miniatures

Hobbies – Round Two: Miniatures

stargrace August 6, 2023 No Comments

Miniatures are a relatively ‘new’ hobby of mine, but I’ve been obsessed with them for years. I don’t necessarily mean the little tokens that people paint for TTRPG or the ones that sit on giant tables depicting massive wars but I suppose they can fall under the umbrella, too. I mean miniature anything. Small. Tiny. Adorable. I love creating tiny scenes and all the little items that go into those scenes. My facebook is filled with miniature groups that I belong to, and it is my happy place.

I bought a few small kits to start with, but kit bashing is incredibly popular, and I can see why. So far I’ve only built one of the kits from start to finish. It took a few days, but I loved doing it. Even learning how to do the wiring so the lights work.

The kits I had purchased were VERY small, I think 1:12 range is more comfortable. My eyes are not the greatest and I need progressives so I’m constantly taking my glasses off so I can see what I’m looking at. Not to mention my hands can be very unsteady some days.

I tried to get into polymer clay miniatures, but it just wasn’t for me. I would much rather build with paper / wood / glue than create with clay and not for lack of trying.

Of course the other issue with having so many different hobbies is the storage issue. I like to keep everything neat and tidy in its own little section, but it’s all too easy to have things get out of hand. Especially when you add children and inquisitive cat to the equation.

There’s two more hobbies to go, and then after that maybe I’ll get back to writing about video games!

Real Life

Happy Corner (3)

stargrace April 19, 2021 No Comments

Last night was another miniatures night (Saturday & Sunday are the two evenings I’ve set aside for this hobby) and I built myself a little cash (complete with menu) and a shelf unit – I also glued together two chairs and a table, but they have to dry before I install them into the small tiny coffee cafe. My glue work needs .. some work, but at least it dries clear and shouldn’t show up quite as much.

I’ve been having fun working on this little project. It’s a trial in patience, which is pretty rare for me (as in I have no patience). I’m eager to get this place wired properly and have the lights working, it’s really going to look swell then. I also need to find a better way to photograph the thing.

Real Life

Happy Corner (2)

stargrace April 18, 2021 No Comments

I recently created a schedule for myself to organize my hobbies – I know, it sounds a bit silly, but I have a lot of hobbies and I wanted to make sure I worked on them a little bit each week, so that at the end of the month I could see some actual progress. I can assess the hobbies any time and they’re not in stone or anything like that, it’s more to do with the fact that in the events I tend to sit at my desk and think about all the things I could be doing instead of actually doing any of the things I could be doing (if that makes sense).

Last night was miniatures night (and so is tonight). The schedule is organized so that activities that HAVE to be done at night (ie: after the minions are sleeping) get a little more time than hobbies I could potentially do while they’re awake, or when it’s the weekend. Since this hobby uses knives and glue, it’s something I don’t want to do with the 2 and 4 year old poking into everything.

I’ve been working on my first miniatures kit. I bought it some years ago from Wish, which is pretty hit and miss if you’ve ever ordered from them before. I think I spent a total of $15 per kit, and I bought three of them. They are TINY scale, much smaller than 1:12, and that makes it awkward but I’m having a lot of fun slowly working on it. This kit is called ‘Happy Corner’ and is a bunch of little shops and some cute accessories on the street. I had to build the balcony from scratch, and you can see my glue is drying (it will turn clear once it dries) but I still love it so far. I also had to add lights, do the wiring for that, and there are a billion other little small details and pieces I’ll work on. I can’t wait to see it done and get it all wired so that it works.

Real Life

(Yet Another) Hobby

stargrace March 25, 2021 No Comments

I have always been fascinated with miniatures. Everything from those travel sized shampoo bottles, to miniature toys, and food. I recently was gifted some polymer clay and tools – so I decided to try my hand at making miniature bread! It’s air dry clay, with chalk pastels for the colour. There are numerous ways of achieving the texture and colour of bread, you can wait until the piece dries, or in my case, you can apply the pigment right to the fresh clay. Unfortunately if you do it that way you lose a little of the detail because of the brush. Still, for my very first attempt, I’m quite excited!

I also bought two smaller shadow boxes and I have plans of creating some scenes inside of them. One will be quails (naturally) since they’re amazing, and the second one I think I’m going to turn into some sort of book nook. I might just turn it into a yarn / knitting / spinning scene instead though. I haven’t decided.

Real Life

Loving Miniatures

stargrace February 28, 2021 No Comments

I love all things miniature, and a while back I picked up some tin can kits where you build a little scene inside of them, complete with wiring. You can see my starting efforts above, I managed to get the wiring done and the case that holds the battery. This miniature kit is VERY tiny, it’s not the dollhouse 1:12 ratio that I would like to work with, but hey the price was right and it was a nice first attempt. I have to let everything dry before moving on to the next step, but it shouldn’t be too complicated now that the wiring is done. We’ll see!

Hobbies – Round Two: Miniatures

Happy Corner (3)

Happy Corner (2)

(Yet Another) Hobby

Loving Miniatures

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