Introduction

MiniArt has been issuing a constant stream of diorama accessories lately in plastic, which is a very welcome trend indeed. This set contains a simple cafe setting using some of their previous sets (wine bottles and coffee cups), and added some chairs and two cast iron tables which are characteristic of any cafe in Europe. You can see similar furniture even today from Central Europe to France, so the set is not limited to the World War II period or French/Italian setting.

Review

The set contains two tables and four chairs, along with beer and two types of wine glasses, wine bottles and espresso cups (no ashtrays, though). Some of the sprues will be familiar from the Household Crockery & Glass Set, and some from the wine bottles and wooden crates set.

The cast iron tables look really realistic; the ornamental details are very well reproduced. The chairs are very delicate; care will need to be taken when removing the backrests from the sprues. Assembly is pretty straightforward; there are no major challenges.

The set comes with a printed sheet with signs in French and Italian, and sunshades to make it easier to create a small-town cafe setting. This set can complement various 1/35 buildings available in plastic or resin. Most European town buildings/ruins can be transformed into a cafe quite easily, so it’s worth looking around. (A lot of cafe houses were built by repurposing ground floor apartments.) MiniArt’s Czech building, Hungarian city building, Hungarian country house- which is actually a cafe-, French cafe are perfect choices, but there are countless of resin buildings/ruins available to dress up.