I built a Tamiya King Tiger tank kit awhile back and it was in storage at my parents house.  My 4 yr old cousin got his paws on it driving it around their basement and it survived with only the spare tracks and wheels being broken off, crazy considering he probably put his body weight on it.  I guess the model is as strong as the real thing.  :)

I store all of mine in plastic display cases.  If I have time I will lay down some grass paper as a floor and set them on it, or I will make a simple diorama type base for them.

Being in the military I move quite a bit.  This last move the packers wrapped all my models in paper (it was horrifying) and then stuffed them inside the plastic cases wrapped in paper.  When I unwrapped them, I was amazed to see that minimal pieces had been broken off, and nothing that wasn't able to be fixed in less than 5 minutes with some glue.  I guess these guys know what they're doing.

I use those platic/acrylic individual display cases...at least until I find a more permanent solution.

As for what I take into work:  I scour ebay for diecast versions of the planes I like.  I don't mind co-workers handling them, the cleaners can't break them (though they certainly try) and diecast is much more forgiving during Nerf gun wars.

Here's the latest in this category and it happened right in my own home.  I have a Spitfire that I built sitting on the fireplace mantle at home.  I come home a couple days ago from work and just happened to notice the Spitfire sitting in the same spot but with both landing gear broken and sitting on its belly,  No one in the family claims they did the damage.  I suspect one of the kids friends.  Infuriating to say the least.  I would have never thought I'd need 'do not touch' signs in my own home.

People I have no problem with. Unfortunately, my cats can't read. I learned the hard way to keep what I don't want touched under glass or otherwise protected.

I attend on average 12 model show a year here in the UK ,As a display stand , over the time I have had every type of moron and not able to read dead head , touch or lift a model from the table . I now have a mock severed hand complete with fake blood and a sign that saying  ,  with a sign do not touch . it seems to work

Wow. After some of these horror stories, I think I'll rent armed guards for my kits if I ever take one to a show. The only kits I've ever had damaged were when they did the death dive into the trash can.

At one of our ship model club's annual shows a member brought his spectacular, 10-foot-long Aegis-class cruiser. The radar mast on that model was a work of art - painstakingly made up of Plastruct ABS tubing. The model was in progress; he hadn't started on the rigging yet, and apparently the mast wasn't glued down yet. I was club member on duty, with the job of answering questions about the models and making sure nothing went wrong.

My eyes practically fell out of my head when, right before my eyes, a kid, about ten years old I think, ducked under a table, physically yanked that mast off the model, and started running around the room with it. I yelled something (probably unprintable) at him, and managed to catch up with him and snatch the mast out of his hand, but not before he'd broken several small pieces off it. (The builder was more reasonable than I would have been; he said it would be easy to fix.)

I once had a chat with an exhibit designer at the Franklin Institute, the big science museum in Philadelphia, about how he designed and built exhibit cases. He said, "well, the first requirement is that it be able to withstand the full impact of an eight-year-old taking a running dive at it from a distance of twenty feet."

Excited kids and models make a dangerous combination. I rarely take any of my models anywhere without putting them in some sort of case.

I do lots of history days in local schools where I take my restored and fully working Tanks as part of the day. I also take 1/35 scale built up kits too as part of the day for display only There is even one of Trumpeter's 1/16 full interior T-34 models which the kids stare at for a long time.. They are not behind glass at all but at the start of the day the verbal warning goes out.

"These are models of real vehicles. They are very very delicate and you are not to touch them. Look with your eyes and NOT with your fingers."

" Children and Teachers who look with their fingers at these will have them cut off with a blunt knife with lots of blood, pain and screaming."

"This Afternoon you will see the real things which work and you CAN touch those because hopefully you can't break them. These small models take hours and hours to make... even weeks."

"This is your one and only warning. We also have a firing squad for those who mess around too!"

To date, no models have been hurt or anything. no-one has had appendages removed or been shot. It works. Especially when you are standing there in full German Panzer uniform!

severed fingers and no cleanup  seem to be a deterrent.

