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So you've been playing a while collecting your army men and/or tanks. If you're like me and you've been playing more than a while you have either one big army or a few smaller / normal sized armies or many big armies. So, when you're not playing, what do you do with all your models?

Is everything mostly unpainted and just thrown in a box? Magnetic bases with models lined up in a metal tool box? Do you have shelves loaded with everything organized into units? Do you have a separate army case for each army and they stay inside all the time? Do you use GW's army cases or something more simple like a cheap rifle case full of egg carton foam? Do you just store everything in army transport trays and take the ones you need when it's time to go play?

Just wondering, how do you store your models?

For me it's half shelves, slowly adding new army transport trays here and there to keep everything in, and I have 2 army transport cases that I fill with the trays I need when I go play.

I painted them, so I want them to be seen. I've been considering
shipping my Eldar to the basement, though, seeing as I'm probably
not going to play 40k soon at all.

Uhh.....i bought Tackle Boxes from wal mart, and used magnets on the walls of the boxes, and on bases, so they were held in lace and easily accessible.
$10.38 total including magnets for 1500+ points of orks.
and for hehicles, i use rags and wrap up my vehicles and put them in my land raider box.
Seems to work for me.

My Chaos is in the standard GW case. The models which do not fit in stand on a shelf in my room they are transported in seperate boxes. My Nids are carried just in the army box which is not a very good option but i haven't invested in anyone better yet. Maybe I will go with a toolbox.

Gun case: easy to carry, already padded with foam.

Most are in a metal card-filing cabinet. Some are stored in their army boxes (cut rectangles of egg-crate foam and layer them in). Large, awkward models sit on shelves in the closet.

My Dark Angels and Guard infantry are in GW cases.

The rest are stored level in various boxes in my closet. I'll be figuring out a better way to store them after I move in 8 months.

I use a variety of methods.

My current armies in play (Warlord Orcs, and WM/Hordes stuff) as well as those minis I'm especially proud of right now (Chainmail figs, 1999 figs, Viking fantasy army, some Mordheim undead) are on display in an Ikea glass cabinet, or in some combination of plastic model kit cases. Those figs are transported in either a skirmishpack or a hard pistol case.

Most of my 40k and fantasy armies are in various cases. Eldar reside in a GW hard case and a rifle case (shared with Tau, BFG human fleet and Deathwing). Orks, SOB, Marines and IG are in Army Transports (regular size). Urban War figs are in a skirmishpack, VOID Viridians, miscellaneous fantasy and sci-fi figs, Battletech mechs and WHFB Beastmen are in a rolling file case Iorek (?) turned us to, that takes AT foam trays.

I plan on moving in the next couple of years, and trimming down my armies, at which point I'll put more on display.

So many options out there Also for my BFG stuff, I have an old Armory mini case that's kinda the size of a pistol case with 4 layers of egg carton foam so I have my imperial fleet on one side and the chaos fleet on another. I have a big rifle case that I got from k-mart for $15 that I can squeeze 2000 pts of my wfb empire into.

I used to keep stuff on display on shelves but I found if I don't play em, the collect dust and cobwebs real fast. I took a break for almost a year while too addicted to world of warcraft, and my stuff got real dirty. My marines are the only army in a glass cabinet at the moment, sharing space with old xmas houses and porcelain figurines mom used to have.

I'm slowly switching to the all army transport trays for everything.. I just buy a few extra trays every month or so. I'm too lazy to pack and unpack for every game so the trays make it easier to just grab the army I need and stuff it in the bag. None of the friends that come to my place are into gaming at all, so when they see my stuff on display they just make fun of me :p I don't have anywhere to play at my house so games are always wherever the club is meeting that month. So for me it's just easiest to keep stuff put away.

I havent had good luck with tackle boxes, they seem to take the paint off my models

I use a combined approach. The smaller models I put in tackle boxes with some foam padding to keep stuff from bouncing around (the foam from blister packs works great for this). Wal Mart has some nice small tackle boxes that hold four trays and basically just have a plastic frame around them to hold the four trays together. They are quite small and unobtrusive while holding quite a few models and if you're so inclined they have holes in the back where you can mount them on your wall. I think that mounting them on the wall is going to be one of my weekend projects over the next few months.

