MiniArt 5 Ton Gantry Crane & Equipment (35589) 1:35

[Mike]

5 Ton Gantry Crane & Equipment (35589)

1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models

 

 

We're blessed these days with a plethora of accessories for all manner of diorama opportunities, and a lot of this is thanks to companies such as MiniArt, who produce this type of set in addition to a huge and growing array of high quality models.  This set is suitable for a workshop or field maintenance situation, depicting equipment that was often used in such situations, and would be more than a little tricky to scratch-build. 

 

The set arrives in a small top-opening box (think an over-sized figure box), shrink-wrapped for freshness, with the contents also tightly wrapped in a heat sealed bag, with two elastic bands further damping any movement of the parts therein.  There are ten sprues in grey styrene, plus two lengths of different styles of chain in another bag and a decal sheet.  Due to the relatively high part count and complexity there is also an instruction booklet, although it is a fairly short one.  The chains are inserted between the sprues held together by elastic bands, which is a clever way of ensuring they aren't lost when the outer bag is opened in haste on receipt of the model.  From the box you can build one 5ton gantry, two 200L fuel drums, an oxy-acetylene torch with twin bottles on a two-wheeled trolley with goggles and a welding/cutting mask, a short step-ladder, a manual fuel pumping device, canister for welding rods, and two caps for the bottles if you choose not to attach the regulators.

 

 

The gantry is made up of the cross-member and four legs with double wheels at the bottom ends.  These are braced apart by connecting rods, and run along a pair of two-part C-channels on the workshop floor.  A winch is made up and attached to each pair of legs, and is used to wind the legs together or further apart to adjust the height, with the connecting rods moved up or down the sets of pegs that are moulded into the legs.  You will need to add some wire from your own stock to portray the wire, as this isn't included in the box.  The movable carrier is made up from a plastic chassis, into which you weave the larger diameter chain, as shown in the scrap diagrams.  With this closed up on the cross-member, a smaller chain is added to a wheel on the carrier for adjustment of the jib's height below the carrier.  Another length of chain and roller is attached to the side to move the carrier and thereby the jib from side-to-side.

 

 

The two drums are made from halves to which the top and bottoms are added, then two stiffening bands are added to the grooves in the drums, each made up from two parts.  There are a choice of end-caps with different wording in raised lettering, and if you leave off the cap you can make up the hand-pump with nozzle at the other end of a piece of hose/wire that you supply yourself.  The cart for the oxy-acetylene cylinders is built from two cranked handles, a c-profile bracket and a hollow end, plus two spoked wheels and an axle, onto which the cylinders are glued once complete.  They consist of two halves, plus a flared bottom to prevent tipping, and a choice of either an end cap, or a two part regulator with a small decal.  The torch itself is attached to the two regulators via a length of hose, which you must also fabricate from wire, flexible insulation or similar.  A two-part tubular canister is supplied for the electrodes, and goggles or face mask are there for the operator.  The final item is a two-part short set of step-ladders, which look to be of the fixed variety, as there is no pivot visible between the two halves.

 

 

Decals are printed by Decograph to a good standard, as evidenced by the crisp black/white regulator dials, and just in case anyone in the workshop was in doubt, there are two large "Rauchen Verboten!" signs warning against smoking in the area around fuel and welding gases.

 

 

Conclusion

More high-quality grist for the diorama mill, either indoors or out during the WWII period, and although it is ostensibly designed to be in a German-speaking workshop, a little alteration of some parts would mean that it could easily be anywhere.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

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