How to get your model making mojo back

 If you're ever at a loose end, feeling uninspired with whatever miniatures you are making, I recommend building something fun and low-stress to get your model making mojo back. Think of it as a palate cleanser.

We've all felt it. You don't feel inspired to make anything. There's "nothing interesting" in that ridiculously large and expensive stash of unbuilt model kits you own ;) Or your regular subject just doesn't seem to catch you any more.

This video might just help. It has some suggestions at the end which certainly worked for me.

Get back into it!

Dave

Video link: How to get your model making mojo back

Miniature trash cans - limited edition of ten

 How is it nearly the end of 2022? I've been a busy artist, making a series of miniature trash cans. If I don't mind saying so, they're pretty damn cute.

There is a series of ten, and each is based on a Melbourne 1980s rubbish bin. Each has a VB tinnie, a discarded pack of Marlboros, and in each bin is an authentic copy of a 1980s The Age newspaper, a banana skin, and either a Coco Pops or Rice Bubbles retro cereal pack.

I'm selling these in the lead up to Christmas, so if you're interested please get in touch! (Please note, they're rather fragile, so I don't think they would stand postage, I can only sell to people in Melbourne so I can deliver face to face)

That Rice Bubbles box is about 3cm tall.

Cheers,

Dave

Exhibition of my miniatures - UNSUNG STREETS from 22 June to 5 July 2022

 Exciting news - I have a solo exhibition of my miniature artworks opening tonight! My last exhibition was in March 2020, just as COVID hit Australia, and it's been two long years of lockdowns and closed galleries since, but now it's time to get out there and see my miniatures in person again!

UNSUNG STREETS is on at the West End Art Space Creative Pod, located at 209 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Rather fittingly for my love of old and abandoned shops, it is an old shop which closed during COVID and has now been repurposed as a gallery space.

Opening night is tonight from 5pm, but the exhibition runs for two weeks until 5 July. I hope you can make it along.

Miniature NYC firehouse from the 1984 movie "Ghostbusters"

 This week I completed my latest miniature: a collector commissioned me to make the iconic Ghostbusters HQ building from the cult 1984 movie "Ghostbusters". The real building still stands in New York City - it is a NYFD Hook & Ladder Company firehouse.

Who ya gonna call? ;)

I didn't work to a particular scale (although it ended up being around 1/50 scale) - instead, I knew the rough final dimensions I wanted the completed miniature to be, so I drew up blueprints to match that final size. I used Google satellite view to get the basic dimensions, and then filled in the details using stills from the film, contemporary photos of the building I found online, and Google streetview. I designed this using InDesign, because I used to be a graphic designer and I know the program well, but any CAD or design software would work. Once I had the plans, I started building.

It's such an iconic structure, I had a lot of fun making it. I won't tell you the whole story here - instead, watch the video to get the detail!

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
How I built a miniature Ghostbusters New York firehouse scale model

Cheers,

Dave

Miniature Melbourne Music No2 - The Tote

 I've just completed my second miniature Melbourne music venue - The Tote hotel in Collingwood.

The Tote is an institution. It nearly closed for good, but a public outcry and lots of grassroots support revived it.

I really wanted to capture that corner door, it's the "face" of The Tote. 

Each of those cigarette butts is about 2mm long.

"Don't read the Herald Sun" - pretty solid advice, actually.

Lots of fun to make, and the miniature has already sold to a private collector who has previously purchased another of my miniatures in the past.

Now I have the lovely challenge of trying to decide which music venue to do next!

Cheers,

Dave

Miniature Music #1 - Cherry Bar

 I've decided to start a new series of miniatures, featuring iconic live music venues. The first one is (drumroll...) - Cherry Bar! Specifically, Cherry Bar from back in the day when it was in AC/DC Lane, for extra musical cred. And the coolest thing about this series, tying deeper into the music theme, is that each will be the exact same size as a vinyl LP album cover, 31cm x 31cm.

I decided to begin this series during our latest two-week COVID-19 lockdown 4.0 here in Melbourne. I was thinking about all the places I missed visiting, and in particular about live music venues. Then I thought "If I can't go in person, why not visit in miniature?"

I remember the AC/DC Lane version of Cherry Bar so well, it was a natural for my first Miniature Music. I was gutted when it had to move to a new location, but once again that's the beauty of making a miniature, I could replicate how it looked around 2014-2015.

The size is a lovely little synchronicity. The dimensions of an LP cover work beautifully with my miniatures, which are usually around 30-40cm at their largest point. Plus I made it deliberately shallow so it can be framed and hung on a wall, rather than my usual miniatures which stand on bases.

