Transporting models

[Jack L]

Does anyone have any tips for moving models? I am moving house for a bit (no need to be paying London rent for the foreseeable), but have never needed to move both complete and incomplete models en mass before. Anything more particular than packing as tightly as possible with polystyrene blocks and board? I guess bubble wrap not great for small protruding pieces...

[Tim Marlow]

I did this last year and used packing peanuts around the completed models. Make sure they are placed on a layer of peanuts, filling in well under wings and things, then fill in around and over them. Keep the number of models per box small as well, to minimise the chance of them rubbing together. Loose fill is much less destructive than wrapping of any sort....
Depending upon how many models you have it could take a good few boxes, but compared to the time spend building this is a small cost.....Also, expect a few minor issues to deal with when unpacking.....No move is completely trouble free.

[Jack L]

Thanks Tim. Appreciate the help!

[PaulTRose]

how many you got to move......and what are they?...planes? armour? boaty things?...how fragile?

if you want boxes go to your nearest Morrisons and see if they have some banana boxes.....they tend to put them on the end of the check outs for people to take....if not ask.....when i was moving house it got to the point they were putting them to one side for me to collect in an afternoon,,,,,great sturdy boxes with lids

if you dont have too many then a sheet of polystyrene in the bottom and use tooth picks pushed in all round the model to hold in place.....at the minute i dont have room to display a lot of my kits, especially big ones so i bought a set of storage boxes that fit under the spare bed and use this method....gives me easy access and keeps them dust free for when i go to shows

i did once use shreaded newspaper which worked well short term.......only a few breakages but had to be REALLY gentle and you have to blow down when you take them out of storage

[Guest]

I did this last year and used packing peanuts around the completed models.

I used the same method with polystyrene peanuts to move my completed models from Australia to the UK two years ago via container ship. None were damaged in transit. Tim's advice/ method is very sound.

Good luck with the move.

[Peter Gillson]

If your models are on bases, you cold j]cut a thin peice of plywood to the size of the bade of the box and screw each base to the plywood from underneath.
peter

[Tim Marlow]

....one thing I forgot....get a roll of tape marked “fragile” and use it liberally on the boxes....it is surprisingly easy to forget what is in each box....

[Jack L]

how many you got to move......and what are they?...planes? armour? boaty things?...how fragile?

Thankfully, I am not moving permanently, and only moving the models I am currently working on, or have been completed 'properly' (i.e. since joining this forum).

So three completed: 3 x 1/35 AFVs...inc PE and protruding .50Cals etc, a Mosquito and F14 in 1/48
Work in progress: 1/32 Spit...(should be fairly durable), 1/35 M10 with lots of PE...almost paining stage, 1/35 Jagdpanther - needs serious surgery.

The PE additions I guess are the most fragile. I have just been and bought some plastic clip lock boxes that should do the AFVs, and have some foam packaging from an old Peli case lining at work..so hoping that will do the job. I am thinking if these go in the footwells of the car, packed so they can't move...

The F14 is my biggest concern, landing gear, ordinance etc and only have a cardboard box for that one as it's so big.

[Guest]

If you’re transporting them yourself rather than letting a moving company do it, I’d think you can get away with a lot less secure packaging. What I used to use to transport models to shows was to put a sheet of expanded polystyrene foam (the white kind made from those annoying little balls, 3 cm thick off the top of my head) on the floor of a plastic crate, set the models on that and stick long wooden skewers into the foam to fix the models in place.

[AlanG]

A very timely thread indeed. My family and i are in the process of thinking of moving house (further south) and i was thinking how i would move my models.

[Jack L]

I have gone with a combo of all suggestions for item no. 1:



Hopefully, short of dropping them down the stairs on the way to the car... The wings will be trickier, and I don't have these boxes big enough, so cardboard and probably the polystyrene and toothpick method, As I'll have no foam bits left.

[Guest]

If you’ll use that for aircraft, I think you’d do well to put some of that foam underneath to take the weight, so the model won’t rest just on its undercarriage.

[Jack L]

If you’ll use that for aircraft, I think you’d do well to put some of that foam underneath to take the weight, so the model won’t rest just on its undercarriage.

I envisage the aircraft going upside down

[minitnkr]

Third Tiger I has early style wheels so am adding Hauler tracks to it as the ROCO tracks lack detail. Using a mix of ArsenalM & ROCO figs as crews. C&Cs encouraged. PaulE

[Guest]

I envisage the aircraft going upside down

In that case I’d still put some foam between model and styrofoam, to prevent aerials, pitot tubes etc. breaking