1:35 U.S. jídelní set M1941

A mess tin that says more than another weapon

Food is a measure of normality in wartime. The moment a crew sits down on a fender with their mess kit in hand is one of the strongest subjects in figure modeling precisely because nothing in it is exploding. American units carried mess equipment as an ordinary part of personal kit, and during a longer stay in one place a small operation quickly grew up around it: washing, setting things down, borrowing, drying on a line between trees.

What the package offers

Twenty-five cast parts are completed by a photo-etched sheet, which with small cookware is fundamental. Handles, grips and thin rims come out in metal as finely as they never could in a casting, and the finished piece then stands up to close inspection and to a photograph. The M1941 designation in the name matches the way the manufacturer named the set.

A procedure that has proved itself

• Rid the castings of grease in a lukewarm bath before painting.
• Separate the photo-etched parts on a hard surface with a sharp knife, not with scissors.
• Build up the metal sheen by polishing with graphite only after flattening the finish.
• Suggest food residue and grease with a thin glaze in oil paint.

Where a detail like this works

Best of all in a scene of rest: equipment laid out on a sheet, two pieces set down on a step, one forgotten in the grass. Cookware is also a rewarding way to give a figure an activity instead of a pose, and the scene thereby gains time, not just space. Two or three vessels placed with deliberation go further than a whole shelf of neatly arranged equipment.