Custom Dioramics 1/35 European Intersection Pallet-Shaped Base
#2
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 When
this interesting resin base arrived in this month's releases from VLS
(reviewed elsewhere in this issue), I was fascinated by the detail in
such a simple kit. Cast in resin, this set is actually three parts, the
base, and the two wall ruins that create the building corner. I decided
to do a quick-build on this one to try this resin base out.
I wet-sanded the bottom of the base and the building corners to clean
up any uneven edges left over from the molding process. I used cyano to
assemble the building corner and set it aside to dry. When I dry-fit the
corner onto the notch in the base, I discovered that it would not fit
right as the basement stone frame was hitting the sidewalk. I marked a
line where the frame meets the sidewalk, then filed away the frame below
the sidewalk line to get a good fit.
Once I was satisfied with the fit, I painted the base and the building
with Tamiya Buff as the base color as it comes close to concrete in color.
When this was dry, I painted the cobblestones in the street Tamiya Hull
Red. The wood covering the opening of the basement was painted Tamiya
Brown, and the bricks were dry-brushed Tamiya Desert Yellow to keep the
yellow from drawing into the Buff color between the bricks.
Once
all of this was dry, everything was given a heavy wash of diluted black
oil color. This 'blended' the colors, making the Buff color look like
concrete and bringing out the details cast into the base and building.
When the wash was dry, I buffed off the excess black with an old t-shirt
and glued the building corner onto the base. I completed the process by
painting the edge of the base flat black and applying three self-adhesive
rubber feet (available at Radio Shack) to the underside to make it easier
to pick up the base off of the shelf.
The final result was very nice. This pallet-shaped base is sized perfectly
to show off a smaller vehicle such as a Jeep or Kubelwagen and still put
a few figures and details around the vehicle to create a nice vignette.
I highly recommend this base, especially if this is your first display
base as you can't go wrong with this kit and the setting brings life and
context to your model. You can order this base from your local hobby shop
or directly from the VLS website.
My sincere thanks to VLS for
this review sample.
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