1:35 Kufr

Luggage that tells of a departure

A travel suitcase has a special standing in a scene. While a crate or a drum speaks of supply, a suitcase always belongs to a particular person and suggests movement: moving in, flight, a return from the front or an evacuation. Set by the wall of a house, loaded on a cart or left on a railroad platform, it can give a scene a story that would otherwise require several figures. Older versions are recognized by metal-bound corners, leather straps around the body and buckle locks beside the central handle.

A small casting and its fragility

A suitcase in 1:35 scale measures barely two centimeters along its length and at that size the main drawback of cast material shows itself. The material is hard but not very tough, so if it falls onto a hard surface it does not bend, a piece chips off a corner instead. The most endangered places are precisely the metal-bound corners, where the wall is thinnest. It therefore pays to work over a soft surface and to keep finished castings in a dish until they are glued, rather than leaving them loose on the desk.

Fine texture under the paint

The surface of the suitcase carries a fine grain of leather or pressed board and at this size that is only a few hundredths of a millimeter deep. A thick coat of paint will fill it completely and the suitcase will become a smooth little brick. The paint is therefore thinned and laid on in several passes, with the shadow in the texture created only by a dark glaze applied at the end.

Use

Four pieces are enough for a little heap by an entrance and for a load split between two places in a scene.