A scale modeller is always looking for scenery details to add to a scene. As in real life, there are many things that fill up the environment, whether they be garbage bins, power poles, manhole covers, litter, fire hydrants, parking lot curbs, signs, or whatever. It is very common to see pallets made from wood around any facility that ships or receives product, particularly heavy or bulky product. The product sits atop the pallet, normally fastened in some way and a fork lift is used to lift the pallet onto a truck or rail car for shipping and similarly unloaded at the other end of the journey.
Wood pallets are very easy to make. I used scale lumber from Mount Albert Scale Lumber, blue painters' tape, a 'Chopper' cutting device, a pair of tweezers, Aileen's Tacky Glue (any glue that dries clear will work), a toothpick for applying the glue, a pounce wheel for indenting the wood to make it look like nail holes and alcohol stain to weather the wood.
My pallets are HO scale. I first cut scale 8 in. X 1 in. boards to make ten 1/2 in. strips. I then cut 4 in. X 4 in. scale lumber to make three 1/2 in. strips.
I next positioned five of the 8 X 1 strips evenly to blue painter's tape which had been fastened to the work surface sticky-side up. I left small gaps between the strips and tried to keep them fairly even.
Using a toothpick I created three beads of Aileen's Tacky Glue across the wood.
Next I laid the three 4 X 4 strips of wood on top of the glue beads.
Finally, I applied alcohol wood stain in varying shades of grey and brown to simulate various stages of weathering.
Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product:
