Charles Reading provides an In-Box Review of Miniart's Farmhouse with Diorama Base which includes a bonus Dragon figure set, all in 1/35 scale.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

I'm a little confused, since it implies this kit can be butted up against the Village Diorama one for a larger unit. Is that the meaning, or did I miss something?

Bill, it's actually two kits in one (Village Diorama and European Farm House) that were designed to fit together. One base image didn't go through in the review but it's there now

Nice review! I have several of MiniArt's kits. Good value for your buck. I find it difficult to put the kits together .

Thanks for the look inside the box Charles. I've been thinking about getting a couple of these MiniArt products, but haven't seen one up close before. Very helpful. Did you notice anything that would lead you to believe it would be challenging to assemble?

Hi Jim,
I've actually assembled all the pieces for this kit now and I had no problems whatsoever.
My first Miniart kit was a disaster because I attempted to assemble it like one would a vacuform airplane kit with extra guide pieces glued in etc.
Since that first attempt I had the benefit of seeing the owner of Miniart demonstrate the assembly method at DragonCon06 and there is now a good SBS guide posted on the Miniart site that is very helpful.
I find these kits to be well thought out and 'once you get the hang of assembly' very easy to put together.
Cheers,
Charles

Thought I'd post some photos of some of the pieces. They have been glued together but I have yet to clean up the seam areas....on some of them you can see where I've used a bit of putty. Seam cleanup is relatively easy with a sanding stick. Along the damaged brick areas present the biggest problem because of the uneven surface but a little filler and a bit of patience and they are done in no time. On to the pictures:

Very nice review Charles.

Thanks for posting the 'in-progress' images, Charles. I have one of these kits and haven't attempted it for fear of screwing it up. Your photos show me more clearly what I'm supposed to end up with......not that mine will end up looking like that anyway

Hi James,
The 'trick', as I see it, is to Make sure each piece's mating edge is thoroughly sanded on a flat surface. I usually apply several coats of testors liquid cement to the mating surface to soften it.
Then mate the surfaces being careful to align them properly. If enough glue has been applied to soften the plastic, pressing the pieces together should 'squeeze' some melted plastic out along the seam. When dry, if you have some unglued areas, just run some liquid glue in the seam.

I highly recommend the tutorial on Miniart's website.

Cheers,
Charles

Charles,

Thanks for the review and the follow-up, which is most useful.

Give that probably 99.9% of all dioramas have a clearly defined "front" and "back", personally I quite like the "split diorama" concept of this particular combination kit.

It allows scope for displaying the thing from *both* sides: Given that these buildings have all-round detail, you can have separate (but related) action in front of the house on one side, and in front of the farm building on the other.

- Steve

Good review of the Kit.

I have tried one the Park scene and I like the way it worked out.

But instead of Awl I used the back of my # 6 blade to scribe and snap.

Good buildings at a decent price.

Hi Steve,
See, I knew someone would be able to "see past" where I got hung up on the lay out of this piece.
Cheers,
Charles