After my Sopwith Tripe, I decided to take a break from these demanding (for me!) WWI aircraft projects and try my hand at one of Minicraft's 1:35 ruined building kits. They're pretty simple, being of vacuform construction for the main parts with a couple of sprues of accessory pieces. I used a sharp awl to score around the parts and they snapped out easily.
I decided to add a drain pipe to hide the gap between the walls when they're assembled and I replaced the window and door frames as the supplied pieces were much too small.
So as not to get bogged down on this project, I used a piece of square plastic stock to hide the gap on the interior and I used plastic strip to make the remains of a second floor.
Painting was done with Tamiya acrylics with oil washes and filters. The grassy area is just a selection of spices raided from my wife. Nothing fancy at all. The roadside is supplied in the kit as a piece of printed paper so you could substitute something else printed on a computer.
The sand and gravel came from the curb outside my house and the broken planks are coffee stir sticks stained with a wash of oil paint. I used two linesman pliers to twist them which resulted in a convincing split wood effect.
The frame is a piece of interior household moulding that I mitred to length to fit the base. I sprayed it black to keep things simple. If I was to do it again, I'd dispense with the kit base entirely and make my own to fit an existing picture frame.
All in all, it was an enjoyable project and a good way to recharge the battery for my next WWI aviation project.
Cheers,
Chris
