A Crate Deal

This pack contains nine crates. You might expect that you would get nine crates of the same type, or perhaps three crates each of three styles, but no - Armorcast gives you eight individual crates (and one duplicate). That's nice value.

(Note: The manufacturer's photo (below) shows a different mix of crates - including one new type. It's possible that every pack has a slightly different mix. Or it may just be an error, as the manufacturer photo is also missing a crate - only eight are shown, but their catalog says nine come in the set.)

Officially these are "science fiction" crates, but there's nothing to prevent them from being used for modern historicals as well. (I'm not up on the history of crates, so I'm not sure if these are appropriate for WWII, WWI, or the 19th Century...)

The eight types of crates are:

1. 21mm wide x 23mm long x 13mm tall. Plain wooden slat-style crate with two bands along the sides, and three crosspieces on top. Top also has two rectangular areas, obviously intended to be painted as labels. (Two provided)
2. 14mm wide x 24mm long x 13mm tall. Wooden slat crate, with two bands running up the sides and across the top.
3. 14mm wide x 26mm long x 12mm tall. Crate made of small slats or bars. Three bands running up the sides and across the top; two crosspieces on each end.
4. 14mm wide x 25mm long x 13mm tall. Crate made of small slats or bars. Two bands running up the sides and across the top, with diagonal crosspieces on each panel; two crosspieces on each end.
5. 13mm wide x 17mm long x 14mm tall. Small-slat crate wth two bands running up the sides and across the top, and three crosspieces on one end. Packing labels on end and side.
6. 13mm wide x 25mm long x 13mm tall. Tool chest with rounded corners, three recessed lines on sides. Lid overhangs the container, hinged at end, lock at opposite end, with handle.
7. 12mm wide x 22mm long x 9mm tall. Tool chest with slightly rounded corners, handles on each end. Lid overhangs the container, hinged on side, lock at opposite side.
8. 12mm wide x 20mm long x 10mm tall. "Lunchbox" style toolchest with central hinge. Lock with padlock attached.

The crates are made of resin. You always expect some problems with pitting or clean-up with resin products, but the manufacturer has done a good job and these have minimal problems. Besides a few nearly-microscopic pinpricks, the only crate to have casting problems was one of the two large ones - it had four gaps in the lower band. (Compare the crates in the photo above, and you'll see some of the gaps in the left-hand crate.)

By the nature of resin casting, one surface of the model ends up at the "top" of the mold and is featureless. This may be where resin "lips" extend out of the mold. Or, if the manufacturer sands off the imperfections too far, the model may end up "short" or "crooked" (too much taken off one side).

The photo above shows the bottoms of two crates. The crate on the right is perfect with no imperfections. But you can see that the sample on the left has an irregular lip around the bottom. Five of our samples had "lips," but all were thin and should be easily cleaned up with knife-and-file. Three of our samples were slightly crooked on the bottom, but this wouldn't be noticeable on the tabletop.