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If you want the best army case, get a Pelican with some sheets of custom cut foam for it. If you're looking for best army case (for the money), realistically, Sabol cases are "good enough". That is, modular enough to where I can put any of my armies in them, yet durable enough I've never had anything break. I have a pluckfoam pocket made that can fit a basilisk or a landraider. The laser cut foam of the BF case is awesome, but I don't think you can do that with it.

It sucks how it costs tonnes for delivery to aus D:

Battlefoam is probably the best, but i always use sabol.

Just because something is superior to another does not justify any price increase. Like the intel Extreme edition cpus, sure you get another like 350 3dmarks .... for 650$ more than the next best of their offerings. (EEs go for 1000+$ lol)

BF tends to be like 40-60% mroe expensive once youve loaded foam. Even having money not be an issue, the principle of it will not let me waste so much money.

Adabriel wrote:I have the KR double. My brother has the super-duper mahoosive GW case, and the differences are major

The foam in the KR is firmer meaning any models (esp. metal) with sharp pointed bits don't rip chunks out of it as easy as the GW foam

The aluminium case is far studier than the plastic case of the GW

The fact that the GW has the Imperial Falcon plastered over it and the KR is plain in style, the simpler design appeals to me

The downfall is the KR's supplied strap is a bit short but hey we're more concerned about protection than the length of a strap

Plus the fact that when I ordered my KR directly on their website, they sent some wrong trays, which would normally be a bad thing, but they sent the right ones once I informed them of the mistake, and they said to keep the incorrect ones as an apology, so big thumbs up to the extra trays, an even bigger thumbs up for customer service

Anyone else has KR aluminium multicase?

I might buy this one instead of a Sabol because I don't really feel like plucking all my trays!
And free shipping is always nice

Cadichan Support wrote:It sucks how it costs tonnes for delivery to aus D:

It was the free shipping offer that finally persuaded me to splurge on my PACK1520 last year.

Gorrath wrote:

Anyone else has KR aluminium multicase?

I might buy this one instead of a Sabol because I don't really feel like plucking all my trays!
And free shipping is always nice

Plucking your tays with KR is dead easy and does not do aything other than pluck a pre-cut block. It's also where you can totally customise your load. Don't be put off by the thought of pick-n-pluck even if you go for KR trays, they're very good.

I have a GW, SABOL, and a BF bag.

I like GW's hard case but the foam is just okay. It doesn't fit all of their models in their ranges, but I like it better than SABOL pluck foam.

I like SABOLs bag but mine doesn't have a hard lining inside and that tends to smoosh the foam when I travel sometimes. I hate their pluck foam.

While I haven't received my 1520XL bag from BF I know it's superior in quality to GW and SABOL. I ordered their Spacehulk custom tray for my models. And they fit great and the foam is really sturdy and it fits right in the box. So, if the quality of their Spacehulk tray is any indicator, I'd say my PACK 1520XL is going to be phenominal.

One other option is to order the BF trays that were made to fit in existing GW and SABOL carriers. I am giving my old foam trays to my buddy (who is cool with it) and I am replacing my GW and SABOL trays with BF ones. Pretty nice if you ask me.

Balance wrote:If I ever do somethign like GenCon again I'd like to just invest in a hard case from Pelican and use it to hold trays from Sabol or whomever.

Any product that doesn't list a price and instead says "Click for Quote" is going to be hideously expensive. Battlefoam will be cheaper, and the foam quality is a really big difference.

Anyone could give me an idea of which thickness to use for which kind of models?

Is 1" good enough for Space marines or 1.5" is better?
1.5" or 2" for Terminators?
3" for Rhinos and 4" for Land Raiders right?

Thanks

Gorrath wrote:Anyone else has KR aluminium multicase?

I do. My experiences on it have beem talked about in another thread, but suffice it to say it's been reasonably durable and reasonably tough. My biggest annoyance with it is that KR uses a custom tray size that no other manufacturer can match, so you're stuck with their line.

Has anyone thought about magnet trays?
Getting a simple tackle box and super gluing magnets to the bottom of it. and then attaching a magnet to the solder.
It works pretty well you don't need to shove them in it just clicks

I'm all about the Army Transport systems from Sabol. I have two of the mark I's and they have really stood the test of time and use. I've moved countless times with them and they have kept my armies in good shape. Most recently, I had worked up the guts to have the two cases boxed, shipped, and stored upon our move to Virginia. Needless to say I wasn't dissapointed.