The big stuff I have in rubber made plastic storage 'tubs' sandwiched between two layers of matress foam. You can get quite a few tanks into these and they stack inside of my closet quite nicely. I've used pistol cases before but I don't really like for my warhammer stuff to look like firearms from a distance because I don't want to encourage people to break into my car (don't laugh, a friend had this happen ...I'm sure the thieves were quite pissed when they found out that they had stolen a bunch of plastic minis).

I'm also not a fan of the shelf approach because the models get way too dusty way too fast.

foam trays inside tote boxs or soft coolers.

mobile and cushioned.

 

Piled on the floor in the closet. On an end table in my room. On my painting table. On the mantle above the fireplace. In boxes in the other closet. In a carrying case. Someone help me.

I actually have metal bases or washers glued to the bases of my figures, and I have a roll of magnetic stripping on a board laid on the bottom of a big container from the container store. Works fantastic, especially for my Rackham figures, since they're so fragile. I'll be transferring my Guard to a similar arrangement soon.

I'm all about the glass-door display cases.  I'm not going to spend all that time painting and not display the results!  I've got 2 glass-fronted display cases from Ikea (sadly discontinued a year ago).  The second one just got re-installed after moving, so my painted 40k minis are still in their Army Transport foam, but they'll be out soon.

The Army Transport foam is awesome for moving miniatures around, if expensive.  I had exactly zero broken figures after moving.  Couldn't figure out how to label the trays at first (the foam is too porous for sticky labels) but I eventually hit upon painting directly on the foam with liquid paper / correcter fluid.

Yeah, mine all go in cabinets too.

I have two big metal-framed cabinets that were originally shop fixtures. They're in the lounge, so the minis are sharing space with a bunch of other ornaments these days, but there's plenty of room to go around. At least for now...

Painted minis go into my GW "clam shells"

Primed minis sit on my painting desk, or in a "I need to paint these" pile.

Un painted minis generally sit on the sprue in a pile in the cupboard.

The infantry are mostly stored in 7 small 'chests' that have 3 or four draws. All the tanks are stored in about 10 different boxes. There are two big tubs for terrain, plus a lot of stuff that just stays under the table.

I don't have room for it all. There's just too much stuff.

BYE

I store many of my miniatures on sprues, some of them I give a lovely protection of undercoat and then go in shoe boxes, with the odd bit of paint to break up the white. Some I paint and then go in padded boxes ready for the long awaited day when I get a cabinet to display them.

When not playing (or intending to for a while) my Sisters and random other minis are in the dining room hutch with my wife's tea pots and such. We did just get an IKEA all glass cabinet though, so when we get around to putting that together they will move there.

Really though, the Sisters mostly live in a wooden case I made with a sheet metal bottom. The girls and tanks all have magnets that hold them quite well, so they just move to and from games.
I was going to make the case like a book and wrap it with embossed leather, but discovered halfway through the project that I have bare minimum carpentry skills. So I just spray painted the whole thing black. Perhaps I will get my neighbor to make me a nice looking case before he dies of old age and do the book thing. I have been really tempted to take a guitar case or something similar and modify it to look like a Black Ship. It would be pretty hot to have the girls deploy from one of the infamous ships of the Inquisition. Then take a giant base out, and put the transport on the table for Apocalypse. Pipe dream, but a fun one.

If my models are painted they either sit on my drawer top with a bunch of other unpainted "need to paint" models.
If they aren't painted like alot of my stuff, they sit waiting on the painting desk, in army cases, Quality street tins etc.
In a couple of months i am going to get rid of some unpainted ones and alot of w40k coz i never ever play 40k any more. I'm also going to get rid of a Leman Russ Anhilator (one with the Lascannon variant) that i made myself, using the Predator turret.
Anyway, my models are everywhere and anywhere i can put them, i have a problem...