7" Display Turntable

by Cookie Sewell
 

Summary

FirstLook

Click here to download a 30 second video of the turntable in action

Many of us – armor, car and aircraft modelers – have all hit the same snag in our modeling lives: you knock yourself out putting detail on the bottom of a model, and then are stuk with what to do to display it. If you mount it on a scenic base, the underside can no longer be seen, and all that work went for naught. But if you did not, then you run the risk of some ham-handed judge picking it and damaging it or worse, dropping it. What to do?

The solution is to get a mirrored base that rotates, and this neat new offering from Easy Model fills the bill. It consists of a low black turntable with a mirrored base that comes in a plastic bag inside its box and also has a scratch-resistant layer placed over the mirror. The mirror is real glass, so I am not sure why they did that as it is relatively resistant to scratches.

The turntable is powered by two C cells, and the box top claims it will operate for up to one month of continuous operation on those two batteries. I haven't had it long enough to check, but it should be enough to get you through a two or three day show without having to worry if you turned it off.

I tested it for several minutes and found that it requires a delicate touch to work at its best. The speed is set by a knob above the on/off switch, and if turned all the way to the right counterclockwise the turntable engages slow speed; all the way to the left clockwise is high. Low speed is quite noisy on this unit, but high is not too bad. The box states that low speed is 3.5 rpm and high is 7; testing showed that low is more like 4.5 rpm and high is 8.5. Note that high speed rotates clockwise and low speed counterclockwise, something to do with the gearing arrangement.

The box states that the turntable will hold up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) or one real "cheeseblock" resin model. I tested it with odds and ends and it does appear to do as advertised.

Overall, other than being a bit noisy it works well. Note that MRC offers a total of six different turntables, either the 7" one tested or five smaller 3.3" ones with or without covers (flat topped or domed, ideally for figures.

Recommended.

Thanks to Bob Lewen for the review sample.