Oh boy. Want another reason to be excited about the iPad Mini, the heavily rumored and much anticipated smaller tablet from Apple? Just take a look at the stunning renders done by Gizmodo reader Martin Hajek, like the one shown above.

And Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo reckons that by now we may as well consider these renders to be sneal previews:

After the iPhone 5 leak mega-saga—at this point you can call these renders sneak previews—the black anodized aluminum iPad mini seems like a done deal.

Which is why Gizmodo reader Martin Hajek—who made those awesome iPhone 5 renders that looked just like the real thing—has rendered these images.

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Just in case we needed yet more strong indications that the iPad Mini – or whatever Apple ends up calling its new smaller iPad –  is on the way quite soon, now The Wall Street Journal has reported that mass production has started and is in line with a release timeframe of late October to early November.

As 9to5Mac reported yesterday, the WSJ had this to say on the subject:

Apple Inc.’s Asian component suppliers have started mass production of a new tablet computer smaller than the current iPad, people with knowledge of the situation said, as the Silicon Valley company tries to stay competitive against rivals such as Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.that are offering smaller, less-expensive alternatives to the iPad.

All we need now is to see an invitation go out for an Apple unveiling event. Hopefully that’s coming any day now. As Tom Petty once said, the waiting is the hardest part.

Want to see what the rumored iPad Mini is probably going to look like? Well you’re in luck – as a number of viable looking mockups and renderings have come out over the last week or so.

The one shown above is courtesy of 9to5Mac and they say it ties in nicely with the growing consensus on the iPad Mini’s specs and the latest parts leaks for the widely expected smaller iPad.

MacRumors has also released a very detailed set of 3D renderings of the iPad Mini and even a companion video for them – though they also point out that since they worked up these renderings a few likely specs details have emerged which are different to some of the assumptions made in these renderings.

Here’s my favorite line in the MacRumors piece:

As has been previously noted, the 7.85-inch iPad offers 66% of the surface area of the current 9.7-inch iPad and almost 40% more surface area than competing 7-inch tablets.

That’s huge if it all turns out to be accurate. Those are the sort of numbers that should make all the difference in the world in terms of how good the apps and experience are on the iPad Mini. An iPad that’s significantly thinner and lighter while still offering 2/3 of the surface area – damn that sounds good.

Of course all of this is just conjecture at the moment, as Apple has announced nothing and is isn’t even expected to until next month – but it seems like with each passing year the Apple rumor mill gets more and more effective at outing a healthy percentage of the big details on hot new Apple devices. I’m definitely hoping that proves to be true with the iPad Mini.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these latest iPad Mini renderings. Are you lusting after the iPad Mini yet?