A perfect addition to your diorama is this WWII era upright piano and bench. Hauler provides nine resin parts and eight photo-etched parts to build the kit. The instructions provide a pictorial on where the parts go, but do not contain any guidance for color. A quick internet search revealed that most were painted in black with a few fancier ones showing a fine wood grain for the main body. The resin is packaged in a re-sealable plastic bag with the photo-etc h in a folded plastic bag secured with a staple.

Hauler has molded the parts in a tan resin with only a few bubbles that I was able to find. There are no mold seams to sand off. The resin pour plug on the back of the piano is quite large, but was easily removed from the back with a razor saw in about fifteen minutes. As you can see by the photos, I had a few resin parts that broke off, but they were easily re-attached with gap-filling super glue. The keyboard cover had to be sanded down to fit properly and then the photo-etch part that represents the music sheet support was folded and super glued to the inside of the keyboard cover. The piano insignia was superglued in the center with the three part candle-stick holders added to either side. The piano seat was fairly simple, just adding the four legs to the seat. Take care to test the leg alignment so you don’t get a rocker!

Although most paints will adhere to resin alone, I would recommend that you wash the parts to remove any remaining mold release and prime them first. I primed the assembled resin parts with Tamiya black then used a variety of Vallejo browns, from dark to light to add some variety. The keyboard was painted with Vallejo white and left to dry overnight. The next day I used a scraper tool to remove the white paint from the black keys. The bass pedals were painted with Vallejo brass (you will only see one, but two are included in the kit – the carpet monster is digesting the second one). The piano seat was primed in Tamiya black before the seat was painted in Vallejo leather. Once everything is dry I applied a Vallejo dark brown wash. The candle stick holders and the center piano insignia were left in bare brass. The tops of the candle stick holders were painted off white and finished off with Vallejo smoke. The photos don’t show it as well as I would like, but it gives a transparent look to the underlying white.

I’m still going to play with the look of the keyboard to get the black vs white keys more uniform, but overall I’m quite pleased with the result. My thanks to Hauler and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great kit.

Highly recommended!