Custom Dioramics add another piece to their quick base line – CD 6130 Roadside Ditch with Erosion. The kit is a simple kit, but proves to be complex in use. This is a review of contrasts – form vs. function.

form - ditch

This piece is superbly crafted by Ben Jakobsen. He does a great job at capturing the essence of a ditch. There is so much movement in this piece; you can almost feel the rain water flowing down the softly eroding edge. At the bottom is a meandering creek bed. On the top edge you can see the earthen bluff and there is fantastic texture to the ground. Along the lower edge is scattered natural debris begging to be put next to a country road.

When you buy this kit you will get a large chunk of resin. There is no assembly, only a touch of cleanup. You just have to smooth down a few of the edges so it sits flat. The piece is 15cm long, 6.5cm deep. The road side edge is 1.5cm high and jumps to 3.5cm on the high side.

Visually it’s a fantastic piece.

Function - quick

This is a starting point kit. By itself this kit is a very limited base. You could put a figure or two on it for a vignette. One idea is to fill the ditch with water and drop two Viet Nam Grunts in the ditch watching for VC.

Even the box art shows this being used in conjunction with other CD kits. You can use one of their cobble stone street products (CO 0027) or their Vietnam Vignette base (CD 6126) or with another one of their
ditches.

Anyway you look at it you have to combine it with something else to get anywhere. You can easily purchase the products mentioned above. A road would be easy to scratch build. If you use your imagination this could serve as a demarcation line between a high field and a low field that infantry is passing through. Each of these ideas has limits. The first is cost; buying four or five kits for a base gets expensive. The second option of creating a road is the length of the piece. At 15cm it’s not a very deep/wide piece, a 1/35 scale Sherman is 17cm long. You would definitely have to angle the tank to get it all on. The size presents a challenge in the demarcation example too.
So the function will be a challenge for you.

Form and function wrap up

This piece is wonderfully sculpted in natural flowing form. It presents you with a deployment challenge; scratch around it, purchase other kits or go vignette. There is definitely a market for this product. They are ideal for a builder who needs a quick base and can afford to purchase a few of these (or related products) and drop them together for a ‘bolt together’ base. The price isn’t bad for what you get. The quality is top notch CD. I wouldn’t go out and get these to keep on my shelf, but I would definitely consider them if time was an issue.

I’d like to thank VLS for supplying this sample