It just had to be the same size as an LP ;)

My favourite bit? In the doorframe are stuck pieces of paper with the house rules on them. 
"1. No suits.
  2. No sporting apparel.
  3. No dickheads (See Number 1).
  4. No thongs."
I just had to include these.

The hardest part was getting the sloping ground of AC/DC Lane to work!

I hope you like it. Now, here's to Miniature Music #2 - I have so many to choose from! The Tote, Festival Hall, The Espy. Decisions, decisions...

New miniature - corner shop milk bar in Melbourne

Here's my latest miniature art work: a small corner shop of the type that used to be everywhere in Australia. There were tens of thousands of these small grocery / milkbar / newsagent type shops in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, in all Australian cities and towns. I would estimate that 80-90% of them are gone now, replaced by supermarkets and convenience stores.

This particular shop was in Footscray, Melbourne, near the corner of Barkly Street and Summerhill Road. I only had a single black and white photo to work from. The photo is from the mid-1960s, and the store was demolished in the 1970s. 

I set myself a challenge to see if I could make a miniature from a single photo. First I ran the photo through some online software to colorize it - here's the result. It's far from perfect, but it gave me a good solid base to work from and a way to interpret what colours I should be heading to.

Colorized.

Then I had to do some research to try and locate the old logos and brands, so that I could replicate these all accurately.

Finally I had to make a representation of the interior, full of 1960s-era groceries: Persil, Cornflakes, bags of sugar and lots of point of sale for brands like Peters icecream, Marlboro cigarettes, Nestle chocolate, Coca Cola and Vita Brits.

This one was a fun one to build.

Comparison of the original photo (left) and my miniature (right).

Cheers,

Dave

New miniature - Blunt's Boatbuilders in Williamstown, Melbourne

Goodness it's been a long time between drinks. Six months since my last Youtube video...

To be honest, I've been focussing intently on producing actual physical miniatures rather than documenting it all for video. The process of recording and editing videos is unexpectedly time-consuming, and I made a conscious decision last year to concentrate more on producing artworks rather than videos.

Which doesn't mean I don't still read all the comments you guys leave, and respond to 95% of them. I promise.

So here's my latest video, which charts the building of my latest miniature - Blunt's Boatbuilders here in Melbourne.

It was a fun build, I hope you like it.

New video: 1/35 scale miniature Blunt's Boatshed Melbourne

Cheers,

Dave

New miniature - Gould's Books in Newtown, Sydney

 Well it's been rather a long time between posts, but 2020 has been a kick in the guts for everyone. COVID-19 has meant that I have been home-schooling my daughter for the last six months, and there has been very little time to actually produce my miniatures. But the good news is that I have a new one released into the wild today - Gould's Books in Sydney!

A Sydney institution, Bob Gould’s bookshop was part of the city’s life for decades. Gould was a famous anti-Vietnam  activist and bookseller who opened his first bookstore in 1967. The Newtown store was his largest – a labyrinth of secondhand books, videos, magazines, records and ephemera. I have fond memories of spending hours and hours there when I was at uni in the 1990s. If you were searching for a particular title you faced a Herculean task in the chaos, but if you were content to browse and discover whatever came along it was magical. Bob Gould was always behind the desk, always irascible, and always accompanied by cats (a window at the back of the store was left open for the cats to get in and out – that window ledge was the only surface in the entire building not covered with stacks of books).

Originally built in 1889 as a metalworkers, the building was abandoned in the 1980s until opened as Gould’s largest shop. The bookstore closed at this location after Bob Gould’s death in 2011. My miniature captures Gould’s as it looked in its final weeks, during its final sale. There are several retro and suitably left-wing protest posters hidden in the piece, as well as a bird nest for the truly eagle-eyed to spot.  

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
Old book store in miniature - Gould's Books in Newtown, Sydney

Cheers,

Dave

My miniature art exhibition - "SMALL ACTS"

Goodness it's been a long time between posts. I mostly put that down to the fact that I was preparing for an art exhibition of my miniatures, held in an art gallery here in Melbourne. The exhibition, "SMALL ACTS" was the culmination of just over a year's work, showing ten miniatures of buildings and urban scenes I love here. Attendance was phenomenal, with about 1000 people coming to view the works.

In these times of Coronavirus and national lockdowns, a lot of people weren't able to make it along. Plus I know a lot of you are international followers, not in my home town. For all of you, I've put together a video walkthrough of the exhibition.

It was very gratifying to see people so enthralled with my work. It's been consuming my time for the last few months in particular, so it was wonderful to see people's reactions to it.

Video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
Miniature art exhibition, Melbourne 2020 - urban decay and weathered buildings

Cheers,

Dave