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So I haven't yet taken a flight with miniatures as luggage.
Does anyone have any strategies or tips to get them for points A (through security) to point B, without security breaking them?
also as a note, I'm looking to transport 2 monoliths

I'd do them as Hand Luggage.

Unless of course you have rigged up lights in your Monolith's. Then you might be a little ambitious!

There are 2 ways to go about it, the safe way and the easy way.

The safe way is to carry them on the plane as your carryon luggage. This ensures that they are handled with respect since you'll be in position of them the whole time (by law). The down side of this is that security will go though your bag/carrying case at the x-ray scanner EVERY time. I'd gone though this numerous times and they never listen when I tell them to just bring it though so I can open it up for them. It takes them 5 min of looking and asking other security personnel to come over and look at it before they bring it down to have you open it. So allow for extra time at security.

The easy way to do it is to pack your miniatures into your checked luggage. I've done this a couple of times. It works best if you have some sort of hard case luggage setup that you can then put your miniature case inside of. I've transported my army transport inside of a large wheele luggage thing (soft sided) and things came though mostly in tact (a vyper broke up a bit and I had to re-glue the arms on a couple of guardians) but this was after 2 plane trips worth of "abuse".

Quote of the day, for Sunday, Sept. 8, 2008:

"Do you have a dragon in your luggage?"
--Xray tech @ LV airport.

Carry on. Always and only.

*edit: I've never had my miniatures actually searched. I've had to answer a question a couple times from a curious tech (see above - it was a winged hive tyrant, actually), but unless you've rigged up electronics, miniatures don't look like anything threatening - just odd.

I've had my carry on searched because of a travel pillow (with built-in massage that I've never used).

Also, from another perspective: "lost baggage" claims pay out at some ridiculously low per pound rate. I figure if I make it to a tournament with my wallet and my figures, everything else can be dealt with.

I just took two GW cases full of spikey chaos to and from Las Vegas as carry-on luggage. The security guys didn't give me any trouble at all. I was prepared for them to want to open the cases and verify the contents, though. (the superglue and xacto knife had to be in checked luggage, of course)

I also suggest you carry a copy of White Dwarf with you if you're taking your minis as carry on. Preferably in the case with the minis. It can certainly help move things along and reduces the prodding and poking of miniatures I've experienced over the years. Just flash a few pages of the magazine and most of the TSA personnel act like they understand. Of course it's always great when you get the TSA x-ray tech who plays.

Cheers
Dave

@davetaylor

You've met TSA agents who speak English?! Amazing!

(I keed, I keeed)

What cases are you using? Are the GW army cases carry on size? Are you making your own cases? I travel a lot down to LA, and I don't think I would feel comfortable checking my army. I would much rather carry it on.

We came up with this and it works like a charm. TSA will be looking slightly confused at the screen. Just explain that "they are toys". Only a couple times do I ever have to open the case.

Always carry on the minis. You can buy new clothes. Have fun buying a fully painted army within a day of the event if it is lost.

1) Always take the models as carry on, unless you want them smashed.

2) Forgeworld resin shows up the same as C4 on airport scanners, so be prepared to be searched if you use forgeworld.

Doctor Thunder wrote:1) Always take the models as carry on, unless you want them smashed.

2) Forgeworld resin shows up the same as C4 on airport scanners, so be prepared to be searched if you use forgeworld.

WHAT?!?!?! (sigh) Dang, I use a bunch of add ons from Forge World. I guess I better get ready for the pat down.

Thanks for the replies.
Carry-on it is

You know, in a thread of measured and reasonably sane responses, I will throw my input. I took a lizardmen army to India, where I was working. 2 cases full of pewter and plastic. I put it in GW cases because even though it is not the MOST durable, it IS double walled, thereby reducing the shock of non-catastrophic impacts quite a bit. I put it in my luggage, in the center of my roll on luggage, and checked it. Long story short, this bag went thru not only international travel, but helo rides (where it was packed by monkies onto the bird), and intervessel transfers out on oilfield construction vessels (again, where I was working), AND crane lifts in pitching seas (we got scraped by that typhoon that nailed Myanmar). Everything came up roses. Nothing borke, scratched, dented. A grand total of 26,000 miles of the American Tourister treatment. No FW, but as soon as I can find some that's next.

I've done this to Europe, Asia, and Africa. My BA went to Angola with me a few times for painting. No casualties. If I had only done it once, I would think it was luck. However, it's been several trips. I've got armies with more miles on them than most people do in their lives, and I have never carried-on. Always checked, and going through the worst airports on earth. Pointe Noire, Port Luanda, Lagos, de Gaulle; name it.

There's also Secret option three.

Pack up your mini's extremely well, slap fragile stickers all over the box as well as "this end up" and mail them to the hotel you'll be staying at. Be sure to call the hotel and let them know what you're doing so they hold the package for you. When you're ready to head home just mail them back.

Not only do you not have to deal with the TSA, but your mini's will be insured if anything happens - providing you buy the insurance.

