SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

TOP

» Japan
» Japanese diorama artist makes models smaller than an actual thumbnail【Photos】

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

Japanese diorama artist makes models smaller than an actual thumbnail【Photos】

Mike Feb 9, 2016
Tweet

thumbfeature

Shunichi Matsuba, a self-proclaimed diorama artist, creates extraordinarily detailed miniature scenes of Japanese life past and present — often using models smaller than a fingertip.

Maybe you remember what a diorama is from when you had to make one representing your favorite scene from Of Mice and Men or something back in your middle school literature class. While your classmates’ mockery upon seeing your amalgam of crudely cut-out stick figures arranged with several gallons of glue against a ghastly Crayola-crayoned shoebox backdrop probably made you swear off modeling and diorama making for the rest of your life, here in Japan, there are some people that take this stuff pretty seriously.

And they have become very, very good at it.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/694932648481808385 https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/694190741854097409

So good, in fact, that enthusiasts like Shunichi Matsuba, a full-blown diorama artist, can create stunningly realistic models of everyday objects that are fractions of fractions of those objects’ true scale. Ever seen a bucket so small it can perch on a fingertip or a truck the size of a coin? Matsubata makes these things for fun.

1/150 scale 机横のチョイ置台。土日は建物も車も進まず、放置状態ですｗ pic.twitter.com/T4YRuKnKSq

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) November 15, 2015

1/150 scale. 屋外水道管を作りました。タミヤの 0.06mm プラシートを使い水道管の段差表現を行いました。　少し嬉しいですｗ pic.twitter.com/dzNwOBa0yD

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) December 27, 2015

It’s not entirely clear what kind of materials Matsuba uses to craft his creations, although clues in a handful of his Twitter photos reveal many of the models are made from various thin metals, wire and plastics, while some pieces of Matsuba’s full diorama scenes are store-bought toys — like Tomica cars — which he’s painted over and deliberately “aged” with dents, rust and other flourishes.

1/150 scale. 以前も Up した過去作の別ショット。函館銀座通りにかつてあった建物の、裏側です。 pic.twitter.com/FXt2ddT3hp

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) January 7, 2016

1/150 scale. 今週作った机・バケツが、建物完成後は見えにくくなるのが不憫？に思えたので、小物オールスターズで記念撮影ｗ pic.twitter.com/RH74d0IaGG

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) February 4, 2016

1/150 scale. 失敗物は(そのうち作る？)廃車置き場の為に都度廃車塗り練習してますが、どうもワンパターンです。
やっぱり廃車置き場を真面目に作る際に考えないとダメですね。そのうち(笑 pic.twitter.com/TMsBx33071

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) November 28, 2015

So small are Matsuba’s models that he readily admits to occasionally dropping one under his desk, the tiny bucket or trashcan or whatever never to be found again. There are also, apparently, a whole lot of failed attempts when working on a scale this small; although Matsuba says even some of his “failed” pieces find their way into dioramas as things like broken-down cars. Something tells us, though, that Matsuba’s definition of failure is a lot different from ours. Diorama “failure,” in our case, would probably involve a deep X-acto knife cut, the loss of two pints of blood, and a night in the emergency room.

1/150 scale. 旧作、小樽の静屋通奥にかつてあった建物です。まぁ、今のプロフィール写真で恐縮ですがｗ pic.twitter.com/pemlhw67Wy

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) November 27, 2015

1/150 scale 昨年の作、なんとなく作った木製パレット転用の雑品。まだ建物等に組み込むなどはしておらず、活用は宙に浮いてます。 pic.twitter.com/878QanhgcB

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) November 30, 2015

Despite being on such a small scale, Matsuba’s work is truly impressive. Did we mention the man just does this as a hobby? We imagine he’s very detail-oriented at whatever he actually does for a living.

1/150 と 1/1。旧作、昔の函館を題材にしたものです。 pic.twitter.com/5pOcm40jiV

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) November 17, 2015

1/150 scale　旧作、以前もチラッと出した、小樽の(旧)山部商店です。いずれ手を入れて生でご覧頂けるモノを目指したいです。 pic.twitter.com/fWWzbnhUAO

— クマコロ／ShunichiMatsuba (@kumakoro646873) November 13, 2015