I've always been fascinated by dollshouses, train sets and models. Basically if it's in miniature, it makes me smile.
Modern miniatures make me happy
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I love modern miniatures - and that’s not something I ever thought I’d say. When I first started collecting more than 30 years ago, all the modern miniatures you could buy looked very unrealistic. They were plastic, tacky and made me think it was an era I’d never collect.
Fast forward around 25 years and things started to change. Even mass-produced pieces have improved but the advent of 3D printing has meant miniatures have become far more realistic.
Once I realised how beautifully made a lot of the pieces are and the huge range of things you can now buy, I knew I was going to need to somewhere to put them. I had my eye on Dolls House Emporium’s Lake View or the Malibu Beach House but neither is cheap. I set up searches on Facebook Marketplace and eventually a brand new, unopened Malibu Beach House kit popped up just 45 minutes away.
I’m not sure my dad shared my excitement, but he did very kindly agree to build it for me. I’m still deciding on the internal decoration (and in truth, I’m very scared of ruining it) and I need to finish off the outside (to add colour, or not to add colour?) but in the meantime, it was safe to start collecting modern miniatures that would eventually have a home in this gorgeous art deco house.
My Malibu Beach House - a long-term project (spot Tim's castle - an even longer-term project!)
My collection so far is many bits and pieces rather than actual furniture, but this project is going to take many years. As my miniatures room is basically full, I'm in no hurry to finish it.
My modern miniatures - so far...
I’ve bought a couple of dresses from Gill Bayes at Jilly’s Little Gifts which I love. Finding realistic-looking clothes is so difficult (there’s no weight in the material to make it hang as you would expect a life-size piece to) so Gill’s pieces are very popular. They go incredibly quickly when she opens her shop (which is usually announced on Instagram so I was very excited to finally get a couple of pieces. In fact, I was so excited I accidentally ordered 1:24 scale instead of 1:12. Fortunately Gill was very understanding and amended the order.
The detail in these dresses is incredible - they have labels!
I couldn’t think of a better place to display them than in one of Bush Baby Miniatures’ lovely wardrobes. Their 3D printed furniture and other pieces are not only incredibly realistic, they’re also very reasonably priced.
Looks like the perfect place to store some tiny shoes...
Definitely room for a couple more dresses in there.
As I've mentioned before, I love tiny food and 3D printing means that these days it's so much more realistic. Look at this incredible jar of Marmite - so incredible in fact, that when I got my whole collection out I realised I'd bought two.
So tiny!
Incredible detail - another beautiful make from Shepherd Miniatures.
Another product of 3D printing is this beautiful wooden-style train set from PiCTOSO. I had a Brio set when I was small and this brings back many happy memories. I love that you can actually build the track yourself. Apologies for the little green houses that have crept in from tiny Monopoly.
The detail in this train set is incredible.
Finally, for now, enjoy a tiny hamster in his little cage (yes, I'm probably too old for TikTok but you'd be surprised how many miniaturists you can find there).
Last weekend my mum and I took a trip to Miniatura - my favourite exhibition of the year. This one was particularly special as it was the 100th show and lots of the stallholders had made a real effort to recognise that - as you can see from the photos above. Miniatura began in 1983 but if I'm honest, I've lost track of how many shows we've been to. We started going when it was at the NEC but Stoneleigh - the exhibition's home for the last few years - is definitely a more relaxed experience. There's so much room to move around so even if your favourite stall is a few people deep, it never feels uncomfortable or over-crowded. This year there were even more places to sit and the catering had been brought inside the main hall which worked really well. After a long drive hampered by heavy traffic on the Saturday, we arrived with just under two hours to explore and were relieved we had bought weekend tickets, which are great value. My mum had a shopping list whereas I...
Today we took our annual trip to Tonbridge Model Railway Club's exhibition. As it's held less than half a mile from our house, we normally make it every year - and it's worth going as the layouts do change from one year to the next. I must admit this wasn't a vintage show in my book. The actual trains will always be secondary for me but I love the scenery, my favourite setting being the English countryside from times gone by. This year there seemed to be more industrial and urban settings, or (heaven forbid!) those that concentrated purely on the trains and hadn't bothered much with the rest of the layout. That said I did take a lot of photos so will share a few of my favourites. This is close to my favourite type of scene, although it's in a larger scale than I usually prefer. I have an N gauge layout myself, so I tend to lean towards trains in a smaller scale but the one above was done really well. I like to be able to look at a photo and not be qui...
A few years ago I mentioned we had 'accidentally' begun a new miniature hobby . As this one is seasonal it's a slow burner but our Christmas village is growing little by little, year by year. We still go to a garden centre for the annual post-festive sales and pick up some half price bargains. Amazingly, this year I escaped having only spent £3. This little horse and carriage fitted our specification of 'nothing too big' as storing the village from January to November is a bit of a challenge. The village sits just in front of our TV, largely because it's an empty surface but the fact it's white means it adds to the snowy feel. As you can see, it's still a manageable size - for the moment... We were hoping to pick up a 'firework display' my dad had seen online but unfortunately we couldn't find one. The film below is something to aim for next year!
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