1:35 Wing nuts, keys and padlock

Wing nuts, keys and a padlock in 1:35 scale

Wing nuts, keys and a padlock are exactly the kind of small item that an injection mold manages only as an outline. The Italian brand Royal Model offers them separately, so you place them where you really want to have them: on tool clamps, on the lids of boxes or loose in a scene.

Where such fittings appeared on equipment

The clamps of shovels, picks, crowbars and fire extinguishers on the vehicles of the Second World War were tightened with wing nuts, and crews had to loosen them with bare hands even in frost. Padlocks hung on lockers with personal belongings, on crates of ammunition and on the gates of depots. Keys then belong to every field workshop or supply post: laid out on a workbench or hung on a nail they give a tableau a legible story and a scale.

Working with parts this small

It pays to work over a surface with a raised edge, so that a part does not disappear into the carpet. Separate them with a new blade, not with pliers, and transfer them with a moistened toothpick. A drop of cyanoacrylate glue applied with a needle is enough to attach them. The painting goes faster while the pieces are still on the carrier: a primer, a dark wash into the hollows and finally a metallic shade wiped along the edges with a dry brush.

Who the accessory suits

• Builders of dioramas who want to give a scene legible details
• Modelers of 1:35 equipment for whom the shape of production clamps is not enough
• For field workshops, depots and supply tableaux
• As a stock of small items for the spare parts box

It is a separate accessory, not a kit of a vehicle. Paints and glue are not supplied with it.