Carry kits to a contest

[Luzne]

Hi guys,
in mid september I will enter a model contest about 100km far from my house. It will be my first participation to a model contest, and I will enter two models.
The question is: how do you pack your models for transport?
I think I will put my models in a trasparent plastic box, the kind of box you can use for clothes or toys, and I'll secure the kits somehow to a (wooden?) base. Then I'll fill the the box with something?!?! Any suggestion??

Pierluigi

[AJP01]

This is literally the hardest thing. I had to carry my completed F1-2000 build on a long drive and air travel, and I struggled finding a way to build a suitable transport method for it.

In the end, I made a frame out of styrene extruded bars (10-12mm diameter) that essentially built a cage around the chassis. I put a foam block bonded to the floor of the cage, and this foam block was what the car's center plank was sitting on. Visualize an F1 car with it's wheels off, and then center of the chassis is sitting on foam, then a rectangular cage around it.

Where the axles are at the end of the suspension arms, I built some cage arms to hold hollow styrene bars around the axles themselves. So the axles were captured in these arms (so the car couldn't move within the cage) but those didn't bear any weight - they were just there to stabilize the car on that foam block I mentioned above.

So - nothing touched the rear or front wings of the car. The whole cage I encased in some other soft foam, then that within a box. The box was what you saw me carrying, but this whole structure bearing the F1 car was inside it and isolated via foam.

You could do this for multiple cars if you like. The important thing is to separate weight-bearing structures from the structures that just stabilize the cars. Then insulate around that.

Hope this helps.

[Hein]

When we moved from the Netherlands to Austria two years ago a made a few of these wooden boxes for my models. Used some layers of soft foam were i cut out areas wich fitted the models, worked out perfect.

[CK]

Hi Pierluigi,

Since you are transporting your model, it should be easier.

Plastic, cardboard or wood boxes are all good. Make sure the box is as light weight as possible. Any mass can transfer energy into the model when dropped. So the lighter the box the better it is.

Soft foam is the better packing material. You can cut it into the require shape. The model should be surrounded by foam on all 6 faces, i.e. bottom, left, right, front, rear, and top. The foam blocks should only press against hard part of the car. Avoid foam pressing against front or rear wings and wheels. Use the nose cone and rear crash structure as the holding points. It is better to just put foam blocks on side pods. Take great care not to have foam near mirrors as they are fragile.

Hope you enjoy your contest.

[Luzne]

Thank you guys!
Tomorrow I'll go and buy some foam.

[Luzne]

Hi everyone,
following your advice this is how I packed my kits for the contest, transparent plastic box and foam, and it worked well!

And some pics of the show

[Luzne]