miniNature's 3D printing animals - Update May 20: Finally Hyenas and more

Super models again I love reindeer in all the different poses

Ana wrote:

Super models again I love reindeer in all the different poses

Thank you Anna!

For everyone who's interested, I saw Shapeways has a promo code at the moment for Presidents' Day:

Use promo code Prezz2021 to GET 15% OFF* during our Presidents’ Day Sale (with minimum purchase of $120 USD)
*Promo code Prezz2021 is good for 15% off on your next order of at least $120 USD before taxes and VAT. Code expires on February 15, 2021 at 11:59pm PST.

At the moment I'm uploading a new batch of models; I'm afraid not all of them are uploaded before the promo code expires, but for the deep divers in my shop, they can find already some of the new models. Soon I'll come back here with an overview when they all are available.

Very exciting!

Hi all!  It took some time, but I just finished uploading my largest batch ever.  For years I have an image in my mind of an immense diorama based on the great migration. Once a year a few million herbivores migrate from the Serengeti to the Maasai Mara on the border of Tanzania and Kenya. The main obstacle on the way is the Mara river. Herds of Wildebeest, Zebra, Topi and Thomson’s Gazelle merge together and have to cross this river full of hungry Crocodiles waiting for this big event. I guess everyone have seen some images of this in nature documentaries. I hear the voice of David Attenborough already.  
This batch is just the first one, cause I want to raise the number of unique models for this diorama to at least 100 pieces.  

In an earlier upload session, I already updated my old Nile Crocodile model and now I also updated the Wildebeest and Zebra for this diorama. To see the difference, here is a before and after of both species:









In this batch, I uploaded one new pose for the Zebra:


And most of the new models (22 of them) are Wildebeests. I made some to descend or tumbling down the steep river bank and of course swimming and jumping. Also I added the new juvenile model. This model matches by the age of the calves, during this river crossing, normally in the beginning of July. The complete herd of Wildebeests gives birth around February in another part of the Serengeti. Here are several of the new poses and you can find the rest of them is of course on my Shapeways page.










I also added 7 new poses for the Nile Crocodile. This time I also created 2 different size stages. To see a difference, here a 2 of them, the larger and smaller individual:



And also the other poses:






Next to the 22 Wildebeests and 7 Crocodiles, I also have 3 new combined models, in which the Wildebeest isn’t as lucky :




And I named the species before, the Topi is also part of this migration and it’s a complete new species for my collection. I created 6 poses and here are 3 of them:




And to add some more life in the river, you can place these 2 Serrated Hinged Terrapins on a log, watching the whole event while sunbathing:



This new species I also uploaded. A male Springbok. It only doesn’t match with the river crossing diorama, cause this species only can be find in Southern Africa. But want to share it too of course:



It took some time, but loved the whole process. And hopefully the result is loved by more than me alone!

I love the antelopes. But also the others are very nice

WOW!
These are absolutely amazing, I still can't believe you can make so many so quickly and all looking so realistic! These really are some of the best models I have seen of each of the species, the poses are fantastic, and every detail just right! What material are they made of once they are printed? Is it a sort of plastic?

These models are amazing again. I especially like the wildebeest and it's great to see a swimming crocodile (an uncommon pose for croc figures). I am surprised that no toy manufacturer has offered you a job as a designer yet; your models are really unsurpassed and I would have thought your technical skills are very valuable for them too.

Somehow I missed the previous post too, so many wonderful models you've made!

Thanks all!

Bonnie wrote:

WOW!
These are absolutely amazing, I still can't believe you can make so many so quickly and all looking so realistic! These really are some of the best models I have seen of each of the species, the poses are fantastic, and every detail just right! What material are they made of once they are printed? Is it a sort of plastic?

Ah, thanks Bonnie!    The most useful advantage with 3D sculpting, is that you can save multiple files, so when you sculpted a base model, you can use that file to pose it in different ways, so that's a great time saver. I sell them in 2 different types of plastic (the smallest models only in 1). The White Natural Versatile Plastic is the cheapest of the 2 and made out of Nylon. The more expensive is the Smooth Fine Detail Plastic and this is a resin-based material. So more of the classic plastic figure material.

rogerpgvg wrote:

These models are amazing again. I especially like the wildebeest and it's great to see a swimming crocodile (an uncommon pose for croc figures). I am surprised that no toy manufacturer has offered you a job as a designer yet; your models are really unsurpassed and I would have thought your technical skills are very valuable for them too.

That's a great compliment! Thanks! It isn't my main ambition, but we'll never know what the future will bring.

miniNature wrote:

Thanks all!

Bonnie wrote:

WOW!
These are absolutely amazing, I still can't believe you can make so many so quickly and all looking so realistic! These really are some of the best models I have seen of each of the species, the poses are fantastic, and every detail just right! What material are they made of once they are printed? Is it a sort of plastic?

Ah, thanks Bonnie!    The most useful advantage with 3D sculpting, is that you can save multiple files, so when you sculpted a base model, you can use that file to pose it in different ways, so that's a great time saver. I sell them in 2 different types of plastic (the smallest models only in 1). The White Natural Versatile Plastic is the cheapest of the 2 and made out of Nylon. The more expensive is the Smooth Fine Detail Plastic and this is a resin-based material. So more of the classic plastic figure material.

rogerpgvg wrote:

These models are amazing again. I especially like the wildebeest and it's great to see a swimming crocodile (an uncommon pose for croc figures). I am surprised that no toy manufacturer has offered you a job as a designer yet; your models are really unsurpassed and I would have thought your technical skills are very valuable for them too.

