Issue 52 February 2026

6 Miniature Time Traveller For me, this article led naturally to the idea of first, making a pinball machine, and then to making automata. For those of you who watch Salvage Hunters you would have seen a marvellous lot of these moveable figures over the years, that have been marvellously restored. The two main restorers have put together an interesting little video showing very miniature magic automata. Search for ‘Miniature Automata Magic Show’. So a bit of research went on, in how to make 12th scale automata without specialised knowledge or equipment. The inspiration for these projects came from the internet (how surprising is that?) and some of the images are shown here. When conceiving a miniature project it is good to think of what is doable and what is not. My pinball machine is not going to be a playable one. Instead the concentration will be on the look and the lighting. It is made of balsa wood which is easy to cut and work at your kitchen table. There is nothing in it’s construction that requires electric saws or any other buzzing noisy equipment. This is a little project that you could work on, on a rainy day, and get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment from it. Again, with my automaton, the mechanism is going to be limited as there is no engineering genes in my body, but it will have movement which is important. Important also, is the ambience and look of the piece. The main objective: You will want to spend your penny on this display. Jill Fraser. Another clever little automata is this tiny bird made by ‘Coral Dreams’ Other miniatures that inspired this issue’s projects were these displays.