Moving Ideas?

Well, no matter how well you pack things, something will break, so be prepared. But you can prevent the smithereens syndrome. :-)

General rule: pack the model in a box which you pack in a larger box. Or several boxes within a larger box. Use plenty of bubble wrap and/or styrene popcorn and/or tissue paper. You can use newspapers to cushion the boxes inside a larger box, but avoid it for cushioning rolling stock and structures directly. To be effective, newsprint has to be packed quite tightly, which is not good for delicate details. The principle is that the model is well braced inside its own box, and that these boxes are well cushioned inside the larger box. A model that can move around inside its box will do so, and when it hits the side of the box, parts of it may break. But if the box it's in is cushioned, then that cushioning will absorb the shock slowly, so that breakage is almost entirely eliminated.

To pack a structure: Find a box that is larger than your structure in all directions, use a combination of bubble-wrap, tissue, pop corn, and box-board braces to pack the structure so that it doesn't move. Then find a box that's bigger than this box, and pack bubble pack or styrofoam popcorn all round the smaller box. You can obviously put several structure boxes inside a much larger box. Avoid packing a number of structures in one box - delicate details will certainly break if you do that. OTOH, if there are no delicate details, it's usually possible to pack two or more models in one box, just use an extra layer of bubble-wrap. The one-box per structure method reduces the chances of detail breakage to about 10 - 30%, still not good, but better than certainty.

Pack removable detail parts separately, and label both the main box and the detail parts box, else you will spend far too much time looking.

Good luck.

pack them in a sepeate plastic bag then if parts break off they are with the kit Anthony

In article T2Xye.7098$ snipped-for-privacy@news20.bellglobal.com, Wolf Kirchmeir at snipped-for-privacy@sympatico.ca wrote on 7/6/05 16:23:

You could also, when packing your models, both rolling stock and structures, use "ghost poop" (foam packing peanuts) to cushion the item within the box. These can be bought at places like Staples, Office Max or Office Depot, or if you're lucky, can be scrounged free of charge.

Dieter Zakas

If you can, put each building into a plastic bag. This way, if parts fall off you will know which building they belong to. Then put it in the box.

A way to stuff the box without much weight or pressure of the peanuts is to use the long type of baloons slightly inflated and pack them around the buildings. (I just thought of this. Wish I had thought of it when I moved.)

Hi George,

If you're having this professionally moved, something to consider is how they load the truck. On our last move we had many boxes that were crushed. We packed things like lampshades in big boxes with paper padding all around for cushion. It didn't matter. They loaded the truck to the roof. If that box was near the bottom of a stack of boxes, then it was crushed. Even a few boxes marked FRAGILE were partially crushed because they were in the middle of a stack. All our heavy items that were packed in strong boxes made it through just fine.

So even if you are packing something light, use a STURDY box if you don't want it crushed. We had our most fragile items packed by the movers. They used crumpled newspaper for padding, and a lot of crush space around each piece.

Jeff

If you have built up buildings, put them in a plastic bag first. This way if something falls off, you will know what building it belongs to.

If you have it, use bubble wrap around the plastic bags when you put the buildings into a box. Don't over pack the boxes with models. If you have the plastic office storage carts, take the wheels off. Movers are not all that careing about how they stack stuff. My carts that I told them must stay upright were horizontal when the truck was unpacked. (lots of minor damage).