Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, for a while now, I have been brutishley hauling my minis around in their original boxes, packed like... carrots. I have decided that they deserve a bit better. but I dont want to endup buying a case that won't fit all of them. And I want one that fits, Like the entire army and my extras.

So I was wondering if the GW army figure case, found here, http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440149a&prodId=prod1095468, has enough space to carry;
71 PA space marines
21 Jump marines
15 scouts
16 terminators
2 tele-homer bases (together they take up the space of one marine)
3 rhinos (all vehicles have removable weapons and tops/turrets)
3 space marine bikers (dark vengeance style)
A whirlwind
a vindicator
A landraider (sponsons can come off)
Landraider crusader (sponsons removable)
Droppod (doors open and close)
Aegis defence line (With quad gun)
20 chaos cultist
7 Dark vengeance chaos guys
Hellbrute
10 plague bearers

Will need space for about 20 more infantry and a rhino

So is the GW case good enough, and easy enough to modify for the Items that wont fit? what Items won't fit? Deep enough foam for vehicles? any alternatives that are cheaper, or just plain better? Have at It dakka, any advice/recomendation is
appreciated.

EDIT: not sure if this is the right section, feel free to move

A shame you're in the USA, or I'd try to sell you the spare one sitting in front of me

The short answer is no - the figure half holds 3 trays of 36 standard figures (jump pack troops and termies should just squeeze in, so long as they're not waving their arms too enthusiastically), and the vehicle side would hold maybe 4 land raiders or 6 rhinos or equivalents.

But 2 should do the job pretty well.

Any way I could cut it up to maybe squeeze the extra's In? Also ouch... 195 dollars is what they charge you in new zealand? Damn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
also, not sure about the difference between this http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440149a&prodId=prod1095468
and this
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440149a&prodId=prod1760026a

You could get something like this for about the same price.

Up the cost by about $20 and you can customise the foam you have to better suit your army.

And yes, AU/NZ pay stupid amounts for everything... :(

If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, a large plastic bin would be my suggestion.

Use a "nuts/bolts" organizer ou can get at hardware stores for regular rank and file models. And just get foam for your more delicate models and vehicles.

But nothing beats armytransport or battlefoam for convenience. Just the price.

My corrent system is probably better than that. I might just stick a magnet in the bases of all my models and get a plasic box with
metal in the bottom.

There is a difference between the green one and the black one. The Black one is all infantry: 6x40 1 inch bases. The green one is half bases, half pluck foam (1 layer).
The absolute best way to transport models without paying a premium is to do the following:
Step 1: find a case. I like using a large power tool case, but it would be possible to use any kind of box, case, bag or even luggage, provided it is completely empty on the inside.
Step 2: Go to a custom foam place. Yes, they do exist. For a fee, they will take your case, let you choose the foam you want, and cut it to fit exactly inside your case of choice
3: cut away: the foam place will give you a solid case of foam; no holes for models. I use a small soup tin with a sharpened top (use a file) to bore holes for terminators, and a short piece of 1.5 inch copper/pvc tubing (again sharpened on one end) to get smaller holes for the standard models. For tanks, simply trace the outline on the solid piece of foam, then cut away.
Foam from foam stores come in 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 inch thicknesses, and different stiffnesses too. I used this method on 3 boxes: one holds a reaver titan, another two revenants, and a third tool box holds 12 tau hammerheads. I also used this on the bottom row of the GW small black boxes: 2 regular trays, then this custom tray for terminators and a single tank.

There are a number of case companies out there. A few have banner adds here on Dakka. Battlefoam and KR Multicase are two I see mentioned the most, with Sabol, Feldherr, and a few others popping up in discussions.

Do it yourself options are going to be the least pricy, but quality depends on your skills and what bits you can find.

GW's cases are expensive, and not very space efficient. I've heard complaints about the clasps snapping. I have an old one, which has served me well over the years. I got it at half off though. Would not buy a new one, other companies get you more value for your dollar.

Battlefoam has some very nice custom options, offers a premium product, but at a premium price. The owner of the company is controversial, so that affects some people purchasing. I've heard nothing but good things about the product though.

KR is somewhere in the middle. They use soft foam in card cases, put in a larger bag. There are problems with this system (all their foam has to fit into the KRU box, which makes some trays awkward or less efficient) and I've heard complaints about spiky bits getting stuck/breaking. I just placed and order, so should have one of their bags headed my way shortly. I will be posting a review in my blog once it shows up.

