1:72 DP-28 schránka na 3 zásobníky

Crates for the pans of a light machine gun

You recognize the Soviet light machine gun designed by Degtyarev at first glance by the flat pan lying horizontally on the receiver. The pan holds forty-seven rounds, but it is bulky and fragile, so spare ones were not carried loose. The crew moved them in sheet metal crates in threes, and it is exactly those that appear in photographs on the fenders of tanks, in the beds of trucks and dropped by firing positions.

The list of contents gives eight crates and twenty-four pans, that is the full number for each of them. That provides enough material for a whole scene: close some of the crates, open others and leave the pans in them visible, and set the rest out around the crew. A small thing of this kind does more for a scene than many a large accessory, because it tells the viewer that somebody is manning the firing position.

The parts are small, so reckon with tweezers and a sharp scalpel when separating them from the sprue. Before painting it suits to degrease the surface and go over it with a base coat. It fits infantry scenes from the nineteen-thirties to the end of the war and postwar equipment that continued to use the weapon.

The painting itself is short work with a large effect. The sheet metal of the crates usually carried the same shade as the rest of a unit's gear, whereas a pan had a darker surface with a metallic sheen around its rim, where it rubbed against its case. A thin wash into the pressings, a hint of wear on the edge of the lid and the same dust that lies in the surrounding terrain can turn eight small castings into a convincing part of a scene.

The arrangement is then worth thinking about. A crate lying askew beside the machine gun tells a different story from three lined up on a fender, and it is from details like these that the impression of a scene happening right now is built.