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In-Box Review
135
Public Shower

by: Scott Lodder [ SLODDER ]

Introduction

Time to come clean!! Custom Dioramics gives you a chance with a Public Shower. Yes, kit CD 6101 is a Public Shower. Let it sink in and mill around the imagination as you read the review.
Mail Mans Ringing

The mailman will drop the typical blister pack that is 2.5”x4”x3.4”. Bob Letterman provides the artwork and does a great job with this. The picture is painted incredibly, lots of detail in washes and weathering.

In previous reviews I mentioned the amount of empty space in the blister packs. Well Custom Dioramics may have listened. This set has not one but two baggies in side the blister pack. One with the plumbing pieces and the second one had the first and the base. This made for a nice snug fit of all the parts. Nicely done.
Inside the blister pack you’ll find five pieces that will assemble to be your shower. You get a large base that is the shower floor. The other four pieces are the plumbing. There is a showerhead, curved pipe, riser base, and drain cap. The base is about 75mm square and 10mm deep (useable base portion – not including the resin block). The base plumbing is 38mm tall, the next piece is a smoothly arched pipe that raises the kit another 70mm. The last piece is a circular showerhead that is 8mm across. Don’t throw away the resin block from the showerhead --- the drain cap is molded on this block.
When you take the pieces out of the pack you’ll see that there is 3mm on the back of the base that you will need to sand off. This is going to be a chore, this seems like quite a lot or extra resin. From previous reviews this won’t be a hard as the resin is easy to work with, it’s just a lot.
The plumbing part is molded with a lot of the typical well-designed pour components. The pieces have pour blocks, extra air escape/resin over-pour ‘tubes’, and a bit of flash from a two part mold. All of these features are necessary for such a delicate kit. They appear to be well designed and should prove to be easy to remove and clean up.
The showerhead does have a bubble hold on the edge. This is an unfortunate drawback to resin. A piece that is this small is more prone to bubble damage because the bubble doesn’t have as much room to escape and the size can’t ‘hide’ the bubble.
Impression

What do you do with this kit? This is not your building detail kit or AFV add on that is makes purchasing a simple decision. You have to know what you’re planning to get this kit in a diorama. I did a round of Internet research on this subject and I honestly came up with very little. I think that the subject matter removes this from a wide range of common research methods. What I did find was that this kit could be used at beach scene next to a public beach or at a historic Roman bath. I envision a couple of things with this. You can easily put this in a public beach scene in Europe maybe on the Mediterranean. Somewhere where the beach extends up to a stone retaining wall. This kit can be placed on the top of the retaining wall near a set of access stairs. Another place idea is to enclose this with some type of privacy wall near a pool at a resort.
The kit itself is impressive. Ben Jakobsen does a great job sculpting this kit. The base is a stone tile outside edge with a double-layered water receptacle area. There is a very nice drain cover with the added drain cap. The base riser is quite detailed with nuts and bolts and cast iron texture. The showerhead is sculpted very nicely with great detail on all sides.
SUMMARY
Custom Dioramics does not dissapoint us with this product. If you have a location that can benefit from a shower, here is your AM kit. The detailng and sculpting are wonderful. The creativity is up to you.
  SCULPTING:90%
  SUBJECT FLEXIBILTY:70%
Percentage Rating
80%
  Scale: 1:35
  Mfg. ID: CD 6101
  Suggested Retail: $13.95
  PUBLISHED: Apr 15, 2005
  NATIONALITY: France
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 82.50%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 79.30%

About Scott Lodder (slodder)
FROM: NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES

I modeled when I was a teenager. College, family and work stopped me for a while. Then I picked it back up after about 12 years off. My main focus is dioramas. I like the complete artistic method of story telling. Dioramas involve so many aspects of modeling and I enjoy getting involved in the ...

Copyright ©2021 text by Scott Lodder [ SLODDER ]. All rights reserved.


   
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  • pipebase
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