Starting Point

This building review starts with a mix of resin and plaster. The kit CD 1155 “Roadside Tavern Ruin” is mixed media. This creates a few interesting points. This kit will require a few more skills to complete. You will have to deal with a more delicate material – plaster. You will have to be able to marry and mate two types of media using potentially a new type of glue and some additional skills like drilling and cutting plaster. This kit will take a bit more commitment on your part. You can handle it, please read on……

box contents

The box is the heavy cardboard version CD uses and is wrapped in a ‘box art’ sleeve. Dave Pomeranski is the creative sculptor behind this kit and Bob Letterman paints the sleeve art. Both perform their duties wonderfully; with Dave sculpting solid details and Bob painting the finished kit in a style we have come to expect from CD.

Open the box and you will find a ton of packing peanuts holding the parts down. There is one ziplock bag of resin parts. Sandwiched between two bubble warp sheets are the plaster parts. Under it all are two sheets of instructions and build tips.

There are 13 resin parts that consist of major and minor components. All are nice standard VLS cream resin. Some are made from open-faced one-piece molds, others are from deep two- piece molds. What this means to you is; you have sanding and cutting to do. You will be sanding down the excess resin from the open face one piece molded parts. On the deep two-piece mold parts you will be cutting off a resin block. These pieces are nicely planned and each has an acceptable level of ‘clean up process’. The flatter pieces will have excess resin. The others have resin blocks. In general the resin pieces are nice. The detail is superb and is what you have come to expect from CD. There are a few bubbles, both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’. Positive bubbles are in locations that can easily be cut off. Negative bubbles aren’t large and can be filled easily. The negative bubbles are in locations that are not obvious. There is a bit of flash on a few pieces. All in all nothing major, and nothing you wouldn’t find on a routine resin kit. All of these items are easily enough to deal with.

The plaster pieces are the major walls of this kit. The parts are typical plaster parts. They are made of a light firm plaster. The detail is very nice for plaster. The bricks are crisp and square. There is wood grain in the plaster. The stucco sections are represented very well. The battle damage is nicely represented, crisp cuts, nice brick work, and nice wood details. These are plaster parts and I have only received one plaster kit that arrived with no damage: this was not it. This kit did show up with some broken pieces. The second story wall with the door and window came in four pieces. One of the sidewalls came in two pieces. This is very typical and with a bit of patience, puzzle-work and test fitting all the pieces did fit together. With some two-part epoxy these should stay together well. You will need a bit of putty to fill in some resulting gaps.
There is no over-pour to clean up, so the repair job is the only ‘cleaning’ you’ll do.

what did I think

Everything about this kit is workable. I mentioned a few issues you will deal with; nothing a modeler with a plaster kit or two under their belt can’t handle. The combination resin/plaster will give you a nice test of your skills. I was test fitting some of the pieces and you will find some decisions to make. The biggest one is what to do with the window shutters. If you model them open you’ll have no problems. If you model them closed there is a windowsill you’ll have to contend with.

I really like the building and the architecture, it has a very ‘true to life’ feel to it. The detail is wonderful and everywhere. The wood grain is in scale in both resin and plaster. There are door details, nails details, and even a great door handle. The building will give you a number of different options. You can use this as a backdrop for a large subject such as a King Tiger. The tavern can be a centerpiece for a full diorama with AFV’s and figures. In this scenario you have different elevations you can take advantage of. There is a balcony you can use to put a figure out on leave or catching a quiet moment before a mission. You can mix and match civilians and military subject in one large project. CD also has a number of kits with similar architecture so you can combine a few kits for a huge diorama.

synopsis

The end result will be worth the work. Maybe not a ‘first’ resin kit or a ‘first’ plaster kit. This will be a nice solid backdrop for your next project. I would recommend it.

I’d like to thank VLS for this sample