Introduction

Diorama materials need not be overly-complex; they just need to match in small scale the material being represented.

A relative newcomer to the diorama model market, Juweela of Germany did a nice job representing 1/35th scale light red clay bricks with their “Ziegel `Reichsformat (RF)’ Bricks, Art. 23018.” Juweela packaged this brick set well with the small red bricks contained in a clear plastic sealable bag nestled inside a clear plastic tray housed inside a plastic box.

Review

The brick’s scale matches well with a 1/35th scale Custom Dioramics resin brick wall I have, and the color is pinkish-red and realistic enough so that the modeler doesn’t have to paint each and every brick. The label says that the bag contains 500 pieces and I’ll take Juweela’s word for it as I didn’t count each and every brick. 500 bricks will not build a four-wall 1/35th scale house, but the 500 bricks should be enough to build a small wall or act as rubble. In the bag, 500 bricks equal roughly 6cm long by 4cm tall by 2.5cm wide.

The bricks appear uniform with sharp corners and edges and perfectly rectangular shapes. They resemble hardened chalk and do leave minute dust marks if scratched or moved around too much, and I am confident they could be pitted, chipped, scratched or broken easily if that’s what the modeler intends to represent with each brick. One brick is roughly ¾ cm long by ½ cm wide.

Conclusion

I could find no faults with my bag of 1/35th scale Juweela bricks. The bricks are strong and solid enough to prevent crumbling and cracking from rubbing and hitting against each other. Furthermore, my bag had no powdery brick dust or brick crumb particles at the bottom, reminiscent of the bricks being too brittle, as my bag had no signs of the bricks falling apart. My bag did have a little scuffing from the bricks, meaning that the bricks are somewhat soft and not hard resin or plastic, but the bag scuffing is very minuscule as each brick left very little traces after being rubbed against the bag.

Juweela has made a quality product with this kit and 500 bricks should satisfy the modeler for most small 1/35th scale diorama needs. Note that Juweela also makes other kinds of bricks (paving stones and bricks of different materials and colors), and bricks of different scales (1/48th and 1/72nd) as well.