Play With Their Minds

If you visit museums, exhibitions, and toxic waste disposal sites you can have a lot of fun by playing with the minds of the people who run the places. The organisers, curators, and assistants are scholarly, dedicated individuals who deserve everything that happens to them. Try one of the following:

a. Locate a German WW2 army tank. It can be a full-sized example – preserved or restored – or it can be a scale model. You’ll see a lot of these little ones at scale model exhibitions as people really do like them. Some modellers concentrate their entire attention on them.

Now, find one with the little score marks on the outside that look like they’ve been done with a wide-tooth comb. This is the zimmerit paste applied to prevent magnetic mines from sticking to the armour. Note that the Germans were the only side to use magnetic mines extensively so they were guarding against a threat that wasn’t there. Or against an own-goal…

In any case you’ll see the distinctive pattern on the paste. What you need to do is have a pocket full of fake magnetic mines with double-sided adhesive tape stuck on them. When no-one is looking, plaster a few onto the zimmerit.

They won’t blow up, but keep an eye on the display attendant.

b. Everyone knows that you’re not allowed to put swastikas on airplane tails in European museums due to the postwar denazification laws. But no-one said anything about RAF tail flashes. You can get 100 of the things printed on self-adhesive vinyl for a surprisingly small cost.

If you cannot cause havoc with a pocket full of these and an idle afternoon, you should not be reading this column.

c. With a small spray can of silver you can modify the markings on the aircraft in the museum to match what happened on your own model when the decals didn’t stick well. Then you can take a picture of the result and include it in the documentation for your next WASMEX entry. No disputing the photographic facts, eh?

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