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Where does everyone store their miniatures? I'm thinking of getting a display case for the gaming area where I could easily store my armies but also have them viewable. Any recommendations?

Well, what does your space look like?

One of my friends who collects Nascar does the dumpster diving approach for collecting things to store his pieces of Nascar. He finds whatever he can, especially glass cases.

Jewelry store glass displays (those long glass counters where jewelry is presented) offers a fairly interesting way to house and display your miniatures. Obviously they are behind glass. You can set up lighting and highlight the shelving with pieces of scenery and terrain. And the glass counter top is perfect for pieces too big to go in the glass case or as a convenient place to store your non-gaming memorabilia, like pictures of the family and clocks.

Me, I shove all my stuff in plastic cases and put them under the bed, so my idea is not that great for display.

I have a small one bedroom apartment.

Right now, I'm using an Ikea 5x5 Expedit bookcase, modified a bit. I also use it for boardgames though and have had some spillover onto a nearby bookcase for my armies. I would prefer something in a pine or espresso colored wood, probably with glass if it is a display case. Taller is better because space is a little tight (I am in NYC afterall).

Mine just stare at me from my desk. I really need get a display cabinet been talking about getting one fo awhile now. I cant leav e them on my desk any longer its just too messy .

I bought my shelves from Lowes, they work really well.

Lol Cyporiean that is a nice workspace. However, this is my dining room and living room. I know we are talking about Warhammer here, but was hoping for something... dare I say, classy? If not, then maybe tidy, nice and unobtrusive.

I got a new, slightly bigger, shelf put in underneath my existing ones for the purposes of model storage/display. Could really do with something behind glass though, to keep the dust off.

Killjoy00 wrote:Lol Cyporiean that is a nice workspace. However, this is my dining room and living room. I know we are talking about Warhammer here, but was hoping for something... dare I say, classy? If not, then maybe tidy, nice and unobtrusive.

Actually, my workspace is on my porch (glassed in). Thats just our garage converted into a gaming room, all sides have shelves for Minis/books with things generally sorted. Its still a work in progress to get everything set up. In addition to the Wargame table (made from the same thing as the shelves, so its a nice height and properly sized with shelves under it) we have an old dining table for use with RPGs, Board Games, and what not.

For a good class shelf, /Toy/ generally recommends IKEA for displaying stuff.

IKEA:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99816574

You can also search for nearby Retail furniture resellers, when I had my store I was able to get some beautiful glass display cabinets for around 1k each, 5'x3'x6', lighted.

Well, here's what I do.

First, get yourself some cheap bookcases. As long as they are strong, you're good. Get the wooden kind with shelves that come out.

Next, however many shelves it has, you will need MOAR. Models are usually only a few millimeters high, so why not allow for maybe 10 inches between shelves? So anyway, you can drill new holes and in this way allow for the addition of at least 100% more shelves. Where I live, I can take an existing shelf down to my local hardware store and they will cut me additional shelves of the same kind. Then, with twice as many shelves, I wedge in those little shelf-holder things and I am all set.

It is not as beautiful as a display case, but it is not expensive - it is functional - and it is easy to access your models.

Plus if you're gonna paint 'em all, why not show them off? If you host games at your place, it makes it even easier since all your models are always Ready to Go.

Ikea do a lot of fairly good book cases and doors. I think their "Billy" book cases are the cheapest, and you can get glass doors for them too I think. Look fairly good too.

Solorg, that is essentially what I did with the Ikea Expedit.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00071356

I turned it on its side so that you can take out some of the small shelves to create 3x1 spaces. This is where I put my large boardgames or vehicle based armies. Then I took those extra small shelves, and drilled holes in the other cubes, to make double spaced cubes.

Maybe I'll just get another one and continue modding it. Just wanted to check with the community and see if there were any favorites. I'll head to Ikea and see what looks best. I also have a couple of Billy's for my books already too. Hadn't thought of using it, but could definitely work.

Here's what I use for some stuff.

http://pitoftheoni.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-miniatures-new-digs.html

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10119206

I use a wooden try with a glass top:



Which InquisitorMack made for me. Originally, I was using plexiglass, but I replaced it with two panes of record glass (12" x 12") that I got at Michael's, and it fits perfectly . Here's the thread where he was keeping track of his progress making these and other trays:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/263460.page

The picture above isn't great, I'm down to my phone camera for now. However I have a second of these that I'm looking to find a home for, since I've downsized to one army... and will be at one army for the forseeable future

I use this both to store and transport my army, and it's great. I have a scheme to make a lid that doubles as a scenic base so that I can get the extra points at tournaments, too!

