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[/URL] Let me preface this by saying that I am a wargamer first and a modeller, well not at all. After painting miniatures for 35 year my skill is barely above mediocre, and the 3 foot rule is a religion here, not a guideline.
Anyway, I found the Miniart European Building (#72019) at a local hobby shop and bought it because it was a fairly unique structure and looked like an easy build for a wargamer. It was a little pricey.
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So, the good first: This model is in 5 colors, so if you're a lazy painter you can put get away with a quick mass paint job and have it come out OK. I painted the model on the sprues basically by slathering on a light grey over the bricks and then rubbing off most of it. The grey stuck in the cracks and gave some texture over the rest of the bricks. I did the same thing over the roof but in a dark red-brown. I left the doors, railing and gutters in the colors they came in.
Also the kit is made up of modular pieces about 2" square. This is great because you can customize it fairly easy. I took advantage of the modularity to leave the two floors and roof seperate and added a floor to the second floor, there's a ledge around the bottom so you can just cut a 5" square of plastic or cardboard and add some grooves where needed, it makes a sturdy piece and you can put troops inside on both floors (maybe I'll paint a guy in a white jacket with a SMG…). Sprues added to the corners align the whole building. There were a few extra pieces as well, including sidewalks. This is part of a whole series of buildings by Miniart using these modular pieces as a basis.
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The bad news is that the kit is made up of modular pieces. The simplest side of the building (a blank wall) was made up of ten seperate pieces. I ended up glueing three pieces together, putting them on a flat surface and weighting them down, but even then there're gaps between the pieces. The corners stick out from the rest of the walls and getting them square with the center part proved difficult, though it might have been easier if I had made a spacer out of balsa to support the center sections when the end pieces were setting up face down on the table. I didn't help by painting the modular sections before gluing them together, but a good modeller would have to fill the cracks and recut the mortar grooves to make it perfect.
Another (minor) negative, no base. I cut one out of scrap wood.
Overall I'm happy with this building. I don't plan on buying anymore because they seem a little pricey and I like unique structures on the table, but this one will give good service.
