The Parts

Upon opening the box, the modeler will find two frets of detail parts, six vacuformed parts which assemble into the ruined building, and one part, the base, representing the street, sidewalk, and a small pile of rubble that fell from the building in the process of becoming…ruined.

The detail parts are injection molded. Included in the detail parts are parts for:

• A short length of wrought-iron fence (not shown on the box art)
• A street lamp (visible on the box art)
• A main door and framing parts for the door frame (visible on the box art)
• Set of window frames, window shutters, and framing materials for the windows

MiniArt usually includes detail parts that are generic in nature and can be added to other structures, or added to the simulated pile of debris on the base.

While the overall quality of the detail parts is quite good, there are some mold release points that will need to be cleaned up and removed. This is easily accomplished and does not detract from my opinion of the kit.

There are no decals, but there is a paper sheet with scaled posters included in the kit, not shown in this review due to copyright issues. There is a frame molded into one of the building walls simulating a recess into which a poster could be mounted.

The instruction sheet is a single piece of paper, printed on both sides. It is quite simple and thorough in that it illustrates how the street lamp is to be assembled, and also illustrates how the various framing pieces forming the door and windows are to be assembled. Images of the instructions, posters, and kit parts can be viewed at http://miniart-models.com .

Assembly

Assembly is straightforward and simple. Some different modeling tools will be helpful, generally not used on other models, but used on this kit will speed construction. Because the base and wall pieces are vacuformed using thick plastic sheets, using a belt sander with medium to fine sandpaper with make quick work of cleaning up the parts as they are removed from the carrier sheet. It is recommended that something be placed within the walls to provide a “core” and to add some strength by providing a larger mating surface than just the edges of the wall and building parts provide. I used foam core housing insulation. It is visible in some of the images attached to this review.

In order to glue the foam core to the inner surface of the walls I used a hot glue gun. The hot glue gun was also used to mate all of the wall and building parts together, excluding the detail parts, which were attached using super glue. Several pieces of foam were also glued to the underside of the street base to provide it with some additional rigidity.

Do not be too concerned about globs of hot glue that are visible along the seams of the walls, or any small open seams that remain once the parts are assembled. Remember that this is a “ruined building” and some debris and various cracks and fissures are to be expected and welcomed.

Painting

One can use any preferred type of paint, be it airbrushed or hand-painted. Just for the fun of it, I applied Andrea and Vallejo paints by hand.

Conclusion

The Ruined Building provides a very interesting backdrop and base for 35th armor and figures. Depending on how much destruction one wishes to portray, the modeler may find it desirable to add simulated broken glass to the windows and street lamp. More shrapnel marks on the walls would be simple to add with a Dremel, an X-acto, and a good set of metal files. The Ruined Building w/Base kit provides a great starting point for and an interesting diorama and base, and leaves the details in the hands of the modeler. This model is recommended.

Thanks to MRC and MiniArt for the opportunity to have some great fun with this review item, and to IPMS-USA for the review space.