That's a great compliment! Thanks! It isn't my main ambition, but we'll never know what the future will bring.

Thank you very much for the information! Can't wait to see your future creations!

I was very excited today that I think I'm pretty sure I saw some of Stijn's figures (especially the newest ones) on TV today
It was on a Dutch program about miniature artists competing in different diorama challenges called "Klein maar fijn" (roughly translated as small but nice/great). There was a challenge where the contestants had to make a diorama that included a few animals in 1/35 scale that were 3D printed. I thought some wildebeasts looked familiar and after checking the shapeways shop I was able to find all the animals featured in the program listed in the miniNature shop

So congrats on being featured to TV I was excited to see something I know from STS on TV at least

Sounds like an interesting programme, shame I couldn't see it.

Is there a video, tv website where we can watch it?
This technology will rule.

I googled around a bit and I'm able to re-watch it here:
https://www.kijk.nl/programmas/klein-maar-fijn/a13PegWYKwE
from the time stamp 24:42 you can see the 3D printed animals and the diorama building.

I am slightly worried that only people watching from within the netherlands (dutch IP adress) will be able to watch it? But maybe this website provides re-watching programs for Dutchies living outside of the netherlands and non Dutchies can also watch it

Little warning though: it is all Dutch and no other subtitles are available beside Dutch, but there is a lot of stuff to watch too :)

Here are some screenshots of the episode with the miniNature animals:

Anne, thanks for these screenshots and the link for the video.
Actually, I don't have access to the video. They know I am not from the Netherlands.

Hi guys!

Great to see already here someone noticed my models! Thanks Anne-Joke for sharing it

I was already preparing for my comeback here to the forum after a year of house renovations and working quite hard for this television show. I created a lot of new models for it and now I'm uploading them. The first few are already online indeed.

My daytime job is creating television shows and this show is one of my brain childs. Now running for his second series, I liked to put some of my own work into the show. For everyone who don't know the show, and I'm sure it's most of you; the show's called Klein maar Fijn, which translates best to: Pretty Small. It's best summarized as the TV show Bake Off, but with all forms of miniature assignments instead of baking cakes. So in a episode they have 2 different challenges, one small one for one day of work and a big one with 5 days of work. They've built miniature tv scenes in old tv frames, miniature tree houses in houseplants, dollhouse interiors, aquarium interiors, hamster cages in a theme, etc. This Sunday was the semi-final with 4 contestants left and they received the assignment: Create a natural living space in 1:35 containing water for one of these 4 species: The Polar Bear, Grizzly Bear, Nile Crocodile or Jaguar. Cause I came up with this assignment I've been busy in my spare time to create a lot of new animals. My collection contained a lot of African species, but we don't wanted 4 different savanna scenes of course. So I designed some sets for the polar region, Amazon rain forest, and coniferous forest too.

The episode is indeed geoblocked outside the Netherlands, so you can only watch it when using a VPN. But if you don't have that and still are interested in the episode, you can send me a private message and I can send you a MP4 of the episode. And for the German forum members, we sold this tv format also to RTL Germany, so this year they will be airing it as  Superklein – Die Miniatur Meisterschaft. I don't know which assignments they will do in their first series, but I don't think my models will appear in that series too.

For everyone only interested in what the 4 contestants created with the models. These are some photos of their work:















On my shop I already upload multiple of the new models. Here a selection of some of the ones at the moment online.













This last collection of salmon is not yet online in every scale, but they will come. Love to be a bit of a perfectionist, so for the Grizzly scene I wanted to create an accurate impression of the famous Salmon run, so I created 50 unique models of the 5 species of salmon that all appear mixed in those rivers, so this set is a mix between the Chinook, Chum, Coho, Pink and Sockeye salmon.

More models will come in the coming weeks! Happy to be back here

That's very exciting! I really love the show! Sounds like an awesome job. And I can imagine it takes a lot of work, 50 unique salmon models! 'petje af' Thanks for sharing the pictures of the created dioramas.
I'm looking forward to the finals of Klein maar Fijn, and it's great to hear from you too again on this forum!

Great to see more models, and fantastic that you are creating TV shows. I really think your models are the most realistic ones out there, they even beat the Japanese models. I am hoping that one day they will be able to print them in colour, as I am awful at painting. But I am thinking that bears and capybaras may not be too difficult I love the capybara with young. Are the young capybaras attached to the mother?

Stijn, thanks for all those details about the tv show and congratulations for being a part of it.
It all sounds fascinating to me and your works are absolutely incredible. Also, the salmon project is absolutely crazy, you really love to complicate your own life.

Nice work again

Wow, amazing to hear the details and see these stunning photos! The details and realism is incredible, all those tiny plants and the water- wow! Did you make any of these dioramas or were they made by other contestants? I'd love to know more about how they are made, they are absolutely beautiful- is it all 3D printed?
And amazing that you were on TV!

Wow, the new models and dioramas are absolutely beautiful! Congratulations! Fantastic work, I love it!
Also big congratulation on having a TV show! I will watch it later too