Models

While we’re not sure the designs are officially licensed, the metal model kits from Amusien are still pretty awesome – especially the ones with color. Among their flat-pack kits are a Peterbilt 389 truck and Optimus Prime, along with a Scorpion Gunship straight from Avatar.

National Geographic takes us inside the world of artists Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber, who have been creating intricate miniature dioramas together for almost 15 years. The scenes portray a post-apocalyptic future in which buildings and material possessions have been abandoned.

We’ve seen metal miniature kits before, but never ones like these. Time 4 Machine’s big selling point is that their detailed models are mechanical. The wind-up cabrio and tank actually drive, the clock tells time (for an hour), and you can actually play the table hockey game.

Pilot Christian Gschwenter’s amazing remote-controlled scale model looks and flies just like a real F-16 Cobra fighter jet. While its engine doesn’t have a real afterburner, it’s got a ring of LED lighting out back to simulate flame, and even can make smoke trails.

LEGO Technic builder Attika created this awesome open-frame 4-wheel drive, Android-controlled car tuned for mad drifting action. It’s got a working drivetrain, brakes, lights, and looks like a blast at to speed. Action footage at 3:30, and lots of build images on Flickr.

After showing off his awesome spiraling model train set, James Risner created a fancier version of the track, which used over 8,000 K’Nex parts to give the train a downward spiral effect. It looks sort of like a coliseum made from trains.

Oh the humanity! After spending an inordinate amount of time assembling this model of a F1 race car out of matchsticks, builder The Q burns it to the ground in seconds. It’s at once deliciously satisfying and totally wrong.

One of the cooler LEGO Technic kits out there is the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It’s simply stunning. But that didn’t stop the guys from c’t Magazine from taking theirs and smashing it into a wall, with the help of the German automotive safety group ADAC and their crash test facility.

Model maker Adam Throgmorton shows off an incredible build – an intricate HO-scale replica of an old-school wooden rollercoaster that not only looks awesome, but is fully functional. Though the speed it zooms around at seems implausibly fast if it were to be scaled up.

Miniature model maker HMS2 shows us how even a complex real-world object like a see-through Perrier bottle can be put through the shrinker ray. The process requires painstaking detail work to create a teeny mold for casting clear resin bottles. Amazing.

SRS-RC shares footage of some amazing model trucks and construction equipment being driven and performing tasks during Modellbau Wels 2017, a festival which celebrates model vehicles and aircraft of all kinds. We’d love to see that Bucyrus crane being driven around in action.

Desktop sculptures you build from recycled chipboard. They come in a variety of familiar forms, from those water towers on top of buildings, to a mailbox, billboard, and our personal fave, the halfpipe. They’re paintable, and also come in awesome artist editions.

LEGO presents three new city construction sets in its Architecture Series. Builders can now create models of iconic structures from Chicago, Illinois, Sydney, Australia, and London, England, including the Willis (Sears) Tower, the Sydney Opera House, and the London Eye ferris wheel.

Artist Adam Makarenko creates incredibly detailed and realistic looking planetary models not using CGI, but as miniature sculptures, lit and photographed for optimum effect. Be sure to check out Adam’s other stunning miniature photography.

Artist Mike Doyle creates amazing and unique LEGO models, including these awesomely spooky abandoned homes, made even more creepy through the use of a monochrome black, white, and grey pallette. Be sure to check out his incredible 200,000 piece City of Odan too.

Despite providing virtually no real security for your possessions, the UGEARS plywood safe construction kit is still super cool. You’ll spend 6 to 7 hours assembling this intricate 179-piece punch-out model, which has a working combination lock when finished.

LEGO Ideas contributor Ozzyeatingbats presents a concept for a model of Jaguar’s greatest design achievement, the car Enzo Ferrari once called “the most beautiful car ever made.” It’s appx. 1:10 scale, made from 1664 bricks, and has a big inline 6-cylinder engine.

A behind the scenes look at the Smithsonian’s restoration of the original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, used on screen in all 79 original episodes of Star Trek. The care that went into bringing this sci-fi icon back to life over the course of 2 years is truly impressive.

Designed by Matt Cavanaugh for Kontextür, these awesome vinyl models offer lots of points of articulation, and a fun and easy assembly process using plastic screws to attach their parts. The shark and diver each measure 14″ long when swimming.

YouTuber HMS2 makes accurate, but teensy replicas of real world items for dollhouses. Out of all of the creations on their channel, these miniature cups of instant ramen are our personal favorites. Though the tiny Pocky sticks and potato chips are equally impressive.

Modelmaker Luke Towan walks us through the painstaking process of building a tiny tree for a model railroad. It requires time and patience, but the end result is quite realistic, and the video is as soothing as watching Bob Ross paint. His teensy hay bales are nuts too.

Artist Jamie Schena handcrafts amazing metal scale models of automobiles and motorcycles. His vehicle builds are amazing, but we were blown away by his massive green mech which envisions a Transformer that started out as a Lamborghini Aventador.

We’ve seen an R/C model of Ken Block’s Ford Fiesta. But this builder created something even more impressive – a working scale version of the 18-wheeler that transports Block’s car. Be sure to check out many other amazing R/C vehicles on monsterchannel24.

For her series Micro Matter, graphic designer and artist Rosa je Jong creates intricate models of buildings and trees using an X-Acto and tweezers, then sets them gingerly into test tubes and vials. More on Instagram and Dribble. Sculptures start at €120 (~$130 USD).

Filmmaker Jeff Desom teamed up with model maker Oli Pesch to recreate miniature sets of famous movie scenes, and then populated them with “holographic” images of actors projected onto an angled semi-transparent screen. This is how 3D movies should look. More here.