Greenwood resident Jimmy Landers poses with his latest miniature home on Wednesday at the Johnson County Museum of History in Franklin. Landers and Florida resident Frank Crescente have miniature works on display in the new exhibition "Magnificent Miniatures at the Museum."

Size is no match for the scope of artistry inside the newest exhibition at the local history museum.

A regal 1891 home, with its wrap-around veranda porch complete with wicker chairs, swings and other furniture, looks inviting enough to stop and stay. Polished black-and-white tiles create a clean shine from the muted lighting in a tropical sun room.

Swarovski crystal glitter under 54 elaborate chandeliers, illuminating the grand staircase underneath a glowing dome of light as it appeared on the Titanic.

The world shrinks down to a minuscule level in the hands of artists Jimmy Landers and Frank Crescente. They specialize in creating unique buildings and scenes at a fraction of actual size — San Francisco “painted ladies,” 19th century general stores, the library at Twin Oaks in “Gone With the Wind.”

Their work is the focus of “Magnificent Miniatures at the Museum,” which opens today at the Johnson County Museum of History.

“There is an artistry to it. We want to be considered as artists, and this as artwork, rather than dollhouses,” Crescente said. “A lot of people think these are kits, but these are all scratch built.”

Landers’s foray into the miniature world started in 2006. A longtime regional manager for an international environmental corporation, the Greenwood resident had retired and was looking for new adventures and projects to fill his time.

His wife had a longstanding hobby collecting dollhouses, and she asked him to create one for her. Construction came along slowly, but after a year, it was finished, and Landers moved on to his next project.

He was new to the world of miniatures, and had difficulty tracking down the materials he wanted for his very specific design. One of his primary ethos was custom constructing nearly every aspect of the model himself, which contributed to the slow progress of the dollhouse.

But in December of 2007, the Colonial Brandywine project was done. He entered the Tom Bishop International, a showcase of miniature artistry from around the world, simply to show his work.

“I didn’t have any expectations in selling. But while I was there, I sold it. I told my wife, this could be something besides just a hobby,” he said.

Since that time, Landers has expanded his focus into different architectural styles for 25 finished pieces. His Helmerich House was a Victorian with a wide and spacious front porch, second-story balcony and incredibly ornate rooms complete with era-appropriate furnishings. The house features eight custom designed coal burning and lighted fireplaces, each installed into a marble or granite hearth.

The most stunning aspect is the foyer, with its cherry wood paneling and staircase, working chandeliers with hand-blown glass globes and a stained-glass panel above.

His two-story Linville library features a curved metal staircase, more than 4,000 mini books on display and a vaulted stained-glass skylight. An 1800s hardware store contains miniature bags of floor, pottery, canned goods and everything else people would have needed around the turn of the 20th century.

Landers works closely with Carl Sahlberg, a specialist in making miniature electrical components for houses. Sahlberg’s genius allows for the structures to have working chandeliers, track lighting and other fixtures that add lifelike realism to the work.

Everything he does is designed in his head, Landers said.

“I do zero research, and I put nothing on paper, so it doesn’t always exactly come out the way is should. That’s just my style,” he said.

But the Tudor house is his most recent work. Landers spent 10 months creating the oversized model, which he started in November. About 4,000 real slate shingles make up the roof. Stone from England makes up the foundation of the house. Inside, the rooms are filled with incredible detail and homemade touches.

A game room features hunting trophies on the wall and a billiards table ready to play. Victorian-era chairs sit around a low table. A grand piano is arranged in a corner of the living room. A tiny replica of “Water Lilies” by Claude Monet, painted by Landers’ granddaughter, hangs in a hallway.

“These aren’t dollhouses. I like to build realistic structures, and put a lot of detail in the trim packages,” he said.

Landers has become a regular at the Tom Bishop International show, through which he became friends with Crescente.

Crescente had spent his career as an interior designer and architect in New Jersey. As part of his training, he had taken a class in model making — a key step in architectural planning. He did not make much use of that class in his day-to-day work, but found creating models, first with railroading then with dollhouses, to be a hobby.

When a dollhouse store opened near his home, Crescente offered to make model chandeliers for the owner as a side business. Slowly, he started doing more and more miniature work, while maintaining his interior design and architecture work. That changed when he suffered a heart attack in 2012, after which he retired, allowing for much more time to make miniatures.

His focus is on history and motion pictures.

One scene portrays the key setting of “Somewhere in Time,” a 1980 film starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Crescente recreated the room in the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island, Michigan, where Reeve’s character first falls in love with a historic portrait of Seymour’s character.

Another model brings the library in “Gone With the Wind” to life. A grandiose crystal chandelier illuminates curved book shelves filled with 1,028 miniature books. A ping-pong ball is wrapped in vintage map to create a globe.

“Things have been altered a little bit and changed for the miniature — this room is set off on an angle; it’s not squared off, because it gives you more of a depth perspective,” Crescente said.

Crescente’s centerpiece miniature is a replica of the Grand Staircase on the Titanic. He worked with experts on the design of the Titanic to make it as historically accurate and realistic as possible.

Paintings and tapestries have been recreated. Cherub sculptures created by bronze expert Jim Pounder and pineapple finials are set on the staircase as they would have appeared on the ship. Electric heaters have been placed in the exact areas it would have been.

“Everything you see, except for the cherub, I made,” Crescente said.

The two friends have come together to display their work at the local museum. Landers had previously offered to display one of his library pieces at the museum, as he hoped the eye-catching piece would be an asset to attract visitors.

People responded to the display.

“Everyone who came in, they’d all stop to look at it,” curator Emily Spuhler said.

Though rotating exhibitions at the museum are planned years in advance, they had some openings, including this fall, to add new and interesting work. Spuhler thought of the library piece, so she reached out to Landers asking if they could show off a few more. Landers enthusiastically agreed, bringing Crescente on board as well to add to the exhibition.

“Both of their craftsmanship is just undeniable,” Spuhler said. “Having a whole room of these works of art will just capture people.”

For Landers and Crescente, the motivation in doing the exhibition is simply to draw attention to the art of miniatures. They also hope their unique work helps draw attention to the museum, Landers said.

“I’m hoping traffic to the museum just explodes,” he said.