Two buildings from MBZ’s large farmstead kit 16071 comprising farmhouse and 3 barns including one with an apiary.

MBZ building kits are German inspired architectural forms available in multi-scale kits including an extensive line-up in Z. Building and finishing a kit has unique challenges that are quickly overcome after constructing a kit or two. Included in this post are a few notes I hope are helpful for successful building.

MBZ kits are automatically age old buildings with history time-stamped into their design and fabrication. Giving a model building history through weathering and aging is easy with MBZ, each kit starts out with a baseline moment in time at least 50 years ago. Adding more use and age to the look of a building is up to the modeler: perfect kit buildings for Era I, II, and III.

Cardboard used in MBZ kits vary from other manufacturers, its natural color is gray/brown thus painting is required after the application of a solvent based primer.

Prepping the cardboard requires priming with MBZ Primer R72214 (pre-mixed) or R72211 (unmixed), I recommend the pre-mixed version. Priming is required due to future mold issues as suggested by manufacturer. Flattening parts after priming and before gluing is required: large parts including roof and sides warp heavily after priming, but rolling parts against the warp flattens them easily. Manufacturer suggests painting with pigments applied with sponge. MBZ pigments are water soluble, and they can be mixed together for custom colors. Consistency of paint should not be too wet or dry, it is applied with a wet sponge but avoid caking pigment. Air-brush masking tape should be used to isolate sections to be painted with sponge application. Dry-brush, air-brush and fine brushwork can be followed up later in construction for fine tuning. Pigment paints dry matte, and I recommend a light air-brushing of matte water based lacquer as a final protective coat.

The manufacturer suggests UHU ‘Hart’ glue which is fast setting but I find it messy to work with, I recommend Noch ‘Laser-cut’ glue which is fast setting and quick drying. Note: other fast setting white glues or wood glues should work well, but a fine applicator bottle available at craft stores should be considered. The few parts that are not always included in MBZ kits are ramps and steps which must be built by the modeler. No partition walls are designed in many of these kits thus requiring custom masking for interior lighting. I nice feature of these kits are stone-laid interior floors which can be exposed in a diorama through open doors with perhaps a wagon parked within the barn.

Note: barn buildings illustrated in this post used dry brush technique to highlight and paint stone foundations whereas sponge application of paint was used for uneven authentic weathering of paint. For glazed terracotta tile roofs I apply a light application of Renaissance Wax (micro crystalline acid free wax) which gives a gloss surface without being too glossy or too thick looking plus it is a non-yellowing museum quality wax available at library supply houses and fine art supply shops.

Three painting kits offered by MBZ will get you started, I recommend ‘Pigment Starter Set’ (R72217), it includes numerous pigments, primer (unmixed), and sponge for $55.49, it was more than enough for painting 13 kits. The kit includes a very high quality sponge, but other sponge shapes and sizes are available at art supply shops, they fall within the category of pastel sponges which are tight cellulose sponges which can be used wet or dry, pastel artists use this type of sponge dry only which readily allows mixing of charcoals and pastels.

Note: MBZ kit builds are best treated with a loose approach without worry of precise paint application: using a dirty sponge gives much more depth of color than a clean one between coats of paint.

Siding: Reynauld’s in Illinois is the exclusive USA dealer of MBZ, they have in store examples of finished kits as well as paint and accessories.