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Dioramas
Do you love dioramas & vignettes? We sure do.
VIDEO
Cracking the Box: MiniArt Norman St
staff_Jim
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New Hampshire, United States
Joined: December 15, 2001
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Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 10:04 AM UTC
We examine one of the newer MiniArt dioramas in a box. This one is the Norman Street, a undamaged urban city street scene around the WWII era.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
Plasticbattle
#003
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Donegal, Ireland
Joined: May 14, 2002
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Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 10:18 AM UTC
Those little bumps seem to be getting bigger and more plentiful, with their more recent kits.
Looks like another nice kit all the same.
russamotto
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Utah, United States
Joined: December 14, 2007
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Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 10:23 AM UTC
Detail seems better also, compared to earlier releases. It looks very nice. Thanks for the video.
Hisham
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Al Qahirah, Egypt / لعربية
Joined: July 23, 2004
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Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 12:41 PM UTC
Those bumps look strange.. I don't see any on the older kits I have.

The building looks nice.. and the base is quite big.. I just wish they would risk doing a modern building, just for a change!

Hisham
CMOT
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ARMORAMA
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England - South West, United Kingdom
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Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 05:17 PM UTC
It looks as if they are using moulds with lots of holes that can then blow air back to remove the moulded parts. All I can say is stop doing it or get better at it fast as I think it will effect their popularity.
Biggles2
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Quebec, Canada
Joined: January 01, 2004
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Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 03:55 AM UTC
Yeah, I recently built MiniArt's Italian building, and although it's a very nice kit, it has hundreds of those 'pimples' all over it. Very difficult to remove with all the stone texture and always shows up after dry-brushing.
tigerproductions
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Tennessee, United States
Joined: November 13, 2006
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Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 11:21 AM UTC
For the kind of money they are asking for the kit I rather have resin, no vent holes to deal with.
LuckyLuke
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Belgium
Joined: September 18, 2008
KitMaker: 40 posts
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Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 01:06 PM UTC
Very dissapointed after watching the video. Those bumps are way too much.
There have always been bumps in their kits, I bought 6 of them to date and liked them a lot, but in this case it seems to be littered with them. A lot of sanding and possibly damaging is needed to make it look good.
A real pity but this is a pass for me
ppawlak1
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Victoria, Australia
Joined: March 14, 2006
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Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 06:29 PM UTC
Miniart won't get my business again with those bumps. What on earth have they been thinking. Miniart think about what is important to your customer !!
acav
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Auckland, New Zealand
Joined: May 09, 2002
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Posted: Saturday, December 01, 2012 - 08:46 PM UTC
Oh, boo-hoo - a kit manufacturer makes something that takes a bit of cleaning up and work to get right.

Ain't the first time a kit comes out of the box needing some care and attention before assembly - why the snarking about this one..?

Are we not modellers?
We should be able to take care of a few nodules here and there - if we can handle punch-out marks on styrene kits then this is no hardship.

Honestly, anybody'd think this hobby is just about shaking a bottle of glue into the box and pouring out a prize-winning diorama...
Lakota
#123
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New Mexico, United States
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Posted: Sunday, December 02, 2012 - 02:18 AM UTC
Howdy Y'all
I think I would start by buying one of the less expensive kits first. The bumps have me worried too. The kits seem to cost a pretty penny and I would look for a resin kit first.
Just my 2 cents.
Have a good day,
Don "Lakota"
CMOT
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ARMORAMA
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England - South West, United Kingdom
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Posted: Sunday, December 02, 2012 - 03:53 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Oh, boo-hoo - a kit manufacturer makes something that takes a bit of cleaning up and work to get right.

Ain't the first time a kit comes out of the box needing some care and attention before assembly - why the snarking about this one..?

Are we not modellers?
We should be able to take care of a few nodules here and there - if we can handle punch-out marks on styrene kits then this is no hardship.

Honestly, anybody'd think this hobby is just about shaking a bottle of glue into the box and pouring out a prize-winning diorama...



ACAV the complaint is that it is smothered in the spikes that would take an age to remove and will likely still show to some extent. Please take a close look at all those spikes on textured surfaces and tell me it is not excessive.
Lateral-G
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United States
Joined: November 25, 2007
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Posted: Friday, December 28, 2012 - 06:09 AM UTC
I am not liking those bumps/pimples. If this is the new standard from Miniart for their diorama bases then count me out. I've built several of their bases and they were nice because they were easy to assemble and didn't require much clean up other than the join seams. Having to remove all this bumps/pimples just doesn't make the building process fun. Call me lazy or whatever you want but I've been building models long enough and I've come to the point where I don't want any extra hassles during my building. This is a hobby after all. I get enough headaches and hassles in my job....I don't need it in my recreational activity.
Tailor
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Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Joined: May 26, 2008
KitMaker: 1,168 posts
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Posted: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 07:47 PM UTC
I have used a number of their dio bases already and find them very good. In the unpainted state the ejector bumps seem unduely large und plentyful, but I never had any real problems with them. I didn't even remove most of them. When painted the do blend in nicely, IMHO. Given the money value, I think there is no comparebale product on the market and they are fun to build. ... just my two cents! Cheers, Guido
newdriftking
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England - North West, United Kingdom
Joined: September 20, 2008
KitMaker: 365 posts
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Posted: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 08:03 PM UTC
Those pimples look excessive, and will take extra time sanding & most likely filling...

I've just started their country diorama and there are at most 3-5 on the whole kit... And even those where a pain to get rid of, because the plastic is quite thin, once removed you are left will a nicel hole, which you have then gotta cover from behind and then fill/sand...

They will get extremely harder if they are on the detailed parts like the street in this review...

As mentioned they need to reevaluate the process or they may lose business....
Uruk-Hai
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Stockholm, Sweden
Joined: January 31, 2003
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Posted: Saturday, August 24, 2013 - 05:57 AM UTC
Looks like they are getting bigger and more of them. At occassion when I have cut them away the plastic is so thin that a hole will be present instead. First time it was hard to fill that hole as I already glued the sides together.

Next time I used tape as backing för filling them with putty.

However, the idea with a ready made building or diorama base is that it should be quick and easy. All the cutting and filling takes that away.

Cheers
tankmodeler
#417
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Ontario, Canada
Joined: March 01, 2004
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Posted: Saturday, August 24, 2013 - 06:08 AM UTC
These little bumps are a result of the vac-form manufacturing process for the face sheets. Vac-form aircraft kit builders of old will remember them.

To get the maximum amount of detail these sheets are vac-formed into a female mould. Each of these bumps represents a vent hole drilled into the surface of the mould to allow the air to be sucked out of the mould so the plastic can get into the mould cavity. The more textured the surface is the more of these vent holes are needed and the more bumps you end up with.

Yes, they are a little dedious to remove and fill, but they really are no big deal.

If you want resin parts or injection moulded parts to eliminate these bumps, the kit wold be significantly more expensive or there would be significantly fewer of them, given the small production runs inherant with this sort of product.

In addition to removing the bumps prior to closing up the fase sheets, you probably also need to reinforce the corners of the parts which can also becoem quite thin because of the stretching of the plastic due to the vac-form process.

Again, not a "problem" but a byproduct of the process chosen to keep costs low. Take a look at some instructions on how to build vac-form kits and these will all be water under the bridge in short order.

Paul
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