Here's what I ordered, just to give you an idea of what you get for for money:


I suspect you could fit most/all of what you have in a Kaiser 3 (or equivalent) They recently added a feature where you plug in what you have and it tells you what you need, but it's still best to learn what tray sizes hold what, and fiddle around their website. Their customer service is quite good from most reports (and my own experience shooting them a few questions via e-mail)

When I was doing my research on where to get custom foam, they are who I decided on. There are other options out there, and you needs might make one of them better for you, YMMV.

http://www.krmulticase.com

Kr is great for most admired but if you have a lot of spikey bits I would stay away. They're kind of a pain for my tyranids

I was able to get pieces of foam from my job and got a hot foam knife and made my own. Its a lot cheaper and you can cut specifically to fit your army. Then just get a plastic bin from walmart and put the foam in it. Saves a lot of money if you can get a good source of cheap (or free) foam. Seat cushion foam is fine.

I don't like defending gw much but the small case what i got was great, i was on a packed bus and the
driver closes a door on my case, The case corner folded inwards and i was sure something had broken (bus driver no lie started laughing like a maniac). i get off and looked at my models... none had broken, all were the same condition as i had left. If gw has made one good product its my case and their worth saving for!

If you have some skill at foam cutting you can use one of these large gun containers
They retail for less than $200-300 depending on size and are about 3 or 4 times the size.

A few of my buddies have these and they are great. (One time a guy accidentally brought the one with his actual guns in it, the look on his and the redshirts faces haha)

Anyway yeah they can hold hundreds of plastic dudesmen (great for you IG or Ork players) and dozens of vehicles.

Different models have metal exteriors or hard plastic edges to protect your minis inside

Ahhh, guns! Doesn't sound like a good idea to carry that around. Nope, nope, nope.

If you're trying to store that much you really should look into Battlefoam.

You need a medium sized Battle Foam for that many tanks and Land Raiders. Something like the PACK 720. Battle Foam is your best bet, really, because it looks expensive, but it's the most cost efficient way to store a large amount of models and protects them the best. The cheaper bags like Sabol and KR are not as sturdy and in the end cost just as much money or more because you need more of them. A medium sized Battle Foam bag holds as much as a huge stack of Sabol or KR. You won't fit all of that in a single GW case either. Maybe two of them, but then you'd have to carry around two heavy, large, hardshell cases.

 Clang wrote:
...the figure half holds 3 trays of 36 standard figure...

New ones hold 40 figures per tray. Battlefoam's standard infantry tray for GW cases only holds four more models but has rather thin dividers between each "cell".

The only thing I don't like is the tank foam GW used in their Apocalypse Gamer case. It's only 2" thick with a thick egg carton foam layer. I think they could have designed the case work with their existing tank foam easily enough. But they didn't. :(

Gifts for Geeks sell a great range of Tyrant Cases that you can customise and they are much cheaper than some of the alternatives mentioned;

http://giftsforgeeks.org.uk/shop/figure-cases-foam|figure-cases-and-accessories|tabletop-tyrant-foam-and-cases/

The Tyrant case holds as much as the G.W. army case and is only £41.00 of $62 USD ish.

I payed $40 for two GW cases used off of Kijiji from a local gamer in my city, one of the clasps on one of them is broken but otherwise they work fine. I find it best to get extra foam trays, or any foam for that matter, with the GW cases and stuff it inside as i'm a bit paranoid about turning the case on its side and having my models bounce around inside. I also usually slip the case inside a backpack for easy travel.

battle foam or army transport.
GW has a hard-case, sure, but it's actually harder to carry around, and the foam that they stuff it with is not the most common denominator, so trying to replace it isn't so easy, not to mention you'd need an identical case to make use of spare trays of foam. You'd be better off with battlefoam or army transport, their foam trays are pretty well near interchangeable, and all of the bags scale up and down and around the foam trays.

EDIT:

also, pluck foam is recyclable as packaging material and for making custom foam trays in case you get desparate. There's a bloke who used needler and thread to stictch it back into a sense of order. You can get the backer from a hardware store, some kind of white foamy lining, or if you're not to concerned and just need some thing so the models don't fall through but has some give, you can use kraft foam, and some of it can get pretty thick. So, kraft foam base stiched to pluck-foam pluckings stiched to eachother...... not the greatest foam tray, but, great for packaging, sending things around, and for saving yoursef $10-15 on a brand new foam tray......