Italeri 1/35 20' Military Container
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
Moving materials from point A to point B generally goes much easier when there are standardized containers. This is the same whether it is moving an apartment across town or moving a military unit halfway around the world. The latter benefits from standardized shipping containers, in 20' and 40' sizes, and specific requirements in their design and manufacture ensures that a container will stack with another container, regardless of point of origin.
The Kit
While a very common sight all around the world, shipping containers are not considered to be a hot subject in the scale model world. But Italeri has decided to buck the trend of releasing only the most popular subjects and have provided us with a great diorama accessory kit. This is a 20' container, so it's the smaller of the standard sizes, and it comes molded in the typical Italeri light gray plastic. The kit also comes with a small decal sheet that provides markings for a couple different military containers.
Construction of your container is very simple. It's a box, and you build up each face of the box. Each side is molded in one piece, while the floor and roof are split into two pieces. This construction has me wondering if we might see a 40' container down the road, as it looks like by adding a center section to the roof and floor and doubling up on the sides would be all you'd need. If you don't want to wait, you could probably buy two of these and splice them together to make a 40' container. The final bits to build up are the doors, and these can be assembled in either opened or closed configuration. There are separate handles and such to add a bit of extra realism.
For decals, There are three different options provided, including one from Italy, one for the US Army, and one for the US Marines. The decals are well done, but really only scratch the surface for potential use. One could easily create just about any markings for their storage container, perhaps just using the weights and specs from one of the options.
Conclusion
This is an interesting kit, to be sure, and it does open up some fun possibilities. You could build it up as a military container, or you could do it as a civilian one. Coupled with a Meng Hilux truck, with the shipping container broken open and two masked operatives unloading boxes of model kits, perhaps. My thanks to MRC for the review sample.