Hello neighbor and welcome to the forums! Me and the gf have been to Lima plenty of times (her parents live in indian lake so we venture up that way time to time), and have visited the club there (I cannot remember the name however), is he affiliated with them at all? I would love to see some of his work. Pricing depends on the detail, size, look, etc.. of the models. What kinds of things does he scratchbuild? We have a modern HO layout, so if he does any work like that we would be more than interested. As far as shipping goes, big boxes with lots of Styrofoam and maybe even some sort of wooden protective frame depending on the size of the model. I have never personally shipped any scratchbuilt models, but I have received some and know how they were shipped and packaged, and Im sure other members on this forum have more experience in this department and can give you more advice. Good luck and welcome to the forums!