From the Floor: Miniature Arms Society

I ran into some folks from the Miniature Arms Society at their booth in Phoenix, on the show floor, and again in Charlotte. I meant to blog about this last year, but just never got around to it. They say they will be in Pittsburgh, and if they are, I highly encourage stopping by. Hell, coming to Pittsburgh just to see their craftwork is worth the trip, I think. The scale version of the guns in their booth is, quite simply, amazing.

These folks basically produce scale versions of firearms. The are so well done, I had to start using something for reference, because just looking at pictures, you can’t tell they are scale. Here’s one of a lever action gun, that was probably only about a foot long.

At the booth in Phoenix I talked to a gentleman by the name of David Kucer, who made a number of the guns in their display case. He is a veteran of World War II, and the first miniature gun he made was a replica of the M1911, a version of which he carried in the service. He was kind enough to retrieve this very gun, which was not in their display case, and show it to Dan and me. In order to give a good idea of just how amazingly small this completely functional 1911 is, I had to take the picture in hand to scale.

It’s just completely amazing to me that the miniature 1911 has all functioning parts, including a functioning slide. Mr. Kucer also made this pepper box pistol, and I’m guessing they make all the cases for these items as well. The amount of craftsmanship and skill that has to go into making one of these, not even mentioning the time, is just fascinating to me. I have a step stool I built in wood shop in high school, but other than that, I don’t really have any creations like this to my name. Certainly not works of art like these. Their booth is literally filled with tiny little creations, including a brass knuckle, pistol combination, a Webley break top revolver about the size of an iPhone, miniature pen knives. You name it.
In their booth you could also find a lot of other various items, from scale artillery and mortar pieces, to scaled down rounds of ammunition. You can see some of those items in the picture to your left. How about the Weston 3mm Centerfire? Or the the cartridges meant to fire in the 1/6th scale Gatling Gun? One mike-mike percussion caps? All pretty neat stuff. If you can get out to Pittsburgh next year, they said they will be there. Stop by. You can tell these guys are very proud of what they do, and they ought to be. They’ll be happy to show you their craftsman and artisanship. And how would all you 1911 lovers out there like to hang this on your wall?