1:72 German night hunters (WWII)

Fighting after dark

During the Second World War, night was the last space in which one could move without threat from the air. From 1944 the German army therefore shifted a considerable part of its movements, its supply and its reconnaissance into darkness and worked out its own training for it. Patrols set out with muffled equipment, without shiny buckles, with straps wrapped and with agreed signs instead of commands. At the very end of the war the first attempts at devices allowing a man to aim in the dark appeared, although in numbers that did not manage to affect the fighting. A scene with such figures lives on contrast: a small area of sharp light and deep shadow around it.

A coat of paint that rubs through

Dark shades have an unpleasant property on figures. Wear does not show on them as dirt but as a light scar, because the color of the plastic shows through from under the coat. The first to go are the edges of the helmet, the toes of the boots, the elbows and the barrel, that is the places a figure rests on with every grip.

A protective layer and how to apply it

The solution is a final varnish. A matte one unifies the surface and takes the plastic sheen off the colors, while a semi-gloss one adds somewhat higher durability. It is applied only after all the paints have dried completely, in two thin passes, and it is good to forget haste for a while: a heavy layer floods the relief of the equipment and makes a white veil in the hollows. The figures are then held by the base, not by the body.

Before the protective layer is applied, it is also good to check that no fingerprints have stayed on the surface. A greasy trace sealed under varnish makes a stain that cannot be removed in any way other than by taking the whole layer off and painting it again.