One piece of equipment you’ll almost always need any place where freight is handled is a way to quickly move palletized goods from one place to another. Whether a moving a short distance, or in tight quarters a hand pallet truck, or as they’re more commonly called here in the States, a pallet “Jack” or “Mule”, is an indispensable piece of equipment.

Hauler, from the Czech Republic has introduced in 1/48 scale a pallet jack made from resin and photo etched parts. Cast in medium gray resin the kit consists of 7 resin parts and three photo etched parts. No decals are suppled or needed. A one-page sheet of directions is included.

I started construction by carefully removing the pour gates from the resin pieces. I cut the parts carefully using a fine razor saw, and the back side of a #11 blade for final clean up. The castings are excellent in detail and my sample had very little flash to clean up. The handle is very delicately cast, and care was taken when removing the gate and flash from it. One of the PE pieces is the pressure release lever which mounts to the inside of the handle. I left that off until final assembly to keep I from getting knocked off during paint and finish. Assembly was quite easy, as the directions are clear in that regard. And as is the case with most resin kits, there are no locating nubs on any of the parts, but it’s pretty simple to get them right. It took about an hour for cleanup and assembly.

I chose to paint mine yellow, but any color could be used. I’ve seen them in many colors, so the choice is yours!! After assembly I primed the model flat white, followed by two color coats of Chrome Yellow enamel paint. I then gave it a wash of shadow brown, followed by painting the tread areas a steel color. I dry brushed metallic gray to simulate wear. When completed I super glued the model to a figure base that has a small concrete pad in its center to facilitate moving the completed model.

This Hauler presentation is a nice, accurate representation of a pallet mule. I suspect it may be a scaled down version of this subject also offered in 1/35 scale. It certainly is an oddball subject as a stand-alone model, but fills a hole in the modeling universe. The possible uses are many like warehouse scenes, cargo handling areas, anyplace in the rear with the gear!!

All told, this build including paint took about three hours, about what I’d expect for a subject of this size and complexity. The completed model looks right, and was fun to build. I like the level of detail represented. The jacking mechanism in the rear is well represented with the remaining 2 PE parts. Hauler did a nice job in presenting a subject that is unusual, looks cool, and fills a void. I enjoyed this build, and like the completed subject. I recommend this kit either as a stand-alone model, or to add as a nice addition to a diorama scene that needs a pallet jack!!

My thanks to Hauler and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build and review this nice kit.