1:35 U.S. plechovka ny vazelínu - Vietnam

The decals are what make this set

Lubricant was a consumable in Vietnam. Damp and red dust destroyed breeches, pins and cable pulleys faster than combat did, and tins of grease therefore lay about everywhere something was being maintained: at a workshop, on an engine deck, in the shade under a truck bed.

From the point of view of choosing, what matters is what is in the package besides the three castings. It is the decals. And it is exactly they that decide whether it is worth taking the set or cutting a cylinder from profile stock instead. Anyone can manage a cylinder. Nobody without a press of their own can manage the printing on a tin, and without the printing the object stays an indeterminate little cylinder that says nothing to a viewer.

Try to imagine it in a finished scene: three vessels with a legible label at a mechanic's feet say at once what that figure is doing. Three gray cylinders beside him say nothing. That is the whole difference between an accessory and a filler.

• A maintenance post, a workshop corner, a spare parts store
• Small things on the engine deck or the fender of a vehicle
• Waste and used containers at the edge of a base

The period and the theater are set in the name, which narrows the use. The set does not suit the machines of the Second World War, because the graphics of the containers changed in the postwar years. The trade-off for that precision is that the printing comes ready made, which nobody can produce without a press of their own.

Settle a decal onto a cylindrical surface with a softener, or it will not pull down over the curve and the edges will stay visible.

A decal sheet is usually the reason for a more elaborate package, and here it comes with only three castings. That makes this item unusually complete for its size, provided you are building the right period.