This is done all the time here at the company I work for. I'm always going on business trips that require I have equipment that I would not be allowed to carry on a plane so it's sent via UPS to my destination and waiting for me when I get there.

And if you want to talk about TSA incidents and funny quotes from them... Try carrying a large FLUKE multi meter in your carry on. The TSA agents take one look and freak out. On just one occasion I've had the scanner guy put it trough FIVE times, then call over more agents to look, and then pulled me aside and questioned and my FLUKE swabbed for explosives. Alternatively I had one guy who knew what it was and said "Your FLUKE is bigger than my FLUKE."

The incident that inspired me to post this thread was when my company sent me out to get a development platform certified I had a rather pain-in-the-*** run in with TSA.
They personally disassembled a 3 tier board-set and then piled the components in the luggage UNPACKED.
The did this AFTER it was brought through screening.
I boarded a very small short-hop plane (from Chi town) and had to board-check the luggage, as it was to large to fit in the "proper" storage compartments.
So the TSA go to it after I had already boarded, with little justification as I can tell, since the luggage was already screened and marked as such.

So after hearing about the resin issue, shipping maybe the most sound way of doing things

to Oni:
I feel your pain about the FLUKE, I had to get a firmware uploader through screening...
Let me tell you TSA is AFEARED of ribbon cables.

to grizgrin:
NICE!

grizgrin wrote:You know, in a thread of measured and reasonably sane responses, I will throw my input. I took a lizardmen army to India, where I was working. 2 cases full of pewter and plastic. I put it in GW cases because even though it is not the MOST durable, it IS double walled, thereby reducing the shock of non-catastrophic impacts quite a bit. I put it in my luggage, in the center of my roll on luggage, and checked it. Long story short, this bag went thru not only international travel, but helo rides (where it was packed by monkies onto the bird), and intervessel transfers out on oilfield construction vessels (again, where I was working), AND crane lifts in pitching seas (we got scraped by that typhoon that nailed Myanmar). Everything came up roses. Nothing borke, scratched, dented. A grand total of 26,000 miles of the American Tourister treatment. No FW, but as soon as I can find some that's next.

I've done this to Europe, Asia, and Africa. My BA went to Angola with me a few times for painting. No casualties. If I had only done it once, I would think it was luck. However, it's been several trips. I've got armies with more miles on them than most people do in their lives, and I have never carried-on. Always checked, and going through the worst airports on earth. Pointe Noire, Port Luanda, Lagos, de Gaulle; name it.

Damage is one issue. You seem to have a good method for avoiding the damage. However, lost luggage is whole other issue. Can't play in an event if you don't have your minis. We traveled to the UK and carried on our minis. Didn't want to fly a few thousand miles to play in the UK GT and then have someone lose our minis.

For the OP - you can take the chance on checking luggage. But you are basically rolling the dice. Something bad will happen sometime. It's not about if. It just comes down to when.

Three tips from traveling a lot.

1) When putting your box in the X-Ray, make sure its turned long ways, or else its just ganna roll over and over through the X-Ray machines tossing models everywhere.

2) Back it tight! The tighter the better as models won't roll in the above example, and if the plain tosses a lot your models are still safe.

3) Get on the plain QUICK! On the way home from Vegas me and some friends waited to get on... big mistake there was no more room in the overhead compartments when I did manage to get on... I was forced to check my box! Could have ended disastrously! I was lucky and only one monolith broke.

i've never had resin' set off any alarm bells...i fly a lot, and take my minis with me wherever i go, since paintin' is my job...
i use a sabol army transport bag as my carry-on... anything bare, and my paints go in a hard gw case inside my luggage...
i've not had anything confiscated yet...

cheers
jah

Yeah, good ole TSA. I have an uncle that works in the TSA. But don't tell his mamma; she thinks he's a piano player in a whore house.

Seriously, I have met some really good, nice, and accomodating TSA folks; the ones here in my hometown seem to be a choice pick bunch. However, there are a lot of them that define the phrase "feth Stick". I've seen some stupid gak from them. But then again, they have to put up with stupid gak too. Like a bro of mine. We get back from a job, and we are walking off the plane to baggage. He starts talking about bombs. And timing mechanisms. Won't quit. After listening to him ceaselessly gab at me about incendiaries and explosive rates of expansion that by the time we got out of there (miraculously without incident) you couldn't have driven a knitting needle up my butt with a sledge hammer, I was so puckered. Even worse, his first name is Haseeb, so if we HAD been stopped we'd a been held until the new moon turned gold.

Malice: I have to agree about the lost luggage bit. It has been sheer luck that that has not happened to me with my minis.

I had a lady that got called over by the x-ray tech who said, and i quote, "oh no, my 10 year old nephew plays with those, they are harmless", add in bad spanish accent and you'll get the right vibe....

Just had to share that, but yeah, i carry them on.

