4 ms·
Damn fine tiny cafe
My hobby of building miniatures and taking pretty pictures
- dofm 1mo 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. ;-)
- mholt 1mo agoAh 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. :-/
- nkg 1mo agoI did not know about Rolife. Just found the perfect birthday gift for my daughter!
- huhtenberg 1mo agoWoah ... 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 :)
- sebmellen 1mo agoSuper cool. Love these kinds of posts.
- sixtyj 1mo agoThere should be some scale for comparison just to wow people more. I think that most of us underappreciate how really tiny models are.
- veunes 1mo agoDefinitely needs the traditional banana for scale, although in this case the banana might occupy half the cafe (just a joke, sorry (just in case))
- cisophrene 1mo agoJapanese mangas are stored just behind the model. They are Tankōbon format which is 17cm high.
- skybrian 1mo agoNot 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/3mqty4yer322k https://bsky.app/profile/maggiemice.bsky.social/post/3mqty4y... https://bsky.app/profile/maggiemice.bsky.social/post/3mpqrscky4c2k https://bsky.app/profile/maggiemice.bsky.social/post/3mpqrsc... https://www.maggierudy.com/making-mouseland https://www.maggierudy.com/making-mouseland
- veunes 1mo agoWow, these are excellent. I clicked for the miniature craft and ended up staying for the tiny mouse drama
- kriro 1mo agoPretty cool. Would love for her to somehow work with the people who make the Mausritter RPG :D
- krisbolton 1mo agoLovely. 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 https://www.youtube.com/@indiacrawford/shorts
- sshine 1mo agoMy wife collects and resells these miniatures. It is quite fascinating. It's kind of like Warhammer.
- kuerbel 1mo agoThey buy them assembled? or rare versions or something?
- tamimio 1mo agoI just bought the other day a fully smol garden/green house! It also comes with tiny lamps and a battery.
- sshine 1mo agoThe 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.
- kuerbel 1mo agoAh 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? :-)
- Gigachad 1mo agoAh 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.
- veunes 1mo agoThe 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.
- kriro 1mo agoVery 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.
- amelius 1mo agoGreat to see a hobby AI can't do yet.
- code_biologist 1mo agoSublime 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vHDq3NJj4E
- specproc 1mo agoBeen painting for years and not come across that one. Thank you kindly.
- specproc 1mo agoSeeing as folks are sharing in the thread here's some of mine. I moved on from Warhammer to 6mm cyberpunk city dioramas. Models mainly from LazyForger. https://specialprocedures.github.io/ https://specialprocedures.github.io/
- neutronicus 1mo agoCan you expand on needing to varnish? Why is that? I guess acrylic won’t set on top of it?
- code_biologist 1mo agoThe 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.
- CrzyLngPwd 1mo agoLovely 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 :-(
- rSi 1mo agoI'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
- locao 1mo agoI 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".
- TacticalCoder 1mo agoAt 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).
- alasano 1mo agoMy 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.
- locao 1mo agoSame 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.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- NishanStepak 1mo agoI like the acidic coffee sign in the miniature cafe.
- chris_st 1mo agoWow, so beautiful (and I say this as a tea drinker :-)
- socalgal2 1mo agoYou might find this interesting https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E7%9B%86%E6%A0%BD%22&udm=2 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E7%9B%...
- thecsw 1mo agoThank you! I have the order page open as I'm typing :D
- rwmj 1mo agoI like this London miniature artist: https://slinkachu.com/work https://slinkachu.com/work Kind of the Banksy of very tiny guerilla urban art.
- GreenLightGo 1mo agoI’m afraid to imagine how many hours and how much effort went into this, but it’s really damn cool.
- cracoucax 1mo agoVery nice. Seems you found yourself what I imagine to be a deeply relaxing hobby, which also offers new challenges all the time. Congrats !
- Otterly99 1mo agoAmazing 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 https://www.youtube.com/@SIMI_STUDIO/videos
- thecsw 1mo agoAh 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.
- rndmio 1mo agoThe German artist Frank Kunert builds amazing miniature models which he photographs on large format camera. Absolutely love his work.
- jcalx 1mo agoExcellent 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/ https://www.alanwolfsonart.com/
- fortran77 1mo agoThus is reminiscent of how early View-Master storybook reels were produced.
- fortran77 1mo agoRelated: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCGvOJOwIM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCGvOJOwIM
- VladVladikoff 1mo agoThis 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.
- thecsw 1mo agoHey! 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/ https://www.bgmlife.jp/products/diorama-2-5d-seal-vol-3/
- VladVladikoff 1mo agoThanks this is really cool you just helped me get a fun gift for my kid.
- fig781 1mo agoWarhammer is looking different these days
- afandian 1mo agoAs 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.
- ffex 1mo agoAmazing 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
- chalupa-supreme 1mo agoNew 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!
- djdjjdjffh 1mo ago[flagged]
- LurkandComment 1mo agoThere 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.
- tedggh 1mo agoLove 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.
- mikeaskew4 1mo agoit's a great hobby for mental health: https://missiron.com/blogs/news/why-building-miniatures-is-the-ultimate-stress-relief-hobby-for-overstimulated-brains 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.
- Lucasoato 1mo agoPlease, if anybody of you develop a website with automatic translations, have an handy toggle to turn them off immediately visible.
- jonah 1mo agoSo nice! My friend makes little shadowbox dioramas like this - such a neat atform. https://www.michaelevanlong.com/dive-bar-dioramas https://www.michaelevanlong.com/dive-bar-dioramas (The Silhouettes section may be NSFW depending on how puritanical your workplace is.)
- dr_doubt 1mo agoI 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 https://www.etsy.com/shop/LonasLounge
- sgt 1mo agoKinda reminds me of Coffee Land https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRtx33R4XhU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRtx33R4XhU
- ropable 1mo 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.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]