Merry Christmas Steve, thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you're happy with it. 
I'm relieved it made it there and not in pieces! LOL Yeah, we went to a LOT of trouble packing this thing up. Plexiglass structures can be rather brittle and those scribe lines are like tempting fate when it comes to panels splitting. I think some vibration or bumps during transit caused the lid to pop off somehow and it fell off to one side, breaking in two.
Just imagine what might have happened had the model not been resting in a solid bed of Styrofoam! The way this thing was packed, no part of the model was in direct contact with the crate. That way it could absorb vibrations and minor impacts with minimal damage. Since it was transported by truck, I'm sure it had a rather rough ride. Not to mention the forklift action. . .
Kudos to Richard2001 for building the crate. I designed it especially for this model and he did a fantastic job building it to my very demanding specs. While most carpentry projects have tolerances of, say, 1/8 inch, this one had to be to the millimeter in order to fit the model correctly. I think Richard said it was the most precise wood project he's ever built.
I spent two days cutting all the foam, fitting everything, and packing it all up. The cradle turned out to be a neat idea as it lets you load the model onto a platform and then lift it into the crate.
At any rate, this closes a major chapter in my life regarding this build. I took lots of pics of the crating process and I will post some of them to finish out my own separate thread on this build that's here on this site. Then, Steve can take over with updates in this thread.
Good luck and Happy Modeling!!!
I'm relieved it made it there and not in pieces! LOL Yeah, we went to a LOT of trouble packing this thing up. Plexiglass structures can be rather brittle and those scribe lines are like tempting fate when it comes to panels splitting. I think some vibration or bumps during transit caused the lid to pop off somehow and it fell off to one side, breaking in two. Just imagine what might have happened had the model not been resting in a solid bed of Styrofoam! The way this thing was packed, no part of the model was in direct contact with the crate. That way it could absorb vibrations and minor impacts with minimal damage. Since it was transported by truck, I'm sure it had a rather rough ride. Not to mention the forklift action. . .
Kudos to Richard2001 for building the crate. I designed it especially for this model and he did a fantastic job building it to my very demanding specs. While most carpentry projects have tolerances of, say, 1/8 inch, this one had to be to the millimeter in order to fit the model correctly. I think Richard said it was the most precise wood project he's ever built.
I spent two days cutting all the foam, fitting everything, and packing it all up. The cradle turned out to be a neat idea as it lets you load the model onto a platform and then lift it into the crate.
At any rate, this closes a major chapter in my life regarding this build. I took lots of pics of the crating process and I will post some of them to finish out my own separate thread on this build that's here on this site. Then, Steve can take over with updates in this thread.
Good luck and Happy Modeling!!!
Charles Adams | www.StarshipBuilder.com | Follow me on Facebook
Author, MODEL DESIGN & BLUEPRINTING HANDBOOK, Volume 1 SECOND EDITION NOW AVAILABLE
Author, MODEL DESIGN & BLUEPRINTING HANDBOOK, Volume 1 SECOND EDITION NOW AVAILABLE