1:35 Křížek INRI

A wayside sign that nobody put up for a war

Small crosses stood at crossroads, on field boundaries and at the entrances to villages long before the first column came through. In a scene they therefore fill a particular role: they remind the viewer that the landscape had a life of its own and that the war merely entered it. One such sign in the background turns a scene from a battlefield into an occupied place.

Two parts, no more

The set is unassuming: two resin castings. A smaller number of parts does not mean easier work, though. The arms of a cross are among the thinnest shapes that can be cast, and when the pour residue is broken off, an arm snaps before the block does. The cut is therefore made with a fine-toothed saw, holding the part by its more substantial section, not by an arm.

Size in reduction

A cross two and a half meters tall in reality measures about seventy-one millimeters in 1:35, which for a small accessory is a surprisingly tall piece. An inscription plate twenty centimeters wide becomes a part just under six millimeters across, and yet even in reduction the outline of the lettering tends to be legible on it.

Painting and setting it in

Metal blackens, wood grays, stone greens over with moss - so first decide what the sign is meant to be made of, and only then reach for the paint. The bottom is sunk into the terrain, not glued to the surface: the footing has to disappear into grass or soil, otherwise the cross looks as though it is merely standing on a board. Tilting it a few degrees off vertical is an advantage, because no sign of this kind stayed perfectly upright after decades.