1:35 Německé zásobovací bomby

Supply by air, when the roads were not enough

Encircled German units received cartridges, dressings and food in cylindrical airdrop containers that transport aircraft dropped on parachutes. The sheet metal body had a covered nose, straps and colored markings by which it could be told on the ground what was inside: ammunition, medicine or food. Around the places of impact typical scenes arose, with soldiers cutting the parachute away and rolling the cylinder into cover. It is precisely this moment that is a rewarding subject for a diorama.

The package is made up of ten resin parts, a photo-etched fret and decals. The photo-etched parts carry the fittings and the clips, and the decals then the colored stripes and lettering mentioned.

Repairing an air bubble in a casting

Cylindrical bodies are the hardest shape for resin, because air clings to the highest point of the mold. When a pit appears on the surface, first widen it with the tip of a scalpel into an open crater, otherwise a cavity will stay under the putty. Fill the crater with cyanoacrylate glue thickened with baking soda; the mixture sets within seconds and sands as hard as the surrounding material. Sand around the circumference, not across it, so that the cylinder stays round; check the work with a thin coat of gray filler, which will show the pit unmistakably.

Apply a decal only onto gloss varnish; on a flat surface a white haze appears under the film.

Do not set the cylinders out parallel. Leave one lying on its side, another half buried, and scatter a rolled-up parachute of thin paper or cloth soaked in thinned glue around them.