Scale Military is offering a new resin dio base that includes a lot of detail packed into a compact 7” by 8” space. Producing the master for this resin scene must have been a challenge as the amount of detail on the cobble stone street is truly impressive. The street is strewn with piles of realistic bricks and rubble, individual bricks, several discarded weapons (including a Thompson machine gun and GI helmet), a partially buried violin, oil barrels, and fuel cans. Added to the scene are a discarded tire and rim, a corrugated sheet metal slab, detailed manhole cover, broken wood beams, and a fallen sign. Add this all together and there is a lot for the viewer’s eye to look at, and for the modeler to paint and detail. To provide additional interest and two visually complete the scene, two Warrior figures, and a fallen power pole (made from a chopstick), have been added to the dio.
Finishing
Most of the painting/weathering was accomplished with Badger Model acrylics. To prep the base it was shot with an overall coat of light gray primer. The cobble stone street was airbrushed with Panzer Schwarzgrau and then finished by dabbing a small piece of sponge in lighter shades of gray and sand and blotting the cobbles here and there to provide some color variations for the eye. The main brick pile was hand painted using Badger Model Milwaukee Brown, (a model railroad color), and then lightly dry brushed with concrete. The smaller brick pile and stone work (near the fallen sign) were painted initially with Floquil Depot Buff and then weathered with washes and drybrushed lightly with white. The Warrior figures are finished in acrylics except for some oils used for the flesh.
Impression
Scale Military has produced a very interesting dio scene here. Looking back, I should have pre-filled the many pinholes that are evident throughout the dio base. From several inches away they are not visible, but unfortunately they do pop up on the close up pictures of the base. Although not shown here, the modeler might consider the application of a nice edging of wood molding to really finish and set off this little dio scene.
My thanks to “Kfmagee” for providing the opportunity to finish and review this new offering from Scale Military. Except for the pin hole issue, this resin dio presents the modeler with a nifty little challenge to paint and finish a wide range of well detailed items.
SUMMARY
Here is a review of a pre-made base. There are some modelers who enjoy building figures and AFV's but would rather not deal with detailing a full diorama base. This is the kit for them. It comes preassembled with all the stuff a battle scene would need.
