MiniArt Street Fruit Shop (35612) 1:35

[Mike]

Street Fruit Shop (35612)

1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd

 

 

Lots of street traders appear round the world, and as is the case with all good car chases from the 70s, a lot of them sell fruit.  This set from MiniArt depicts exactly that.  It’s a fruit shop based on a couple of palettes, an angled stand on which various fruit boxes are set, an umbrella to keep the sun off, and a two-bay cooler branded with the promise of Mojitos stored inside.  That should please Sam Axe at least.

 

The set arrives in a figure-sized top-opening box shrink-wrapped for freshness, and inside are fifteen sprues in grey styrene of various sizes that are best characterised as smallish.  In addition is a clear sprue, a small decal sheet and an instruction booklet with some printed boxes and the canopy for the umbrella printed on the back page in full colour.

 

 

Construction begins with the cooler, which is made up from individual panels with a small divider that hides the compressor in the bottom of the machine, plus the two sliding lids that are the source of arguments between siblings when one wants something from the other door and traps the other’s hand in the sliding lid.  One of the two decals supplied can be applied to the front for a bit of light relief once you have painted it appliance white (probably?).  The angled fruit stand is next with a framework under the slatted top, and the two palettes are each made up of top and bottom halves, with a clever technique used to apply the three underside parts as one by using linking sprues that are removed after the glue has set.  The umbrella frame is begun with a pole to which six fine arms are added at angles to match the canopy colour changes, which is the last part joined.  The printing is only on one side, so if you want to go for extra realism, you may consider spraying some paint lightly on the white side of the canopy before you glue it to the frame.  Just like the real thing the umbrella drops into a two-part base to finish it off and hold it down.  There is also a solitary PVC garden chair on its own sprue that is awesome to behold.  Just like the real thing, and if they had moulded it in white or green, it wouldn’t even have needed painting.  You don’t even have to remove most of the seams, as these things are pumped out of similar moulds to those making our model parts with very little finishing done to make them smooth and stylish.

 

 

Now for the fun part.  Beside the umbrella canopy are a number of boxes of various types and brands, with instructions printed nearby describing how to make them up once you have cut them from the paper.  These where the six small sprues full of plastic fruit come in, with oranges, pears, kiwi and those fruit with the red jelly-like seeds inside, the name of which escapes me right now.  There are also boxes for bananas, which are all moulded in little hand-like bunches of three or four to arrange as you see fit.  Finally, there are water melons in whole or halves as well as honeydew melons similarly displayed.  You will have to paint these little marvels appropriately for the ultimate effect, but the moulding is excellent, as is the wooden texture on the various wooden parts.  If you want another coloured umbrella, just use the original as a template and make your own for a bit more variation from the set.

 

 

 

Conclusion

Dioramas live or die by their realistic background artefacts, or clutter.  This is an excellent way to populate the streets of many warmer climate or Middle Eastern street scenes with your vehicles or troops trundling through.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[bentwaters81tfw]

Lots of potential there, I like it.

But it needs a stallholder, and some punters. Looking around, I can't find much (read zilch) in the way of appropriate civilians to go with it.

Edited April 3, 2020 by bentwaters81tfw

[Mike]

1 hour ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Lots of potential there, I like it.

But it needs a stallholder, and some punters. Looking around, I can't find much (read zilch) in the way of appropriate civilians to go with it.

There's a figure set available this month from MiniArt as it happens.  We'll get a look at that soon, hopefully