Holy Smoke. Ben Jakobsen of 135th Construction Battalion (a VLS Creations Company) is at it again. He shows off his brick sculpting capabilities with this new diorama kit - #CO 0098, Smoke Stack (Brick).

Packaging

When you receive your kit it will come in heavy stock paper box. The box is about 2.5"x4"x1.25”. Bob Letterman does a wonderful job painting the box art on this kit in its built form.

Inside the box you will find packing peanuts and two resin parts. One part is in a bag one is not. This kit is packaged exceptionally well.

What you get

When you open the box you will find:

• 1 smoke stack (4 5/8” x 1” x 7/8”)


• 1 cap stone piece

There are only two pieces in this kit

This kit is all resin. Each piece has the ever-present resin block. The cap stone has a very thin layer of flash in the opening.

Impressions

This kit fits a need that gets missed in a number of dioramas. There are a lot of buildings that do not include a smoke stack (chimney). This smoke stack can be dropped into a wide range of building styles. Simple brick goes with just about any building style, brick, wooden siding, even log homes. This kit will only work with a one-story building (or a cape cod style with a partial 2nd floor). The way it is scalped there is a small taper. This eliminates your ability to stack two to get a very tall smoke stack. The sculping of the bricks is really nicely done. There is great detail giving a very convincing natural appearance. At the top of the stack there is even a ¼” hole to give a hollow appearance. Just check out the images.

There is the typical resin block clean up with both parts, not a big deal at all. A super detail modeler will want to take clean up a step further and add a touch of putty work at the corners. There are some small gaps at the corners where the bricks come together. The gaps don’t detract or distract from the piece. A modeler who wants to go the extra mile will add a bit of putty and sandpaper and dress it up just a bit more.

Summary

Another quality resin product from 135th Construction Battalion. The quality of the brick work is top notch and will really make any building come to life. This would beat scratch building a smoke stack any day.




I'd like to thank Custom Dioramics for supplying this product for review.