Built & reviewed by D.J. Gibson

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Build #147

Purchased on Amazon from MiniCity

The MiniCity – Duomo Di Milano is 1 of 4 in their Architectural Series. This series are all Mini Nooks so they are approximately 2/3 the size of a regular Book Nook. This kit is made from printed MDF, printed plexiglass and printed acrylic. The instruction manual is in full color and a QR code is provided if you would like to download a digital copy.

All of the pieces from the varied media types were easy to remove from their respective boards. The plexiglass and acrylic pieces have a protective film on the unprinted side that you will need to remove prior to installation. the print work on all components were clear, clean with no bleed over and legible where needed.

The tolerances of the pieces in this build was spot on overall with only a few exceptions. There are a few pieces in this build that are glued in place requiring you to be careful while working around them unless you allow drying time. Most of the plexiglass statues do need glue as well to ensure they remain in place.

One thing that did catch me by surprise is that the base and two tires above are glued in place without any structural pieces connecting them. I decided for that joining to utilize double sided adhesive strips in addition to glue to keep them from sliding around. Ultimately, the side walls will connect and secure them, but it was still an unusual method. The interior structure was otherwise straight forward and doesn’t throw you any real curveballs.

The dome ceiling is another story altogether. The ceiling begins with the wooden arches which have two flat panels and each flat panel receives a pliable bending piece. Be especially careful with the flat pieces as the slot for the bending piece by the point is only 1mm thick and snaps if you look at it wrong. From there you flip the page in the manual and suddenly think you are in origami class! The ceiling panels are pliable acrylic and believe me when I say you will not think this will work when you start bending the pieces and attaching them to each other. All I can tell you is “Trust the process!”. More than likely, you will begin by not bending the pieces enough out of sheer fear of breaking them, but you won’t break them. Once you get the three ceiling panels connected to each other, you connect them to the flat pieces and suddenly realize you didn’t bend them enough to get them attached so you bend them more. From there, you attach the flat panels to the ceiling piece and will likely discover once again, they still aren’t bent enough to sit flat and not force themselves out of the ceiling panel. Once you finally have them attached to the ceiling panel you can set the entire thing to the side for a reprieve until the final installation.

Now you get to install the light kit which consists of 5 LED bulbs and one LED light strip. All wires are color coded for easy selection and direction. The two white LED’s are installed in the side columns illuminating the statuary and the three orange LED’s are installed on the back wall illuminating the stained glass windows. The light strip is attached atop the back rotunda panels and ultimately illuminate the domed ceiling.

Once the lights are installed and the back panel is in place you proceed with installing the ceiling panel which secures the back rotunda walls in place. After that you install the side walls minding multiple tabs that will attach to them including the flat panels that secure the domed ceiling which is the final step of the domed ceiling installation.

After the side walls are installed with all connecting pieces in place you are left only with the front frame and the dust cover frame. These pieces each have magnets installed in them. The front frame attached like most front frames but be careful with this piece as well as the top magnet hole leaves two sections only 1mm thick and prone to breaking. The dust cover piece also has three magnets installed but you adhere an acrylic panel to the back side which will then be held in place with the magnets. There are two magnets installed in the back wall to hold this piece when you don’t have the dust cover in place.

Once completed, this piece is a small architectural masterpiece for your shelf. The dome ceiling is stunning and the lighting for this kit is perfect. Of the three in this series I have now completed, I will say this has been the easiest and my favorite finished kit so far.

There is no opportunity or need for customization in this kit. Some folks may have the will power to 3D print the statues but I would have no idea what scale they would be looking at as some of these statues are only 1cm ish tall.

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Copyright Book Nook Workshop 2026 – All rights reserved. (D.J. Gibson)