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Hello everyone!

I am pleased to announce my kickstarter campaign Mantis Model Storage Case.



Hopefully with your help you will like the case and trays and possibly the stretch goals and fund them. I aim to be the cheaper solution for as many gamers as possible and offering more for less!

Please feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Again thanks for reading and hopefully we can make this happen!

I like your company name

Right now I'm leaning towards a case that is a better fit for Infinity models with all their little fiddly bits, but this looks like an economical mass storage solution.

Looks promising. I'm in. Best of luck with your Kickstarter.

I'll post this over on the comments section as well

Backed, I'll need the full size pick and pluck to stay in though! I did not see it on the KS page, but how do we select the trays? Whats the maximum thickness we can have? The dimensions of the case displayed, are they for the inside or outside?

Thanks.

If I may offer a couple of suggestions:

I think you need some top foam for that, otherwise the top layer will be rubbing on cardboard.

Also, the tray depths could be a bit deeper on the infantry. 30mm minimum, and ideally a bit more. Your photos illustrate why - a good number of the figures are sticking out over the top while on their backs. That's going to get pieces bent when more weight goes on top, and cause them to get snagged more. 40k uses 25mm bases as standard, and more and more games are moving to 30mm bases for regular infantry. At 23mm depth, only the smallest WHFB figs are going to fit (for 28mm scale anyways)... at least those are the only games I can think of that use 20mm.

That's a really snazzy logo by the way!

Best of luck!

 RiTides wrote:
I like your company name

Right now I'm leaning towards a case that is a better fit for Infinity models with all their little fiddly bits, but this looks like an economical mass storage solution.

Thank you very much, and I appreciate it. Thanks again for locking the other thread.

Hopefully I will be able to do a double case (like before) and a quad case but that would be in the distant future.

 Eldarain wrote:
Looks promising. I'm in. Best of luck with your Kickstarter.

Thank you, and thanks for your pledge, hopefully you will like them.

overtyrant wrote:
I'll post this over on the comments section as well

Backed, I'll need the full size pick and pluck to stay in though! I did not see it on the KS page, but how do we select the trays? Whats the maximum thickness we can have? The dimensions of the case displayed, are they for the inside or outside?

Thanks.

Thanks! I have replied to you on KS but I'll do it here also.

All the dimensions for the trays are at the bottom of the stretch goal section Pick and Pluck Tray = 23mm/35mm/45mm/55mm/65mm/100mm/120mm depths

Do you like the other trays?

Bossk_Hogg wrote:
If I may offer a couple of suggestions:

I think you need some top foam for that, otherwise the top layer will be rubbing on cardboard.

Also, the tray depths could be a bit deeper on the infantry. 30mm minimum, and ideally a bit more. Your photos illustrate why - a good number of the figures are sticking out over the top while on their backs. That's going to get pieces bent when more weight goes on top, and cause them to get snagged more. 40k uses 25mm bases as standard, and more and more games are moving to 30mm bases for regular infantry. At 23mm depth, only the smallest WHFB figs are going to fit (for 28mm scale anyways)... at least those are the only games I can think of that use 20mm.

That's a really snazzy logo by the way!

Best of luck!

Hello there,

The cases come with a 5mm topper.

The pictures with the Orks are a problem for the 56 Infantry Tray because of the arms sticking out, but they fit marine equivalents very nice. I can make them 30 depth though (as you say) but you'd only be able to get 4 of them in the case at 30mm depth plus 5mm support sheet. Those two trays were mainly created for 40k/fantasy and to be adapted to other systems but I believe my stretch goal trays should do the trick?





_____

Again thanks all for the kind words of support.

As to the logo I appreciate the feedback I'm trying to make myself standout from the other competitors.

If anyone could give feedback on the stretch goals that would be awsome.

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply, so what are the internal dimensions of the case, in other words, how many mm's do we get out of it? Do the trays depths include the 5mm base?

I'm a little nervous about your international shipping charges. 6 quid seems very low for what will potentially be very large boxes.

I'd only be interested in the 30 mm depth for any sort of infantry, I have too many models with 'dynamic posing' to make the shallower depth practical.

The inner dimensions are 380x280x145mm.

For the outer dimensions add 5mm all round.