My friend Jeff and I flew to the Las Vegas GT together. I did carry on with my army, he checked his. The bag containing his army was put in line to go through a scanner and we proceeded to the plane. When we picked up the suitcase at Vegas we could here things rattling around inside. Not good. The army was originally tightly packed in foam miniature trays and padded in with clothing.
When we opened the bag at Vegas we found a mess. Someone had taken everything out for inspection (there was a TSA note to this effect in the bag). After the inspection Jeff's army and other stuff had been dumped carelessly back into the case. Clothing, toiletries, Orks and empty foam trays were all randomly intertwined. There were about fifty broken models. The Mega Nobs and the Battlewagons took the worse beating. A few heads and arms were nowhere to be found. Glad I went the carry-on route.

P.S. He had also packed in a closed box of Pop-Tarts. The box had been opened and all the foil packets had been completely smashed. They were still sealed, just full of crumbly bits. Guess the agent didn't like Blueberry.

Always always carry on for me too.

I´ve flown with my FW Krieg army several times, and never had this "C4 Issue" that was mentioned...

This was in europe of course, not sure if the scanners are different?

Anyways, last christmas, going home to have some fun with old friends, I of course packed everything in to my army case, and got checked in the ariport, as usual.

The reason was not the resin models, but apparently I had been clever enough to pack my hobby knives in my model case.... Dohh.....

What type of cases is everyone using when you carry on? Are you using the standard GW army case, or something else?

I would pack it as a carry on, clearly marked as toys.

Checked luggage is a pretty good way to transport your models, especially if you have more than can be easily fit into your carry-on allowance. I've flown between Detroit and Osaka with models several times (once bringing back my entire tyranid army) with very little damage incurred along the way (the wings came off my flyrant, but those wings fall off all the time due to being crappily pinned, so that was no surprise).

The key to making sure you're models make it intact is to make sure they're well protected. I remember quite a while back some dumbass went on a rant about the quality of Sabol transport cases, because he used his to carry his models on a plane (he might even have had it checked) and was livid when at the other end so many of his tanks and models were smashed. Well, no gak. What do you think happens to a soft case when it joins all those 25 kilo or so suitcases in the cargo hold? I transported all my models in Sabol trays, in one of those semi-rigid extendable handle rolling suitcases, and the key to transporting them intact was having them in another rigid container inside the suitcase. A cardboard box, a large plastic food container, something hard that would protect them from any blows that were transmitted through the suitcase. That's not enough though, because the real killer for models is shifting during travel. Penitent engines hate bouncing around, no matter how solid a container is protecting them. Anything that can shift if your bag bounces around need to be padded until it doesn't - and this is just as true for checked bags since they're probably going to be orientated several different ways during the course of your trip.

Essentially, care and common sense are the two important factors for safely transporting your models.

Never ever ever check an army.

Always use the correctly sized "approved" airport size "bag".

Always make room for it anywhere on the plane. I've smashed peoples clothes into a pocket dimension to make room, and tossed coats the feth out of the overhead.

My army > you, your family, your wife, your kids, your stupid gak.

I'd take another flight before letting my luggage get packed.

Always, ALWAYS lock the case. That way, it won't come open in flight nor can the TSA idiots open it without my key. They can bitch, but I can lock anything I am personally carrying.

I've never ever had a good experience with the TSA. I have however figured out their "secret" code for getting you searched again at the plane (usually 'marking' your ticket in some way, like with a pen). And I rip that part of the ticket off now. Woo, homeland security fail. My ticket, I can destroy it how I like.

Yes, I am a grade A jerk about the whole thing. You get searched every time you fly, you'll get your panties in a bunch too.

My favorite question:

"We'll need you to take one of these apart so we can inspect inside."

"Over my dead fething body, buddy."

That ended nicely. I thought I was going to get gang raped in the shower for talking back.

Like the time they asked me to 'disassemble' my laptop, and to 'remove the lens' from my camera.

"Ummm feth you?"

Yeah. TSA slam + Homeland Security bypass + This Post = FBI visit?

Nice! Had one of those before over my minis. Yes, really.

Why am I not surprised Stelek has difficulty with TSA and other authority types?

I think if the passenger is Stelek, then there's going to be no hassle free way of getting models onto a plane.

Disassembling laptops is my job... but they scan hundreds of them every day and I've never heard of having to even open a laptop at an airport before.

America sounds like fun.

I've had minis checked before, but I was definitely paranoid about it.

My father, back when he worked for the US Air Force, was coming back from some top secret conference somewhere, and was carrying samples of stealth aircraft skin. Talk about freaked out TSA's

As for miniatures, I now live in the far north, and one thing I can tell you: prolonged exposure to extreme cold is NOT GOOD for hybrid models due to the differing expansion rates... EVERY SINGLE metal - to-plastic join in my entire ork army let go on me shipping my stuff up here. It was trucked up in -40 degree weather (Ever see Ice Road Truckers? I live in the 'city' they start off in) However my Tyranids, despite having a billion spiky parts, the only thing to let go was again, the 2 non-pinned joints on my hive tyrant for the Venom Cannon. Everythign else was A OK. So my first week with my models was spent pinning and touching up