painting, and then distressing Airfix models, and then I went on to make my own spaceships from scraps. Ugh, how many times I would accidentally cut myself with a scalpel, lol, or drive my mum crazy with needing more of those little pots of paint.
Just typing it out brings back such fond memories. None of my grandchildren are interested in such things :-(
The miniatures come prepainted but as tiny bits, like a croissant, or a lamp, or a sofa. So it's not so much about painting them as it is gluing tiny magnets to them and making small installations that are repluggable.
Some of the items have tiny electrics inside, e.g. an actual tiny LED lamp.
The "scenery" (much like Warhammer battlefields) are then made from cardboard and hobby materials. You can also buy them pre-assembled, but they're much less impressive (usually one color, generic, e.g. "doll house" or "house sliced halfway"). There's a subgenre for 3D printing the scenery.
My wife uses small glass jars upside down. so the items live on the jar's lid. Looks very cute with a small LED lamp and lights off.
I think none of this is rare, but surely some items are more unusual than others.
The rarity comes from this being a hobby that not many know about.
Ah this makes more sense. I was wondering how on earth they were making this stuff because a lot of it looked like injection moulded plastic that would be just too hard to make at home.
Do you know what this stuff is called specifically? I wanna see what kinda items you can get.
Since they're clearly a warhammer 40k fan, a recent discovery of mine for mini painting: artist gouache or artist watercolor are awesome for pin-lining and recess shading the way oil paint or enamels are often used for those tasks, but only water is needed instead of white spirit. And they're indefinitely "editable" with a damp brush / qtip. The only downside is that you need to varnish to seal the watercolor before painting over it. A black and a burnt umber alone will get you really far. Make sure the gouache or watercolor use a gum arabic binder.
Demo of the technique from 3:30 - 5:20 (strong Italian accent warning, closed captions help me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vHDq3NJj4E
I moved on from Warhammer to 6mm cyberpunk city dioramas. Models mainly from LazyForger.
https://specialprocedures.github.io/
I guess acrylic won’t set on top of it?
https://bsky.app/profile/maggiemice.bsky.social/post/3mqty4y...
https://bsky.app/profile/maggiemice.bsky.social/post/3mpqrsc...
https://www.maggierudy.com/making-mouseland
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E7%9B%...
I build all sorts of stuff at my desk, random minutes I get, or those melancholic Tuesday evenings.
There is this Japanese company I like, BGMLife[1]—local artsy craft stores carry these—where you can put tiny stickers on a canvas, creating whole scenes of a packed restaurant or a quiet library!
[1] https://www.bgmlife.jp/products/diorama-2-5d-seal-vol-3/
[0] https://www.alanwolfsonart.com/
It’s time that I want paint miniature of dnd to take small break at the developer work. Help to mantain focus? Anyone can suggest getting start guide? I have also a resin 3d printer
This reminds me of this youtube channel[1] that I used to watch a lot during COVID where the author animates miniature scenes with their hamster.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@SIMI_STUDIO/videos
The Jeff Bezos boat would probably appeal to this crowd, although it is by not remotely miniature.
Also, dust and hair at that scale looks hilariously huge, so you might want a cleanroom. :-/
Unrelated:
> My to-go order is always just an Americano.
Yep, same for me. But not because I like it, it's because most places around the world call themselves "coffee shops" and don't know how to brew any kind of drip coffee. I've been to a few coffee shops that had drip coffee makers on display and they told me "we don't know how to use it" or "it takes too long to brew, so we don't use it".
I learned to stop worrying and bought a full-auto machine: I put whole grains in it and coffee comes out. And as a bonus it's cheaper than, say, Nespresso-style capsules (ultra expensive) or drip coffee (if you buy grounded coffee, it's pricier than whole grains).
Neighbor has got the whole professional machine at its place and making coffee is a long ritual for him: it's good if you like to obsess over that kind of thing.
But full-auto coffee machine is easy peasy and I'd say it's 99% of the result (especially with quality grains).
I tried adjusting his grind and other settings on the full auto machine and I couldn't get anywhere near what my Bianca does.
The one button convenience is amazing but yeah I do love the ritual.
My personal litmus test is a pourover not an americano because I usually don't go for the espresso-based drinks.
When I was a child I'd spend many hours building, painting, and then distressing Airfix models, and then I went on to make my own spaceships from scraps. Ugh, how many times I would accidentally cut myself with a scalpel, lol, or drive my mum crazy with needing more of those little pots of paint.
Just typing it out brings back such fond memories. None of my grandchildren are interested in such things :-(
It is quite fascinating. It's kind of like Warhammer.
Some of the items have tiny electrics inside, e.g. an actual tiny LED lamp.
The "scenery" (much like Warhammer battlefields) are then made from cardboard and hobby materials. You can also buy them pre-assembled, but they're much less impressive (usually one color, generic, e.g. "doll house" or "house sliced halfway"). There's a subgenre for 3D printing the scenery.
My wife uses small glass jars upside down. so the items live on the jar's lid. Looks very cute with a small LED lamp and lights off.
I think none of this is rare, but surely some items are more unusual than others.
The rarity comes from this being a hobby that not many know about.
Tiny magnets seems to be the item you run out of.
Do you know what this stuff is called specifically? I wanna see what kinda items you can get.