You are showing your age, sadly very little special FX works uses miniatures now, it's all digital. Nice models, though.
I was curious about your comment, so checked with my daughter who works in the movie industry
there is a move back to using miniatures especially with the current space and war movies as they can achieve far better realism with models than they can with digital effects
case in point given to me was the film Interstellar
for proper close detailed lighting shots they shoot at 6 frames per second as opposed to the normal 24fps. they tend to have 20-30 second exposure rates to maximise on detail
for explosions they shoot at 72fps then slow it down to 24fps as it magnifies the effect and detail
digital does get used where the lighting is too difficult to stage but some Photog Directors are clearly moving back into using miniatures (although some of those mins are 1/15th scale as they also want to build as much detail as possible in to them for when they do the 6fps for close ups
the rigs to move these miniatures are virtual simulators - and unbelieveable in the range of motion they can achieve for the close up shots
quite a few of the sword and sandal stuff (GoT and Jacksons stuff) also rely on miniatures so as to get detail.