Miniart 1/35 French Village House

For those of you who like to build dioramas, MiniArt has been producing a number of buildings just for you. While most of them have been semi-destroyed buildings with sections of street and a few accessories, this particular kit is a complete building in undamaged condition.

Mini Art has decided that the best way to reproduce these structures without resorting to what would be a very heavy kit, is to have all the major structural pieces done in vacuformed plastic. The plastic used for the walls and roof is quite thick and once you remove the part from the backing, can be pretty well treated just like styrene plastic. MiniArt provided not only the exterior walls, but the interior ones as well. This is done by joining the front and back walls after cutting the pieces from the backing. What this does is provide a realistic depth to the window and door openings. In the image of the parts, I have placed the exterior walls atop the interior ones as the inside walls are just smooth plastic, awaiting your decorations.

All of the various bits and pieces that attach to the house, like windows, shutters, doors, vertical downspouts and such are provided as standard injected plastic. A sheet of clear acetate is provided for windows, but as it seems a bit small, you may want another piece on standby in case it is needed. I should also mention that the horizontal gutters of the house are in vacuformed plastic as well. A lamp post and some wrought iron fence material as well as wooden gates are also part and parcel of the kit.

The instructions are quite straight forward, providing all you need in terms of how to put the kit together. The sheet is printed on thick, glossy paper and one side of the sheet is in color and includes a number of period advertising posters to help spruce up other works in progress. Color information is provided using seven different paint brands so you are sure to find one that is available in your area.

Also included in the kit is Dragon figure set 6199, British SAS troops. A nice addition to what is a nicely done building.

I find it quite nice to have an undamaged building available to those who like to dioramas and for those who just want to toss together a building kit. That it portrays a small village house in France is a bonus for the diorama fan.

Thanks to www.dragonmodelsusa.com for providing the review kit.

October 2007

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