Idly scrolling his feed, he noticed a diorama of a World War II scene, then a model railroad set, then intricate, hyper-realistic models of movie sets. A longtime collector of action figures with time on his hands and not much else to do, he started tinkering. And that tiny icebox — three inches tall and covered in reproductions of stickers by local graffiti crews — turned his life around. “I loved that when I worked on a piece, I didn’t think about my problems — my divorce, the pandemic,” said Mr. Cortes. I didn’t have a problem in the world.

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