Miniature Worlds

Miniatures were something I would often make as a child—not the polished, expensive ones you might find in Warhammer collections…

My grandfather, however, would take me to see scale miniature train sets assembled by enthusiasts at local town halls. We would then try to recreate them using soup cans, scrap cardboard, straws, paint, and LEGO bricks.

Together we filmed stop-motion videos with toys and little plasticine characters.

The realisation that I could use miniatures in A Little Resistance was exciting, adding another layer of design that felt true to my early filmmaking years.

Initially, I used cardboard for a papercraft style reminiscent of the flats you might find at a movie studio. But as the process evolved, I was inspired to embrace three-dimensional model-making. I would take apart small toys and objects found at op shops to add fine details to the set designs.

Discovering remote-controlled toy tanks was a bonus, and repainting or remodelling planes from $2 shops gave each piece its own unique design—bringing the war machines, buildings, and boats further into the world of the film.

- Michael Loder

I started working a retail job at a department store and quickly noticed that a lot of great material was being recycled or heading for the bin. I asked my manager if I could take home some of the rubbish that tends to accumulate in a workplace like that.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a problem—and suddenly, I had new materials to work with! A major revelation was using Styrofoam. In the past, I’d found it frustrating to work with, as it breaks apart easily and makes a mess. But this was a denser, more concentrated version that cut smoothly and was far lighter than the clay and real rocks I had been using.

From this point on, as the film entered its second phase (visual effects and green screen sequences), my miniatures became lighter, more detailed, and—most importantly for a budget film—far cheaper to produce.