2railjon wrote:Murph, Curious question.. how do you ship your beautiful diorama's without them being destroyed by shipping companies?
Hi Jon, When I first started my little business, I was convinced none of my work would travel well, especially if shipped, no matter who the carrier. Consequently, as I glued each element of each scene into its place utilizing a wide variety of glues and adding numerous layers, I discovered the dioramas -
Insta-Ramas, as I named them - made the trip to and from (whether packaged on-the-spot in the Meet hall for customers to take with them or loaded back into my vehicle for a return home) display without any damage or dislodging of elements whatsoever. I was satisfied and gratified, and encouraged - that the scenes could travel.
Shipping them seemed to me to be another matter. I made a point of reading any conversations on model trains forums about this-or-that company that had delivered product for model train hobbyists. The stories often seemed gruesome, with many treasures arriving destroyed, it seemed to me. And for me the issue became more than just a simple matter of registering an insurance claim for the damages because I felt an obligation toward my clients and customers to get to them what they had wanted, yet being mindful that I do not repeat-craft any scene ever. If one gets destroyed, it's gone forever. Simply refunding money would have felt inadequate and disappointing.
So, at first, I personally delivered - drove - everything by-hand to anybody who wasn't able to carry their purchases from York to home, or had called me to buy something they saw and decided they had to have after the Meet closed. This included the general NY, PA, Connecticut, NJ, Virginia area. For example, I hand-delivered a one-piece base-plate 42"Lx24"W 1890's forestry logging scene, with its details of oxen pulling machinery and horses pulling harvested logs, to a businessman in Conn. There was no way it was going to make it being shipped, I felt. I enjoyed the experience of taking it to him myself.
Then, one fine April day, a new customer appeared at my little booth in York. He was from UTAH (!) He purchased an
Insta-Rama I considered maximum fragile (seen here in part), but he was
determined to buy it and to have it shipped from Pennsylvania to Utah. So, my assistant did the best he could boxing it up with what we had available on-site and managed to scrounge from Roger Farkash's (TW Design, Trainworks: Lionel's display) resources and turned "The Tinkerer" over to my customer. He took it to UPS for another layer of further boxing. It arrived in Utah absolutely intact. Only the truck in the yard got slightly dislodged (because it was glued to ground-covers, not directly to the acrylic base-plate - lesson learned) but did not bounce around and do damage. I learned from that experience.
I figured that if we could package something so fragile well enough standing in a corner of my booth in the Orange Hall, I could surely do a better job at home under controlled circumstances.
My method is this: I shred documents and stuff that detritus lightly (not tightly) into everything from sandwich-sized zip-lock baggies to dry-cleaner bags, all gently filled with shredding and carefully tucked separately, with purpose, around every feature and detail, not using those helpful but nettlesome styro-foam "peanuts" near any thing miniature. Then, a larger plastic bag is used to shroud and enclose the whole baggie-padded
Insta-Rama, containing everything into one unit and placing it into a close-fitting
slightly larger cardboard carton, having been sealed shut and all around with wide black Gorilla Duct-tape. A second, slightly larger box has its bottom covered with a generous layer of styro-foam peanuts; then the first box is inserted into the larger box, atop the peanuts; the approx. 1-2" air around each side is filled with peanuts and/or various sizes of plastic air-pillows packaging sheets. Both the inner box and the outer box get addressed with permanent-marker on their tops and sides, regardless of any printed labels that will be affixed later by UPS.
I use only UPS, carrying each completed package directly to their counter at our nearby Staples store.
Not a single diorama has arrived damaged in the slightest. That convinced me most of my work can be shipped, though I continue to hand-deliver some of it.
I don't think you asked for all that, but I am a chatty guy, I must confess, and since you asked, I felt I owed you a thorough explanation in case it might be helpful.
Murph
Too much time at work, Pete. You need a weeks vacation in Amish country; you know, get back to the simple life. 
