1:35 Decimálka

A scale at which the scene stops of its own accord

A platform scale is a lever weighing device in which the counterweight on the beam balances a tenth of the weight of the load. It stood everywhere goods were transferred: in a warehouse, at a buying station, on a railroad platform, in a mill. Into a diorama it brings exactly what is otherwise hard to express, namely action. A figure bent over the beam of the scale tells a story all by itself. The package holds 26 resin parts and a photo-etched fret.

Working with photo-etched parts, piece by piece

A photo-etched fret is thin brass sheet on which the parts are held by only a few tabs. Never break them out with your fingers, the part will bend and straightening it will be harder than cutting it out. Lay the fret on a piece of glass or a smooth tile and cut the tab through with perpendicular pressure from a new blade. Make the bends in the marked groove between the two jaws of a bending tool, or at least between two razor blades; the bend then comes out sharp and on the axis. Hold the small parts with a moistened toothpick, tweezers will catapult them away.

Gluing and the primer

You join metal to resin with cyanoacrylate glue applied a drop at a time off a piece of wire, never straight from the bottle. The thicker gel version gives you time to align things. Before painting, wipe the brass with alcohol and spray on a thin primer intended for metal, otherwise the paint will not hold on the smooth sheet and will rub off while being handled.

Coloring according to use

The cast iron frame tends to be dark, soaked with oil, the platform worn light and the beams polished to a sheen by hands. It is precisely the difference between the greasy dirt below and the smoothed metal above that turns the model into a machine in use.