Has anyone purchased a built model that was mailed?

You oughtta try mailing a diorama with tanks, figures, structures, and trees.. Oy!

cwalker3

The last place I worked had the same UPS delivery guy for years. He was never known to be a gentle person when it came to his deliveries. One day I walked past his truck as he was unloading. A box flew out the back, hit the concrete floor. You could hear whatever was inside break into a million pieces. I said something to him along th lines of "Someone's not going to be happy when they open that." His reply was typical for him. He said, " F+++ 'em. Let the insurance pay for it."

I guess what I'm saying is be careful when packing, but if the wrong delivery person gets it..."

I wish his boss heard him say that and fired him on the spot. A guy like that could be easily replaced.

The last place I worked had the same UPS delivery guy for years. He was never known to be a gentle person when it came to his deliveries. One day I walked past his truck as he was unloading. A box flew out the back, hit the concrete floor. You could hear whatever was inside break into a million pieces. I said something to him along th lines of "Someone's not going to be happy when they open that." His reply was typical for him. He said, " F+++ 'em. Let the insurance pay for it."

I guess what I'm saying is be careful when packing, but if the wrong delivery person gets it..."

I have attempted to mail two models.  Both arrived in many pieces.  The first was a scratchbuilt 1/8 scale early racing car.  I had cushioned it well for vertical impacts I thought.  But the box was crushed on its end- it had obviously been dropped on end from several feet (it was marked fragile).  Fortunately, the customer returned it and I was able to rebuild it.  The second time the customer was driving from Pennsylvania to Minnesota and picked it up himself.

Second model was a diorama of a couple of race cars in a garage.  It was trash! It must have been dropped several times.  Unrestorable, gave a refund.

I will no longer mail a model unless it is very small and simple.

I do have to chime in here.As many of you know I do commissions of full blown models and some brass model parts.On the brass model parts there is a lot that can get damaged.It took three SPS 40 RADARS arriving damaged that made me change some things including soldering ALL the joints.

Now , packaging is the other part of the equation of course.I have sent as many as four vessels of different scales in one box.The damage toll,One loosened mast and two flagstaffs knocked loose.I use the pillow stuffing material and plenty of bubble wrap of more than one size.

The pillow stuffing material is good because it leaves no stringers on the model like cotton batting would.It can be torn and tucked into those fragile corners without damaging the model too. Then I use the smallest bubble wrap I can find and after three or four layers arounf the model increase the size and fill in the corners.MAKE SURE you make a bed of bubble wrap on the bottom as well.

When you are done add more until you can just barely seal the box without pressure.This assures the model WILL NOT move around or settle during shipment.Tape tightly and label and ship .You can or cannot label "FRAGILE "" THIS SIDE UP " ,etc.If it makes you feel better.DO insure the package for a reasonable amount.I always insure it for what I charge the customer. It works!!   TANKER-builder

My Dad used to buy some built models on eBay, and we also received some as gifts from customers who built one of our kits and sent the finished kit to Dad. How they arrive really depends on how they are packed. I've noticed that some of them have removed easily-broken parts like props, especially on helicopters. A good-sized box that allows room for soft-packing all around the model, so that the model itself has no contact with the sides of the box, seems important for getting it delivered intact.

(BTW, to briefly defend the honor of those much-maligned postal employees, I always put a large FRAGILE sticker on every package I ship that contains model kits, and I have had very few reports of these being especially targeted for abuse at the post office - maybe one report of a crushed package every two or three years, and I ship a LOT of packages.)

There's no use writing Fragile/Do not throw/Handle with Care on the box (though I do it anyway just for own peace of mind) because it takes 1/2 of a second to read the text and its meaning will register to the parcel handler after it's been tossed to the cart 1 m away.

One sure way to ensure careful handling is post with a huge box - the only thing the handlers care about is their own health and will not want to injure their back. So they'd gingerly pick up the large article at least then realising it weights less than a kg, put it on the cart by hand because it doesn't quite fit.

Small parcels also gets handled by sorting machines which doesn't care about orientation or content.

I think packing a ship or a tank would require the most care, for they have lots of little pieces hanging on, especially indie tracks which are pretty fragile. I've moved from home to home and I always break something. Now imagine shipping via airplane before it gets to the UPS wreck crew.

[quote user="wjt619"]

"It is all how they are packaged. I pack the model with the best materials, double box them..."

You are one heck of a lucky guy then if not even one in 28 years arrived with minor damage. I know what you mean by careful and proper packing. I have done that too and a couple still received minor damage. One time I remember, the counter lady at the post office tossing my box marked "fragile" into one of the bins!

Another strategy is to plan ahead during construction by designing removable 'breakables' like pilot tubes, antennas and other fragile items that the customer can install once there. 

Of course adding 'beef' to some parts is good insurance as well. Replacing plastic landing gear with white metal and strengthening items with metal rods will insure less damage. 

I thought there might have been such an article and your probably right on the timeframe. Yeah I saw a poor guy ddrop his model in the rain. Felt bad for him.

tigerman

Packing builds might make a good future article for Finescale Magazine.

FSM did do an article on packing builds for transport to contest.  Admittedly, it assume the builder is also the delivery man, but was still pretty informative and gave some good ideas.  From memory, the author packed a number of builds into one box quite successfully.

I think it was from 2009 or maybe 2010.

I have enough trouble moving my models from one shelf to the next without damage, so i'd never worry about trying to transport.

Thanks William, I'm really not looking to buy, but was wondering of others experiences. I'd be a little hesitant dropping a couple of $100 on a kit and receiving it in pieces.

It is all how they are packaged. I have been building commisioned models for 28 years and sell on my website, ebay word of mouth and at local hobby shops. I have NEVER had any model arrive damaged to any of my customers.  I pack the model with the best materials, double box them and even when I ship to my customers over seas they always arrive in tack. What are you looking for? Please email me at wjt619@ gmail.com or call me at 857-888-0610 and we can get into the specifics of the built. I can send picks of previous builds as requested. I look forword to talking to you and would love to built a one of a kind museum quality replica for you and your family and friends to cherish for years to come!

Best Regards,

William

I kind of wondered about marking it fragile. If an employee is having a bad day, what better way of taking it out then crushing a fragile box? Plus they know that no one will be able to track it back to them. Sad state.

I have sold a few built models on Ebay and have packed them VERY carefully. I noticed that the ones marked "FRAGILE" or "HANDLE WITH CARE"  arrived with damage while unmarked boxes made it without any damage.  Wonder if the Post Office people use those "fragile" marked boxes as soccer balls?

Not really an answer but,
I know that Swanny has an article on his website about this.
I have never don this myself, so I don't know what good it is.
Hope this helps in some sort of way.

Regards Ninetalis.