I recently purchased this building kit going on the idea that it was so cheap and included a bonus dragon figure kit, I couldn't loose. Well, I was right and wrong. While the molding quality is good as far as detail the clean up and assembly is a pain in the butt. The klit has 2 sprues with the windows and doors plus street lights and a few other cool pieces but the building itself is vacuformed plastic. This means you have to cut the pieces out of a sheet of plastic,trim them down with a blade and then sand them. The main walls are 2 pieces, halves actually, a front and back that you glue together. I found the best way to glue them together was with Tamiya extra thin cement and kind squish the halves together and bush them along the seam with the cement. All and all for the 20 dollar US price the kit is worth it but be prepard to work for it, about 8 hours total. The plasic is grey in color and the 2 sprues with windows etc.. is white. These Miniiart kits are the ones being promoted on the dragon web site. Buyit!

I was checking out Miniart's web site yesterday afternoon and kind of fancy the German Village House. A bit disappointed when I couldn't find it in a LHS last night.

They only had the Austrian, Russian, Czech buildings and the Park Gates. I couldn't decide at the end and have to go back there some other time. Just hope that they will restock the German building again.

Any chance of posting some photos, Anthony? I am worry about vacuformed plastic as well.

I have got the Hungarian Country House. And I found it it's a bit tricky to glue the two halves together. I used Tamiya Extra Thin cement like Anthony did to try to glue the two halves. I tried several times but fail to make the two halves to stick to each other.
I have sent an email to Mini Art and raise the problem and they replied that they will have a Master Class to deal with it in a few months on their homepage. So, I am still waiting.

ill try pics my camera is giving me problems. as far as the extra thin cement its tricky. first i used some thick cement and put the halves together. this kida held them in place. then i got some xaacto blue clamps and clamped them together also usin tamiya tape. I then used extra thin cement and worked my way down the seam a little at a time using a cheap paint brush . y have to dry it as you go with a hairdryer. you can erase teh seam using this techiqne also. its alot oof work but you get in a groove after a bit. good luck!

Similar question is being asked elsewhere. Looks like there are quite a few of us trying to figure out a way to tackle these kits.

Question on Miniart Ruin

Just checked out their web site and the Master Class is not on yet. I suppose we need a lot of patience in this hobby.

Fear ye not...
You ask and we deliver..

I just finished a SBS on how to build these, and it should be on the site asap.

As for the glue, I use Revell Contacta, which is the runny gloopy stuff. It's perfect. (Tamiya) thin liquid doesn't work aswel as it doesn't 'melt' the plastic as you need it to.

A taster photo.



stay tuned...

Cheers
Henk

Yupper -Henk is working on the last of the images and I'm going to do what I can to get it posted tomorrow (Friday).

Well I just hope these mini art buildings are less scary than they appear I have always thought that a vacuum formed building would be a tough build. Cheers Kevin

Kevin, there is no need to be affraid.
Although scorcery is involved, the use of human sacrifice is a unfounded rumour...

Cheers
Henk

It's nice to see someone cracked the nut. Keep them coming, mate! Looks like my wait will be over soon.

Ahhh Yes, once again, Armorama to the rescue!...Amazing, isn't it?? It's times like these that completely re-assures the fact that this website is absolutely THE BEST on the net, and us as modelers have a truly wonderful resource at our fingertips!
Gunny

Yes, and if you build one of these, don't use the shortcut of 'leaving the excess plastic on' and use the plastic to glue the halves together.... Unless you want your walls to be twice as thick as they should be.
This SBS is just showing the basics, the houses are a little bit more involved ( i.e. lining up more than one edge at the same time). I will be doing one soon to show how to build a house....

Cheers
Henk

Ps. I'm not under the impression that I'm perfect or that I know everything, but not trimming the excess plastic.... I mean thats like not removing the pour plug on resin parts...

The review/step by step can be seen here .

