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Dioramas: Buildings & Ruins
Ruined buildings and city scenes.
Hosted by Darren Baker
Hansa
gogs007
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Scotland, United Kingdom
Joined: February 03, 2007
KitMaker: 313 posts
Armorama: 285 posts
Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 08:27 AM UTC
Hi guys, can anyone tell he what these are like to build i have seen their full buildings and there Middle East and Vietnam buildings look amazing but i'm not sure if they would be easy to put together. Thanks
slodder
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North Carolina, United States
Joined: February 22, 2002
KitMaker: 11,718 posts
Armorama: 7,138 posts
Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 09:01 AM UTC
I have no direct experience - I have a lot of second hand experience.
From what I hear they are very good, easy to build, good solid kits adn nice finish. A bit expensive is the only complaint.
matt
Staff MemberCampaigns Administrator
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New York, United States
Joined: February 28, 2002
KitMaker: 5,957 posts
Armorama: 2,956 posts
Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 09:11 AM UTC
IIRC they go together kind of like Lego blocks
Grumpyoldman
Staff MemberConsigliere
KITMAKER NETWORK
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Florida, United States
Joined: October 17, 2003
KitMaker: 15,338 posts
Armorama: 7,297 posts
Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 11:22 AM UTC
I have one of their kits, haven't built it yet though.
I will tell you that you really do build it brick by brick, block by block, and they have everything included to complete the building, windows, doors, roofing etc. The inside walls are covered with thin plastic sheet to represent a finished wall.
They may seem expensive, but considering the hobby time spent building one, it really comes to only cents per hour cost wise.
jabo6
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Texas, United States
Joined: September 24, 2005
KitMaker: 276 posts
Armorama: 152 posts
Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 11:40 AM UTC
Hi , I just finished their ruined farmhouse kit. really great went together like a charm and you can buy extra everything [bricks, blocks etc] i will definatly buy another. the only drawback is their main component is cinder block whichwere not invented to just prior to ww2 , sinse i put mine in a ww1 dio i had to plaster all the walls and at the ends of the walls were the battle damage is i just added brick to make them look like brick walls instead of block. wasnt to hard as im a brickmason. you can also change the design as you build after you have put some of the courses [rows] together run some testors liquid glue along the joints to lock them up ,they go together like legos but dont stay together like legos. money well spent, much, much better than anything else out there.
TB2
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Ontario, Canada
Joined: June 13, 2005
KitMaker: 361 posts
Armorama: 279 posts
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 01:05 AM UTC
I built Hansa's railyard switch tower (based on the one seen in the movie "The Train" with Burt Lancaster). At first I thought it was expensive, but it's a great kit, a ton of fun to build. As others have said it goes together like Lego, and because it's in blocks it has the advantage of flexibility if you decide to deviate from the instructions.
For example, my Hansa tower came with bricks to build a platform. I wanted mine to represent the switch tower in the movie (which had girdered bridgework on both sides). So I scratchbuilt the structures from Plastruct. Since my BR52 needs to clear it I used the bricks from the platform to raise the height of the tower base. Leftover bricks can be used to put towards another project.
After a while, I found piecing together and gluing brick-by-brick to be rather labour-intensive (plus occasionally glue would seep out between the cracks). I ended up building my base then smearing it with 5-minute epoxy from the inside. I found it solid when glued to the base. Your mileage may vary. Based on my experience with this kit I highly recom-mend Hansa.
If you need further info just ask me!
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