Damn fine tiny cafe
sandyuraz.com
My hobby of building miniatures and taking pretty pictures
sandyuraz.com
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.
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...
Also, dust and hair at that scale looks hilariously huge, so you might want a cleanroom. :-/
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 :)
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.
Recently in Seattle, monorail coffee stood out as exceptional
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/
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.
The Jeff Bezos boat would probably appeal to this crowd, although it is by not remotely miniature.
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.
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.)
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 :-(
Someday I hope to become a person who can find the time and brain space for glue, paint, etc.
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.
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
Oh no. Now I feel sad. Because this is just not right. ;-)