378 pointsby thecsw4 days ago37 comments
  • 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.

    Demo of the technique from 3:30 - 5:20 (strong Italian accent warning, closed captions help me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vHDq3NJj4E

    • specproca day ago
      Been painting for years and not come across that one. Thank you kindly.
    • neutronicusa day ago
      Can you expand on needing to varnish? Why is that?

      I guess acrylic won’t set on top of it?

      • 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.
  • skybriana day ago
    Not directly related, but one of the more impressive artists I've seen along these lines. Each photo has a bit of a story to 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

    • krisboltona day ago
      Lovely. Reminds me of these shorts YouTube started offering up a while back. I believe this is the original creator - https://www.youtube.com/@indiacrawford/shorts
    • veunesa day ago
      Wow, these are excellent. I clicked for the miniature craft and ended up staying for the tiny mouse drama
    • kriroa day ago
      Pretty cool. Would love for her to somehow work with the people who make the Mausritter RPG :D
  • 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.
  • mholta day ago
    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. :-/

    • huhtenberg18 hours ago
      Woah ... went to check Rolife and then wandered into the whole genre of "book nook" kits.

      Basically dioramas of the size of very thick book. You insert them between other books in the library and it gives you a peek into some alley, a house or some other scene. Incredible idea, and some are absolutely crazy beautiful. Anavrin even has a cyberpunk one !

      Thanks a lot, discovery of the month :)

    • nkga day ago
      I did not know about Rolife. Just found the perfect birthday gift for my daughter!
  • ropable8 hours ago
    > My to-go order is always just an Americano.

    Friend: visit us here in Australia. Walk into any good local coffee shop and order a long black (or a flat white if you're feeling adventurous). Your mind will be blown.

  • locaoa day ago
    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".

    • conductr18 hours ago
      I like but don’t drink coffee mostly. I live in a hot climate and I want something refreshing, never a hot drink. That’s where people usually say “there’s cold brew” , to which I say “I’m not seeking out ways to consume coffee”. I’d rather just drink something else at that point. However, when I travel to places where the weather is different/colder, I turn into a daily coffee drinker for the little time that I’m there. I’m so out of the loop, I just order an americano most the time too. But, I’ve noticed they are not all equal and you can definitely tell the difference in skill/beans/something in this simple drink.

      Recently in Seattle, monorail coffee stood out as exceptional

    • a day ago
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    • TacticalCodera day ago
      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).

      • alasanoa day ago
        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.

        • locaoa day ago
          Same for me, I love the ritual, but it's not something I have time everyday. For those days, a super simple electric coffe maker is good enough, but not even this kind of coffee you can find in a lot of coffee shops.
  • socalgal2a day ago
    • thecswa day ago
      Thank you! I have the order page open as I'm typing :D
  • 3 hours ago
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  • rwmja day ago
    I like this London miniature artist: https://slinkachu.com/work Kind of the Banksy of very tiny guerilla urban art.
  • jcalxa day ago
    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.

    [0] https://www.alanwolfsonart.com/

  • VladVladikoffa day ago
    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.
    • thecswa day ago
      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!

      [1] https://www.bgmlife.jp/products/diorama-2-5d-seal-vol-3/

      • VladVladikoffan hour ago
        Thanks this is really cool you just helped me get a fun gift for my kid.
  • rSia day ago
    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
  • cracoucaxa day ago
    Very nice. Seems you found yourself what I imagine to be a deeply relaxing hobby, which also offers new challenges all the time. Congrats !
  • veunesa day ago
    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.
  • jonaha day ago
    So nice!

    My friend makes little shadowbox dioramas like this - such a neat atform.

    https://www.michaelevanlong.com/dive-bar-dioramas

    (The Silhouettes section may be NSFW depending on how puritanical your workplace is.)

  • Otterly99a day ago
    Amazing work!

    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

    • thecswa day ago
      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.
  • afandiana day ago
    As everyone is sharing their favourite miniature artists I’m going to share Bobby Fingers, who makes the best videos on YouTube IMHO.

    The Jeff Bezos boat would probably appeal to this crowd, although it is by not remotely miniature.

  • 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!
  • mikeaskew4a day ago
    it's a great hobby for mental health: https://missiron.com/blogs/news/why-building-miniatures-is-t...

    Someday I hope to become a person who can find the time and brain space for glue, paint, etc.

    • Lucasoatoa day ago
      Please, if anybody of you develop a website with automatic translations, have an handy toggle to turn them off immediately visible.
  • kriroa day ago
    Very nice. I love the "mirror shot" and the one with the two stools in the foreground. Very fair prices for the coffee :D

    My personal litmus test is a pourover not an americano because I usually don't go for the espresso-based drinks.

  • CrzyLngPwda day ago
    Lovely work and photos :-)

    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 :-(

  • fig781a day ago
    Warhammer is looking different these days
  • GreenLightGoa day ago
    I’m afraid to imagine how many hours and how much effort went into this, but it’s really damn cool.
  • sixtyja day ago
    There should be some scale for comparison just to wow people more. I think that most of us underappreciate how really tiny models are.
    • veunesa day ago
      Definitely needs the traditional banana for scale, although in this case the banana might occupy half the cafe (just a joke, sorry (just in case))
    • cisophrenea day ago
      Japanese mangas are stored just behind the model. They are Tankōbon format which is 17cm high.
  • tedggha day ago
    Love this. Have you tried lighting at that scale? Would it be possible to simulate say candle light on a table? Or window light? I think with light sources the images would look more intimate.
  • sgt21 hours ago
    Kinda reminds me of Coffee Land https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRtx33R4XhU
  • ffexa day ago
    Amazing work!

    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

  • dofm19 hours ago
    > My to-go order is always just an Americano. Nothing better had been invented.

    Oh no. Now I feel sad. Because this is just not right. ;-)

  • sshinea day ago
    My wife collects and resells these miniatures.

    It is quite fascinating. It's kind of like Warhammer.

    • kuerbela day ago
      They buy them assembled? or rare versions or something?
      • sshinea day ago
        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.

        Tiny magnets seems to be the item you run out of.

        • Gigachada day ago
          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.

        • kuerbela day ago
          Ah thank you, I get it now. She is making original pieces instead of rolife and such. That's a nice hobby. Maybe you could share a picture or two? :-)
      • tamimioa day ago
        I just bought the other day a fully smol garden/green house! It also comes with tiny lamps and a battery.
  • dr_doubt21 hours ago
    I know someone who built a whole business creating supplies for miniatures like that. If I understand correctly, there are two standard sizes: 1:6 and 1:12.

    https://www.etsy.com/shop/LonasLounge

  • rndmioa day ago
    The German artist Frank Kunert builds amazing miniature models which he photographs on large format camera. Absolutely love his work.
  • fortran77a day ago
    Thus is reminiscent of how early View-Master storybook reels were produced.
  • sebmellena day ago
    Super cool. Love these kinds of posts.
  • chris_sta day ago
    Wow, so beautiful (and I say this as a tea drinker :-)
  • NishanStepaka day ago
    I like the acidic coffee sign in the miniature cafe.
  • ameliusa day ago
    Great to see a hobby AI can't do yet.
  • djdjjdjffha day ago
    [flagged]