simple wooden box.

Al asked me to stick up a tutorial for my way of creating a simple wooden box.

Cut a balsa piece just smaller than the box you need and cut thin lengths of the size you need to cover this with


glue the thin strips onto the centre, make sure you over lap the top edge as this will represent the lid. cheap superglue works a treat.


Glue in the side pieces.


Sand the edges flat and give the whole thing a quick rub over with wet and dry
depending on the scale you may need to divide the joints further to represent thinner slats, the back of a scalpel works well i find


Paint it in a light colour, this will allow the wash to not darken the box too much when applied.



I use solder for all my extra metal bits.


Flatten a length with some pliers,


Cut the flattened piece into the required parts.
to make the "hasp" i find leaving a little "lug" of un-flattened solder on the end of a flattened bit works a treat


Give it a good dunk in some black wash, several dunkings may be needed


Add the solder pieces in relevant spots using superglue again.
You can use a pin or tack to press into the solder to create round dents to represent "nails/screws" if you wish, these just then need a quick wash over to highlight them. to be honest it looks better when making the box in 1/35 or larger


image for scale

Well written and nicely done.

Thanks for taking the time to create and post this Colin. Much appreciated.

Man that is so simple to do and yet soe effective too.

Hi Colin,

Sorry, I missed this one, your box looks awesome Sir, you always amaze me with what you manage to do with soldering wire...

Thank you for sharing this, I need to make some boxes for part of a load on a trailer, so will borrow your method if that is ok...

Andy...