1:35 Hračky II

The small thing that gives a scene a human side

Toys scattered in a yard or in a room tell more about the occupants of a house than all the furniture does. In a combat scene they also work as a sharp contrast, because the viewer instantly works out who lived in the street before the troops came through.

Why decals go with the castings

Twenty-three resin parts are completed by a decal sheet. With toys this makes more sense than with anything else, because their character is made up of a brightly printed surface, and in one to thirty-five scale nobody can paint that with a brush. A decal can handle a design that measures a few centimeters in reality.

A procedure that works

• First varnish the whole part to a gloss; on a flat surface the decal will silver
• Set the decal down on a drop of water and press it with a soft brush; on a small area it folds easily
• Apply the softener only once it is dry; the thin film then follows even a curved surface
• Finally unify the whole with a matte varnish; otherwise the toy looks like glass
• Remove any remaining pour residue under a magnifier; the parts are among the smallest in the range

Handling the smallest castings

Working with pieces a few millimeters across has its rules. It pays to work over a light surface with a raised edge, to hold the part in tweezers with rounded tips and to cut it away with the blade guided away from you. A lost piece is searched for in vain in a carpet, and a replacement cannot be bought.

Part of the make-up of the set is the sequence number in its name, which follows on from an earlier set with the same focus. The two can be combined, because the scale and the way they are produced are the same.