The Quest for better photo's

Hey guys I've lately been very frustrated with the quality of my photos, well i say lately it has always plagued me the quality of my pics. Ive tried many different set ups with two lamps, diffused light , the right camera settings etc but still poor photos.
It is no secret that taking photos of miniatures is not easy
Since my last post of the sentinel pics and my complaining, my brother in law has been very kind and lent me his very expensive camera and also was very kind to gift me a mini photo studio with two lamps.Cool 
(Many thanks Leigh) so i now have the potential to make better pics but we will have to looks at the results.


    TEST 1
Manual setting
Exp 0
Day light setting
10mpxl
ISO 80
lamps
and booth to diffuse the light.
Tripod

Now each photo is taken from a slight distance and cropped later. you don't want to use the macro setting as it tends to focus on some parts of the miniature while other areas can be blurry, even more so with larger minis.

Ok so not a bad result a little out of focus or maybe not to sharp. i used the 10sec timer also to eliminate shake.
also might need to be a little closer.

ok problem 1 out of focus
problem 2 some blurry areas
now i must figure out how to solve these problems.

Now this is not meant to be a tutorial but hopefully i will be able to help some of you that are also having some problems. i will try to improve as i progress. its really trail and error and I'm learning as i go.

So i will test some things out and report again soon TEST2,3,4 etc.
hope i can solve this problem and help you too.
more soon