The detail that grabbed me first is a human hand holding a single tiny tape reel above the whole scene, purely to show how small this build really is. One shot like that says more about scale than any number could.
The scene itself is a 1:15, fully hand-made model of an IBM 1401 computer room: mainframe console, tape drives, card reader, line printer, plus a desk with a yellow swivel chair, tiny books and a console typewriter, all on a black base with white square tiles standing in for a raised floor. Everything is shaped from polystyrene without any 3D printing or kit bashing. One sculpted piece is Super Sculpey that got an airbrush finish, and tweezers place the tiny punch cards in the reader and set the books on the desk. Around 300 hours went in, spread over more than six months.
The standouts for me are the readable labels naming each unit IBM 1401, 1402, 1403 and 729, and the lighting work. The LEDs run through fibers to a custom board and controller, the little display lights are fibers tied to many individual LEDs, and a custom PCB carries an atmega microcontroller running the maker's own software to turn the reels, which spin on miniature ball bearings. Colors were mixed against reference photos through trial and error, and that care shows.
The build marks the 1401's 60th anniversary, was made first for the maker rather than as a commission, and is set to go on show at a computing history museum in California once that venue reopens. My one open question is the film side: this montage is described as a first step into making videos, and more making-of footage may follow. I hope it does, because the hidden electronics deserve their own close-up.
Project by Miniatua. Watch it on their YouTube channel: