1:35 Kuchyňský nábytek

Fittings that turn a ruin into a former home

A breached wall on its own conveys only that something struck the house. It is the fittings inside that say somebody lived here until yesterday: a dresser with its doors open, a table with an overturned chair, a shelf everything has fallen off. This contrast between ordinary household furnishings and the war outside is one of the strongest devices a diorama builder has at his disposal, and it works more reliably than any amount of hardware.

The package contains seventeen parts in cast resin, that is, furniture in a quantity that will fill a whole room, not just one corner of it. The castings call for the usual preparation, that is, removing the pour residue and degreasing the surface, because without that the paint takes poorly to smooth resin.

What to think about when building an interior

• set the furniture against the outside walls; the middle of a room stayed clear
• shift or overturn some of the pieces; a tidy interior looks unconvincing
• allow for where the viewer will actually be able to see
• choose the height of the floor before you start gluing the furniture down

At this scale, wood is created not by drawing grain but by the difference in shade between individual surfaces and a dark wash into the joints. Metal and enameled pieces, by contrast, will take sharp bright highlights. The dimensions are designed for 1:35 scale. Settle the lighting before the fitting out, because with an interior it is the direction the light falls from the window that counts, and once the walls are glued up that intention can no longer be corrected.