In terms of their pluck-foam, I don't mind it at all. Plucking out your own spaces gives you a level of customization which even battlefoam cant match. You may be able to create custom trays for every kind of model in your game, but what about the ones with akward poses, such as commanders or show pieces?

pelican makes a fantastic product, but it's absurd overkill. their cases are designed for electronic equipment. their cases are waterproof. they float when dropped in water.

they're great if you have $12,000 of surveying equipment. they're great if you have a les baer 1911. if you have some pewter models, you're wasting an enormous amount of money unless you can get them at cost from your local chandlery.

for the equivalent, you can purchase a plano plastic case and foam that you can cut yourself for less than a quarter of the cost.

Cadichan Support wrote:Has anyone thought about magnet trays?
Getting a simple tackle box and super gluing magnets to the bottom of it. and then attaching a magnet to the solder.
It works pretty well you don't need to shove them in it just clicks

I did that for almost all of my infantry. I started using the little metal ammo can that came with the gamer edition of 5th ed 40k. I used super glue for the magnets, but after a while I started having magnet failures so I switched to epoxy. Even then I lost magnets. It's not cool having a metal model bouncing around in your metal box hitting your plastic models. I've switched to foam for everything now.

brother_zach wrote:
In terms of their pluck-foam, I don't mind it at all. Plucking out your own spaces gives you a level of customization which even battlefoam cant match. You may be able to create custom trays for every kind of model in your game, but what about the ones with akward poses, such as commanders or show pieces?

Before battlefoam came out with the tray creator app, they offered (and still do) custom trays based on sketches you would send in. That would account for any special model in your collection better than pick and pluck. Take a look at their space hulk trays, blood angel character tray or the eldar character tray to see how they can handle any shape.

Pick and pluck isn't bad, whether from sabol, bf or someone else. I use a mix of pluck and precuts. For the pluck trays I prefer BF trays as the foam blocks are easier to get out especially near the edges.

You should try getting rare earth magnets they last a pretty long time and they are cheap as. So even if it does discharge you just scrape them off and attach new ones .

Gorrath wrote:Anyone could give me an idea of which thickness to use for which kind of models?

Is 1" good enough for Space marines or 1.5" is better?
1.5" or 2" for Terminators?
3" for Rhinos and 4" for Land Raiders right?

Thanks

1" is fine for basic space marines, Terminators should fit in 2" foam. When I designed one of my custom trays for my 720 from BF, I used their idea to stack Rhino's (with a foam spacer) in a 4" tray, the same one that holds my Drop Pods and Land Raider. So while 3" will fit them perfectly, and I ordered their 3" 8 Rhino tray as well (I have a lot of Rhino's/Razorbacks), you could possibly get away with putting them in 2" foam.

That said, I've owned multiple Sabol Cases(Original, Mark2, Platoon, Motor Pool), and a GW hard case. The GW hard case was by far my favorite for many years (I've had it for over a decade now), and mine has actually stood up to the test of time (though needs new foam after selling the army it previous carried). The Sabol cases I've never been able to get the pluck foam to last for all that long before the constant packing and unpacking starts to pull away more pieces, and things aren't so snug. They're nice, but I've sold all but the Platoon, which currently sits empty waiting for me to get replacement trays for my Dwarf Army. I'll probably go the BF route as I can customize trays for my artillery while relying on the basic ones for infantry.

Cadichan Support wrote:You should try getting rare earth magnets they last a pretty long time and they are cheap as. So even if it does discharge you just scrape them off and attach new ones .

I was using rare earth magnets. Most of my infantry still have the magnets on them. I was using 3/16" N52s for plastic and the 1/4" N42s for the metal models. By magnet failures I meant failures of the glue holding the magnet on the model. I haven't had a magnet lose its magnetism.

Arschbombe wrote:

Cadichan Support wrote:You should try getting rare earth magnets they last a pretty long time and they are cheap as. So even if it does discharge you just scrape them off and attach new ones .

I was using rare earth magnets. Most of my infantry still have the magnets on them. I was using 3/16" N52s for plastic and the 1/4" N42s for the metal models. By magnet failures I meant failures of the glue holding the magnet on the model. I haven't had a magnet lose its magnetism.

Oh, Ok .MAGNETS ARE PRETTY GOOD AND CHEAPER THAN FOAM!!!

Arschbombe wrote:

Cadichan Support wrote:Has anyone thought about magnet trays?
Getting a simple tackle box and super gluing magnets to the bottom of it. and then attaching a magnet to the solder.
It works pretty well you don't need to shove them in it just clicks

I did that for almost all of my infantry. I started using the little metal ammo can that came with the gamer edition of 5th ed 40k. I used super glue for the magnets, but after a while I started having magnet failures so I switched to epoxy. Even then I lost magnets. It's not cool having a metal model bouncing around in your metal box hitting your plastic models. I've switched to foam for everything now.

brother_zach wrote:
In terms of their pluck-foam, I don't mind it at all. Plucking out your own spaces gives you a level of customization which even battlefoam cant match. You may be able to create custom trays for every kind of model in your game, but what about the ones with akward poses, such as commanders or show pieces?

