Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Looking to pick up my first army transport and I've decided to go with Battle Foam and I need a recommendation. I've 90 percent decided on the PACK 720 but I was able to look at the PACK Air in a store this weekend and I am a little torn. Can any one recommend one bag over the other?

I will be primarily transporting an IG army so lots of tanks.

I have the PACK Air, and it's a good bag. It's actually, technically, too big for International carry on in my region, but not obviously so. So I've not yet had any problems getting it on a flight. It's sturdy, and with suitable planning you can fit a lot of models in. How many tanks are you looking at?

5 tanks, 3 Sentinels, 7 heavy weapon teams and 90+ figures. All told about 2000 points

Shouldn't be too hard with custom cut foam. How tall are the tanks (roughly) and are the turrets detachable? I assume we're talking Leman Russes rather than Chimeras.

2 Leman Russes and 1Chimera. I'm using Sisters of Battle as allies so there is also a Rhino and an Immolator (Rhino chasis).

The PACK 720 states that if fits 12 inches of foam vertically and the PACK Air says that it fits 18 inches in two 9 inch stacks side to side. I'm not too worried about air travel as 99.9% of my gaming is done in driving and walking distance.

The PACK Air uses a combination of their standard Battlefoam size trays and the Privateer Press size trays. You'd probably be stuffing the infantry in the Privateer Press size parts, and you can get a decent amount of infantry into a 1" deep tray. The Heavy Weapon teams make it a little more awkward, as they'll have to have a deeper tray to accommodate the standing guard.

On the standard Battlefoam size tray side getting all those tanks in should be no problem at all. Could easily do two 3" trays which I think would accommodate the Leman Russ, and then a 2" tray which could be used for oversized infantry, so the Heavy weapon teams. I am, however, not all that familiar with the size of Guard vehicles so I wouldn't take that as gospel. I know I can fit 4 Eldar Grav Tanks, a Nightwing + stand, and a Cobra along with room for Shadow Spectres and jetbikes in the 9" of Battlefoam trays. A lot of this is achieved by magnetising parts, so the flyer stand comes apart, etc.

Possibly two 2" trays (one for Rhinos + chimeras, one for larger infantry) and a 4" tray for the Russes + Sentinels might be a better bet. You'll have to go measure things to see how deep the trays you actually need are.

Thanks for the advice. I'm leaning toward the 720 as I think the extra 3 inches of vertical will help with the tanks/tall figs. My local store as the PACK AIR in stock and I'm fighting the urge to pick it up simply because I want something NOW. I'll fight the urge and be a big boy and wait till they restock with the 720

From what I see, either will fit what you want. The pack Air fits a little more, so if you are planning to expand your army get that.

also highly recommend planning the custom cut foam properly on the Bfoam site, that's way you know exactly what you will need (and if you have spare space)

 Makaleth wrote:
From what I see, either will fit what you want. The pack Air fits a little more, so if you are planning to expand your army get that.

also highly recommend planning the custom cut foam properly on the Bfoam site, that's way you know exactly what you will need (and if you have spare space)

Yeah, the difference between custom cut foam and pluck foam is pretty significant in terms of how many models you can fit in a tray. Not to mention getting the depths exactly right. I'd say if you're going to buy either, get custom foam for them. Just make sure you plan it out properly in advance, so you don't do dump things like I did when I bought a 4" tray to hold a Cobra (that I hadn't bought yet) and it ended up being twice as deep as it needed to be making it awkward to get the model in and out as well as wasting a ton of space..

With a quick play around with the tray editor, you can easily fit 3 LR/Chimera, 2 Rhino or Similar and 2 Sentinels into a single tray. And I'll bet with a bit more playing around you could get the third sentinel in there as well.

Davout wrote:
Thanks for the advice. I'm leaning toward the 720 as I think the extra 3 inches of vertical will help with the tanks/tall figs. My local store as the PACK AIR in stock and I'm fighting the urge to pick it up simply because I want something NOW. I'll fight the urge and be a big boy and wait till they restock with the 720

I think you'll be happy with the 720. I use the same pack for my Space Wolves and went with a custom load-out and it's amazing what all I can fit in that thing. I also have a 432 bag that I use for when I transport part of my army for air travel and that has worked out fine in the past.

if you can wait till black friday weekend ( weekend after thanksgiving) battlefoam on their website takes 20% off.

 Chute82 wrote:
if you can wait till black friday weekend ( weekend after thanksgiving) battlefoam on their website takes 20% off.

Be warned though that it will take a long time for them to ship anything custom because of the volume of orders they get. When I ordered my PACK Air it took about 2 and a half months to ship, while a more recent order of custom trays was out the door in a couple of weeks.