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Heya guys. I just wanted to share a recent, cheap find for an awesome minis case.

I walked in to my local Harbor Freight and bought one of these for $25:
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-inch-x-12-3-4-quarter-inch-x-6-inch-aluminum-case-39196.html



It's ~5.5" deep inside. Has egg crate foam on the inside top, and 2.5" pluck foam on the bottom. Also include separators to make different sections.



These sections are a adjustable, or you can not use them at all:


It has a tool storage rack thing, but it's easily removable:


For scale, without foam:


With foam:


I was able to comfortably fit 6 Deff Koptas, 4 OOP Trukks, 8 Killa Kans (face down, with space for one more which I still need to buy), a looted Rhino (would have had room for two), and kannons. All with room to spare.

I'm sure I'll be messing with the layout, but I'm very happy with this purchase. A nice case, filled with pluck foam, for $3 more than the cost of a single sheet of battlefoam (which goes for $22). Amazing deal. I'm gonna swing by and pick up a 2nd.

Nice find, I'll go grab one to stick my Stormravens in. That will work better than trying to get them to fit with my other storage solutions.

Gotta love Harbor Freight, got a dremmel there for like 5 bucks and it's still working!

very nice esp for 25 bucks. I actually might stop and get some. I liek harbor frieght for somethigns but I will say I don't trust most of thir tools. had a jack from tthem that onyl lifted a car once and then second time the seal blew and got hydrolic fluid everywhere... I'd trust the case though

Yeah, they have so much cheap, cheap stuff. But, for some things you don't need top of the line. Their case selection is pretty nice, though. For me, the big score on this was that it includes the pluck foam.

I've priced out other DIY case solutions, and most of them end with me spending ~$60 of Blu/Sabol/Battlefoam, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of DIY.

agreed. I was going to buy some battleform foam trays for the soldier parts (as an ok player I have a ton of boys and I have spent alot of time painting them and making them look good. I'd like to seperate them but given that i have 120+ boys it'd take alot for complete seperation... but i will buy that case probably and see if i can make it work with the seperators and foam i have/comes with it for maybe stacking troops

Totally been using these for sometime. I did a Custom Paintjob on mine. Here's the link to it from a year or so back.... http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/232431.page

G00fySmiley wrote:very nice esp for 25 bucks. I actually might stop and get some. I liek harbor frieght for somethigns but I will say I don't trust most of thir tools. had a jack from tthem that onyl lifted a car once and then second time the seal blew and got hydrolic fluid everywhere... I'd trust the case though

As a friend puts it, they're great for things like a small tool set to keep in a car or motorcycle. If they're stolen, lost, or given away it's no big deal to replace them. A jack would be a bit scary, though.

Yeah, I don't think I would trust my life to a Harbor Freight tool but I'll trust my toys in one.

Some of the Stuff at HF is decent you just have to know your specs on motors and what not. I bought a Miter Saw and it's the same exact motor that DeWalt uses, it doesn't have quite as nice a deck but it's been cutting for 2 years without issue.

G00fySmiley wrote:as an ok player I have a ton of boys and I have spent alot of time painting them and making them look good. I'd like to seperate them but given that i have 120+ boys it'd take alot for complete seperation

I'll post pics later, but I found an awesome solution for boyz/grots. I have several of these:
http://www.michaels.com/Iris-Storage-Containers/sb0929,default,pd.html?cgid=products-scrapbooking-storage-craftroom&start=22
And, I've lined the bottom with cut up cookie sheet from the local $0.99 store. The sheets are easy to cut, just score with a utility knife and then give them a good waggle (don't cut yourself). I've glued them to the bottom, and then have a small magnet in the base of all my troops. They stick nicely, and one of those boxes can hold maybe 100 boyz.

Sarpedon_702 wrote:Totally been using these for sometime. I did a Custom Paintjob on mine. Here's the link to it from a year or so back.... http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/232431.page

Looks awesome! I was gonna stencil mine up as well. Those look brilliant!

Sarpedon_702 wrote:Totally been using these for sometime. I did a Custom Paintjob on mine. Here's the link to it from a year or so back.... http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/232431.page

that is an amazing job on the cases, they look great, I'll probably paint one up but it won't look nearly as profesional, bravo man

Balance wrote:

G00fySmiley wrote:very nice esp for 25 bucks. I actually might stop and get some. I liek harbor frieght for somethigns but I will say I don't trust most of thir tools. had a jack from tthem that onyl lifted a car once and then second time the seal blew and got hydrolic fluid everywhere... I'd trust the case though

As a friend puts it, they're great for things like a small tool set to keep in a car or motorcycle. If they're stolen, lost, or given away it's no big deal to replace them. A jack would be a bit scary, though.

well I would never use a floorjack to hold up a car i was working on, I got it as a 3 ton floor jack and bought some nice craftsman 4ton jack stands. I have since just bought a craftsman 3 ton jack and it is excellent. the good part abotu the floor jack from HF though i had my reciet and it failed soon after buying and they gave me a full refund so there is that

Sarpedon_702 wrote:Some of the Stuff at HF is decent you just have to know your specs on motors and what not. I bought a Miter Saw and it's the same exact motor that DeWalt uses, it doesn't have quite as nice a deck but it's been cutting for 2 years without issue.

porbably thier chicago series powertools? they are as you said hit or miss and i have heard good and bad abotu thier tools. I personally mostly own makita but thats cause my dad always taught me with tools you buy the best because you don't want to be in the middle of a job and have it fail. smart man my dad, but I'm from a family of contractors so as you can imagine my tools are very important to me and i need to know when i plug it in its going to work. nothing like going to tear open for example a kitchen wall to give somebody an open floorplan and after setting up braces you start to cut the studs out and saw doesn't start cutting, or worse stops in the middle of it, but i understand not all peopel need that kind of tool and when a motor is from a dewalt I'd say its a good toll but question the other picesare also dewalt if the slide for the blade gets bungered and ruined you now have a good motor in a useless tool but that's getting off topic and appologize I'm sure it is a great tool I'm just a pesemist abotu offbrand tool quality >_<

and i like the michaels cases you linked but i thin i will tey with this suitcase looikng metal case first. I like the look. I don't want translucent plastic cases, if i take my motorcycle to the shop i could strap down the first case... and it look cool don't know if the same can be said for the clear plastice ones gotta keep the toughguy image up , they look functional and nice idea with the cut up cookie sheets. maybe i can weld myself some custom fit trays in there thanks for the idea!

That is a totally awesome deal! I am getting two, if my local HF has them.

Also, I found the clear plastic containers at Michael's used for storing jewelry beads a pretty nice for storing infantry figures. They are dirt cheap as well.

I've been using one of these cases for years. The foam is a bit soft for my tastes but I have it set up with some slightly trimmed sabol trays.
I've always wanted to get some sort of symbol painted on but the texture made me too chicken. I may have to try it soon after seeing sarpedon's results.

Size wise, that stacks up pretty well compared to a Pack 720 (2304 cubic inches of storage) in pluck foam for $144. This one gives you 1377 cubic inches for $25. Granted the BF makes better use of the space it has, but this seems like a solid alternative, especially if you have just one small army to transport.

Dais wrote:I've been using one of these cases for years. The foam is a bit soft for my tastes but I have it set up with some slightly trimmed sabol trays.

I was thinking of getting some Sabol or Blue Foam trays for at least half the space. How'd trimming them work out for you? How much did you have to cut? Looks like about 1/2" to me...