Model Armour

Country Road

Manufacturer: MiniArt

Scale: 1/35

Material: Styrene

Serial Number: 36047

Price: £17.99 (ModelHobbies)

Introduction

MiniArt from the Ukraine, began making plastic kits in 2003, and has rapidly made a name for themselves, not only producing vehicle kits, but also diorama bases and a wide range of figure sets, both historical and military in nature.

Kit Contents

The kit is supplied in one of he slightly over-sized MiniArt boxes, inside of which are two large grey styrene vac-formed sheets, and one grey injection moulded sprue. The instructions are supplied as a two-sided sheet of A4.

What you are supplied with is all that is shown on the box art...minus scenic materials such as grass! So you're supplied with a road section, wall and farm cart. The road and wall are supplied on the vac-formed sheets and the farm cart is supplied on the injection moulded sprue.

First, the base. As you can see from the pictures shown below, this is supplied on one large vac-formed base. It just needs trimming, and then mounting on your plinth of choice...if that's what you want of course! Then you're ready for the wall section. This is modelled to represent a short broken section of dry stone wall. It's supplied in two halves, back and front, so you've at least the detail on both sides. There's a flat trough moulded into the base section for the wall to into. These need to be trimmed, and then joined using small lengths of flat styrene which can be cut from the trimmings, you won't run short as there's plenty! On both wall parts there are various small projections that look almost like bubbles. I presume these must be from the vac-forming process, and they'll need to be quickly removed with a small modelling chisel. If you don't remove them, they will be highly visible after painting, and they're not part of the intended detail.

For those that have not used these before, there's a handy 'how to' on the MiniArt website. For those that have bad memories of vac-formed kits from the 1970's...these are actually miles away from those days. These are vac-formed, but the material is so thick as to be more akin to injection moulded parts, which means they have a strength and rigidity far above what you would imagine for a vac-formed sheet.

The farm cart is injection moulded and therefore can be assembled in the normal manner. It's a fairly detailed little kit...given that it's only a farm cart of course! It was previously released as a stand alone kit #35542. We're supplied with separate panels to form the body of the cart, axle, frame chassis. There are even steps and drivers seat. Each of the body panels and floor are moulded with woodgrain effect, and there are no ejector pin marks to mar any of the surfaces.

Conclusion

A ready made base in a box! The inclusion of the cart lifts this one up from something you would probably rather have a go at making yourself to a kit that you might consider getting. It's easy to assemble, and once painted and with scenic materials in place, should look the business! Recommended.

My thanks to MiniArt for the review sample!