1:35 FRUIT CART

Fruit Cart — a 1:35 diorama accessory from MiniArt

This is not a model of a vehicle or a kit of a piece of equipment but an injection-molded plastic set of accessories for a scene: a hand-pushed sales cart with fruit in 1:35 scale. The set is assembled and painted just like an ordinary kit and serves to give a diorama a civilian dimension — something that looks lived-in and gives figures a reason to be standing there.

What it is suited to

A street cart is a rewarding accessory, because it can be placed into a very wide range of subjects and periods. In a diorama it fulfills three tasks at once: it fills an otherwise empty foreground, it creates a natural target for the eye, and it provides a scale reference — from an ordinary object a viewer immediately judges the size of everything else. It also works away from a scene with equipment, on its own as a small vignette.

Building and painting tips

Leave the small parts on the sprue as long as possible and cut them off only just before gluing, as they are easily lost. It pays to paint the wooden parts of the cart separately from the rest and to give them texture — first a base brown tone, then a dry brush in a lighter shade along the grain, and finally a dark wash into the joints. Do the fruit richly and with a light gloss varnish on the fruit alone; the contrast against the matte wood is what gives the scene life. Finish the wheels and the underside of the cart with dust pigments, so that the cart does not sit on the base as if freshly unpacked.

Who the set is for

• For builders of dioramas and vignettes in 1:35 scale
• For modelers who want to bring a civilian element into a military scene
• For practicing the painting of wood and small organic shapes
• As an accessory to figures in the same scale

The set is supplied unassembled and unpainted. Glue, paints and figures are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise.