Jim Rae reviews Village Street, one of MiniArt Ltd's recent releases in their 1/35th scale Diorama range.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Good review, Jim. Thanks.

What's happening on the corner of the building ?



Alan

Now that's a good question...

What happened was the following. There is a layer of brick between the 'abutments' (or whatever they are) towards the corner. Now, there's a gap. So, rather than using clay and rescribing the bricks, which was my original thought, I used styrene strip, to cover the gap. Later on, when I rework the church, i'll rework that into stone, by using clay.

These buildings and mini dios are useful and I think your review captured well the pros and cons of the vacuform process. I have struggled with my Mini Art kits, and the gap you came up with is pretty typical in my experience. Still, given the alternatives of resin cobblestones from, say, Verlinden ($15-$35), a set or two of sidewalks vs. a complete building a base for that or less, I'd say the extra work isn't such a big deal.

maybe i'll buy one of these some day. i just can't help feel that by having it all moulded and ready to assemble, some of the enjoyment and originality is lost.

Actually the Miniart buildings are as challenging as any AFV kit you might display with it.
They give you enough in the kit to build a good looking model but there is always room to add detail and extras. They are detailed on both sides, unlike plaster/resin buildings.
You spend as much time or more on the base/buildings now as you do building the vehicles and figures that go on it. Think of it as a separate kit (which it is!)

C.

I think these kits can be challenging. Try to get your hands on there catalog. It has a step by step directions to building them.

Information and videos on assembling the buildings are also available on the Miniart web site.

Alan

I gave the link to MiniArt's construction guides in the Review. It can be seen:

http://miniart-models.com/index.htm?/Assembly/page_01.php

To give you an idea of what you can get up to with these kits, I did an article using the French Town House kit. here

What you get in the kit...



What it looks like after adding glue, wood, fabric, dust and plaster to the box, and shaking vigorously ...

Fabulous job, Henk!

Hi Henk

I have to say your building was one of the first things I saw when getting interested in modelling again and finding armorama and when I read up about it in your feature I thought yep, this is the place to be. Excellent diorama using the Miniart as a base.

I'd love to have a cracked at one of these kits one day. My only reservation, as probably most peoples has been how well I'd join the two parts together, but that's the challenge I guess. Get that right and you are on the home stretch.

Alan