House Ruin
Mfg. ID: RRMS-O-18
Series: O Mini Scenes

Introduction

This review looks at the Rusty Rail 1/48 kit House Ruin. It offers quarterscale modelers a detailed vignette or a subject for a larger scene.

RRMS-O-18 House Ruin

This two-piece resin kit arrives in a heavy plastic baggie with a Rusty Rail label sealing it shut. It is sharply cast in beige resin. I found no flash, noticeable seam mold lines or air bubbles.

The casting quality is remarkable. The components are incredibly small and sharp with amazing undercuts. This scene is 5" long by 3 1/4" wide and 3 1/4" high. The scene is a ruined and rotted house or cabin. The chimney still stands while the foundation can be traced by scattered stones.

For your comparison I shot exposures of the ruins with both 1/48 figures and armored car, and a 1/35 figure.

Detail

Rotting boards overlay rotting joists. Various household detritus litters the ruins: a stool; bottles; rusting cans (One with a lid still attached!); a tire; lantern.

Ground cover can be considered gravel or rough soil, leaves, nut husks, ashes and cinders, low foliage - let your imagination run wild!

raising the ruins!

I primed these castings with gray spray paint. With a variety of acrylic paints I applied many custom color mixes to the stones and ground. I wanted the dirt to be a brown-gray and the wood to contrast as incompletely bleached by the sun. The stones represent the mix of rock I find locally. While colors of dirt and stone and wood tended to blend together, the cans and bottles afford modelers to add splashes of color.

The only grip I have is that the chimney hearth has quite a gap between its left side and the foundation.

Conclusion

These ruins make an engaging scene as a stand-alone diorama, or as a component in a larger scene. Was it a house or a cabin? Did it burn, was it blown up, or just succumb to the elements after abandonment? Modelers can paint the ground any color for any soil, or carbon it up to simulate a scorched scene. Paint the ground as covered with forest moss or use model grass to make a little house on a prairie.

I think it can add a great deal of interest to scenes of any modeling genre: military; aviation; automotive; railroad. You can judge for yourself from the photos whether it works for scales larger than 1/48.

I happily recommend this casting.

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