The Kit

The kit comes in a sturdy plain white box. The contents consist of 3 white resin bridge sections (the street and two side supports) and a picture of the finished product. No instructions are included, or really necessary.

Over all casting quality is good, though there were some bubbles, minimal warp, and some overpour to deal with. There are no reverse side details on the parts (I assume they are poured in flat molds), and no provision is made for the stonework under the bridge that would make up the archways.

Surface detail of the road way is good, and is of a very interesting pattern. Unfortunately there is some variation in the size of the pavers. The sides of the bridge are well sculpted, to represent large block construction, with smaller cobblestone / brick details at the leading edge of the arches. The effect is weakened as these arch stones have considerable variance in size.

Construction and Finishing

Construction began by washing all the parts with a warm soapy water to remove any dust or mold release residue. I then removed the overpours by sanding flat the two side supports. There was a lot of sanding required on my samples.

Two-part epoxy cement was used to buildup the bride. Each section was clamped together with wood working clamps until set. While it would be possible to build the kit without clamps, the bridge is large and the parts don't have a “snap fit”, thus clamping is preferable. Once the epoxy had set the bridge was primed with Testors rattle can flat gray primer.

The brick sections were painted with a 50/50 mix of Delta brand acrylic Barn Red and Mudstone. The upper side supports received the mud stone straight, and the lower sections a 80/20 mix of Charcoal Grey and Mudstone. The sidewalks were painted with 50/50 mix of Charcoal grey and Mudstone. When the acrylics had set the entire bridge was given a wash of Burnt Umber Oil paint in Turpenoid.

The bricks then were drybrushed with different mixes of the Barn Red with Mudstone and Charcoal Grey to give a varied tonal quality. It then received a coating of Medium Earth tone MMP powders, and then I washed them with straight Tamiya acrylic thinner. Oil and water stains were added with oil paints and linseed oil. The bride sides were given a wash of Polly Scale Dust thinned in Windex. This flows into the groves and represents the mortar. This also lightens the stone color considerably, so I applied a dry brushing of the straight Charcoal Grey.

The upper sections of the bridge received a light drybrush with titanium white. The sidewalks where give a black wash, followed by drybrushing with lighter and lighter Grey. To simulate the stones of the inner archways I used embossed stone paper that I found in the railroad section of my LHS.

Impression

Scale Military has produced a very useful product. The overall workmanship is good, but it would have been really nice if the sculptor had spent a little more time on the brick pavers and the bricks that detail the archways.

The missing archway stones are a downer, but they are replaced easily, and the overall finished effect is great! This is a BIG kit, almost a diorama in itself. It will easily support most armor kits, or multiple softskins and figures.

Many thanks to Keith Magee for providing the opportunity to finish and review this offering from Scale Military.