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• Mice, Beware!

  22Mar
  Categories: Miniatures, Scenic Comments: 1

  Shotgun toting feline on the loose. What does this have to do with NK-1 Class Soybeans by Syngenta?  Click the image below for the full ad.
  

  

  Photography by Rick Dublin, agency is Campbell Mithun. Product is NK-1 Class Soybeans from Syngenta.

  

  We fabricated a corner of an old farm house room as a small set piece with hand aged flooring and custom trim with man made mouse hole. mnfx also produced the cat sized shotgun for the image by hand carving a walnut stock, adding a few custom laser cut parts and a couple of pvc tubes. It’s a fun ad that also won first place in the Region lll Best of NAMA for Single Page Ad.

  Tags: best of, campbell mithun, cat, cat shotgun, farm house, feline, first place, mouse hole, nama, National Agri-Marketing Association, nk soybean, nk-1 soybean, region 3, rick dublin, shotgun, syngenta

• Castle Stomping Fun!

  29Sep
  Categories: Miniatures, Table Top Props Comments: 0

  This was one of those tough, grueling photo shoots. The kind where you spend the whole day at the beach playing in sand. Here we made a smashed sand castle by carving the various wrecked castle components from EPS foam and applying sand to them.  Then it was set up on Lake Nokomis Main Beach with a pneumatic sand cannon buried behind the castle to launch the sand plume into the air. The ad is for Arctic Cat snowmobiles with photography by Kyle Johnson-MacPherson of Periscope.

  

  Tags: arctic cat, beach, kyle johnson macpherson, lake nokomis, periscope, sand castle, sled, snow suit, snowmobile

• Metro Transit Parachuting Apples

  29Sep
  Categories: Miniatures, Table Top Props Comments: 0

  This image was for Metro Transit, which serves the Minneapolis and St. Paul region. We created a miniature parachute with a harness that could be fastened to an apple. It also had rigging so it could be suspended from overhead. The parachute is fabricated from a thin transparent plastic that we vacuum formed and then painted with translucent paints. Also did a second version that was crumpled a bit for the apple that has landed. We also supplied plastic grass for the image. Photography by Kyle Johnson-MacPherson of Periscope.

  

  Tags: apple, kyle johnson macpherson, metro transit, minneapolis, parachute, parachuting, periscope, skydiving, st. paul

• Sinking Ship

  28Sep
  Categories: Miniatures Comments: 2

  This was for a brochure that was folded in such a way that only the sinking ship was shown.  As it was opened it was revealed that the ship is in fact a radio controlled toy operated by the boy on the dock.  The design of the ship is a fusion of two different historical ships.  The entire model is scratch built with working lighting.  The power for the lighting was run through pvc tubing from the shore. The picture was shot in Lake Minnetonka by Joe Paczkowski.

  

  Tags: joe paczkowski, lake minnetonka, ocean liner, queen mary, radio controlled boat, radio controlled ship, rc boat, rc ship, sinking ship, titanic

• Pete’s Wicked Ale

  25Sep
  Categories: Brand Icons, Miniatures Comments: 0

  A few of the miniature scenes and sculptures we’ve done for Pete’s Wicked Ale.

  

  

  

  Tags: ale, beer, coliseum, columns, gargoyle, halloween, honey wheat, mythology, pete's wicked ale, roman, spooky, stone arch

• Got Milk?

  23Sep
  Categories: Brand Icons, Miniatures Comments: 0

  Got Milk? with Kevin Garnett (formerly) of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Here we have KG stomping through the city sporting his Got Milk? mustache. What did we build here? The whole dang city!  This was a mad dash to the finish project as it was produced in about a week.  Photographer is David LaChapelle.

  

  Tags: celtics, city, david lachapelle, godzilla, got milk, kevin garnett, kg, king kong, milk mustache, minnesota, timberwolves

• Magnetic Appeal of BMW

  23Sep
  Categories: Miniatures Comments: 0

  The following two images were produced for a pair of BMW advertisements. Photography by Shawn Michienzi.

  

  The overpass structure was built as a miniature.  The parts were all made to be easily assembled as this was shipped to Los Angeles for the photo shoot.  Major construction is of MDF board and plastic with a paint finish to mimic concrete.  The magnet is carved from urethane foam.

  

  A miniature lighthouse was made for this image.  The brick tower is carved from a high density urethane foam with a mix of plastic and metal components to form the lantern room.

  Tags: bavarian motor works, bayerische motoren werke, bmw, bridge, concrete structure, horseshoe, lighthouse, magnet, overpass

• UFO

  23Sep
  Categories: Miniatures Comments: 0

  This is a UFO flying saucer mnfx produced.  It has been used several times over the years with modifications made to it for different ad placements.  It is composed of multiple vacuum formed plastic shells with a buffed metalizer paint finish.

  

  Tags: flying saucer, spacecraft, spaceship, ufo, unidentified flying object

• The Snorkeling Puppy

  23Sep
  Categories: Miniatures, Portfolio Comments: 1

  For this picture mnfx made a puppy sized version of a snorkel and pair of diving goggles.

  

  Tags: dog, goggles, puppy, snorkel, snorkeling, underwater

• Trex Fantasy Decks

  06Jul
  Categories: Miniatures, Sidebar Photoblog Comments: 3

  This was a popular campaign for Trex decking.  If you say you’ve  seen the view from these decks, you’d be lying through your teeth. Unless you’re six inches tall. These decks were made as miniatures using actual Trex decking materials in the model, yes we actually milled down Trex boards into scale lumber (.125 x .5 inch boards).  Scale is 1:12. Photography by Shawn Michienzi.

  

  No Redwoods were hurt here.  Not only is the deck a miniature, so is the redwood forest we built it in.

  

  Here we have a deck in the Grand Canyon.  The rock face was also made in miniature with the stairs, that would then be used to help blend it into an actual shot of the Grand Canyon.

  

  This precariously perched deck on the cliff overlooks the crashing ocean.  The deck and cliff face were built constructed.  Our cliff was then blended into the actual cliff from the location picture.  We’ve heard stories that people have called Trex wanting to have their wedding on this deck. They had to do their best to explain, that’s just not possible.

  

  For this beach front deck we laid out a beach with palm trees.  That was then composited with the picture of the background islands.

  Tags: beach, cliff, deck, decking, fantasy, forest, grand canyon, islands, ocean, redwood, shawn michienzi, tree house, Trex