Matthews 6" Baby Plate — B429085 Black Hyper-Chrome Wall Plate

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

The Matthews B429085 is a 6" baby plate: a flat steel mounting plate with a 6-inch knurled 5/8" baby pin welded to it, finished in Black Hyper-Chrome. You nail or screw the plate to a set wall, an apple box, or the stage floor, then slide any baby-pin fixture, clamp, or accessory onto the pin. **B429085 is the current model and replaces the discontinued chrome 429085** — same dimensions and same pin, now in a non-reflective black finish.

This is one of those pieces of grip hardware with more names than uses, and it has a lot of uses. Baby plate, baby wall plate, nail-on plate, 750 pigeon, or just plain pigeon — same part. Matthews built it originally for hanging baby-size fixtures off the top of set walls, and the industry immediately started using it for everything else: the world's shortest light stand when you nail it to the deck, a low key mounted to an apple box, a mounting point for a flag arm on a wall you can't get a stand to, a clean rig point in a car or a practical set piece.

The pin is knurled, which is the detail that matters on a job. Knurling gives the fixture's receiver something to bite into, so a light you've set at a specific angle stays at that angle when someone brushes past it or when the head heats up and the metal moves. A smooth pin lets a fixture creep. This one doesn't.

The change worth knowing about is the finish. Matthews has moved the baby plate line from bright chrome to **Black Hyper-Chrome** — a hard, non-reflective black plating. The old chrome plates were tough, but they threw a specular hit any time a light caught them, which meant hiding them, taping them, or dulling them down. The black version can stay in a wide shot. If you're replacing chrome plates in an existing kit, the new ones drop straight into the same jobs; there is no compatibility difference, just one less thing to spray with dulling spray.

Matthews has been making grip hardware in Burbank since 1970, and the baby plate is about as close to an industry-standard part as grip equipment gets. Nearly every rental house in the country has a case of them.

Specifications

• Manufacturer | Matthews Studio Equipment
• Model / MFR # | **B429085**
• Replaces | 429085 (chrome, discontinued)
• Pin length | 6"
• Pin size | 5/8" (16mm) baby, knurled
• Finish | Black Hyper-Chrome
• Material | Steel
• Weight | ~1.5 lbs
• Mounting | Nail or screw through plate