Sports World’s Palm-Sized Pros

A member of the Academy Award-winning digital effects team for “Babe” and its sequel, Lyndon J. Barrois is better known for his characters that cannot talk or move and that do not stand higher than an inch. An artist who makes miniatures, Barrois has re-created horse races, football games, polar bears and baseball players using nothing but chewing gum wrappers and paint. Whether it’s the crack of Carlton Fisk’s baseball bat or Secretariat winning the 1973 Kentucky Derby, Barrois has succeeded in capturing “the actual moment” of each event.

To re-create such moments, he views Sports Illustrated photos and videos and draws an architectural sketch, which he uses as the basis for his figures. Twisting the wrappers into shape, he then paints them in painstaking detail. The process takes an entire day: five minutes to twist the paper, 20 minutes to glue it together and the rest of the day to paint it.

Even as a child, Barrois thought action figures were “too generic.” If the figure was supposed to be Reggie Miller, Barrois, a self-described sports nut, wanted it to look like Reggie Miller.

Barrois is a stickler for detail. His Deion Sanders miniature is accurate, down to the gloves, shoes--even the bandanna.

His work is on display at the Carole and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures. (323) 937-6464.