So I live in Calgary, I’ll skip all the details but I’m moving and am downsizing and putting stuff in Storage 'cause Calgary rental prices are out of control (for what I’m willing to pay to live in the prairies.) Anyway, I wanted to know if anybody has any thoughts on storing their built airplanes in cold climates? I’m just trying to figure if I want to spring to pay for the heated storage unit or whether it’s worth it. I have my built planes in boxes, 'cause I love building them, just don’t want my place full of them. Should I be worried about the effects of cold on these things? split seams? I’m not planning on this being a long term thing, so I’m not worried about plastic becoming brittle or anything (I don’t know if it would in the long term anyway, it did work on the old car’s radiator hose) Any wisdom would be appreciated. Mike.
The only problem I can forsee is, in extreme cold, differential volume changes between plastic and metal parts—might pop your photoetched parts off. Don’t know if it will, but that’s the only thing I can think of.
I’d say it depends on how you put them together. If you used Tenax or some other ‘welder’, you shouldn’t have a problem with seams splitting and such. But if you used tube glue, you could have a problem… then again maybe not, I dunno fersher.
I seem to recall, as a kid, taking a model to school which I’d built using tube glue. It was winter and when I got to school and opened the box, a few pieces had come off. But I could have been careless with the box, too. It was so long I don’t recall exactly.
As to superglue… for metal or resin on plastic… I have no clue about that.
Take your least favorite built-up, package it and put it in the freezer for a while… if it survives that then I don’t think you’ll have much of a problem with an unheated storage space…
Fade to Black…
That might be a tough one to explain to my wife…she already gives me flack about keeping the superglue in the fridge. 
Mark
Do be sure and warn the little pilots NOT to stick their tongue on the cold metal parts of the plane. THAT would be embarrassing…
[;)]
I will make deal with you. send me some of your cold weather and I will send you a box of all the heat you can stand from Texas.[C):-)]
Thad
I had models in my unheated garage for the first time last winter with no damage that I have noticed. Granted our winters in the Okanagan Valley are a little more mild than in Calgary but I don’t imagine there would be much of a problem.
Lol, yeah. Just make sure that you have some warm water ready if they do not listen to you
I have taken them to shows and had them in the car over night with the temp in the lower 40’s with no problems. The only thing I have seen is sometimes the radio antenna will slack up on some of them.
I left a model in the car once for about 10 hours with temps in the low 20’s F. The PE dive flaps popped off, even though they had been well secured with CA. My guess is if you use a lot of PE you may have a problem.
Regards, Rick
Thanks for the input
Just a thought but the thought of a few pe parts popping off would be better than the risk of warmth on a thermoplastic. the last thing you would need are warped pieces,
hope this helps.
Greg
toomanyslupees, I live in Calgary too!
What part of the city are you in? Do you plan on staying in Calgary when you downsize? I know full well about the insane housing prises but I think my wife and I got lucky when we bought our house over two years ago, well before the craziness.
Anyway, When we moved in, I put several boxes that had models in them up in my garage which is off the back alley (not a front attached so no residual house heat). When I opened them up last summer there were no problems and I had put them together with tube glue. With them surviving two winters up there I’d say the non-heated storage would be fine. Hope this helps and good luck!
Hey, another one from Cowtown, I’m in Hillhurst and I don’t know where it is I’m heading, Thorncliff I think, just a little south of McKnight (yeh, Willy McKnight of 242 Squ. RAF for anybody who’s interested, Douglas Bader had alot to do with this road getting named after him) I caved and rented a heated storage unit, more so for the sake of an element of my other hobby, Emma, a 190lbs Ampeg tube bassamp that I thought it would be easier not to have to find a place for in the new apartment.
Thorncliff is a nice area. I’m in Coventry, the northern edge of the city.
I’m glad to hear you have your dilemma solved. Good luck. Say, have you ever entered any of your builds in either the RMMC or GOMBS model shows here in Calgary? I had some in the GOMBS show last year, I missed this year as my son was born just before the show and I was a little busy.
I’ve never entered a show, sometimes I feel like an antisocial modeller, but I guess that’s kinda true, sometimes it seems the deeper you get into that end of things you add the politics and building for me is something I can do where I don’t have to deal with anybody else, my other hobby, music has enough politics, I’m happy to keep this hobby to me, my little corner of my room and some tunes.
Another cowtown. 
I’m in Beddington Heights, in N.W. but just barely. We moved here last year for a job, I’m a Gas Turbine Technician. We scored on our place, $850 for a four bedroom/2 full baths/2 living rooms. I’m scared the rents going to go up, it’s happened to a lot of guys at work. In Vancouver you can only raise it 10% per year, but not here. I’ve heard of 30% increases. We hope to buy at some point. Looks like we got here a little too late. Anyways…
Can one of you guys provide info on local modeling stuff? I’m just getting back into the hobby so not realy into contests but it would be fun to go to shows. Is there any clubs or the like? What is RMMC and GOMBS? Thanks!
The best guy I can think of that knows all that is the guy that owns Uncle Bill’s Hobbies, strangely enough he’s not Bill, I think it’s Rick, I could be wrong. His shop just moved it’s east of the airport, it’s a great shop too, I don’t want to know how much money I’ve dropped there since I found out about it. I’ll try to find the address for you.
Uncle Bill’s Hobby
605-4655 54 Ave Ne
Calgary, AB T3J 3Z4
(403) 277-2762
found it
Awesome, I work beside the airport. I usually go to PM Hobbycraft because it’s just around the corner. Maybe this weekend I’ll have to check it out. Thanks.