With the loss of the famous Verlinden line of diorama accessories, other small manufacturers have been stepping in to fill the void. Danger Close Dioramics is one such company, with a line of nineteen products as of the time of this writing. Their “factory gate” accessory is one such product, consisting of six dark grey, non-porous resin pieces which, when assembled, make a diorama backdrop piece about ten inches in length.

Like another item from this company that I’ve examined, this one is also entirely composed of open-face mold castings, meaning that the backside of each piece varies quite a bit in quality – everything from slight underfills (with resin cupping along the edges) to some overfill issues, which necessitate quite a bit of grinding down. I found a Dremel with a sanding drum to be absolutely essential to grind things down to a decent match. If you elect to tackle this issue, be absolutely sure to wear a mask and if possible, have an exhaust fan running, as the dust from this process can be extremely hazardous.

As with the other item I examined, I was struck by the relative thinness of the parts in comparison to other resin diorama pieces I’ve dealt with. This became something of an issue here, as the various parts needed to mesh together to make a useful single structure. Surprisingly, the overhead sign exhibited the most overfill, requiring a pretty extensive grinding process to get it to even fit on the wall sockets.

The item comprising the gate portion are equally challenging, and under other circumstances I would have been tempted to scratch replacement parts to a more scale thickness. The personnel entrance door, however, was the worst molding by far, with no surface detail and as thick as a bank vault wall. All of these items, however, are relatively easy to duplicate with sheet and strip styrene. Even if you choose not to, they don’t really detract from the final piece. For the purposes of this review I left off the personnel door, as I do eventually intend to scratch a replacement.

Paint-up is a pretty straight-forward process, and the material makes it relatively easy to weather the surfaces convincingly as you go along. I deliberately left the sign section blank on my build as I haven’t decided yet what company I want to represent, and any decent Letraset sheet can provide the appropriate letters to finish this part.

For all the cleanup involved, I’m really pretty satisfied with the end result. This is an item that will look at home in pretty much any European setting from World War 1 onwards, and makes quite a nice backdrop to any scenario you might have in mind. I’m going to be keeping an eye on this company, as their eclectic approach to releases promises some very interesting products to come.

As long as you’re prepared to do some cleanup, you should enjoy working on this one. My thanks to Danger Close Dioramics for providing the review piece, and to IPMS/USA for a chance to look this goody over. Keep safe, everyone, and happy modeling!