Hauler is a Czech Republic company specializing in producing high quality resin and PE after market accessories including resin kits. In their line of products are the Euro Pallets. Actual Euro Pallets are standardized by the European Pallet Association which must meet the specifications such as size and number of special nails in a designated pattern. The sizes of the Euro Pallet in 1:1 scale are 47.2" (1,200mm) x 31.5"(800mm) x 5.7"(144mm).

The Package

5 resin sprues are contained in the package enough to make 2 complete pallets. Upon close inspection one can see the wood grain detail cast into the resin. The only flash seen is located between the wood planks which are easily cleaned up in a matter of minutes by using a Xacto knife and sandpaper. There are no instructions included in the package but, a quick check at Hauler's website shows downloadable pictures of the completed pallets. Each pallet consists of 4 parts.

Assembly

Construction of the pallets begins with a thorough washing and rinsing using mild detergent. Like all resin castings, care must be taken when removing the parts from the casting sprues. A sharp #11 Xacto knife and an ultra fine saw were used after scoring along the cut line. Some clean up was done but, very little. All in all it took about 30 minutes to cut and sand the individual parts and then on to the gluing process. Cyanoacrylate glue was used for the assembly.

Painting and Weathering

The pallets were given 2 light primer coats of Vallejo's Desert Sand primer so the excellent grain pattern in the wood would not be hidden. Next then came a thin wash using Vallejo's Burnt Umber followed by a thinned wash of Vallejo's German Black Brown applied to the nail holes and to add shadows. After this Vallejo's Iraqi Sand and Pale Sand were added to high light wear areas. To bring all this together a thin wash of Vallejo's Smoke was applied. In between coats a hair dryer was used to decrease the drying time.

Conclusion

Hauler's Euro Pallets would make an excellent addition to any vignette or diorama in 1/48th scale. As I have a vignette coming up in the future I certainly will be including these pallets.

Thanks to Hauler and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this product.