MINI BONZAI MODELS - TREE-MENDOUS

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.

Other great stories
ADORABLE HARVEST MOUSE CLIMBS DANDELION

Surveying its surroundings, a tiny harvest mouse climbs the stem of a dandelion .

ADORABLE EXOTIC KITTENS AT NASHVILLE ZOO

A BUMPER season of births has left zoo with three of the cutest exotic kittens you're likely to see .

EMPTY LONDON UNDERGROUND

USUALLY full to bursting, these London Underground stations stand silent and completely commuter free .

ANGRY GIRAFFE DESTROYS BIKE

AN ANGRY giraffe gave a bush-riding cyclist a scare when he stomped his £2K bike into the dirt .

VIBRANT WOODPECKER FEEDS HER YOUNG

A middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy .

OLYMPIC ATHLETES LINE UP IN LEGO 2012 AQUATIC CENTRE

If you tune into primetime coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games, you’re most likely going to see London’s new Aquatic Center from many angles as athletes from all around the globe compete for the top spot on the podium .

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS BROUGHT TO LIFE

BREATHING life back into old photographs, these black and white images are transformed by colour .

BUNGLING DRUG DEALER CAUGHT IN TOP COP'S PARKING SPACE

A prolific drug dealer was caught red-handed in a car filled with amphetamines after he decided to park in a top copper's parking space - as a joke .

WOMAN REVEALS HOW BOTCHED £280 EYE LIFT LEFT HER SCARRED FOR LIFE

A woman has been left scarred for life after a botched eye lift burnt her eyelids .

LONDON HELICOPTER CRASH

A helicopter has crashed landed in Central London .

FIREFLIES ILLUMINATE AN ENCHANTING FOREST IN TAIWAN

Like a scene from a fairytale, THOUSANDS of fireflies create an enchanting glow as they dance in a forest .

TINY CHRISTMAS ANGEL, SIX, IS SIZE OF TWO YEAR OLD

Pint- size Maci Winters only has one wish this Christmas - to be as tall as the other boys and girls on the school playground .