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 blooddave wrote:
I also do the magnets. A magnet on every base and sheet metal in the plastic bin:




This works better with light plastic models. Some bigger metal models are heavy enough to come un-stuck if you bang the container hard enough.

Frak foam. I've used it for years, I use magnets now and will never, ever consider going back to foam.

Eggshell easily breaks minis. Pre-cut foam is better for your minis, but not for your army lists. Cutting foam yourself is slightly better in this aspect, but is tedious, and your foam tray design will always somehow put a constraint on your army composition.

I don't have a picture of my 28mm armies, only my current 6mm project, but everybody will get the idea : rare-earth magnets on top of thin plasticard bases on one side, steel sheet on the other. 4 bolts to keep the steel sheet from moving up and down, while allowing you to slide it in and out of a file case. File cases are dirt cheap, they have a standard size that makes them really easy to store, your armies can really stay in there forever and you can have one file case for your Mordheim warbands, one for your Bloodbowl teams, one for your DBA armies, etc.

Magnetic bases can also be used to keep the minis on steel movement trays... that can of course be held onto the steel plate with one or two magnets. It's so much more convenient that having to keep track of each and every individual mini in that eggshell foam tray.

Some will argue that with this setup, the minis are on a vertical plane when you're moving them around in a backpack. That's right but could easily be circumvented by some work : use the same trick as I did, but just stack multiple sheets of steel held on thread rods with nuts, and build a nice shelf-looking array.

I'm just way to lazy to consider doing this kind of things. I just use stronger magnets.

 AesSedai wrote:
If you ever plan to bring your figures on a plane, I'd make my own. That's what I did. I picked the airline I use most often, bought a rollercase that matched the exact specifications for allowed carry on, and visited a custom mattress shop to get custom inserts cut. Now I just cut a out a tray when I have new models.

Here are 4 advantages

1) Cheaper than major sellers like battlefoam.

2) Inconspicuous--i don't feel like announcing to colleagues, clients, and strangers that I'm a model geek as most people don't get it. So no logos and no bizarre chunky designs.

3) Bought trays are fine for standard models, but kitbashes/conversions need unique cuts.

4) Multipurpose--you can use a roller case in the course of you regular life, bought wargaming case...not so much

This, in a nutshell. I was flying over to the states for adepticon, and needed a case that fitted some fairly precise dimensions for carryon. None of the major case companies (KR, Battlefoam, etc), had something the right right size. I thought that making your own was going to be a pain, but was very pleasantly surprised.

I bought this case off of Ebay for forty quid.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181335028629?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I then spent about twenty more pounds on standard pluck foam trays of varying depth, the cheapest I could find (I think they were Feldherr ones on discount for about four quid each). Using a pair of scissors I cut them into the right shape to fit in all my models. It took me about fifteen minutes, so I'm really not sure why people are talking about this step as if it's a major timesink, or requires the use of a knife. I ended up with more than enough space to store two large flyers (vendetta standins), five tanks of chimera size, four 60mm heavy weapons teams, ten cavalry bases, and about fifty infantrymen. In other words, my entire army.

The foam trays were not an exact fit, but the foam that I cut out of them to make room for my models (they were pluck foam trays) I shoved into the gaps as additional padding. The result? My models made it to the US and back without a single breakage, and I now have a case that looks like a normal piece of luggage when transporting my models about the country.