How To Make A Miniature Pallet

How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects. These miniature projects are really rewarding to make and can add a ton of story telling to your diorama or vignette. In this tutorial the measurements I give you are for a 1:24th scale Pallet.

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Step By Step Guide

How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects. These miniature projects are really rewarding to make and can add a ton of story telling to your diorama or vignette. In this tutorial the measurements I give you are for a 1:24th scale Pallet. If you want a 1:35th scale pallet then the long planks are 35mm (L) x 4mm (W) The cross support planks are 28mm (L) x 4mm (W) The spacing blocks are 3mm (L) x 4mm (W). If you want a 1:12th scale pallet just double the 1:24th scale pallet measurements for each part! Phew! 🙂 Ok let’s start.

What You Will Need

How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects
How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects

When it comes to the wood for the project you can use other wood like bass wood or even popsicle sticks, the materials don’t really matter but I choose balsa because it absorbs paint and enamel effects really well and you can easily deform the pallet to give it a broken old feel as the wood breaks easily.

Measuring & Marking & Cutting

First I like to cut all the assembly pieces and put them in order as it make assembly easier. You will need to cut 11 small planks in total. For the top of the pallet use the 1mm thick wood. This has 5 X Planks that measure 50mm (L) x 6mm (W). The Bottom of the pallet has 3 X Planks that measure 50mm (L) x 6mm (W). The Support planks in the middle measure 38mm (L) x 6mm (W). Finally you will need to use the 2mm thick wood to cut 9 x Spacing blocks that measure 6mm (W) x 8mm (L). Once cut put close by ready for assembly!

Assembly Of The Pallet

How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects
How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects

I squeezed out some of the glue I intended to use into a small pot for quick use but you can just use straight from the bottle if you like. The first step was laying out the three bottom planks and glueing the 9 spacing blocks to them (see image) You can wait for this to dry (I didn’t) but the glue is usually tacky enough for you to put the whole thing together in one go if you want.

The next step is to glue the middle or shortest planks you have to the blocks on the bottom of the planks (again see images for reference as you build)

The final step of the assembly is to add the top 5 planks and space evenly. This is when you can add the tiny nail holes with the needle point you have. The planks on a pallet have 6 nail holes (according to reference images) 2 at each point a plank touches the plank below. The nail holes are also at a diagonal if you are going for a real look.

Let It Dry!

Just like it says, Let it dry before you move onto the weathering stage. This will usually take a few hours depending on the glue you use.

Painting & Weathering

How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects
How To Make A Miniature Pallet with balsa wood that looks realistic for your miniature DIY projects

I kept the colours to a minimum and these colours are just the ones I used for my project because I wanted to make the pallet look old and worn out. At this stage you can also make the pallet look broken by snapping a plank off or just putting pressure on a section of the pallet and snapping it down (like mine) Look for images of old pallets and you can decide on the look you want to imitate.

The first stage of weathering was to apply a coat of the Flat Earth by Vallejo and then dry brush the Old Wood paint by MIG over the top and this gives the pallet the worn look I was going for. When this was dry I then added the enamel wash over the pallet in a small amount and varied the intensity until I got the look I was after.

I hope this helps in some way, Thank you for visiting my site!

The Model pictured is for sale in my shop, link here!

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