hey guys, i had a question regarding bringing miniatures in an airplane, to GD for example. if you just bring the GW case with models, will i be fine? cause security may think those little spears can be a threat to the nation.

I doubt very much you will be able to take them on as hand luggage. You will probably need to put them in the hold where they may get inspected. If I were you I would look it up on the official website for whichever country you are in and see if it has any information to help you. If not then I'm sure there will be phone numbers you can contact to make further inquiries.

Hope it helps,
Rich.

surely.. they'll just be destroyed by the chuckers?

I've heard people mention they have done it, although they said they got hassled a bit. I can immagine it going through the x-ray machine and the guards going, "He's smuggling in an army of skellitons. This is a terrorist skeliton invasion!!!:O"
Im sure you'll be ok, just you will get some funny looks and chuckles from the security people when they think you have like a gun in there and it turns out to be little plastic toys.:shifty:

If you check them in, make sure you have a fragile tag on whatever suitcase they are in.
You *should* be able to carry them on. They fit as a carry on either above or below.
Just be prepared to open them up and allow them to be inspected carefully etc, and be prepared to be forced to check them in as well.

I've carried them on to a plane a couple of times. They'll get x-rayed, and you're pretty much guaranteed to get one of the security staff wanting to see inside it. As soon as they see what it is, they will almost certainly be happy with it (IG demolition charges not being known to literally blow up :P ). They'll usually ask you to take trays out - but they'll get to see that you aren't carry anything dangerous and more than likely let you through without an issue.

I suspect they would get more antsy about stuff like superglue these days.

I dunno rork, Pewter figs can be sharpened to a dangerous point and then thrown as a shuriken, they MIGHT take it away under the grounds of it being a potential thrown weapon on the airplanes. (I am of course, just kidding)

Seriously, if they think terrorists play with little plastic men, they are seriously disturbed in the head. Plus why would we risk breaking our precious mini's to use them as a weapon. I think national security should be more concerned about other things. Jeez.

Saw the thread title and thought you figured out a way to make your assault marines fly.

I am sorely dissapointed.

Saw the thread title and thought you figured out a way to make your assault marines fly.

I am sorely dissapointed.

Actual LOL there.

^__^

Ive carried a GW case full of brets on through 3 airports and never got checked. So i think you should be good.

The only thing that would be a problem is the pewter figs...I brought over some plastics and they didnt care, but pewter is close to metal, and metal is close to a weapon....if your not allowed bottled water anymore, then your not allowed anything these days...I would just phone up the airport really. I wouldnt trust the "chuckers" as some have mentioned.

I carried a case with my Wood Elf army, metal treemen included, on a plane with me to Seattle last Christmas with no problems. The guys at the security checkpoint didn't even look twice or ask me any questions, which was actually somewhat disappointing.

That said, I think it may be inconsistent from airport-to-airport. I've heard tales of people being forbidden from carrying their armies. Of course, there's also the story (though I'm not sure of its veracity) of the security staff disallowing a marine army from being carried on because, "there are no guns allowed on the plane".

You could probably just mail them ahead of yourself if nothing else.

I've had pretty good luck with this. Way back in the day I had to carry a large collection of lead models from the UK to NZ. Suffice to say that there was such a large collection of leaad that it would have constituted about half my baggage weight allowance (not sure if you Americans know what these are). On the grounds that if you wear something it doesn't count towards your weight allowance I filled a belt bag and the bellows pockets of my combat trousers with dozens of little packets of lead models (I also wore braces (suspenders?) to hold my trousers up). I didn't have anything taken off me but the number of "please place anything metal on this tray" events got a bit tiresome. The belt bag also caused a few eyes to pop when it went through the scanners as it appears as a solid black block with tiny points all over it.

More recently (ie post 9/11) I've carried figures in blister packs in the same belt-bag and had no trouble. I occasionally had to get them out and show what they were but again, nothing was confiscated.


If you're not ravelling far or for long (I'm imaginig a weekend tourney trip, here) then try and put the figure case inside your main case. This will protect it when you do check it and will avoid a lot of the trouble of carrying it through security. I'd also advise the check-in desk that the contents will probably appear suspicious and you are happy to make yourself available to open or show or explain the contents of your checked bag. Nothing makes security grumpy like a passenger who refuses to help!

That said, I think it may be inconsistent from airport-to-airport.

Heh, I'll say. On our way to New Zealand from the US, my wife and I flew out of Los Angeles, and they completely missed the fact that my wife had five 3 1/2" nails in her wallet (I still can't remember why she had them... something to do with hanging pictures?). We found out they were in there on our way back to the States. Guess all that tax money we're spending to make our airports safe could be better spent, no?

But on the subject at hand, I'd imagine if you have one of the fancy hard plastic cases with the foam trays, and pack it in a suitcase you'd be fine. I've put more fragile things than that through in my checked luggage and had no problem.

Good luck though =)

-H

I did it two weeks ago. Brought my Eldar from Sweden to the UK for the LO meet (wooot). I brought them in as hand luggage and they checked trough the box (the security-dude asked his co-worker if my Fire Prism-turret could be used as a stabbing weapon!) but it said that it was ok. Same back to Sweden.

I can just see it now: HEADLINES! Eldar Fire prism involved in stabbing incident.. more to follow at 11

UPDATE: There were two fire prisms so they increased their stabbing ability

I had a friend who left his army case somewhere while he went to buy something, someone called the 'suspicious baggage' number, the security basically sh!t themselves over it and eventually Bomb Squad got their daily dose of pyrotechnics. Man, he was mad as hell.