This review is of the MiniArt
Diorama with Park Wall; that is part of their Diorama series of bases for armor
models. It was a pretty easy build, and it looks nice when finished, but it did
take some work and some modifications to make it look good.
First of you get a sheet of very
soft plastic to use as the base. This has some very nicely done details with
the pathway and some small rocks in the road. The base is marked off for where
you will put the wall.
First you have to cut the wall
pieces out of this single sheet of soft plastic. You have to be very careful
doing his as one slip from the blade can ruin a piece, or cut off some detail.
Building the wall was a challenge in that the pieces have nothing to grab onto
when you glue them. I ended up using some styrene strips to help hold the walls
together. Once they were set, I used some white putty to cover the seams, and a
small stiff brush to add some texture. Once this dried I glued the walls to the
base. While it took some work, in the end they look very nice, and when painted
they are well detailed.
The next step is assembling the
extras that come with the kit. In my opinion these are more than worth it,
since you get items that you might not use here but can use on other dioramas.
The park bench is really neat, as are the manhole covers and drains. While I
did not use them for this base, I am going to use them in another MiniArt build
that I should finish reviewing soon. The plastic for the extras seems to me to
be of a little better quality than the walls and base, but in the end
everything worked, and that is the main point.
I finished it in a winter theme,
adding a little snow and a Wespe. All in all it was a nice little project that
is not too time consuming, and provides a nice background for your vehicle.
I would like to thank MiniArt
and IPMS/USA for the review sample.
