I may have the opportunity to travel to a few model shows out of town and would need to fly. How would I go about transporting the models that I want to bring with me and be able to fly on commercial aircraft? I don't think there are any security concerns, but very fragile items in a luggage compartment don't make me feel very good about the prospects of the survival of my models. Have any of you got experience with this and what do you do?

I don't really want to construct any heavy wooden cases or anything like that so can you take them with you in well packed boxes on board with you as 'carry on' or do they have to go in the bottom as checked luggage? How does this usually work?

thanks...

bob

I have carried them on board in my carry-on bag. I always mount my models to a wooden base with screws firmly fixed into the bottom of the model. I then pack the base into one of those cheap dollar-store plastic cases with a lit and tape it securely to the bottom of the case or even screw it through the bottom of the case. Pop the lid on top and you're good to go. You can count on the security people taking it out of the bag and you can probably forstall them turning it over & shaking it by setting it on the x-ray machine yourself, probably in one of the plastic bins they use for laptops. I would avoid bringing any model that has lots of wires or batteries for lights. No sense tempting the gods...

Paul