MiniArt Cobblestone Section (36043) 1:35

[Mike]

Cobblestone Section (36043)

1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd

 

 

Cobblestone roads have been around since before the Romans, and were prominent in Europe until after WWII because they have ease of maintenance and simple extraction and re-laying thanks to their modular nature.  The downside is that they’re slippery when wet and modern vehicles with pneumatic rubber tyres struggle for grip under some circumstances.  I first encountered MiniArt when I bought one of their vacformed diorama bases, before I became aware of their wider product range.  This set is one of those diorama kits, and arrives in a smallish top-opening box, with two sheets of vacformed cobblestone section measuring 252mm x 173mm per sheet with a depth or "plinth height" of 5mm.  Also included are two sprues of injection moulded grey plastic that provides a heap of street furniture, including bench seats, bollards, wrought iron fencing, manhole covers and grids.

 

 

 

Construction is simple, consisting mostly of prepping the vacformed sheets, which are produced on female moulds so are dotted with small raised “pips” where the air has been drawn through the negative mould to ensure a faithful copy.  These will need slicing or sanding away and any gaps filled, which shouldn’t take long.  The bases are quite flexible, so will need some bracing from behind, and I have backed mine with sheet balsa wood glued in with epoxy in the past, but other materials would be similarly useful.  If you intend to use the street furniture, most of it can be planted on top, and stiffened with pegs if you desire, but the manhole cover and grid will need sections cutting out of the base before they can be used. Careful marking and cutting will be the watchword, and I hope don't need to warn you not to do this on your lap.

 

Markings

After a priming, you can paint the cobbles in shades of grey or brown, accenting them with other shades, and using pigments in dry or liquid form to fill the interstices, wiping the excess off the faces of the cobbles to obtain a realistic finish as illustrated below.

 

 

 

Conclusion

Diorama bases can be a dark art if you’re unaware as to how they’re created, but these sets are able to short-cut some of the production process, having excellent detail and grounding your model in the real world rather than just floating on a shelf.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of