The trays depths don't include the 5mm base tray. I'm on my phone at the moment but I will move te tray dimensions above the stretch goals when I'm home.

Cheers!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 plastictrees wrote:
I'm a little nervous about your international shipping charges. 6 quid seems very low for what will potentially be very large boxes.

I'd only be interested in the 30 mm depth for any sort of infantry, I have too many models with 'dynamic posing' to make the shallower depth practical.

Hello,

When I was selling the double cases they were £35 each to send, these half cases are a lot cheaper (I don't have post quotes at hand) but the £3 each box will help. I would rather make a small margin so players world wide get these cases so don't worry :p

Thanks!

Are the boxes themselves being die cut or digital XY? Do you have a manufacturer lined up already?

Are your trays a unique size or are they compatible with any other foam system?

UNCLEBADTOUCH wrote:
Are the boxes themselves being die cut or digital XY? Do you have a manufacturer lined up already?

The prototypes in the pictures are x and y cut. The real ones will be die cut.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Are your trays a unique size or are they compatible with any other foam system?

They're unique size, however they will fit BF with some wiggle room.

Pretty sweet deal for 6" worth of trays, then.

I assume we'll be able to pick any combination of trays to a total of 150mm per case, base sheets and topper included?

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Pretty sweet deal for 6" worth of trays, then.

I assume we'll be able to pick any combination of trays to a total of 150mm per case, base sheets and topper included?

This is my first kickstarter so I'm not sure how to do it, but I don't see a problem with it.

If in doubt I will do it where people from here can send me a PM with which trays they want and I can do the deal.

Cheers!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just finished the first 24 hours of the campaign and already raised £2,724 and 9 stretch goals unlocked. Just another 19 days to go.

Thanks for your support everyone!

These cases are exactly what i have been looking for. I need to check if thows dimentions will fit in my assault pack. The modle storage to price ratio on these things are perfect.

 Lockark wrote:
These cases are exactly what i have been looking for. I need to check if thows dimentions will fit in my assault pack. The modle storage to price ratio on these things are perfect.

Thank you for your support, really appreciate it!

I'd just like to thank everyone who has supported this campaign so far. All stretch goals have been smashed and funding at nearly £4k in under 48 hours. With 18 days to go I do hope other gamers get in on this because you're getting a great deal compared to other competitors.

Thanks!

Interesting project.
For someone, who uses KR Multicases, can you outline where the advantages of your case lie?

I haven't really tried any different ones, and the KR cases (carton) are very similarly priced to those new ones.

Genuinely (sp?) curious about possible differences ...

Cheers, M.

Mutter wrote:
Interesting project.
For someone, who uses KR Multicases, can you outline where the advantages of your case lie?

I haven't really tried any different ones, and the KR cases (carton) are very similarly priced to those new ones.

Genuinely (sp?) curious about possible differences ...

Cheers, M.

Sure thing - Just to preface first these are my opinions from using some of their trays and not a bash to them.

KR charge £25 for a standard loadout, I will be charging £20-22 UK and £22-4 international (these are just estimates for after my kickstarter but they won't be higher than KR's).

With their case you get 4x28mm trays, mine you will get 5x28mm trays. From looking at their products the most their trays can hold are 50 space marine equivalents (I could be wrong on this). Mine can hold 60. This means their case can hold 200 marines and mine can hold 300 marines. Again another big saving and price slot is a very big deal

The foam used for my trays are much stronger than their blue ones, and will be cheaper.

So you get an initial saving and it increases with every purchase.

One of my main goals when starting this was to be cheaper than KR be it in price or more bang for your buck and offer more. If I fail at doing that then there's no point me carrying on.

Hope that helps!

Cheers!

Regarding the 50mm/40mm/60mm circle base trays, will there be pluckfoam at the edges so you can cut out angles to better keep your figures? WMH player and sometimes parts just jut out from the base for the models. Especially cavalry

Sining wrote:
Regarding the 50mm/40mm/60mm circle base trays, will there be pluckfoam at the edges so you can cut out angles to better keep your figures? WMH player and sometimes parts just jut out from the base for the models. Especially cavalry

When the press cuts are made I will try it out, if it works then sure why not.

As a side note I'm going to buy the X-Wing game today and workout some trays for the kickstarter.

