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Hey,

This is my first tutorial, so bear with me.

Have you ever had the problem of moving your army from one place to another?
Did they break, fall apart or just got lost?
Or do you need to keep your models safe from little childeren, nephews or other people?
Then this is a tutorial to make your own army box.
With this box, you can move your army around and have a place to leave them when you aren't painting or playing with them.

You will need:
A pair of scissors,
Isolation foam,
(It is used to absorb sound, but you can also use any other material you would like.)
Some of your models,
(Since I play Imperial Guard, I will be using them the rest of this tutorial)
A case or box.


Step 1:

Measure the size of your box.
Length, wide and height.


Step 2:

Cut the isolation material in the right shape. So it fits into your box. Do this for the top and the bottom of the case.



Step 3:

Place the foam in the box. On both sides! Otherwise your models are only protect from one side...
It should look like this.



And then you are done!
Unless... Like most armies, you don't have only infantry.
If you have a bigger box/ heavy weapon teams/ tanks/ something different you want to have that too.
So...


Step 4:

Measure the size of the miniature you want to insert.
(In my case a heavy weapon team.)


Step 5:

Cut the foam again.
Leave a small piece of foam between the models so they can't touch each other.


Step 6:

It should look like this.


Step 7:

Place all your models in it and you are ready to go!



I hope you found this useful and happy wargamming!
-Loner

Tips:
-Make sure the models are squeezed between two layers of foam, so they don't move.
-If there is too many room between two layers, place a news paper underneath it.
-Keep the pieces you have cut out, you can use it for small cases.
-Bigger boxes can have multiple layers.
-Boxes from the battle force are usefull.
-Be carefull with your models, if you crush them in the box, they still break.

That looks like it works pretty well, and is good for getting a case on a tight budget. I've done something similar for my BFG fleets.

Seems like they would bounce around....

It broke a leg off one of my DKOK horse commanders D:

JDM wrote:Seems like they would bounce around....

It's your choice if you want to make it or not, for me it works.

-=Scar=- wrote:It broke a leg off one of my DKOK horse commanders D:

It is because of the long legs of the horse. You should be carefull with horses and resin.

Providing the two layers of foam are deep enough that they touch when the case closes it's fine. I use rifle cases sometimes the cheap plastic shell ones - americans can get them for next to nothing in walmart, in the UK they're fairly cheap.

The OP needs deeper foam I think.

I've also see people glue magnets to the bottom of their miniatures bases and "stick" them to the inside of a metal toolbox to transport them

- null

What I did with my case before I sold the army was use a 1" rotary drill bit to cut into a layer of foam, not going all the way through, then I pulled it up and used my hobby knife to cut the bottom. This gave each model a recess to fit into. Taller models were laid on their side, to avoid breaking banners and such.

Hmm Isnt it called insulation foam?

-=Scar=- wrote:Hmm Isnt it called insulation foam?

Can be, I don't know the English word for it.
I translated the dutch word directly to English (Isolatie materiaal > Isolation material.)

Heffling wrote:What I did with my case before I sold the army was use a 1" rotary drill bit to cut into a layer of foam, not going all the way through, then I pulled it up and used my hobby knife to cut the bottom. This gave each model a recess to fit into. Taller models were laid on their side, to avoid breaking banners and such.

That is a good idea, I have been thinking about it but since we don't have a 1'' rotary drill it doesn't work...

I don't think a Deffkopta would fit in there.

Good Idea I usually just get the army transports or the Gw cases but they are SOOOO costly.

I buy the foam inserts for Sable army transporter cases and put them in el cheapo rubbermaid containers

The esy way Is to buy one

I've found that a standard tool box works quite well. Keep your paints etc in the top section (both storage and quite a good way to keep stuff in order when you want to use it), and then the bottom section can hold everything you need on the way to a game. I wrap my models in squads in sandwich bags and then shove paper in between the bags (the models usually stay on a couple of shelves). Never had a model break this way yet - though I've lost a couple in my time!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just not going to shell out 60 quid for a proper one lol.