Before battlefoam came out with the tray creator app, they offered (and still do) custom trays based on sketches you would send in. That would account for any special model in your collection better than pick and pluck. Take a look at their space hulk trays, blood angel character tray or the eldar character tray to see how they can handle any shape.

Pick and pluck isn't bad, whether from sabol, bf or someone else. I use a mix of pluck and precuts. For the pluck trays I prefer BF trays as the foam blocks are easier to get out especially near the edges.

I was not aware of that. I think its an outstanding option for customers, but I still think pluck foam would be easier to deal with then getting a company to custom make a tray slot.

Another plus of pluck foam is that they can be reconfigured with glue if your army changes. I've done this a couple of times on smaller scales.

I just ordered a KR aluminium multicase and I'm about to buy an army that comes with a large GW case, so I'm gonna be able to see by myself which one is better!

Thanks everyone for your advices.

hemingway wrote:pelican makes a fantastic product, but it's absurd overkill. their cases are designed for electronic equipment. their cases are waterproof. they float when dropped in water.

they're great if you have $12,000 of surveying equipment. they're great if you have a les baer 1911. if you have some pewter models, you're wasting an enormous amount of money unless you can get them at cost from your local chandlery.

for the equivalent, you can purchase a plano plastic case and foam that you can cut yourself for less than a quarter of the cost.

Actually they are not really that expensive, heres a few points:

-- You can buy them direct from the manufacturer
-- They are NOT only for rifles and electronic equipment, they come in many sizes
-- They come with break out foam already. (No buying extra foam sheets, this makes them already in the same price range as other bags)
-- They have a lifetime warranty, if it breaks at all they replace it.
-- They come in the pre approved FAA max size for carry on luggage when traveling (and many others)
-- They are HARD CASES, not soft sided bags
-- They also have hard dividers if you'd rather make compartments
-- The airline size case has rollers and an extendable hande.
-- Pelican cases have secure lock hard points (and pelican makes TSA approved search locks as well)
-- The price point for the carry size with all these features is only $140 WITH 1/2 inch breakout square FOAM layers already inside.

http://www.pelican-case.com/15caonca.html



I have several of the battle foam bags and I like them, but they are soft bags, and they are not suitable for checking as luggage, the Pelican case would be far superior for comparable price points (I spent $80 for my battle foam carry on bags, each, and 10$ each for the foam tray inserts making it retail at about $160 per case). The Pelican Carry on 1510 is TSA approved for max carry on size as well, and would survive being checked if necessary. There's really no competition for security, features, or durability. I'm going to change out my old bags for Pelican Hard cases this year before I travel again.

Of course if you are just going from a home back and forth to local shows and cons, the soft bags are probably fine!

Augustus wrote:

hemingway wrote:pelican makes a fantastic product, but it's absurd overkill.

Actually they are not really that expensive, heres a few points:
-- You can buy them direct from the manufacturer
-- They are NOT only for rifles and electronic equipment, they come in many sizes
-- They come with break out foam already. (No buying extra foam sheets, this makes them already in the same price range as other bags)
-- They have a lifetime warranty, if it breaks at all they replace it.
-- They come in the pre approved FAA max size for carry on luggage when traveling (and many others)
-- They are HARD CASES, not soft sided bags
-- They also have hard dividers if you'd rather make compartments
-- The airline size case has rollers and an extendable hande.
-- Pelican cases have secure lock hard points (and pelican makes TSA approved search locks as well)
-- The price point for the carry size with all these features is only $140 WITH 1/2 inch breakout square FOAM layers already inside.

http://www.pelican-case.com/15caonca.html

OK, this is a very good answer.

One key question: Do they make a case that is Sabol-compatible?

JohnHwangDD wrote:
OK, this is a very good answer.

One key question: Do they make a case that is Sabol-compatible?

Thanks!

I don't know, I'm sure one could figure it out.

Could you put the Sabol foam inserts into a pelican case? Of course.

Would you have to do some custom work, probably, maybe.

I suspect you could find a pelican case that would match the sabol foam widths exactly on an interior dimension if you wanted to combine the pelican and the sabol inserts. Wouldn't that be sweet, but I do not know what the sabol foam dimensions are. I know pelican has all the specs for the myriad cases they make on their site and with a little research it could easily be figured out.

hmmm...

