1:35 Protitankové miny II

A minefield across a field track

Engineers kneeling in a ditch, an unpacked crate beside them and a row of flat plates set out in the soil — laying a mine belt is a scene that holds tension even without shooting. The set allows this whole moment to be built: some of the mines still in their transport packaging, some sunk into a rutted wheel track and one set aside so that it can be seen what it looks like from below.

An anti-tank mine differs from an anti-personnel one in that it needs great pressure to set it off, and that is why it is wide and low. On a diorama this can be put to use: a mine covered by a thin layer of dust gives its position away only by an outline, which shows up under raking light as a shallow circular shadow.

Contents of the package: 27 cast parts complemented with decals. This set follows on from the older, first part of the range, so together they can make up a more varied mixture of types of the kind usually found in a real field.

Sinking into the terrain: a mine is never glued onto a finished surface. First it is pressed into the still pliable material of the terrain, taken out, and only once it has cured is it set into the bed thus created. The edge is then filled with thin material and dusted with pigment, so that no visible gap is left between the mine and the ground.

In terms of color these pieces are rewarding in that exaggeration is allowed with them. The metal casing quickly caught surface corrosion, the transport packaging got scuffed and the markings washed off it. A dark filter into the hollows and a dry brush along the edges do the job in a few minutes and a small object thereby gains a volume that paint alone never gives.

• The flat low body matches a weapon set off by the pressure of a vehicle
• Suitable for engineer scenes, mined roads and material stores
• Figures, crates and terrain are not included in the package