Miniart houses

[Alan 45]

im building a little dio of a street and I'm having problems with the fit of the house , it's not lining up properly when I dry fit it , so far as I can tell all the seems are level and flat but it seems but it won't match up so could anyone offer any tips that might help ?


Any help is appreciated

 

[eddiesolo]

Got any pics?


One thing you could so add a strengthener to the twp halves, glue and clamp into place, then add some pva and dust into any gaps.

 

[tommy1drop]

Hi Alan I've built a few of these, the only thing I can suggest is to make yourself a few tabs from the cut off scrap plastic left over once you have cut out the building.


When you line up the two haves, use the tabs and glue these onto one half of the building this reinforces the two halves, and makes it easier when gluing the two halves together.


Miniart also have information on their own web site, hope this helps.

 

[Alan 45]

Thanks chaps I'll give that ago , why they don't do injection moulding for these is beyond me , probably cheeper


Thanks again

 

[tr1ckey66]

Shim the insides of the plastic and use this to attach the other side. Once you've roughly got them together you can fill the gaps with superglue or epoxy.


Hope this helps


P

 

[John Rixon]

Ive got one of these kits - I say kits, IMHO they fall slightly short of kits as so much has to be done by the builder to make up for a list of shortfalls! Personally I felt I'd been robbed when it arrived, but every now and then, when I can be a**ed, I cut another piece out and spend an hour or so making it so it might, just might join up without a ton of filler. £20 for a box of okayish quality vacuum forms? Do me a favour! The tab idea is the only way, but even that has its issues, as the edges of most of the pieces is not 99 degrees to the surface. Grrrrrrrr.

 

[Alan 45]

Thanks for the advice guys , I'm going to try the tab way and if that is a pain I'm just going to fit the front sections together and block it off with some plasticard at the back to tidy it up

 

[tr1ckey66]

Hi Alan


That's the way to go. I was mixing my terminology there I actually meant tabs when I said shims!


They do need a bit of fettling but once you've got the structure cracked they do turn into some fabulous buildings.


Cheers


P

 

[john i am]

View attachment 108754

Try this ! Noooo only kidding never done one Alan as I have always thought them to be overpriced but if I get get one for £10 then I'd be interested.Seems like a few people have had the same problems but sounds like you have a good remedy so good luck and look forward to seeing it when completed cheers John

 

[Alan 45]

I got this one from a show for a tenner last year John and it does look good made up its just all the faffing around you have to do


The hammer is an option if it won't play nicely :D

 

[phalinmegob]

i have done loads of these miniart kits and you do have to use the tabs glued the inside faces to line up easier, another thing i do is that i have a sheet of wet and dry paper glued flat to a piece of mdf. when you cut the vacforms out of the sheet, you need to remove the thickness of the bottom sheet from the edges of the mould, its quite hard to explain but imagine cutting the parts from the sides rather that cutting through the bottom to remove them. a hard part to get right is the corners.

 

[dubster72]

I've got one of these, the Hungarian Country House & I can't be bothered to go through all the hassle you're dealing with Alan!

 

[Paul Davies]

Mini art do some amazing model kits but are seriously let down by their buildings

 

[Ian M]

Cut the building parts out into the part and not cut to the plastic waste. This will save a great deal of sanding.


I don't build many of them but think that they are great.


The vacuum formed walls are due to the size of the parts. To have those as injection moulded parts the price would be x4.

 

[Alan 45]

i have done loads of these miniart kits and you do have to use the tabs glued the inside faces to line up easier, another thing i do is that i have a sheet of wet and dry paper glued flat to a piece of mdf. when you cut the vacforms out of the sheet, you need to remove the thickness of the bottom sheet from the edges of the mould, its quite hard to explain but imagine cutting the parts from the sides rather that cutting through the bottom to remove them. a hard part to get right is the corners.

I've got it all level Andrew it's just not matching up it's pretty flimsy so due to how thin it is and as you and others have said the tabs must be used


Thanks for your input I appreciate it

 

[phalinmegob]

you cannot say that they are let down by their buildings,there is nothing wrong with their buildings, you just need to be prepared to take the time to get them right and as far as i am aware, they were famous for their building kits long before they started releasing "proper" model kits. you will get out of them as much as you are prepared to put into them, just as it is with all model kits.View attachment 108765

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[Alan 45]

Wow Andrew they do look very good


This is one of the walls as you can see it's pretty even View attachment 108773

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[phalinmegob]

looks fine, the edge with the mitre on it will not line up to its corresponding piece because the side edge of that will be removed, imagine the mitre following on the other side but its not actually there. i know what i mean but not finding it easy to type what i am thinking.

 

[phalinmegob]

another thing i have noticed is that the instructions tend to tell you to glue the inside faces together first forming your corners and then glue the fronts on. i have found it a lot easier to glue complete wall sections first and then get around to joining the corners together. trying to find a picture of a corner in progress.

 

[john i am]

Sounds like abit of a hassle to get these together but as the pictures show well worth the extra effort in the end.ill keep my eyes peeled for a cheap one on ebay.