For Dreadball, do players need the case to store the board too or just the models, templates?

Thanks

i would love trays for Xwing. However, unless you're certain it wouldn't delay the delivery date, I wouldn't try to do too many systems I guess? I rather this be on time than get it months later

found the answer, ignore this.

Tyron wrote:


Hope that helps!

It does, thanks for the explanation ...

Sining wrote:
i would love trays for Xwing. However, unless you're certain it wouldn't delay the delivery date, I wouldn't try to do too many systems I guess? I rather this be on time than get it months later

Just bought X-Wing now and will start making some trays. Honestly rest assured I will be able to deliver by September, if it starts to get out of hand I will change the rewards

 grrrfranky wrote:
found the answer, ignore this.

Was it about how many trays? I didn't see your question ha

Mutter wrote:


It does, thanks for the explanation ...

No problem, see you on kickstarter?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hi all,

Just a quite update that I will now be developing X-Wing trays, you will find all the updates here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/932371889/mantis-model-storage-case/posts/915743

Thanks.

Just posted an update on the X-Wing trays development, feedback appreciated.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/932371889/mantis-model-storage-case/posts/917904

Thanks

Tyron wrote:
Just posted an update on the X-Wing trays development, feedback appreciated.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/932371889/mantis-model-storage-case/posts/917904

Thanks

I'm liking the X-Wing stuff. I've been using a pick and pluck tray but it's all gone a bit wrong so far, so a shaped one would be good.

In saying that, you might be easiest providing a pick and pluck for the bigger ships because I don't think the ships are particularly consistent size / combination wise. I.e. There are 2 big Imperial Ships and 1 Rebel ship (IIRC) and you may have different numbers of them, whilst not being able to use the spaces for much else.

What I've done differently with mine is that I've cut a 50x50mm square for each ship, and above it I've gut a 50x25mm gap for the movement dial and base cards, so that I can keep the ship + dials together for ease of use. Doing that with your tray would reduce the tray to 4 x 5 ships, but if you were to put a mini divider in rows 2 and 4, allowing a partition for the ships cards but still allowing the customer to remove the partition for more ship storage, then you could get away with it. That would then let you further divide the longer spaces in the top tray to allow individual slots for different token types (focus, stress, etc), making them easier to use during the game.

I do like the extra cut-outs for the cards, that makes life a lot better.


Would you be able to have a generic card set half tray?
I'm thinking for Malifaux but it'd work for other games: space for a couple of decks (MF uses a playing deck + stat deck) of standard playing card sized cards, and a few spaces for tokens and dice etc. There are quite a lot of games using cards/tokens now, Bushido, Deads Mans Hand (I think), and so on.

Herzlos wrote:

I'm liking the X-Wing stuff. I've been using a pick and pluck tray but it's all gone a bit wrong so far, so a shaped one would be good.

In saying that, you might be easiest providing a pick and pluck for the bigger ships because I don't think the ships are particularly consistent size / combination wise. I.e. There are 2 big Imperial Ships and 1 Rebel ship (IIRC) and you may have different numbers of them, whilst not being able to use the spaces for much else.

I agree, pick and pluck can be tricky to deal with. I am merely trying to get rectangles which can handle most of the larger ships, so say the slot for the Millennium falcon can then hold a future released ship, same for the Slave 1 etc

Herzlos wrote:
What I've done differently with mine is that I've cut a 50x50mm square for each ship, and above it I've gut a 50x25mm gap for the movement dial and base cards, so that I can keep the ship + dials together for ease of use. Doing that with your tray would reduce the tray to 4 x 5 ships, but if you were to put a mini divider in rows 2 and 4, allowing a partition for the ships cards but still allowing the customer to remove the partition for more ship storage, then you could get away with it. That would then let you further divide the longer spaces in the top tray to allow individual slots for different token types (focus, stress, etc), making them easier to use during the game.

That's a very good idea the problem is I need to fit 3 whole trays with only 140mm total depth and I'm trying to maximize what they can fit in it so they don't have to keep buying multiple cases for a board game.

Herzlos wrote:
I do like the extra cut-outs for the cards, that makes life a lot better.

