April 2026: collaboration with Tanks Encyclopedia

Tanks Encyclopedia is a source I used for many of my projects, their articles are always well researched and provide a wealth of information. In a broader sense their articles helped me understand the logic behind procurement and engineering of armoured vehicles.

We got in touch when I realised my fictional "Muletier" AHN half-track model looked quite similar to the real Polish SG-10 half-track ( https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/poland/sg-10/ ). Their team immediately understood the vision that drove my project and offered to host a page about Constellation Miniatures at their site to promote it: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/constellation-miniatures/.

The PDFs in my catalogue will be added there at a rate of one per week, this is why I'm currently working to finish some of them. This will delay the release of Booklet n°9 (Breda 20/65) which will be released together with the final version of Booklet n°8 (Marmon-Herrington Mk II) probably in the autumn.

The added visibility for my project is of course highly appreciated, but more important is the mutual understanding that by providing free content we're helping enthusiasts, hobbyists, wargamers and many others.

April 2026: the project has a new name, again!

The "Template Miniatures" name was somewhat generic and bland, the new name for the project is Constellation Miniatures, it fits the dot patterns that we create when we use the templates.

It has its own dedicated website: http://www.constellation-miniatures.com. The URLs for Toothpick Miniatures & Template Miniatures will remain, the files are identical on all websites.

This is a good moment to bring the Booklets to a common standard. The booklets that are already up to the standard now bear the "Constellation Miniatures" name, those with the "Toothpick Miniatures" name will follow a modernisation programme detailled on the Progression page.

Booklet 10 V1.1 is an update of the Booklet released on March the 27th 2026

The British tanks Cruiser Mk III and Mk IV were present in the European theater in 1940, in North Africa and also in Greece. Germans re-issued captured tanks in all these theaters as well.

Variations around this model will be available in an upcoming booklet n°14, featuring a modified German version ( Kreuzer 744(e) ) and substitutes for an infantry tank.

Other booklets will be released before so there can be a wider diversity of models. Ideally I would alternate between simpler models with shorter booklets and more elaborate ones.

The next booklet should be available around the end of June.

March 2026: the project has a new name!

The "Toothpick Miniatures" name was somewhat misleading, the new name for the project is Template Miniatures. It has its own dedicated website: http://www.template-miniatures.com

The booklets will be renamed gradually to the new name.

The old Toothpick Miniatures URL will remain, both websites will be identical & up to date.

Booklet n°11 V1.1 (updated) and Booklet n°12 have been released on November the 28th 2025.

Booklet n°11 covers in detail the Renault AHS, AHN and AHR series of trucks. There are a lot of parts, the booklet is 16 pages long, but there is nothing too difficult.

N°12 is 12 pages long. It offers some special versions of these Renault trucks and expands the design possibilities to provide equivalents to the CMP Ford F-30 (LRDG version), the Opel Maultier (somewhat delicate) and the Kfz. 305 with its wide variety of "LC-Koffer" rear box bodies.

Removeable floors and platforms enable even more modularity.

Booklets n°9 and n°10 are still in development for the time being. A complete version of n°12 should be available before 2026, another booklet (still undetermined) should be released around March 2026.

A work-in-progress version of Booklet 8 has been released on July the 22nd 2025. It has 14 of the final 16 pages and is fully useable to make most of the variants shown.

The models that cannot be made yet have features that are associated with upcoming booklets (n°9 and n°10). The full version will be released in 2026 after the completion of Booklet n°9.

Test Video 02 - A new setup - May the 22th 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Z83mlDypo

It took one year to make a camera crane and add features to it, which are all explained in detail here. The video also provides several scenes to illustrate these features. At long last detailed views of the miniatures and the battle mats are shown.

Toothpick Miniatures are 1:64 miniatures you can make with household materials you likely have at home already, like cardboard from cereal boxes or wire fasteners for freezing bags. Likewise, no special tools are required.

Most booklet are complete instruction guides to create a model, often with several variants and options, other booklets contain more variations of another booklet. Some "substitute" models allow you to play an equivalent of a vehicle that isn't in the catalogue yet.

All booklets can be downloaded for free.