A Man's Miniature World

A friend of mine, made a comment to me , "I'm beginning to get into this miniature stuff".
He had liked my presidential postings and the connection to miniatures. I have been searching for miniatures for "manly" roomboxes or settings so when I came across this diorama made by Wilco Machiels, I had to post them . I found these on Speedhunters. I have left the descriptions of the photos as I found them written on the Speedhunters website.

I AM IN AWE!!!! Read this:

Many model car enthusiasts, they start to build model cars and quickly realize that they have a long way to go before it looks like a real car. There's always the exception and that is Wilco... he started at the age of seven and has since then mastered the technique of building realistic model cars and dioramas like no other.

All the models and diorama's have been build in 1:24 scale and are made to represent the garage's from the 1960's. Wilco says "I love the nostalgic garages of the 1960's - dirty, a little cluttered and rather disorganized and untidy - I like to recreate them just the way they were". He always starts out with a model and then builds the garage around it, he often takes parts from other kits to enhance the look and feel of the diorama's.

The following is from his website....

My name is Wilco Machiels from the Netherlands

This site shows my hobby and passion, making GARAGEDIORAMAS. ( click here to go to his website) Only in 1:24 scale because this is the best scale to work in, detailed and not to big in my opinion.
The dioramas are fully scratch build made from pieces of plastic, wood andmetal. Mostly shoebox size with real 12 volt electric lighting.

I prefer garages from the past with their nostalgic looks (50-80's). I use plastic model car kits with many parts because they are high in detail.

Al my models are plastic kits from Tamiya, Hasegawa, Fujimi, Gunze, Revell, Italerei, Monogram, MPC and Airfix

The detail on this VW bus is amazing. The rust and the battered paint shows that it had a hard life, I'm guessing that it just unloaded the crate engine.

This more customized Beetle with its deep dish wheels is getting some work done on the rear. It looks like there is some welding going on, maybe a leaking exhaust?. The shop owner must have thought better be safe than sorry so he has a fire extinguisher at the ready.

This beetle is undergoing some major overhauling. It is getting a new engine and it seems that the drum brakes are getting refreshed.

This bus is getting a fresh lick of paint and maybe some rust removed around the arches. It is already rolling on some new wheels. Al the diorama's that Wilco makes feature real lighting as you can see on the wall.

Here we have a lot of spare parts that are scavenged from other models to make this diorama complete. Did you notice the Continental sign just right of the door?

This looks more like a donor car but it makes for a great addition to this diorama.

A scratch build tire exchanger.... just so you now that Wilco is truly a king amongst modelers. I'm amazed at all the details and still find new things to marvel at.

NOW THIS IS A MAN'S MINIATURE WORLD!

So to my friend, what do you think , has this caught your attention..