1:35 U.S. Cardboard Boxes

Cardboard that stays cardboard

The accessory is a sheet of fine paper measuring sixteen by eleven centimeters, on which the unfolded shells of American shipping boxes are printed in 1:35 scale. You cut them out, fold them along the edges, glue them and you have cartons that look like cardboard, because they really are. A casting of the same object in resin never acquires that quality, however it is repainted.

The real subject

The American army shipped almost everything across the ocean in standard cardboard packaging, which carried printing with the contents, the weight and the supplier. It was precisely such boxes that piled up around depots, on the beds of trucks, by field kitchens and in front of the tents of supply companies. On a diorama they are unobtrusive, but without them a scene looks tidied up and untrue.

How to manage the build

First lay the paper on a hard board and score the folds with the tip of a used ballpoint pen, so that the edge is crisp and straight. It is glued with PVA glue applied in a thin coat, because paper is sensitive to damp and a joint that has run will show through the printing. Closed boxes gain in credibility if a piece of balsa or foam is put inside. The edges are darkened with a light rub of pastel, because a white paper cut catches the eye on a model at once.

What you will need as well

A sharp scalpel, a steel rule, PVA glue and patience while folding small shapes. A diorama base and figures are not included.

Sister sheets from the same manufacturer cover further nationalities and periods, so they can be combined and a scene need not stay with one repeating shape of packaging.