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36M Grenade Crate Project

iaustin

New Member
After much effort and time, have finally completed my project to reproduce a complete WW2 Australian 36M box and contents, copied from an original I have. The information from this forum was of tremendous assistance with the small details missing from my crate, particularly several "How To" articles and responses so thanks you to all contributors, the information was great. Only original component is the wooden spacer in the detonator tin, all else was reproduced. Grenades were cast from resin. One aspect I wasn't sure about was the inclusion of the wooden wedges (drawing detail and photos invaluable, thanks again!) in the Hand rather than the Rifle grenade version of the crate as I was uncertain whether the wedges were perhaps to retain the gas checks and not a component of the Hand version. Would also speculate that the detonator tin in the Hand version may have been secured by some form of packer as well? Markings were copied from the original crate, Filling Station seal from a fellow collector's original example. I chose to replicate the crate as having just been opened with seals cut through (using original army clasp knife of course!), lid sealing wire cut and partially removed. The detonator tin should incorporate a bare metal band around the bottom of the lid to simulate the soldered peeled off sealing strip. Can be easily rectified in due course. Other than this and a couple of minor niggles, I'm reasonably happy with the results. Once again, many thanks to forum contributors for the wealth of information necessary to create a reasonable reproduction.

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Superb box indeed. A great job well done.
Could I ask how you applied the labels on the exterior? Did you use varnish or Shellac over the top? I'm trying to recreate that 'Yellowed aged' look on labels on an ammunition box I'm building
Did you use a 'coloured' varnish?
Many thanks!
 
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Here's some photos of my original 1940 crate. You have 4 more wedges than I do but I'm sure both are possibly correct.

John
 
Superb box indeed. A great job well done.
Could I ask how you applied the labels on the exterior? Did you use varnish or Shellac over the top? I'm trying to recreate that 'Yellowed aged' look on labels on an ammunition box I'm building
Did you use a 'coloured' varnish?
Many thanks!

Hi Starshell, thanks for the very kind words, and the others who responded as well. Praise indeed from such an esteemed audience! Apologies for delay in responding. Re your query, after much practice and trial and error, the exterior labels were applied with shellac as both adhesive and sealer. I just located the bare seal labels per original crate and swabbed on the shellac on (the original shellac was very sloppily applied) after clamping the lid to the crate. Mixed the shellac up from flakes and methylated spirits to give suitable (thickish) consistency which also resulted in colour very close to original (allowing for aging). Actually seemed to show that this is how the original labels were applied/sealed. Did experiment with tinting varnish but this didn't work as well.
Thanks too for the photo of the inspection label. Other examples I was able to access were stamped with detail but the remains of the label on my crate showed that it was blank. Happy to provide any other info. Thanks again all!
 
out standing.... you just need some corrugated cardboard to hold the det tin in place, my Canadian box has its cut in 6" lengths wrapped around tin to pack out the space in tin compartment.....Dave
 
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