I've got a bunch of MiniArt kits and will be kit-bashing a lot of them. One thing I plan to do is use interior pieces to extend the exterior - when this is possible, such as with the too short railway Goods Shed.

I'm wondering if any of the commercially available brick sheets come close to matching their brick, if I wanted to scratch something but incorporate MiniArt components?

In other cases there is plaster over the brick in the interior so it won't work. Some of what I want to do is extend the sides on "ruined" buildings for more depth - such as the Gasthaus - which is damaged, but the front facade can still be used. This has stone sides, and I'd just use plastruct or other shaped styrene sheet to replace it.

I also bought 3 of the "ruined garage", and plan to build an extended non-ruined factory in a corner. I'll have to work on the ruined edge of each side to join them, and what makes it harder here is some of the exterior brick is raised, but it's all the same level on the inside, so it's more difficult trying to use those pieces. I'll also have to create a roof for the clerestory section, but that's easy enough. There will be railway access, so I'll enlarge the end opening (probably to the columns) and build new basswood-strip doors with working hinges. If I don't allow the engine inside (using an "idler flatcar"), the current height should be OK. I've decided that I can use the two extra endpieces for my enginehouse, but will need to add ~1" of stone foundation to get height clearance, even after opening up their end door.

Also - I'd be interested in any sites / build logs with good suggestions for working with their material? I found one where the builder said the vacuum-forming reminded him of the 70's ;-)

What's the best glue for their plastic?
I find a lot of the outside corners of pieces are crushed - best putty for rebuilding them?

Best way to join up the brick at outside corners to make it look continuous? Their site says to sand each side at less than 45 degrees, but I suspect it takes more than that to get a clean-looking corner. I'm considering using angle styrene to reinforce it - especially where I'm not using the interior pieces.

If you're not showing/detailing the interior, does anyone feel these pieces contribute a whole lot to the kit? Strengthening or whatever? I see the only downside of not using them as restricting how far in you can set the doors and windows, and not using them saves you a lot of sanding, and likely patching and then more sanding on the seam line.

Charles

U*nknown, but I doubt it. You could make a mould from Silicone rubber of a section and then reproduce it.



I believe they are strene, so any of the liquid cements woul dbe good. If the material is thin, you can use CA to avoid dissolving the styrene.


Use any of the epoxy putties and never any ofthe solvent based putties as they will dissolve the thin corners. You can also use epoxy glue as it also will not dissolve the thin styrene.




Yep, that will do it.

HTH

Paul

Thanks, Paul -

Their kits are very modular and I'm interested in a large sheet of brick to kitbash additions, using other windows. An outfit called Rusty Stumps (his original product - for railway logging scenes) has some that I'll try, and Miniature Planet in France has some surprisingly good looking (at least on their site) 2-D papers that you can download PDFs of. Kancali has brick streets, but not wall sheets. Plastruct produces a random stone wall in 1:35, but no brick.

I looked at the MiniArt campaingn from 5 years ago and got some info there.

Charles