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So here pretty soon I'll be moving to a new state, and the problem of moving my minis about occured. Well, I've got some foam trays, but not enough to stick all my minis in. Besides, those things are expensive. So while trying to figure out a way to transport I had a wee bit of an idea. First, you buy one of those small plastic shelves at Wal-mart or whatever local store you have that similar kinds of goods. The dimensions of the shelves are based more or less on the kinds of stuff you are transporting. For my purposes, the shelf I have works perfectly for human sized figures. So, once you get a shelf set you take one of the shelves out and line the bottom with duct tape. On the sides you fold the tape underneath itself so it sticks to the bottom of the shelf and the corners. After that, firmly press down each figures base into the duct tape, then there you go. Cheap ghetto case. I don't recommend this as a way to ship figures, but then again I've heard of banged up figures happening even in foam case setups. For some added protections, once your figures are all snug on the duct tape, throw in some packing peanuts to fill the gaps, just in case.

I also recommend getting some sticky putty to line the middle of the duct tape strip with. Getting it to be tight in the container is a bit of a chore, and having some sticky putty for it to adhere to will make things much more firm.

While I've flipped it upside down to test the strength and had good results, I don't recommend this with models containing metal pieces. Duct tape is strong, but not that strong. Also, obviously this is good for probably a one time thing. If you store your figures like this it's certain that dust will find its way to the tape destroying it's adhesive properties. Not that it's that big of a deal, duct tape is far from expensive.





Hope this helps someone else out there, stupidly simple trick sure did help me out of a bind.

Could always have unwanted tape residue afterwards. I use towels to transport models instead of foam(mostly vehicles) but could work for any model.

 Tyrius wrote:
Could always have unwanted tape residue afterwards. I use towels to transport models instead of foam(mostly vehicles) but could work for any model.

Hmmm, It's going to be on the bottom of the bases so I'm not too terribly worried about it. Really this method is more of a "I want to store them somewhere long term but I don't want them damaged" kind of ordeal. It could be annoying having your figures sticky for a bit after bringing them back from the dead, but I imagine the crud left behind would eventually come off, and painlessly at that. At least I think that's how it would go about happening.

Also I've found super glue placed underneath the tape helps hold it down. I imagine worst case scenario if the box goes upside down with metal models on the tape there's a chance that the tape will peel off from the weight. Super glue fixes that. As stated prior there might not be enough adhesiveness to hold on to, say, an avatar of Khaine, but hey it might, and the super glue is an added level of safe keeping.

I got ahold of empty keyboard boxes and bubble wrap... One layer of figs per box. They work well, although it is a fair amount of bubble wrap.

And a secondary benefit, the 20 or 25 boxes store well in the corner of the storage area.

Or you could paint the bottom of the drawers with magnetic primer, and just magnetize the bases.

 Vulcan wrote:
Or you could paint the bottom of the drawers with magnetic primer, and just magnetize the bases.

A superior route I agree, but something of that quality wouldn't be considered ghetto now would it?

 hammeyaneggs wrote:
I got ahold of empty keyboard boxes and bubble wrap... One layer of figs per box. They work well, although it is a fair amount of bubble wrap.

And a secondary benefit, the 20 or 25 boxes store well in the corner of the storage area.

This would be my suggestion as well. Random container. layers of either bubble wrap or scavenged eggshell with figures lying on each level. Figures are better secured and you can still keep your ghetto cred.

With your method you are looking at potential for tape breaking away, minatures getting stuck on parts of duck tape and other proble

Out of curiosity, how many figures are you moving and how much does that drawer container cost?

For 16-18 bucks you could have bought one of these which unmodified will still hold 80-100 infantry lying down on the eggshell (put the solid piece on top).

Plano 1401-02 Sold as accessory case "Protector" pistol case or Reel case. Same thing with same foam sold with different stickers. different purposes. You might lose a bit of "cred" but the figs will be much better protected.

As an aside, I love the paint scheme on your guardsmen. Kind of reminds me of a certain type of "COBRA" Viper whose name escapes me.

one time I used matress foam to decent sucess (might be called egg crate foam. My current incarnation is collectable card boxes and plastic bead/craft holders. I pull the dividers out of the card boxes (look like pizza boxes but twice as high). And then put my boyz in to the plastic boxes. Each compartment holds most things up to terminator in size. (I'm a tad abusive and put up to 4 shoota boys into one cell in the box). I even separate the more important boys with a foam divider and 2 per cell (Tank busta's etc).

I found that it cost me roughly $2 per plastic box, and maybe 5 per card box, which is significantly cheaper than other ways I've seen. One card box holds 6 plastic boxes, and then you have some room for a tank, or bigger models that don't fit well.

My plastic bins have 16 bays and 1 double bays, so 32 infantry safely. You would have to find a different approach for heavy weapons teams though. The benefit is the models don't move around much, and it makes them very safe to travel with. When I bring the whole force out I have 4 cardboard boxes worth of stuff.

Ya know those "shoe box" size boxes for card games? I got 2 of them last week. Take out the middle divider and you have sturdy and deep storage/transportation boxes. I have 2 levels of my tanks in each one. I made the divider into a "shelf" to set on top of the bottom layer. You just have the turrets or what ever else might break off set next to or in front of the tank it goes on. Easy to carry, stack and get into.
And kinda inexpensive too.