That’s a good idea, the only caveat being that you’d need a machine or process of some sort to cut the balsa sheet precisely over and over. But if you could get that going, it would be an excellent way to make things like crates as well, seeing as how you’d have the wood grain already there.
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A Proxxon circular saw is helpful with this. Just cut some blocks and glue the Tamiya “boxes” around it.
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Print the fold lines on the back of the paper and the labels on the front side.
I like the look and texture of paper, it just looks “right” to me. Plus, you can open them up, crunch them up, and even smash them up. On the other hand, they can be a pain to build, especially if you need a lot of them. Resin and decals would be quick and easy. But I think I still like paper better.
Many years ago when I helped Pro Art they sent me among many other nice things cardboard boxes made of resin. They looked very realistic when painted. The whole texture thing at that scale seems a bit of a non-issue. Some boxes still had squared corners, some were intentionally a little off. Some had the top flaps folded back together so they locked rather than the way they were before they were opened (left and right overlapping top and bottom) The idea is not a bad one at all because it does work. I think the paper ones are really only necessary when portraying an opened box, which is exactly what I did with the 1/25 boxes I printed.
I could also see a whole pallet’s worth of MRE boxes simulated with one large chunk of resin.
Several months ago I ordered a pallet from a company in Europe (nice aluminum aircraft pallet in resin) but each box has to be folded individually. Ain’t nobody got time for dat!
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Ouch! That’s a lot of paper to fold.
Ken.
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You only have to do the outside boxes. the interior spacing can just be a filler.
I wonder if some 3D printed boxes would do the trick? Have the top side filled (completely, incompletely, or not) with the MRE packets, then fold the Tamiya (or other) paper around it. Then you can have open boxes. Maybe do the same with water bottle cases. Solves the outside texture issue, removes the need for decals AND lets you display open cases with interior detail.
D-Toys out of Korea makes a resin/paper U.S. Modern MRE and Box Set (DT35-013) that includes paper outer boxes, resin inner boxes w/MREs for open boxes, and individual resin MRE bags with decals. They are quite nice and cover all the bases in my opinion. I still think paper outer boxes are the best and most realistic looking option to me.
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Damn. Now THAT"S detail!
Yup, I used them on my 3ID M2A2 build and they look great.
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They do look impressive, and great for that little touch of realism in the right setting.
Can’t upload the .pdf so here’s modern British rations in a .jpg. I can email the .pdf. Other scales as well.
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I have used a photoetch bender for folding the paper ones and they look much better. In case someone needs the tip.
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I like the idea of British compo boxes, and the selection you have shown there Paul looks very good but I dont think I would find any real use for them with how I model. They would be great if you were doing say a replen dio or left in the back of a Landrover on display, but on the armour side of things, we would never see them externally. Once we had them, they were broken down into the individual items and stored internally or in the vehicle bins, and thats pretty much how UK armoured units work. Well ours did anyway. The modern ones would look good in say Jackals etc or the more more modern open sided types of wagons where you see more of the stowage. A nice option to have though for those that need the UK ones 
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Agreed. It’s very rare to see ration boxes on the outside. Especially with the preponderance of ammo cans bolted everywhere. I’ve got another picture from Op Telic but can’t find it right now.
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Couple of nice pics there. I actually prefer these paper ration boxes, I think once they are together ( and I know I moaned about them on the Stryker build, but I soon got the hang of it) they look the part, and I also found that if you do get any slight over spill from glue etc, it just looks like the stains you get on the real ones when they are wet etc.
I did find this today while looking for something else. I guess it’s the best way to move rations in the Falklands.
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That’s really annoying… I just can’t make out any of the crew clearly enough to ID them…as well as rations, the guys and wagons ferried alot of Welsh & Scots Guards, Paras and Gurkha’s about down there.
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