Rutted Road

Bennett's Palette (#DA003)

It's a simple, but unfortunate fact that in the IPMS/USA contest judging arena, if you want to give your model an edge over the other competitors, the act of putting it on a display base is a neat trick almost guaranteed to bring results. Typically, modelers use simple wooden plaques as display bases, which is usually enough to set their model apart from the others. But a surefire way to call special attention to your particular entry is to use a base that has a small amount of terrain added to it, and this new series from Bennett's Palette is ideal for just that.

This is not a diorama base, since there really is no room for anything on the base other than the vehicle being displayed, and perhaps a figure or two. There isn't room to set up the stage to tell a story, which is the definition of a good diorama. This particular base is appropriate for small to medium vehicles (for example, nothing larger than a Sherman tank). The main feature here is a pair of wheel or track ruts, separated from a small stone wall by a drainage ditch. Although there is no ground work on the far side of the wall, it is detailed on both sides (with exquisite stonework detail). A neat feature of this set is a sheet of guidelines and tips on how to paint, and add other terrain material to your base. The information on this sheet is sort of a primer to making diorama bases, and is especially valuable to those who are new to dioramas (like me). Bottom line is that this will look really cool when completed, and will definitely add an extra "umphf" to your model's display.

Thank you very much to Rick Bennett from Bennett's Palette for the review sample.