When the urge comes, there is no defense. So, back to my original passion for diorama building.
MiniArt is doing what KFC did for chickens...by producing easily accessible dioramas for the masses and at a great price. What we need to knock up in weeks can be done in one weekend.
I took 6 hours to put this together.







the vacumn form parts need some work to putty up and join but overall, a very nice kit.

Reccomended and can be obtained from HHQ.

now all you need is some figure to go with it

Cant wait to see the finished work! :D

Your dioramas are always an eye catcher in a exhibition. :lol:

Thanks for the preview and up close and personal pics Loo.

Miniart does make dio making much, much easier for beginners and hardcore diomakers. I just hope their prices don't go up with more releases.

Revliss,
I have in mind to add in the Masterbox Marquis set showing the French resistance with a german officer captive, thrown in with a Tamiya staff car. Some wounded soldiers like the driver, etc will complete the picture.

As for Beachbum's note on the prices, these are hitting the shores in the ranges of Rm90-70 thereabouts retail, which is not too bad. The cheaper range does not have the base which should cater for dios with different setting and sizes. From the last pic, it can barely fit a half completed sherman for composition before it becomes too crammed.

Kirin,
thanks for the compliment. I have yet to get back to making a decent diorama for 2 years now. Need to get back to it being my 'first love' in model making.

I might get me one of this!!! Thanks for the review Bro!!

Sgt Buds, Six Zero out

this is interesting.... btw are u going to add some floorboards on the 1st floor? the interior looks kinda bare

Ah ... CK is now into "property development" too :lol: :lol: :lol:

How was the fitting for this dio set? Would you recommend to Novice modellers like myself ka???

Beautifully done and look forward to seeing your progress on this build ... B) B)

surely you jest, my figure gifted friend! novice Modeller indeed...
Nobody with such a rich variety of kits is allowed to be called novice.



As for the fitting, the big test is actually to sand down the vacumn formed parts sufficiently to avoid to clean up the halves. If you look at my pics closely, I did not do that enough for a lot of the parts. The Miniart website is a big help for those unfamiliar with vacumn form kits.

jimbo, you are right. Need some floorboards, and debris.

Loo, thanks for sharing.....

u got the fitting just OK la.. miniart website do help ppl in assembling the building...

u may add broken bricks and bricks and bricks...........

pls finish it soon tauke..........

Boss Sil,
Will try to finish this after SGB. At the moment, this week, I am sidelined trying to finish off something for Hasbro.

Transformers are coming!

Revenge is a dish best served cold ^_^

CK, hey instead of sidelining this dio... perhaps you can incorporate this dio into that Hasbro thingy ... imagine Abrahams/Sherman getting "dunked" by a decepticon ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

The scale is off for the transformer dios but can't say I didn't think about it earlier.

Mr. Loo, when are you gonna complete the miniart diorama structure? Im quite excited to see how it finished after painting and all. Can you share us tips about painting the diorama? Thanks. :)

Farizforce,
Concentrating on finishing kits for the soviet group build at the moment and will jump back to this after mid June.
Patience bro.....

fariz, perhaps this article can help... :)
miniart bldgs guide

Yes, yes...part by part n bit by bit...
Awaiting next move.
Badly needed yr brilliant technic, Mr.Loo !

If my fellow co-moderator permits, Farizforce painting Miniart's excellent dios are pretty much the same as painting model kits. What usually brings out any groundwork or buildings, in this case a brick one is the highlights and shadows.

For example, let's say you've given a cobblestone street a basecoat. Just like in painting a model kit, several washes is needed to bring out the details. I prefer using an oil wash especially if the base is done in acrylics. The basecoated cobblestone street will usually need more than one wash as washes by nature are very diluted paint. Once dry, a highlight with a flat, stiff brush and using undiluted paint is used. Usually each highlight is followed by a progressively lighter and lighter shade of the same color. Let's say I use grayish white for my first highlight, subsequent highlights will have more and more white added sometimes until its pure white.

After highlights you will have to go back and probably do another wash just to tie in the washes with the highlights. You may also need to go and do a few more highlights depending on the overall look and back and forth between highlights and washes until your are satisfied with the final outcome. Its the same approach for either groundwork or buildings.
Perhaps the pics here might help explain what I mentioned better.
Groundwork painting

Hope that helps Fariz and now back to your regular program.

Thanks for the info, bro. I've already ordered mine miniart. :)

Btw, if you painting the dios in acrylic, the washes u use is oil. If we use oil paints? What's the best paints and still economic to buy and can be easily obtained? be it acrylic or oil paints. B)

Hi Farizforce,

There's no best paints to use when coming to paint groundwork or buildings. Its preference although if you use oils it tends to be cheaper than using acrylics especially if you compare cheap oil paints vs the generally more expensive acrylics (i.e. Tamiya).

I use a lot of Windsor & Newton which can be slightly pricey but since mine were manufactured under licence in China, they were pretty cheap. The tricky bit about using oils is that to make sure the turpentine used as a diluent doesn't eat up your plastic building. You can either prime your say, for example Miniart building in acrylic and then use oils to finish off. To save some money use the Can aerosol paints for cars BUT Make Sure you Test it on some scrap plastic to make sure the diluent or aerosol from the can doesn't attack the plastic. Some brands are more safer than others. You can also check with the Car guys in the Car forum on some of the plastic-friendly brands but always test first. At around RM 5-8 per can you can prime a lot of building area cheaply.

You can avoid painting groundwork to some extent if you use natural soil. It can be quite expensive to paint say a huge base. But buildings you have no choice but to paint them. Look around for cheap acrylics used for art if you intend to use only acrylics.

Btw turpentine is not good on polystrene foam if you plan to use that as a base.

Thank you Beachbum. That's very helpful info. Ive been trying to find the can aerosol prime for cars but, couldn't find it in any hardware shops. You know where i can get one? Anyway, Mr Loo, wat glue do you use for the miniart?

farizforce,
the normal cement will do. But to quicken things up you can contact any acrylic supplier for their "cement"