Mini Art has been releasing a series of modular buildings in 72nd scale. By modular I mean you get parts for roofs, windows, doors, walls, etc., and you potentially could mix-and-match and make your own building. The modular design allows a significant level of flexibility, but it comes with the price of multiple pieces (perhaps 83 pieces are a bit too many for a building of this size?) and with too many seams.

The kit is molded in different plastic colors with the intention of being displayed without actually painting it. I decided to build it that way so you will see what you get if you were to build it out-of-the-box.

Upon construction of the building foundation, I found that the wooden planks that form the floor would flex, given how long – and unsupported – they are. So I added some scratchbuilt runners made out of sprue to keep things straight and somewhat flat. Also, you are supposed to modify (trim and fit) one of the floor pieces in order to fit it to the overall size of the foundation.

Once the building foundation was assembled, I started working on the walls. It would have been nice to have all the walls be one piece each instead of, for example, having to assemble 9 pieces just for the back wall. Having multiple parts means ensuring good alignment of them and having to deal with multiple seams, as the fit was not all good. In hindsight, I guess all the wall pieces need to their sides sanded flat to minimize the seams.

Construction moved forward to the roof. It was easy enough, but the overall construction was, again, very flimsy. It would have been nice to have some extra reinforcements. Also, the whole roof is made out of 12 parts, meaning multiple seams.

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in the choice of plastic colors. The carrot-orange color of the tiles and the beet-red brick walls seem a bit too extreme to my eyes. However, if you were to paint and weather the building, it would not matter.

Have I said how many seams this model has? I think I had a hard time with this model. It was my first building and certainly is not the best kit for a first building. Just to add insult to injury, towards the end of construction I accidentally knocked over the liquid glue jar, making a mess of the platform.

I would recommend this kit to intermediate to experienced modelers who are used to modifying some parts as needed, and are interested in adding some buildings to a diorama or a train layout. The surface detail of the parts is really nice and worthwhile, if you have experience assembling buildings.

I would like to thank Model Rectifier Corporation and IPMS/USA for the review sample.