Introduction

Miniart Water Pump Set (ref. #35578). MiniArt, the king of all things diorama, have released this set as a part of their very useful Building & Accessories Series.

Contents

What you will get when you open the box is a very small packet of styrene with 52 parts in light gray. Eight sprues in total, but three of these are two different sizes of buckets of the stainless steel rolled and welded variety, while a further three include a large handled can and what appears to be an enameled style bucket (you could use it any way you wish, nothing that makes it ONLY an enameled bucket) for a total of twelve buckets of different varieties. Each of the buckets is made up of three parts, but a bit more about that later.

You also get another sprue that has two different sized milk cans. Nice detail here with separate tops and bottoms as well as handles and a pe piece for the lid handle for each. Also, the eponymous part (sorry, just wanted to use that word!), the water pump is well detailed with separate base, handle, piston rod, and two-piece cylinder body. Alas, you only get one pump. For good measure Miniart throws in a wash tub as well as a drain grate with surround plate housing.

Review

I like the little kit, some very nice accessories. The buckets are very nice, three pieces, with the body molded in one piece, a bottom, and a PE handle. Without seams to clean up the construction of buckets, goes as you would imagine, very quick. Took me thirty minutes to remove, clean up, and construct all the buckets with one small caveat. The two milk cans didn’t take any longer, very easy. The water pump took maybe fifteen minutes all together just trying to put in a few extra minutes to insure a good fit with a minimum of clean-up.

The box art provides a nice idea of what your buckets, cans, pumps, COULD look like, no real definitive guide as they are common farm equipment that could be in a thousand different colors and combinations. I wouldn’t stray too far from stainless steel as at least a base coat however. The back provides a construction guide if you feel like you need it at least it is there along with a painting guide for the non-adventurous types.

My only issue, alluded to above, with the kit was that MiniArt sent along the wrong PE fret, I have a set that looks like it might belong with railroad signals or something, but definitely NOT bucket handles. No problem, I just cut some 10-amp fuse wire and used that instead as wells as a piece of scale rope for one just to add variety. I went ahead and painted up one of each of the bucket styles as well as the milk cans and the pumps and had no problems, as you would expect. You can have some fun with the colors as anything goes in that regard.

Conclusion

I would easily recommend this set. Okay, MiniArt could have named this “Bucket and Can Set with Bonus Water Pump”, but regardless it can put to an unlimited number of uses. The pump can be used in countless dioramas or vignettes and the buckets can do a great job to add a splash of color on the back end of nearly an entire panzer company. I would grab one or two as they will surely come in handy over time.