DIORAMA DELIGHTS FROM MINIART
The Ukrainian firm renowned for its 1/35 military kits also produces useful scenic items. Here’s a selection of its recent releases…
Creating convincing dioramas continues to become easier with products such as those from MiniArt. It offers excellent buildings and bases, but often it’s small and singular things that make the difference in any scene. Four of the recent releases from MiniArt will go a long way to adding realism in your projects.
Set 35625 Fruit Cart provides a delightful two-wheeled canopied market stand with legs manoeuvring handles, a splendid selection of fruit, and wooden storage boxes. All the parts are styrene, and the ‘edibles’ include red/green apples, lemons, peaches, oranges, kiwi fruit, pomegranate, pears, water melon and bananas. Much fun can be had in painting the fruit to ensure a realistic finish, and you could also spend time producing a weathered effect on the cart, with peeling paint. This set costs £16.99.
Vegetables and Wooden Crates (35629) offers 16 crates and a pleasing selection of veg. Eggplant (aubergine), bell peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, onions, carrots, tomatoes, squashes and beets are all supplied here, with convincing shapes. Some are provided individually, but others are moulded in groups for easy insertion into the crates.
All these could form the centre-piece in a colourful street scene, or even be part of a military supply setting, say, in the back of a truck; one or two crates could even be placed on the deck of a tank. This package is £12.99.
Another highly useful package is MiniArt’s new French Concrete Road Signs – Paris Region 19302-40s (35659). Any vignette or diorama featuring a section of Parisienne road can gain extra detail with these neat signs, which comprise styrene posts/frames and well-printed waterslide decals with blue/white backgrounds. Assembly is basic, but the plastic has a smooth finish; real trick will be finishing these to portray concrete texture. These cost £12.99.
Finally, we catapult forwards in time with set 35640 Traffic Signs Afghanistan 2000s. Here, various triangular, square, rectangular, circular and hexagonal signs are provided, all featuring thin tubular posts. All parts are in styrene, but the sign detail comes via waterslide decals and printed paper items. Destinations such as Kandahar, Kabul, Jalalabad and Maar-e-Sharif feature, with the remaining journey lengths in kilometres. The war in Afghanistan continues to be a focus of modellers and there are plenty of 1/35 armour/vehicle kits available, which can be posed on a section of road, whether it be dirt or tarmac. These are also priced at £12.99.
This is a splendid selection of diorama accessories with wide application and appeal, and are all available in the UK via: www.creativemodels.co.uk