Many years ago, a fellow member of a local model boat club made the following comment:  "The two worst groups at any show, those that have to touch things are little kids and old men.  Little kids may not know better and get a verbal warning.  Old men should know better, and should get a punch in the nose."

Since I mainly build radio control boats, I've been putting business card sized signs on the boats at various shows.  The signs read "Please don't touch the model.  This boat model has been treated with Oxidane.";  I have some other cards where Oxidane is replaced Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydrogen Oxide, Hydroxic Acid,or Dihydrogen Monoxide.  The parents will ask what is that chemical, usually while holding their kids back from the model.  My usual answer is: "The chief component of acid rain - plain old water."

I have a sign on my display table that reads "Please don't fondle the models" It seems to work for those who can read.

carl

Hi

As an addendum to this .The last train show we had The LEGO guys came up with a good one .They had two Storm-Troopers from Star Wars standing  guard on each end  . No damage this time . Hmmm.

Most of my "good stuff" is in cases.  I do have a few "shelf models" on open bookshelves in my den that I occasionally have to repair due to mishaps.

Our club used to have "do not touch" signs for contests and shows, but as others have mentioned, they really don't do much to stop the uninitiated visitors.  The most effective thing was to have polite and diplomatic folks minding the tables and guarding tthe models.

Mark  

cwalker3

I'm responsible for all of the breakage that goes on in my house. Just last week I wanted to clean the shelves that the models were on. I move all of the models to a table, clean shelves and put models back. Be as careful as I could be I still manage to break off one antenna and a roadwheel.

Heh heh, that sounds very familiar.  I've done exactly the same thing; most times, I'm the biggest culprit.

It happens when I take the models to the airport for photo sessions too.

Gary

I'm responsible for all of the breakage that goes on in my house. Just last week I wanted to clean the shelves that the models were on. I move all of the models to a table, clean shelves and put models back. Be as careful as I could be I still manage to break off one antenna and a roadwheel.

Hi , Spit !

  I have found that they rarely work . When we go to train shows with the Museum traveling show stuff we have had to resort to yellow posts and chains around the tables too . Does it work ? NO !

      The TEX- LUG ( LEGO USERS GROUP ) I belong to goes to train shows too .Yellow posts , Good spacing and signs all over the place ( Please ! Do Not Touch - It scares the minifigs .)

     These do get a chuckle , But they don't work either . I have come to conclude that my generation was the last to really endorse the rule , Don't touch , it isn't yours !

    Now at the Museum ,even with 18" plastic guards on the edges of the display layouts , the kids still try to reach over and touch . The parents don't say a word of admonishment even if the child de-rails a running train !

  So you see , it's a burden we are stuck with ! When I was a tad , many centuries ago ( to hear my friends tell it ) I was told quite sternly," you touch Anything where we are going , and I will paddle you with you pants down , right there! " .  Now , that is considered child abuse !

I guess admonishing your child causes mental trauma or something . Oh , and yes, Adults are just as bad at times !

I once took a few models every year to the school where I teach.  I had some hand-lettered placards placed beside them that said they were not toys, please don't touch!  The students were great about it and never caused any damage.  I transported the models in an old VCR box. Well, one day while leaving, with a couple planes in the box, I encountered one of the custodians.  Unfortunately, this man was a moron and when he saw me he said, "What's in the box?"  He joked, "Are you stealing a VCR?"  Then the idiot reached into the box before I could turn it away from him and crushed a Monogram A6M, breaking the landing gear completely off.  I was irate of course.  No more models to work!

Our club does a small show at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia. We have the 'Do Not Touch' signs everywhere and you still have people grabbing models and picking them up. The kids are bad enough but there are plenty of adults- whom you'd think could read...

I wished I did that to remind myself. I just picked up a Dragon 1/48 Fokker bi-plane. Forgot that the rudder was glued on with almost no locating pins - as most planes the rudder is itegral with the fuselage. The rest of the plane did a death dive onto the floor. Not only did pieces go flying, but other pieces broke in the middle. After a fruitless 1 hr fixing session, I gave up, grab whatever I can for the spare parts box and the rest went into the trash. First time I've done that - <sigh>

I don't use the signs.  Probably should.  Like Spitfire, I keep two of my best at work on a shelf in my office and just last week I noticed one had been moved.  We have no cleaning crew so this was a fellow employee. We only have about  a dozen people in the office and they all know me and my hobby so this was a shock to see that one of them had fiddled with a model.