Sabol foam is based on a 7.5" by 13" footprint

Ideally, the case holds a 15" by 13" double-wide tray.

Hope that helps!

OK interior on that case from the Pelican specs is:

Interior (l/w/d cm)
19.75" x 11" x 7.6"

http://www.pelican-case.com/15caonca.html

The dimensions from the sabol foam are:

STANDARD FIGURE FOAM TRAYS ARE 7.5 INCHES X 13

http://www.saboldesigns.net/figurefoam.html

So yes, you could stack the sabol foam trays top to bottom, lengthwise into the depth of the carry on without any cutting, and get about 11 inches of thickness in there with a nice little cove of 6.75" x 11" x 7.6", about a land raider worth.

This means existing Sabol users could just convert strait over to a Pelican case using their old foam.

Check it out yourself on both manufacturers links.

Thanks for the Pelican info.

If I were putting Sabol into Pelican, I'd probably do this:

Add a hard divider (1/4") to split the case into a 6.5" top section over a 13" bottom section. This gives 11" worth of basic Sabol foam in at the bottom, and 11" worth of half-size Sabol foam at the top, for an effective height of 16.5" of Sabol trays.

With a 6.5" x 7.5" footprint, the top section is *exactly* half the width of a standard Sabol tray. So you can take regular Sabol foam and simply cut it in half, sticking with the Sabol standard. Sure, you'll end up with a few "flight-use" mini-trays that stay in the Pelican, but that's OK, as it's still modular and Sabol standard.

I think the top section is ideal for storing basic infantry models, but could also easily hold Valkyries or other large models in custom foam.

I'm in the same boat, and am desperately trying to decide what to buy.

I started out building my own, custom foam trays out of boat-seat foam I got at the local craft shop. Nice, dense, and soft. Protects my models really well. I started out with a 21-model tray for all my tactical Marines, and carry the trays in a surplus M249 SAW ammo can.
As my army grew, and i started focusing on Marine bikes, I needed new trays to store all the bikes. I cut new ones, and added those to the cans.
Then I started with Dreadnoughts. Dreads are tall, and take up a lot of space. Carrying them, as well as my Rhinos, is just not possible in ammo cans. Too much vertical space needed.
So, I took the foam out of several old couch cushions (from a couch my dog decided to eat. Bad doggie!), and cut it to the shape of an old Doskocil (sp?) pistol case. I used an electric knife, and cut slots for three Rhino chassis, two Dreads, and the removable Stronos-pattern Razorback turret I have painted up.
But, now I own four built and painted Dreads, and have started on a fleet of Landspeeders. I now need to cut new foam for Speeders, and additional Dreads.
This is my tipping point.

I'm at the point where I have to decide what direction to go in. Do I cut foam for only the new Dreads, and the Speeders, or do I do a tray that incorporates my most recent army build of four Dreads?

I dislike bringing excess models to the shop, or an event. Especially in a large event, I don't want models I'm not fielding to be present. Too much can go wrong. Theft, damage, loss, etc.

Battlefoam's custom tray creator is awesome, no doubt. The trick is deciding which trays I absolutely must have. I have a tray all made up using their software, and saved to my computer's desktop. It can hold 24 Marine bike models. But, what if I'm only using five bikes at a givemn event? I'm bringing along 19 unused, painstakingly modelled, lovingly painted bikes.

I know I need to phase out the ammo cans, though. I'm hoping to travel to more events, and surplus ammo cans raise eyebrows at airport security checks.

Has anyone tackled a similar situation?

@Rhino: Infantry-wise, I'm modular, so no problem. I can trade stuff in and out, for what I take or leave behind.

I've got major vehicle issues. I'm staring down a couple dozen tanks without a really good way to transport them. Carrying big plastic bricks is a pain, and I don't really have a good answer at this time. I'm thinking to go foam in cardboard for storage, with hardcase for transport.

Yea me too, my Space Wolves army has 4 rhinos, 6 razorbacks, 2 speeders 3 dreads, 3 pods and a landraider and I don't have tray for any of it, I just sandwich them inbetween regular Sabol foam in my army transport and I already broke the Multimelta off my Landraider and had to pin it back in.

I think the Pelican customs (with the Sabol foam rigs) are going to be the best.

I find the aluminium beauty cases off of ebay best.
I started a thread on this subject recently.
they are very versatile as you can store all ur army and bits i them and then seperate down to take just what you need when gaming.
they are very professional looking, cheaper than all the other branded types as they hold alot for there cost and because they are tall they make for easy storage at home.
when ever i go to a game they get alot of attention and questions of where did you get them? etc