Tin containing RAAF Eagle Perspex badge making equipment: Sergeant William Bruce Minchin, 461 Squadron RAAF

Green metal tin containing elements for the manufacture of RAAF Perspex sweetheart brooches. The tin contains seven pieces of roughly cut square and rectangular Perspex; 20 oval pieces of Perspex with the RAAF eagle and crown badge impressed in the centre (16 with the original thickness of Perspex, four having been ground down to about 1/2 thickness); two oval pieces of Perspex with the RAAF eagle and crown badge impressed into the reverse, in brass backing pieces, one oval piece of Perspex with the RAAF eagle and crown badge impressed in the reverse, that has been sanded down to a polished domed finish; one oval piece of Perspex with the RAAF eagle and crown badge impressed in the reverse, that has been sanded down to a polished domed finish, the badge image reverse painted in gold and red paint and placed (but not permanently fixed) in an oval brass backing piece; seven unused hand made brass backing pieces; eight unused brooch pins, made from safety pins; one metal form for constructing the brass backing plates (including a hole in the back to push the piece out when completed); one metal 'impressing tool' with the oxidised brass RAAF eagle and crown badge used to impress in the Perspex; three other metal components.

Trench art Perspex brooch making kit belonging to Sergeant William Minchin who served as an armourer with the RAAF in England during the Second World War.

Minchin used these pieces of equipment, along with other tools he had access to as an armourer to potentially create quantities of trench art he could sell, although how many brooches he did make using this kit and whether he sold them is unknown.

This kit shows the various stages of Perpex brooch making. Starting with roughly cut pieces of Perspex from damaged aircraft windscreens, Minchin cut them down to an oval that would fit his impressing tool. He would then impress a RAAF badge fitted into the tool into the shaped Perspex (having heated the badge, or the Perspex, or both). The Perspex would be thinned and the front be shaped and polished. Then the impression made by the badge was painted with gold and red paint from the back, with a background colour added (although none of the items in the kit are at this latter stage).

Minchin also made brass backing plates, hammered into a form that is part of the kit. The Perspex would be secured into the plate, with a brooch pin made from a safety pin soldered to the back.