1:35 Ledničky

When a scene can take more than one piece of furniture

The set is in the plural and that brings with it a temptation most scenes give in to: setting out all the pieces at once. An overcrowded scene stops having a main object and the eye slides over it without stopping on anything. With appliances this goes double, because they are large smooth masses that take attention away from each other. It is more sensible to use one piece at the focus of the scene and leave the rest for another diorama.

Twenty-nine cast parts, a photo-etched fret and decals. The decals are the key thing here: the maker's brand and the lettering on the doors are what turns a generic white cabinet into a particular period product. The photo-etched parts add the handles, the hinges and the grilles of the cooling unit.

Interior or street

A refrigerator belongs indoors, but it tends to be strongest outside. An appliance hauled out onto the sidewalk during a move, a clearance or looting is a scene in itself and needs no further narrative element for it. In an interior cutaway, by contrast, it serves as a yardstick, because its height is intimately familiar to the viewer.

Surface finish

Enameled sheet metal is not painted with flat paint. It needs a smooth semi-gloss or glossy surface, on which the scuffed edges and the rust in the corners only then stand out. Decals are applied to a glossy base and then gone over with matte varnish according to the age wanted. The set does not hold paints or varnishes.

Try seating the door slightly ajar. A gap the width of a hair gives the appliance depth and rids it of the impression of a solid white block.