AMAZING AND EXTRAORDINARY - TINIEST MODEL TRAIN EVER MADE?

SMN is awestruck:

This video shows an amazingly small oval-track rail layout - built in ultra-tiny microscale to fit inside a Z-gauge model shop window... Watch and enjoy.

Plus, the daily SMN Festive Slideshow. We have 20 items of scale gorgeousness on show today, though object number one, a cyber-pup, is more art than scale model. It's a steampunk creation, made up of various scrap components including a 1950s-era retro toaster. We like Fido's smile, though trust he doesn't bite, as metal teeth are liable to be sharp...  

AMAZING NANO-SIZE TRAIN BEGS THE QUESTION - WHAT IS A MODEL?

At barely 6.35 x 3.18 mm (1/8 x 1/4 in) in size, New Jersey model train builder David Smith’s tiny train must be in the record books for the smallest ever - it works out to 1:35,200 scale. It’s not a feature in its own right however, for it represents a model train running inside an already small Z gauge 1:220 scale display. Wow!

In fact the five-car ‘train’ consists of an oval of trimmed and painted plastic, moving by means of a small motor. And this has raised queries on at least one internet site, with people suggesting that because there are no separate three-dimensional components such as locomotive, carriages and track, then perhaps it shouldn’t count as a ‘model’ at all.

Well in SMN’s book, it is certainly a thing of wonder, and there’s nothing in the book against making a two-dimensional model, so David Smith gets our vote for sheer amazingness, if nothing else. You’ll find out how he pulled the trick off in the fascinating video above.

For more conventional model train enthusiasts, there’s a selection to enjoy at Amazon here.

THE SUBMINIATURIST

We all like miniature reproductions - they are the basis of scale modelling - but British artist Willard Wigan makes even the tiny Z-gauge (1:220 scale) look mountainous by comparison.

52 year-old Willard uses a microscope and tiny surgical instruments to make sculptures that fit inside the eye of a needle. To paint them he uses a hair from a dead fly (ugh) and the results - such as a Santa Claus and a soccer World Cup trophy - are no more than 0.005 mm (0.0002in) high.

It’s good to know that the painstaking work earns good money for Willard - two years ago sports businessman David Lloyd bought 70 pieces for £11.2 million GBP ($16.65 million USD).