Cheers
Henk

I have the Polish building (still have to do) , but I was looking at their website, man some cool looking buildings coming down, especially the one where they've used a T-34 parked inside the walls...sounds like some are a challenge, but not impossible, great value for the money, and lots goodies inside...the sprues with the windows are worth the kit alone!
Donald, I actually saw the German house kit in our LHS, and I used that building as a template when I scratched a similar looking house out of plaster and balsa wood.

I guess I just have to go to a few more LHS to look for that German Village House. That wooden floor and the roof remian are just too good to be left alone on the shelf, wherever the shelf may be. Just hope that I don't need to go all the way to Canada for it.

Thanks, Henk, for the SBS. It will be an useful guide for me whenever I get my hand on that illusive German House. I am sorry for your thumb and hope you will get well soon.

Just one more question: why does it always the thumb that has to suffer? It happened to mine as well but never did I cut my fingers.

You're welcome Donald. A lot of people seem to like that German House. It does look very nice. I might do a SBS with it, or mayby with the French Town House.. 4 floors, just right to add some height to that diorama...

Cheers
Henk

Hey guys,
It just so happened that I started working on my Ukrain house today and I think I came up with a pretty easy way to assemble these kits.

After you get the two halfs cleaned up and before you glue them together, take some of the extra plastic you trimmed from the doors and windows, and cut them into small strips, about a 1/2 wide, and as long as each side. Then take the strips and glue them around the inside edge of the wall halfs, (only on one wall) also do around any windows and doors. Let the glue set for a couple of minutes. Dry fit the two pieces, and then add a bead of glue around the exposed edge of the strip, now secure the second wall half, and walaa. The extra plastic strip adds some stiffness to the joints, and also provides some extra gluing surface.
So far, I have done two wall like this and it seems to work pretty well. I will add a pic or two in a little while to show this a little better. Hope this helps,
Brian

edit-ok, here we go, the first photo shows one half of a wall section after cleaning it up, and removing the excess plastic.

Now, this photo shows the plastic strips glued around the window, and along the bottom seam. I drew a black line on the added parts to help them stand out a little better. Since the two pieces being glued together are different dimentions, I couldn't add strips all the way around, but hopefully you get the idea.


Hope this helps!!
edit#2-sorry, I can't seem to get the first pic to load. It's in my gallery if you want to take a look.

Brian,

Looks like a neat idea to me. Trouble is, I still haven't found the German House that I want.

Only have time to one of the LHS yesterday . There were other houses but not the German one. I bought the Park Gate and Fence instead to get a feel of the Vacuform plastic. What did you use to cut the excess plastic out? I had a little try with my better half's pair of fabric scissors and it seems to be able to cut a neat edge quite well. I am yet to dry fit the two halves.

NOOOO.

Don't use siccors. They don't cut the plastic, they prise it apart, the pieces will distort. The Park wall pieces are all straight and relativly simple, and you may manage to cut a piece out, but it will not help when you move on to a more complicated shape. Or round corners.

Cheers
Henk

Brian - that's a great way to work around the lack of locator tabs. You could do a small feature on it, it would get quite a bit of traffic. These kits are becoming quite popular.

Hi Donald,
I used my xacto knife with a new blade. But I used it upside down, I find its easier to score through the plastic that way. I wouldn't use scissors, because like Henk says, it will distort the plastic.

ps-thanks again for the tiger grills, I'm still working on the dio-that's what this house is for.

Thanks Scott,
The problem is that most of the kit is now together, I do have a couple of pieces left to assemble. I will see if I can get enough pics for it to make sense though.

Next time I contact MiniArt, i'm going to strongly suggest they consider producing sets of items such as their window frames in seperate packs. They are (for those who haven't seen the kits) produced in injection-moulded plastic, and are much more economical than the grossly over-priced resin items.

Re. cutting vacuum-moulded parts, the secret is repeated cuts with a sharp knife, to lightly 'score' the parts to be removed. They can then be gently 'snapped-off' the excess....Jim

I second that Jim, they are very nice additions at a fraction of the cost of resin.

Thanks for your advice, Brian and Henk.
Will stick to the hobby knife when I eventually get hold of the house kit. :-)