miniart village house with fountain diorama

[phalinmegob]

started a new mini-art diorama yesterday and have been posting it on Facebook, so apologies to anyone who is watching it on there. the idea is that a lot of people have not seen or attempted one so i thought i would show a simple vac form kit in progress.

so this is the kit that i will be building, a fairly simple kit once you get the basics right.

View attachment 73697


so open the box and this is what you are greeted with.View attachment 73698


now there are a few ways to tackle this, the most accepted method is to take a pen and draw around the bases of each piece on the sheet, the idea being that once you have cut the individual sections out of the sheet, you then have a pen mark to sand up to. i have used this method a few times but results in a lot of sanding. the method i use is to cut around the parts leaving a chunk of the base sheet all around the parts base. then take a fine razor saw and resting it flat against the lip saw through the part very gently. this results in a lot less sanding to get down to the level required.the only fly n the ointment here is the internal window and door sections which have to be cut out with a knife in light gentle cuts. score through a few times and you will be able to push the part out with little effort..unfortunatly i forgot to take a picture of this step.

this is what you will end up with

View attachment 73699


now take an a4 sheet of wet and dry and superglue it down to a piece of mdf or a tile, a few drops of water and lay your freshly cut parts on and get sanding. remembering to move your finger position around a few times so that your not sanding one corner more heavily than another as this plastic is very flexible at the moment.

more tomorrow

 

[Bunkerbarge]

This will be interesting. I have to admit to never tackling a vac formed kit so I will enjoy seeing how you deal with this. I've always thought of the idea as very messy and inconsistent in how you end up with the mating face and therefore the final dimensions of the item. Something like this though has to be a lot more forgiving and you can do what you want with it. Many thanks for sharing, I'm looking forward to this.

I have to ask though is this a diorama or is it a building on a base?!!!

 

[eddiesolo]

Nice descriptions Andrew, great start to this.

Si

 

[CDW]

Looks like this will be worth watching come together.

Glad you decided to post it here,I suppose there's more than me on here who do not entertain social media sites and therefore would have missed out

 

[eddiesolo]

Looks like this will be worth watching come together.Glad you decided to post it here,I suppose there's more than me on here who do not entertain social media sites and therefore would have missed out

Agree Colin, I don't use Fartback, twaddle and the like, just a couple of forums and that's enough socialising for me. Main reason is I can just about manage this forum. never mind all the other stuff...hence I leave alone :D

Si

 

[noble]

like it so far andy.

scott

 

[Polux]

Nice start Andrew.

Keep the pics coming!

Polux

 

[Richi72]

Nice one Andy,

very informative so keep it coming.

Cheers Richi

 

[Andy2035]

Hi Andrew,

I am with everyone else, many thanks for sharing this on here with us, I never knew that these kits came looking like this with so much cutting out...

Andy...

 

[PaulTRose]

one to watch for me.............got one of these miniart dios to do next year, keep putting it off cos i dont know where to start lol

 

[phalinmegob]

now you have two mating pieces for each section of building, it is time to glue them together. you will have plenty of bits of plastic sheet left over and cut these into small tabs that can be glued to the inside flat edges such as around door openings and windows as well as any flat bottoms and side.this will be invaluable in joining the bits parts together and personally dont how it is possible without them,leave the tabs to dry for a while and then tape the sides together, and allow liquid cement to run around all the joins using capillary action as it easier than using normal tube glue because the plastic is so thin.View attachment 73789


View attachment 73790


miniart instruction show that you should glue all the inside building faces together with the mitred corner joints and the join the outside faces of the building to these, i have tried this method and found it very difficult to line the parts,instead as in the photo, it is much easier to build each wall section at a time and then join the walls at the corners.

the corner edges on external corners are the most difficult to cut as you have to be very careful not to cut into the face of the building ,there is no easy way to describe how this is done rather than with very delicate sawing with a razor saw and fine sanding.. you want to end up with thisView attachment 73791


make sure when gluing the corners to line up the inside of the corner up accurately and glue the flat mitred parts together first and leave to set. the outside faces are thin enough that you can fiddle with them a bit so as they line up with a bit of tamiya tape and then run some more liquid cement down the joint and leave it to set.

View attachment 73792


when it has all set, a little rub down and you have a decent corner. a touch of filler in the tops and bottoms and your nearly done with the basic construction.

View attachment 73793


lots of these mini art kits come with roof sections and some have floor sections, this kit does not have any so i cant show you guys these parts but all the basic steps are the same. the most important steps to these vac form kits are the cutting and sanding to the correct level.

next steps are a bit of paint, don't need to explain that to you guys but will keep up with the build log any way.please remember that i am not saying this is how they should be built but these methods work for me, be they right or wrong and if anyone has any other tips please feel free to chime in.

 

[aaron]

I have one of these kits and this is really helpful, thanks.

 

[monica]

hi ,will be watching this one as well, as my min-art was a nightmare,

so will be very interested in how you go about this, and thank you for shearing, with us,

i have noticed one thing right off how you put the small bits off plastic, i used strips, of styrene,

cut too the death off the walls,

keep up the good ,

 

[phalinmegob]

Totally forgot about this thread, sorry guys , a couple of pics in the dioramas completed section