My flabber was officially gasted.

My cats can't read and have little regard for fragile kits.

-knocked the Titanic of a shelf. Totaled

-Chewed the rigging off my Constitution. Ironsides survived but looks like a bad wig.

You could put a shriveled up hand on the shelf with a sign that says "What the last person who touched my models left behind".

Had a few that I was sorta glad about but than my cats got into the room and there was carnage but just went oh well as this are just learnin ones

Yesterday, a visiting physical therapist noticed my models in the man cave and proceeded to name them all, correctly.  P-40, F4U, P-51D, B-25, etc.  She was very amazed and enjoyed looking at them.  But she never attempted touch any one of them.  When I asked her how she knew all that stuff, she told me her Dad was a B-24 pilot!  Wow!

Gee, I guess I'm pretty lucky, It's me and my wife. My oldest grandson knows better (he builds his own snap-tite, so he knows the pain of broken work), my youngest Grandson is way to small to care or get to them.

Mine are behind closed glass doors in display cabinets to keep those pesky destructive hands away. If a friend wants to see one up close, then I take the model out of the case and on to my workbench but no handling other than by myself.

I built a 1/72 scale F4U-1A Corsair kit for a co-worker of mine a token of appreciation for doing some stuff for me. A day came from my boss that several people will be moving out of their office and placed elsewhere. A red flag went up knowing a certain co-worker of mine would get involved moving this person's office stuff out. I spoke to the boss my concerns of removing the Corsair kit  and put it elsewhere. Thankfully my boss knew I had done this kit for him and a big thanks to another for letting me keep it in safe hands in his office.

Long story short, the day came this certain co-worker did get a bit rough shod packing said co-worker's office (on medical leave at the time) She (yep you guess it a she) tossed his Cat's cradle aside and when I saw what she had done I told her she needs to be careful with delicate stuff (I spent a good part of untangling the cat's cradle for 20 minutes and ended up packing the rest of his stuff myself). Anyways, if I had not taken the kit out for safe keeping in another office, there is no doubt she would have simply tossed it in the box. Had she did, I would have choked her on the spot and chewed her *** out for her stupidity.

Right now, I have 1 kit (Tuskegee Red Tail P-51 Mustang) in the den on a shelf of an end table. My cat doesn't bother it, my wife has dusted the furniture and has been careful not to damage it and my son knows better to touch it. Life is good.

I have a couple of them in my office so I'm not always in there and many people come and go.  I have an Apache sitting on a shelf and came in one morning to find it facing in the opposite direction with the gun broken off.  I suspect it was probably the night cleaners that did it while dusting the shelves.  There are of course those that cannot resist spinning the rotors when they sit it sitting there.

My built kits are in a glass display cabinet. They do not get handled. My horror story about somebody handling my kit happened at a club meeting in Massachusetts.

I had a Techmod T-50 kit made in that brittle white plastic Eastern European manufacturers use. I used Eduard PE on it. It was partially built and rather fragile. An older man with fingers the size of thumbs attended the meeting and was returning to the hobby. He saw the kit sitting in the box and thinking it was a sturdy kit because of the metal, grabbed it like a 3 year old would grab an ice cream cone.

The photo etch fenders snapped right off and the hull went straight to the hard, tile floor. It broke into many parts, mainly hull and suspension components. Some parts just broke free, but many parts shatter into multiple pieces. Some pieces disappeared around the floor.

I never rebuilt it, but have kept is as a reminder as to not bring "real" projects to a club build meeting. When I do go to club build meetings, I have a 1/72 scale tank kit in a small box that I just tinker on while I am there.

The T-50 was mostly complete except for the tracks, which were a bear. He was very apologetic. I felt sorry for him and was sort of glad I didn't have to tackle the rest of those tracks.