Ditchin’

When I saw this in the armorama.com news section I was very intrigued. Rural groundwork is not as commonly found as urban streets. CD’s Ben Jakobsen is the creative sculptor behind this kit. I have always like his work. CD teamed Ben on the inside of the box and Bob Letterman on the outside. Bob does a great job with the box art. As usual this will be your guide to final finishing of the kit.

the kit

Packaging is a nice sturdy cardboard box with packing peanuts inside and a ziplock bag for the small pieces. This is nicely done and there should be no problems with transit.
The kit is a very simple one. It’s only five pieces. The five pieces are; a base with two fence posts, once signpost and a triangular sign.
The base is 15cm x 6.3cm and about 1.2cm deep at its deepest point. The fence posts are 3.5cm x .3cm x .3cm. The signpost is 7cm x .3cm x .3cm. Lastly the sign is an isosceles triangle, with two sides at 1.8cm and the bottom at 1.5cm.
The resin is typical pale cream resin from CD. The base comes from a one-piece mold and has the traditional smooth bottom. The other parts have a standard resin bock. The posts will be a bit of challenge to remove the blocks and retain the detail. This is because of the blocks position. The block will come off easily because it’s a straight cut. To remove any remnants of the block you will have to sand down the side, and removing any detail.
Assembly will be a easy, there are recesses for each part if you choose to use CD’s suggested locations. A bit of two part epoxy and the parts will fall together.

impression

This is a really nice little kit. It is well crafted by Ben. There are stones, and erosion ruts in the ground. Ben added a nice large rock and dead log in the ditch. At the bottom is very natural looking water line. You can choose to fill it with your favorite water product or leave it dry. The wood grain detail on the posts is wonderfully done, your challenge will be to use your dental tool to match it on the sanded side. The sign is a simple sign and can be hand painted or use a Rail Road decal.
This kit is a vignette waiting for figures. You can add this to a plaster or resin road and you have a full diorama base waiting for an AFV. An experience modeler will find this fairly easy to scratch-build so if you have time, resources, and experience you may pass. If you are tight on time or are new to base creations this kit is dynamite. If you are primarily a figure builder, this kit is a great way to top off (or bottom off) a vignette

VLS/Custom Dioramics was very generous in providing this sample for review.