A feature of many European cities since the birth of cheap, mass printing - and the subsequent development of advertising - has been the advertising kiosk. Perched on a convenient pavement or sidewalk, these cast iron tubes provide a perch for pigeons and a place for people to stick posters, handbills and proclamations.
Reality in Scale have crafted a two-piece kiosk, consisting of a hollow resin tube with a decorative base, and a separate decorative top. The base features two nicely decorated cast iron "seams" which I guess hid the real weld seams of the tube. The top is decorative, but not too gaudy, so it will look good in a diorama but won't overpower it.
There was no flash or bubbles to be seen on my example, and so I just got stuck in and gave both parts of the kiosk an undercoat of dark Tamiya acrylics followed by a top coat of a Lifecolor green that was to hand on the workbench. I gave the decorated parts an oil wash, followed by a light drybrush with Humbrol linen. I finished off with a few spots of simulated pigeon poo, and a few streaks of rust here and there using some Mig pigments.
The kiosk comes with a set of WW2 era posters and proclamations for France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. These are all very well printed for their size, and you have a good mixture of pure advertising, WW2 propaganda, and handbills / official proclamations.
The photos speak for themselves I hope. I've added a few figures for scale and in the final two have placed the completed kiosk on a RiS cobblestone road base, using the Dutch posters on one side and on the other some German posters.
I really like this set, and I'll be using it free-standing in many dioramas in the future for sure. Reality in Scale have a range of posters on its website, so if you haven't got what you need in the kiosk set, you have plenty of alternatives.
Highly recommended.
