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 will get you really far, make sure the gouache or watercolor you get use gum arabic binder.
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. :-/
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.
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.
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 will get you really far, make sure the gouache or watercolor you get use 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://bsky.app/profile/maggiemice.bsky.social/post/3mqty4y...
https://bsky.app/profile/maggiemice.bsky.social/post/3mpqrsc...
https://www.maggierudy.com/making-mouseland
Also, dust and hair at that scale looks hilariously huge, so you might want a cleanroom. :-/
My personal litmus test is a pourover not an americano because I usually don't go for the espresso-based drinks.
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.