Building Miniatures Views
Sauve, now 45, loves building miniatures, but she spends most of her time making the dolls that populate other people's miniature projects and dollhouses. She started making dolls as a hobby, but now the tiny porcelain figurines are a full-time business, with collectors worldwide seeking her small creations.
She was in high school when she fell in love with her first miniature, a tiny salted-peanut machine, but she thought it was too pricey. She acknowledged that building miniatures can be expensive. Everyone likes to start with a dollhouse, she said, but as you begin furnishing it, your taste evolves and so does the difference in price between what you like and what you can afford. It's a hobby with a wide price range.
I started building. My first GEV was almost 2 inches long and used about twelve LEGO pieces. I realized that the size and piece count of the models would be critical. My goal was to have pieces that would be roughly compatible with official miniatures-scale maps, even if they were out of scale with the miniatures themselves. I also wanted them to be cheaper than the metal miniatures. If possible, they should use mostly parts I already had in my (relatively small) collection.
For some hobbyists, painting miniatures is secondary to crafting exquisitely detailed figures. Whether it's a science fiction soldier, a replica of the Taj Mahal or the engine of a muscle car, the act of building miniatures relies on a number of tools. Some can be found at hardware stores, but a number are specialized tools. The more unusual products can be ordered online or found at hobby or game stores.
Building Miniatures Images