Old suitcases make perfect gaming carry and storage cases, the larger the more effiient in total.

The only addition to this tutorial is that I would make top and bottom layer of egg crate foam thicker than the others either buy buying seperate thicker foam or buying a layer of straight non corrugated foam and gluing the thin egg crate foam to it. Do not glue in the bottom or top layers so that any missing bits can be recovered.

Next for the intervening layers cut sheets of thin plasticard and glue two thinn layers of egg crate foam to them with the mups pointing both ways. The semi rigi9d layering will help protect the minis.

For larger suitcase start with dividers to compartmentalise your case, you might make individual compartments for vehicles and big monsters. Also line the sides of the case (and any dividers) with non corrugrated foam.

This would definetly be useful, so far I've only used lunchboxes stuffed with tissue paper.

This is great! I have spare foam for this. (Hmmm... I wonder would a drill box work?)

very usefull thanks for posting.

This is a cool tutorial. One suggestion I might make is, that if you read this tutorial , he shows you how to get a little coupler from the hardware store, sharpen it with a dremel, and use it as a cutter to make perfectly round holes. If you have a little foam you can use on the top and bottom, you can take your "main" foam, cut holes in it with the coupler (I tried this, it works well) and then use fixative spray to glue it to your bottom foam into the case.

I think your case looks nice, better then a gun case with the same functionality.

Thanks for this, should be useful for me, since I'm always moving my army around on foot to my friend's place.

Probably not very helpful for that beast of a model called a Bloodthirster, but thanks anyways.

-=Scar=- wrote:Hmm Isnt it called insulation foam?

Not where I live. Acoustic foam is another name for it. Some places even call it "eggbox" foam.

You can generally get it in paired sheets in a number of places (it's often used to muffle sound inside speaker housings - where you want more sound coming out through the front of the cone, not echoing around inside the box).

Good tutorial. Similar to one I've been using for years.

i do a similar things with shirts or the plastic stuff that comes with mailorder GW sets

I am all for saving money but having said that there is nothing that can beat made for purpose boxes. Heavy gauge card boxes are also available and despite the wording they are very good, sturdy boxes.

http://krmulticase.co.uk/

They also do Europe and US. Varied foam tray loadouts so you can tailor each box to individual tastes. I bought one a few days ago and after receiving it I ordered 2 more today!

null wrote:I've also see people glue magnets to the bottom of their miniatures bases and "stick" them to the inside of a metal toolbox to transport them

Quite a good idea!

I made two carrying cases that fit my 12k point DE army perfectly..... for about $60 bucks total!!

I bought two of the rubbermaid 12 gallon totes that have the interlocking tops that you can put a lock on if need be, and various numbers of 1", 2", and 4" soft foam padding from Hobby Lobby(cost about $2-$5 each depending on size).

Simply cut the sheets into multiple sections to fit inside the boxes, then lay your models on the foam, using whatever size you need (1" for man sized, 2" for bikes and such, and 4" for vehicles), trace them out with a sharpie or other permanent marker, then cut with a hobby knife. I have 9 Raiders(both old and new), 4 Ravagers, a talos, 10 reavers, 15 Incubi, 5 Hellions, 5 mandrakes, tons(think a little over 300 in total) of warriors, and a bit over 100 wyches that all fit between these two boxes, so they are easy to take to games and just as easy to store whenever im not using them!

Sorry for rezzing an older thread but I saw nothing about this and thought it might help!!!!

massive necro broski. This thread is 5 months old.

But not a useless necro, since he did contributed with ideas.

Exactly, Dark. Necro that contributes is okay.

I use a hard plastic toolbox with a pull-out tray for paints, similar to this:

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=20001&partNumber=405509&Trail=searchtext%3ETOOLBOX

The clear plastic piece at the top is actually a lid for a set of separate compartments - perfect size to store metal models individually so they don't knock together and lose paint.