Introduction

Shed, item 4051, is an 1/48 laser-cut wood and card structure with five resin parts.

Open sheds are ubiquitous. They can be found in fields, farms, jungles, cities, anywhere that people want to store things. They are used for cargo and vehicles and livestock.

The tar paper roof may force the structure into as certain era but it would be very easy to modify the kit with other roofing material.

What is the kit like? Read on.

The Kit

The wood siding is very thin and sharply laser-cut and scribed. Very fine wood grain enhances the material. The roofing material is also cut and detailed by laser.

Joists, rafters, studs, bracing and top plates are individual pieces, pre-cut, and not by laser.

Kit contents are:

Wood sheet X 5

Scale lumber X 20

Tar paper sections X 3

Resin supplies X 5

Each of the resin pieces are crisply cast although the jerry can handles are thick. Unfortunately for 1/48 parts the pour blocks are significant and aggravating to remove.

Detail

For the shed, the tar paper pieces are cut to fold the edges down over the edges of the roof. Seams with nails are lased into it.

Resin detail features sections of the wheel and metal brackets, but it has a noticeable mold seam. The jerry cans have open (yet thick) handles and undercut spouts and latches. The box has a heavy duty latch and lock.

Relative to the size of the part, the pour blocks are large and a pain in the neck to remove; in the attempt to remove the excess resin, a heavy duty Xacto blade couldn't cut it (pardon the pun) so I had to resort to a razor saw.

Plus Model did not simulate nail holes in any of their wood parts.

Instructions

These are disappointing. While they are printed to high quality, they leave a lot to the experience and intuition of the modeler. It shows all the parts and even identifies the different pieces of strip wood used for framing, assigning each group an identity letter. But Plus Model did not put those part identity letters in the assembly steps. And while the instructions show several slightly different lengths of lumber, some were difficult to identify by eye. Result - a lot of time wasted test-fitting. The floor joists are even much shorter than illustrated int he instructions. The three studs for the back wall are too tall.

Assembly

It took about 2 hours to assemble this kit. Much of that time was spent examining the instructions and figuring out what piece went where.

When gluing, be aware that once the glue hits the wood that any staining and painting will reveal sloppy gluing. I think that this should be mentioned in the instructions for the benefit of those who have not assembled a wooden craftsman style kit.

Since Plus Model did not lase any nail holes int he siding, I used my trusty fabric wheel to emboss nail holes in the wood.

I used Uhu glue left over from a NOCH kit to assemble the model. I don';t know what it is but I describe it as a cross between white glue, paste, and superglue (CA glue, Cyanoacrylate). Assembly is greatly aided with machinist squares and other tools that can square up pieces.

I assembled the kit slightly out of sequence with the instructions to ensure I was using the correct lengths of strip wood. Pay very close attention to aligning the roof rafters with the bottom of the roof. Misalignment will prevent the roof from seating into the back wall properly, and can even cause the side walls to pop loose from the back wall. If I assemble another of these kits I will build the walls and all horizontal beams, and then set the rafters before adding the roof sheet. After assembly was complete, I ran a few drops of thin CA along some of the corners and important parts to strengthen the structure. Again, beware of excess glue going where you do not want it.

The tar paper sheets cut and fold easily and are very convincing.

After the structure was complete, I loaded the resin supplies into it and posed a 1/43 figure and a 1/48 Panzer III next to it to demonstrate scale and footprint.

Conclusion

Shed, item 4051, builds up into a good looking structure. I haven't decided how to paint it yet. That fresh wood looks really pretty.

Once I figured out which lengths of strip wood were which and where they went, assembly was quick and easy with Uhu glue and my metal squares.

I am impressed with the sharp cut of parts and their very fine grain wood. I did not appreciate the incomplete instructions or huge pour blocks of the resin parts.

Quarter-scale modelers of any subject and many eras should be very happy with this shed. I did enjoy building it and I do recommend it.