1:35 Paleťák s paletami

The pallet changed the way everything else is carried

Transport on pallets and the simple hand truck beneath it are the reason supplies could be moved from a ship to a depot and from a depot onto a load bed without dozens of porters. In a scene of a warehouse, a port shed, a factory or a depot, a pallet truck therefore fills a role nothing else can take: it explains how the load came to be where it is. And because it is a purely civilian machine, it works just as well in an industrial scene without a single uniform.

Box contents

Eighteen cast parts cover both the truck and the pallets, so a whole working situation can be built, not just the machine on its own. The casting holds the thin forks and the profile of the pallet battens, which are exactly the places where the truthfulness of a model like this breaks down.

Building step by step

• True the forks level before the glue dries.
• Leave the pallets loose until you have chosen the final arrangement.
• Set the metal of the truck apart from the wood of the pallets already in the base coat.
• Apply the wear on the edges of the forks with graphite or pigment, not with silver paint.

What to do with it in a scene

Parked against a wall it looks ordinary; driven half under a pallet it looks true. Several pallets side by side will make a wall, one stood on edge will give away haste, and scuffed places on the wood will give away years of use. It is exactly such ordinary equipment that separates a set from a workplace where one feels like looking for further small things. One well angled fork is enough for that.