miniart 1:35 Wooden Boxes & Crates

[James H]

1:35 Wooden Boxes & Crates
MiniArt
Catalogue # 35581

 

Boxes. Crates. We all need them. Whether it’s in moving house, packing up your ammunition before going on campaign, or simply for mail or consumer goods, the humble packing crate is the hero of the day. This has most certainly crossed the minds of the good folk at MiniArt, who now bring us this set of the same, designed for all of your carrying and product transportation needs.

This new set is packed into MiniArt’s familiar glossy, end-opening package, and has an artwork, strangely enough, of boxes and crates on the cover. Hang on…isn’t that a sack truck too? It certainly is, and this set does include one. We’ll look at that soon. MiniArt has been savvy enough to include boxes of different colours and with different stencilling too. You’ll note a quasi-Nazi stencil for Deutsche Post (minus swastika), and also a crate for the U.S. Mail. 

Flip the box over and you’ll see the same image but with the boxes and crates in different hues and guises. There’s some there with frightening-looking biohazard and radiation warning symbols, and we as the Toxic sign. These images also show the standard fragile label imagery and some First Aid/Red Cross cases. 

Underneath these images, which have the decal placement annotation clearly shown, is a guide to paint colours, although I imagine these are pretty fluid and non-binding. Colour codes are supplied for Vallejo, Mr Color, Lifecolor, Tamiya, Testors, AK Real Color, Humbrol, Revell, and Mission Models. The supplied artwork also denotes the colours to be used per box/crate.

Inside the box, there are SIX sprues of light grey styrene, packed into a single clear sleeve, plus a decal sheet. Of the sprues, two of them are duplicates, meaning there are four unique sprues. 

 

Sprue Af

Remember me mentioning that sack truck? Well, here it is. This small sprue contains just seven parts. These are the main frame with push handle, wheels and axle, and also the brackets that can be used to both tie up the truck or for it to safely lean against walls and crates etc. There is actually a part on this sprue which doesn’t seem to be used, and that’s Part 5. I can’t see any use for it in this set. Perhaps aficionados of the sack truck will know what it’s used for!

 

Sprue Ha

Crates. That’s what we have here. Actually, two of them. One of them is a larger, shallow crate and the other is more akin to a cube crate. Not all crate parts are actually on this sprue, as the end panels and lifting batons are on Sprue Hd, in both cases. Moulding detail is excellent, with a nicely rendered wood grain texture and timber baton/nail detail. If tackled properly, these will look superb, especially if weathered so the paint is flaked down to the bare wood.

 

Sprue Hd (x2)

As well as parts for the crates on the previous sprue, this one contains the cross timbers that give some rigidity to the crates on their end faces. Note that there are full diagonal lengths and some part lengths, allowing the modeller to make an ‘\’ or ‘X’ out of the bracing parts.

 

Sprue Ke (x2)

You know what I’m going to say? Yes, more boxes and crates, but these two sprues carry parts for the smaller units, from general carry boxes to long boxes that could carry anything from machine parts to rocket launchers etc. These are moulded with their carry handle detail in situ, and again, these should look great when finished, with the convincing wood grain textures and appearance of having been fashioned from narrower lengths of timber.

 

Decals

Just one decal sheet is included, but it is pretty packed out with more decals than you’re likely to need for the set. As well as many standard, international symbols for such things as ‘Fragile’, ‘this way up’, and ‘do not forklift’, ‘recycle’ etc. you will also notice markings for U.S. Mail, chemical warning symbols, weight stencils, Cyrillic text, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Reichspost, etc. There’s probably something here for whatever you intend to depict. 

Decals are nice and thin, have minimal carrier film and also are in perfect register.

 

Instructions
A single sheet is included, printed on both sides, and show assembly by means of simple line drawings that are easy to follow. Construction takes place over 7 stages, inclusive of where there are multiples to be built. 

 

Conclusion
A very simple set, but very nicely executed. This will cater to modellers who produce dioramas in just about any era, and they will also be very simple to build. It does just what it says on the tin, or in this case, crate!

My sincere thanks to MiniArt for the sample seen here. 

 

[Drifter]

Awesome review, thanks.