1:35 U.S. Cardboard Boxes - postwar period

Paper replaced the crate

The supply system of the American army changed quietly but thoroughly after 1945: cardboard pushed out a large part of the wooden packaging. Corrugated cardboard was cheap, light and needed neither nails nor a joiner, so food rations, spare parts and office material were all packed in it. At the same time it could not be handled like a crate, because rain soaked it through and a stack collapsed under its own weight. That is exactly why photographs from bases show cardboard boxes under a tarpaulin or on wooden pallets.

What the boxes say in a scene

A cardboard box with printed lettering moves a scene unmistakably past the war. In a scene from the 1940s it looks alien, whereas on a base of the 1950s and 1960s it belongs to the equipment as naturally as drums do. A pile of cardboard boxes also gives a scene a civilian air: a depot, a kitchen or an issue point, that is a setting where nobody is fighting but supplies are being handled.

Working with a printed sheet

A paper accessory is built differently from a casting. The parts are cut out with a sharp knife along the scored lines, the edges are folded over a ruler and they are glued with thin PVA glue, which does not warp the paper. Stiffen the corners of a box with a strip of paper from the inside. To stop a finished box looking flat, it needs its edges rounded and a dusting of pastel dust.

A note on the format

The sheet measures nineteen by eleven centimeters, so it yields a group of boxes for filling a smaller area. It pays to back the printed parts with thin card before cutting, or the walls of the finished box will show light through and will bow softly.