1:35 Britské plechovky WWII

Cans and tins of British supply

Preserved food kept British units going in the desert and in Normandy, and the empty cans left behind stayed everywhere cooking or resting had gone on. It is precisely the litter around a post that separates a living scene from displayed hardware: a little heap of cans by a fire tells you somebody spent the night here.

The set offers nine pieces and decals with their printing, so the containers can be told apart from one another. They need not all stand side by side. Some belong in a crate, some crushed into the mud, and one open with its lid peeled back by the fire.

The castings are small enough that ordinary holding in the fingers stops being adequate. Sticking them with double-sided tape to a wooden skewer, working them and only then taking them off works well. The bottom tends to be the only surface with a mark from the mold; it is leveled with a couple of strokes over abrasive paper laid on glass and the part needs no more work than that.

An open can can be made from a closed one. Push the point of a drill into the center of the top surface and work the material out with a circular motion, but leave the wall standing. A disc cut from aluminum foil and bent upwards will suggest the lid. That single modified piece usually draws more attention than all the others together.

The printing on the sheet will lie down on a cylindrical wall only over a gloss base. Once dry, it is a good idea to go lightly over the cans with a dark emulsion, so that the color settles in the rim at the bottom and under the edge of the lid, and finally to bring them into the dustiness of their surroundings.