BALTIMORE — Matt Hankins considers himself a miniature model maker and when you see his work you'll know why.
He creates miniature houses and buildings from Baltimore City, specifically as they were in 1952.
By day, he restores old buildings. This allows him to admire every detail, from the missing windows, to trash in the yard.
"When I look at a building that's missing parts and windows are falling out, and I know what it looked like, I know what all those little details were, and I love the idea of seeing it the way it was, but I also appreciate the way it is," Hankins said.
"I'm inspired by the historic buildings and things that I see in my travels as a restoration professional. And I just, I love old buildings, so I build little ones in my in my basement."
His basement is filled with completed models and ones he's currently working on. Each of them have different "Easter Eggs" as he calls them.
In one model of a grocery store, there is an intentional misprint on a sign in the window.
"The original sign that you were just reading has a, I guess, a misspelling in it. It says 'PRUE Ham.' And I changed it, and then I changed it back so that my little miniature sign is misspelled too," Hankins explained.
If you look hard enough, you can see some trash on the floors in some of the vacant buildings and even some newspapers on the ground of his models.
You won't see lots of people of in his models.
"I don't tend to add a lot of figures, because they tend to actually pull you out of the scene a little bit. They they don't move and I also like to create a model that allows the viewer to see a story. And sometimes adding figures can help them create a story, but sometimes it leads them to a story," Hankins said.
To see more of his work, click the video below and follow him on Instagram here.
