MiniArt 1/35 German City Building

No foreplay on this one; it is straight to the kit description. This is supposed to be a standard German city building of the time with what I guess are plaster exterior walls within a timber bracing. The rather large diorama building section has one complete wall and bits of the others as if the house had been hit by shelling and the rest of the building had been gutted. Unlike some of the other MiniArt diorama settings, this one does not have a base.

In line with other kits in this series, a circular drainpipe section and semi-circular gutter is also included, exiting onto the ground along the side.  A lamp post is included  and the window includes opening 'glass' sections. Since this is a multi-story house, you do get floor segments and interior walls for the upper stories. There are also shingle roof sections as well

So much for the description. For the kit, you are presented with several light grey injected plastic sprues and a number of sheets of thick vacuformed plastic. This is a great way to do the building as to have them in styrene would have meant some very heavy pieces. The vacuformed bits are both the inside and the outside of the various walls. Into and onto these bits are placed the various injected plastic parts in the form of the windows, downspout and the lamp post. A sheet of acetate is included for you to cut out the lamp bits using a template and for the 'glass' in the windows. Of course, you'll want to make some of these look like they are broken and you'll also need to strew around a lot of debris. Typical of these kits, there are additional bits that won't be used. For those squeamish about vacuformed plastic, this stuff is quite thick and once cut out can be treated just like normal styrene.

The instructions are quite simple and show you the basics on how to construct the base. No painting information is provided aside from the box top, but that should be more than adequate for most builders. Dragon USA, has added in a figure set. #6173, Volksturm (Berlin 1945), a very appropriate choice for this damaged house section.

Instructions are well done and include 28 construction steps. Not shown are a selection of printed paper signs, certificates and color posters to add on the outside of the building should you so wish. Though the posters would seem a bit inappropriate for a private home, the certificates would be something that families would have hung in the living room. Included with those are some portraits, including one of Adolf Hitler.

This is a very nice diorama set that is well detailed and provides a bunch of extra bits to use with other work or to incorporate in this one if one wishes to expand it. It is something that builders of all skill levels can handle and also gives those who are a bit leery of vacuforms an opportunity to do a simple one to see what it is like.

September 2008