Tyranids in Storage
After several years the Tyranids on Parade has been on display gathering dust and my one year old son (at time of writing) started grabbing pieces and breaking them. Hence it was time to put this into storage. By the the third day, I wish I just put it all into bubble wrap, although some pieces probably would not survive even that. While gently dusting them down and storing them away, many of the pieces broke and needed repairing, especially the Gargoyles in flight and their paper thin wings.
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I had lots of corrugated card saved up from a cupboard I purchased over two years from Ikea to use as dividers. I also had some packing sponge I got from the place I work. So I set about placing the heavier models into the box and guessing the angle as I cut the sponge to fit on top of them to stop them moving too much. Despite this going into storage, it was only later I realised i went a bit too far. As the models got placed into the box, I started having different height of models and just went with the flow without planning any of this.
I had three different heights at this stage. The bottom row (with the foam) containing the biggest monsters along with the Trygonster on the top left was the highest. Then followed by the top row containing the Carnifexs. The middle section was then lower than the rest. So I made a tray to sit in the middle to raise it to the next height. This housed more models before another tray then fitted on top of this to make the whole lot level.
This is where I started to loose my enthusiasm. To store the more delicate pieces, I decided to use the sponge again and cut out holes so that it would grip the pieces gentle enough and leave enough room in case the box gets shook up (or dropped). It was a good idea at the time but proved troublesome. The first to go in was the Death From Above Diorama (Eldar Jet-bikes and Tyranids). Not only did some pieces break, but I also had to lower one of the hovering bikes just to fit into the height of the tray,
Then the pieces for the Slaughtered Wolves Diorama (Space Wolves). Due to the height of the Lictor, I placed it on its back, but cutting the correct shape so it would slot in neatly was horrendously difficult. Not only using a sharp scissors was difficult, but also trying to work out which part beneath the model I had to cut to allow the model sit snugly into the sponge was proving annoying. Other than the Lictor's claw breaking several times, the banners remained intact. As the mess of cut sponge and corrugated card mounted up, I abandoned the rest to try and finish the rest of the box off.
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Making one last tray for the top half of the box was not enough as I had more small models to pack away. The more vital being the Gargoyles in flight. Once again I used a long piece of sponge and cut holes to grip the stand. After the fourth hole, I started regretting this whole project and wished I just used bubble wrap. Not only did I break a couple, I lost one wing and miscounted the holes I needed. Hence one stand was demoted to the none flying and moved in with the rest a layer down. Then one last tray was made to fit on top leaving the top half for the large CD stands.
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And you think I learned the first time around, I decided to do the same for Commander Dante. What another nightmare to cut, but at least nothing broke from this one.
Although not quite finished, it did mean everything was now in the box, albeit loose as I still have yet to cut the holes into the sponge in the middle layer for the remaining diorama pieces. This left enough time before the count down to the 2016 New Year. |