introduction

Probably the most recognized German grenade from the Second World War was the Model 24 Stielhandgranate also known as the “potato masher”. During WWII, they were usually carried around inside of a metal or a wooden case, each one containing 15 stick grenades. This small PlusModel resin accessory set from their EASY line series represents the wooden case style.

Review

The set comes in small plastic bag and contains four cases along with a small decal sheet. No painting guide is provided, only a black and white picture of the finished product. The resin is cast nicely without any air bubbles, with only some resin residue between the carrying handle and the crate side. The crate edges are sharp and there is also some wood grain recognizable on the box. Removing of the cast block was a bit hard but nothing that can’t be done with a fresh sharp blade or razor saw.

Unfortunately there isn’t a great amount of information available about the cases used to carry around the M24 grenades. The only place I found with reasonable information about them is the wehrmachts.kisten website, (link provided below). After taking a look at the example crate on that site, I can say that PlusModel could have done a better job detailing the carrying handle and the two closing hooks.

Also, according to the site, the measurements of the real case scaled down to 1:35 should be 1.5 x 1.1 x 0.48 cm. In this set, the boxes measure 1.85 x 1.2 x 0.6 cm, so they are a bit out of scale. Also, I’m not very sure about the accuracy of the decal’s font and placement on the crate, but because of the fact that I couldn’t find any good photos of the real crates I’m not going to say that they are incorrect.

conclusion

I appreciate the way PlusModel is thinking, when releasing small diorama accessories like this grenade box set. But I also feel that PlusModel should put some more effort into research before releasing these sets, because avoiding a mistake of making an incorrect sized box should be fairly easy.

Reference:

wehrmachts.kisten website