These are the fascinating pictures of miniature table sculptures molded around bonsai trees that take up to a painstaking 18 months to create. Japanese illustrator Takanori Aiba, 58, has built the intriguing scale models of windmills, lighthouses and even the Michelin Man.He delicately uses craft paper, plaster, acrylic resin, paint and plastic to create the host of sprawling miniature communities that wrap around the tiny trees.Following his work as an illustrator for Japanese fashion magazine POPYE he has spent the last nine years producing the detailed mini worlds.The creations take at least three months to construct with his Ice Cream Package Tower taking an astonishing 18 months work. Since 2003, he has made eight models, with 10 more planned over the next few years.
BREATHING life back into old photographs, these black and white images are transformed by colour .
BURSTING from the water, a beautiful but deadly Sumatran tiger jumps for food in an Indonesian zoo .
A woman has told how she fled to Australia, after a one night stand burned down her house .
A mother has spoken of her outrage after discovering her missing cat had been stolen - only to be told she cannot have its location due to the Data Protection Act .
A former soldier who bravely took on penny-pinching NHS bosses in his fight against terminal cancer has died, aged 37 .
PERCHED on a branch, this Little Owl plays third wheel to two love birds .
Blonde teen Jess Stubbs has certainly got girl power - as Britain’s youngest TRUCKER .
A retired foster carer has spent a whopping £48k on her brood of lifelike dolls .
A pair of adorable polar bear cubs play-fight with each other in the Alaskan snow .
A single woman, who was granted IVF funding on the NHS, finally has a baby after suffering three miscarriages .
SWIMMING in unison, millions of silverside fish dwarf the divers .
Hot on the heels of a little rabbit, this cheetah is on a mission to catch his prey .