1:35 Vybavení skladiště pohonných hmot, Německo - 2. sv. válka

The container everybody copied

The German standard twenty-liter jerrycan came about in the second half of the 1930s and was remarkably well thought out for its time. Three handles side by side made it possible to carry one container with two men or two containers with one, the hinged lever of the cap opened without tools, and the cross-shaped embossing on the sides let the sheet metal work when the contents froze. The Allies copied it from captured examples so faithfully that the shape held on in armies for a whole century.

A fuel store as a target

In the eastern campaign supplies were stored dispersed and often buried, because concentrated stacks of drums were impossible to miss from the air. Wartime photographs show containers set in two layers, covered with branches and a tarpaulin. Anyone who keeps to this principle on a model gains a scene that looks militarily believable, unlike a neat pyramid of drums in the middle of an open area.

Surface and aging

The gray or dark yellow coat on the containers wore mainly against truck beds and against hands. The embossing on the side holds dust in its edges, and the boundary between rust and paint is rarely sharp. The enclosed wire will be used for loops, cap chains and pump handles.

Advice on finishing

Apply the decal with its period markings to a smooth glossy surface and flatten off the surplus film once dry. Settle the dust from the bottom upwards, so that the containers look as though they had been standing there, not as though they had been put down a minute earlier. Lay the drums askew; a perfectly lined up row gives a model scene away at first glance.