Crating up the Trench Run for transportation

        Long ago I learned the misery of transporting terrain and minis to a convention only to have them damaged during transit (or by mishandling by players during the game). Over the years I have been progressively increasing the sturdiness of my transportation boxes to the point that I now build self-storing crates for any custom work. The Trench Run model is largely white beaded styrofoam, a desperately insubstantial material to expose to wargamers so I intended to frame it in a plywood crate from the beginning. This was greatly assisted by the fact that I built in on a sheet of 1/4" luan ply with wooden battens underneath for stiffness. All I had to do was add sides and a top.

       I went to Lowe's and bought a sheet of luan plywood, they have a frame-saw there so I saved myself a ton of work and had them cut the sheet into four 2x4 foot rectangles and then cut two of those into 1x4 foot strips. These would provide all the surfaces I needed to completely enclose the model. I grabbed a few sticks of 1"x2"x8' spruce to provide framing.

 

clamps and Titebond made sure that the sides were firmly attached

the styrofoam model will be glued in place after the crate is finished

 

 

then I built the top which is simply a 2x4 foot sheet of ply framed with 1"x2" strips

 

once that was finished I added posts to in inside of the side panels to support the top,

more clamps and Titebond

 

 

after that had dried overnight I cut the end-pieces and glued them in place,

 being careful not to glue them to the top

        A quick coat of black paint and firmly attaching the model to the inside of the case is all that remains to do (and I still have almost two weeks before the convention!)