GreenStrawberry Space Dock Display Pad Set Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

GreenStrawberry is an interesting aftermarket company based in the Czech Republic that produces primarily detail sets for science fiction kits as well as kits of their own. This release is one of several display bases they've added to their product line.

Each display base consists of one thick sheet of plastic 7.9" x 5.3" in size with your choice of a self-adhesive, pre-printed space dock graphic, or a set of green masks that are applied to the surface of your primed and base-color plastic surface using the clear-plastic transfer sheet, then removing the relevant portions of the mask for specific paint colors.

I cleaned the plastic surface before applying a coat of black Primer. I let the paint dry for a few hours while I pondered the mask and carrier film concept. The green masks are die-cut and have a self-adhesive backing. Applying the masks directly would be difficult, if not impossible. I removed the self-adhesive backing to the clear carrier film and placed it onto the masking sheet, then carefully removed any bubbles or wrinkles (I had left the green masking sheet out of the box and it curled up. Leave it under the weight of the plastic base until you're ready).

Next, I removed the adhesive backing for the masking sheet, being careful not to pull off any of the masks. Once the backing was removed, I carefully laid the mask/carrier sheet over the base and rubbed the masks into the painted surface.

Now comes the real challenge - pulling the carrier film off the masked surface. The carrier film tried to pull up the masks, so next time, I'll pat my hand onto the adhesive surface of the carrier film to reduce the tackiness of the carrier film. I allowed the carrier film to pull off the various stencils and marking masks, and eventually had the carrier sheet clear of the remaining masks. I used a pair of tweezers to pull up any other marking masks that needed to go.

I applied Tamiya Flat Yellow to the exposed surfaces of the display base, working in fine misty layers to build up the color from the underlying black. It took a number of coats through the airbrush, but it was eventually bright enough for my purposes. I used Tamiya Flat White over the Yellow for the alignment crosses as white goes down easier over yellow than black. The Tamiya Flat Red finsihed up the process. Once these had dried, I pulled up the mask and was stunned how sharp the markings came out. You can see in this image how my painted base appears next to the pre-printed base sheet that would have been 'Plan B' had my painting failed.

You can use these display bases for a variety of science fiction subjects, for example, here is one of my Maschinen Krieger figures on the base. You'll see this base again when the real subject is finished and I can apply the appropriate weathering to the surface to match the theme/subject.

I am pleasantly surprised at the results of this project. I've seen photos online of these display bases used for the Bandai Star Wars spacecraft models as well as other subjects, and now I understand why they are popular!

This set is available from HobbyZone USA.

My sincere thanks to HobbyZone USA for this review sample!