I have 2 Detolf cabinets from IKEA.

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/70182172

Ideally I'd have likes another shelf per set but have been very happy with them.

RiTides,

That looks really awesome, but I am just not down with making something myself. If someone wants to do it on commission let me know

Oni,

That looks awesome and something close to what I had in mind. Thanks for the tip - I will be heading out to Ikea soon!

Killjoy00 wrote:Where does everyone store their miniatures?

The overwhelming majority of my minis are boxed in storage cases on the shelf. It's safer (less possible damage) and more compact (less total space required).

I'll add another vote for Ikea... We have the Billy model, with glass shelves, halogen lights and glass doors, in the dark espresso color. Really nice! Got a couple of extra shelves, too, so more model displaying goodness.

Gymnogyps wrote:I'll add another vote for Ikea... We have the Billy model, with glass shelves, halogen lights and glass doors, in the dark espresso color. Really nice! Got a couple of extra shelves, too, so more model displaying goodness.

Sounds like a pretty pimp Billy. How much was it total after everything? Were the shelves doors and lights from Ikea as well? links to store/pics of your setup?

I'm not usually given to jealousy, but bloody hell you Yanks always seem to have allot of space for gaming areas.

Personally I have my stuff in the small bedroom/office in my house so it has to share with computers and other stuff so I have been facing much the same question recently.

My solution [although it is one that you don't seem to like] was to make a large bookshelf myself. Glass was not an option and I couldn't find anything ready made big enough that didn't cost £500 and/or look gak. So I came up with a simple design and got a local timber yard to cut 1" MDF to size for me and stuck it together. I'm no carpenter so I made a Project Blog to show what is was doing, to see if it helped anyone else.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/275348.page

That only showns the preparation but I have finished it now [I think it looks rather good!] and will be updating it tomorrow with final pictures.

It cost me less than £40.00 and two half days of my time to prepare and put together. I could have made it for about £10 if I didn't save time by getting the timber yard to cut the MDF to size.

notprop wrote:I'm not usually given to jealousy, but bloody hell you Yanks always seem to have allot of space for gaming areas.

The benefit of having loads of land and few people to fill it... lots of cheap land to expand into

Ikea cabinets work great for the price, easilly modded to be pretty dustproof using P-seals (used in windows etc).
cheap to get spotlights into them as well.


I would love to have a more sturdy glasscabinet, but the costs are prohibitive for just storing minis in.

A4 paper trays on bookshelf with extra shelves fitted as outline above. Each tray holds an army of about 2000 points.

Wow... that's quite a collection, GeneralMayhem! Very impressive

General Mayhem wrote:A4 paper trays on bookshelf with extra shelves fitted as outline above.

Where did you get those trays? I've got wire shelving, and those would be perfect!

The trays are from "Focus" DIY stores here in the UK. Laser cut ply for stacking A4 paper.

A DIY store is a Arts & Crafts store? Or a Home Improvement / Lumber store?

These would be so nice for organizing various things on the shelves. And being wood, I suppose they could even be stained to match.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I have 2 Detolf cabinets from IKEA.

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/70182172

Ideally I'd have likes another shelf per set but have been very happy with them.

I also use those and am very satisfied + the price is affordable, and they are not too hard to put together when you are 2.
I wouldn't recommend assembling one alone though.

Would anyone who has a Detolf Cabinets mind taking a picture of their set-up and posting?

This is what I've been looking for.

JohnHwangDD wrote:A DIY store is a Arts & Crafts store? Or a Home Improvement / Lumber store?

These would be so nice for organizing various things on the shelves. And being wood, I suppose they could even be stained to match.

DIY stores generally fall under the Home Improvement heading in my opinion, John.

I've got a 3'x4'x1' (HxLxW) bookshelf, it's large enough for my 150-strong infantry and 16 tanks, I've still got room for a large contingency of guard (say, 9 tanks and 200 guys?)

though, you can't get mahogany desk bookshelves anymore! :<