Would you be able to have a generic card set half tray?
I'm thinking for Malifaux but it'd work for other games: space for a couple of decks (MF uses a playing deck + stat deck) of standard playing card sized cards, and a few spaces for tokens and dice etc. There are quite a lot of games using cards/tokens now, Bushido, Deads Mans Hand (I think), and so on.

Do you mean make a whole tray for just cards? I only play 40k and I normally put the cards in the bag.

Thanks for the feedback!

Tyron wrote:

I agree, pick and pluck can be tricky to deal with. I am merely trying to get rectangles which can handle most of the larger ships, so say the slot for the Millennium falcon can then hold a future released ship, same for the Slave 1 etc

Hopefully they do all fit in a similar sized slot. I'll see if I can get my buddy to bring his ships over tonight and I'll measure them all for you.

That's a very good idea the problem is I need to fit 3 whole trays with only 140mm total depth and I'm trying to maximize what they can fit in it so they don't have to keep buying multiple cases for a board game.

Very true. I'm just not sure how many actual ships you'll need to fit on the small ship tray; you've got space for 30 ships in it without stacking, and that's a huge amount of ships (most games will be 4-6 a side with 10 a side being huge), so you probably don't need all of that space for the ship models and might be better adding space for stuff that scales up with the ships (like the movement dials) to keep the top tray for things that don't scale as much (dice and tokens).

Do you mean make a whole tray for just cards? I only play 40k and I normally put the cards in the bag.

Yup. Some other games are much more card heavy, and my current set up for them involves separate deck protector boxes [In Malifaux you need a playing deck each, and stat cards for each mini/upgrade which can be about half a deck, plus a series of 30/50mm markers (normally just empty bases) and status tokens], but it'd be nice to fit everything into a single case. A full try might be excessive but a half tray could prove quite handy. I have the same issue with Flames Of War, which involves a lot of different tokens and markers.

Thanks for the feedback!

No problem

Herzlos wrote:


Hopefully they do all fit in a similar sized slot. I'll see if I can get my buddy to bring his ships over tonight and I'll measure them all for you.

Thanks I appreciate it, I have asked on my kickstarter but I just get "likes" lol

Herzlos wrote:
Very true. I'm just not sure how many actual ships you'll need to fit on the small ship tray; you've got space for 30 ships in it without stacking, and that's a huge amount of ships (most games will be 4-6 a side with 10 a side being huge), so you probably don't need all of that space for the ship models and might be better adding space for stuff that scales up with the ships (like the movement dials) to keep the top tray for things that don't scale as much (dice and tokens).

Ah yeah, the slots do fit the flight stands and ship tokens if they don't fill them up with ships.

Herzlos wrote:
Yup. Some other games are much more card heavy, and my current set up for them involves separate deck protector boxes [In Malifaux you need a playing deck each, and stat cards for each mini/upgrade which can be about half a deck, plus a series of 30/50mm markers (normally just empty bases) and status tokens], but it'd be nice to fit everything into a single case. A full try might be excessive but a half tray could prove quite handy. I have the same issue with Flames Of War, which involves a lot of different tokens and markers.

Would this be popular though? When I get the bags made they will have this feature, maybe players cut out divider walls for the cards in the mean time? I don't know if they'd buy the tray cards when the bags are made. I'm probably wrong about this as I don't know much about the games you mentioned.

Thanks!

Tyron wrote:
Would this be popular though? When I get the bags made they will have this feature, maybe players cut out divider walls for the cards in the mean time? I don't know if they'd buy the tray cards when the bags are made. I'm probably wrong about this as I don't know much about the games you mentioned.

I have no idea how popular it'd be I'm just offering suggestions on what I'd find useful, on the assumption that I'm not that atypical. I just like having everything in the 1 case so I can grab it on the way to a game without spending ages trying to find all the bits. In theory it'd make my games cupboard less of a mess too.

Measurements for the big X-Wing ships I have (in mm, using a plastic caliper I got free from work, so I assume accuracy to be +/- 2mm):

Millenium Falcon: 130 (l) x 98 (w) x 37 (h)
Slave 1 : 83 x 79 x 32 (l)*
Lambda shuttle: 73 x 75 x 50 (w) *

*I can't remember which way I measured them. Lambda had the wings folded, and would fit on it's side and slave 1 on it's back.

Slave 1 and lambda could fit in the same slots but I've no idea what you'd have to do with the Falcon.