Packing stuff for shipment

[Cerridwyn1st]

Does anyone have suggestions or comments on how to package items for shipment? It would really suck to have a nicely painted fig get trashed in the mail.

I\'m especially interested in ideas for sending pices that would be particularly delicate. For instance a dragon, with large sweeping wings.

 

[QuietiManes]

Lots of foam, those peanuts/popcorn type packing foam is probably best, around the dragon in a box. Put that in another box with more foam, the rigid white stuff electronics get packed in or more peanuts or even bubble wrap.

I can\'t see a dragon making it too far without a couple inches of foam on each of the 6 sides.

I think the main thing is to make sure that the figure is packed in there nice and tight, no empty space. So there\'s no shifting or moving around in the box.

I haven\'t sent anything delicate but I\'ve recieved plenty and I think that\'s what would work best.

G\'luck.

 

[Corvus]

here\'s how I package individual minis: first some paper tissue for protection, then a few layers of bubble plastic and then fill the rest of the box with paper from a newspaper, so that the mini can\'t move when it\'s transported.

if you want to ship a dragon, I suggest you put balls of paper tissue under its wings, so it forms one ball before you put the bubble plastic around it...
also, when you add paper to the box, don\'t add too much because it may cause too much pressure on the mini, just add enough to keep your mini into place

 

[Beelzebrush]

When I\'ve sent individual painted minis I\'ve sent them in a section of postal tube. It\'s inexpensive and most importantly it\'s strong. Buy a postal tube and cut it into a suitable length then enclose the mini in tissue paper and bubble wrap.

For larger models... a good box, tissue paper, bubble wrap and polystyrene loosefill.

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Pack it like Lladro

Thanks, guys. I was thinking of packing stuff like Lladro does. They make the porcelain figurines. Very fragile stuff. But their methds and materials would be tough to duplicate. The methods you suggest would be much easier to do.

 

[Sand Rat]

The other thing you might consider for something like a dragon is to wrap it good and proper with paper, then support the wings and wrap in a plastic bag - then use some of the expanding foam insulation to fill the space between the box and the mini - the only thing to remember with the foam insulation is you have to use the entire can at once or it drys up and blocks the valve

 

[Corvus]

and how easy is it for the customer to open that package?

 

[Chrispy]

I\'ve had probelsm shipping a dragon. I encased it in warpping foam and filled in the rest of the box with foam peanuts. The person who recieved it said it looked like I took it apart and then shipped it. I would never do that, but apparently the preasure on the plane caused the air bubbles in the pinning to expand and break all the joints. Now I dodn\'t do stuff so big and I\'m using a better glue that holds up against breaks, though it dreis longer. I\'ve used wrapping paper since and no one has complained...

Hope this helps!

 

[Shroud]

Chris Hagness requested a specific shipping method when he bought a couple of my GD entries. I used it, and there was zero damage. Since then Ive shipped everything I paint - even the nurgle tank with lots of conversions on it - the same way: with zero damage.

- Get a box that is bigger than the object by a few inches on every side for single mini\'s, or several inches for larger ones.

- wrap the mini in tissue paper, tucking the tissue in and around any protruding bits.

- make a nest on the bottom of the box using cotton batting. The stuff I use is called \"poly fill\" from Michael\'s and is used to make stuffed animals. A big bag is only 5 bucks Canadian.

- Nest the fig in that, then put ample cotton all around the sides and top of the figure. The cotton should stick out of the box and need to be pushed down by the box lids when you seal it.

If you did it right, nothing moves when you shake the box. Nothing will break except perhaps the air pressure thing that happened to Chrispy.

Jarrett

 

[Vallan]

Just remember...

I\'m not sure where your shipping from, but the USPS says pack them well enough to fall about three feet to the ground. Also, allow (at minimum) two inches of packing on all sides. When you pack a dragon in the box remember after you put two inches of packing supplies in the bottom, put a piece of cardboard on top of that so it doesn\'t sink though to the bottom.
:flip::bouncy::flip:

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Originally posted by Corvus
and how easy is it for the customer to open that package?

Not that hard, really. But specifics vary with the age of the packaging and the form and delicacy of the piece.

For something that\'s reasonably large with pieces that protrude, you can expect that there will be a fitted form base that the bottom goes in. Then there are braces that fold in from the sides and lock the piece into the base. This whole contraption fits inside the box.

When you open the box, you slide out the inner box-like case. Lift up the folded-in braces, then lift the piece from the fitted base.

I\'ve also gotten miniature houses that have the form-fitting foam around them. Those travel really well, too.

Shroud, your method sound REALLY good. Have to remember that one for really big pieces, especially since I have some left over polyfil.

 

[Shroud]

The polyfill is great because it fills all the areas softly but firmly, and \"grips/cushions\" the figure (but you have to use quite a bit of stuff).

 

[slidedog]

Shipping can be a pain, especially if you\'ve done extensive ground work. One of the most fragile peices I\'ve shipped took about an hour to pack. Started with a box that fit pretty well, braced the heck out of it with foam core, some trees had an open space to be and everything else was tight. Then a floated that box inside a larger box with the dreaded foam peanuts (at least I use the ones made from recycled products). Gotta think like you\'re packing eggs and give the thing some cushion!

 

[Sand Rat]

Originally posted by Corvus
and how easy is it for the customer to open that package?

Bout like opening anything else that is in a custom piece of packaging - a major pain in the ass. However, I used to work shipping and sent extremely fragile equipment all over the world using that as a base for the packaging and never had the components broken - I had a shipper shread the outer wooden container and the inner box, but the materials I shipped got there ok