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.

I'm looking for a display cabinet to house my miniatures.

I know the go-to for most people is the IKEA Detolf, but it's probably about half as wide as I'd need to in order to display my stuff as I've got several large factions (plus stuff like my Dread Saurian which will fill most of a shelf on its own).

I've looked into other options, like the IKEA Billy (good width but too shallow), shop display cabinets (absurdly expensive) or specialist stuff like ModuCase (absurdly expensive, year long delivery timelines and poor communication). I've also looked at retrofitting reptile habitats but I think this is a little wasteful in terms of the materials I'd need to make them work.

I'm getting to the point where I look at building something myself, but I'm reaching out to the community to see if there's any good ideas before I do.

Essentially I'd be interested in something like the cabinets in use at Warhammer World (wide, deep and tall). Does anyone have any suggestions?

I actually quite like the IKEA Fabrikor cabinet. It's glass but with a nice metal frame which looks like nice but also allows for adding some lighting with an easy way to hide wires.

Be interested to see anything you make yourself though!

Not sure if you've noticed, but there is a deeper version of Billy bookcases, 40 cm deep rather than 28 (so I think 38cm of shelf depth, rather than 26)

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/billy-bookcase-white-90401932/

Quite a lot more expensive than the basic one, but still pretty cheap. Does make a big different in the space available per shelf. They do spare shelves to match too.

The Ikea one is good for smaller collections and you can extend it using the DASIK: http://displayandplayuk.com/


However, there's a few I've been keeping my eye on and may be worth a look if you have the wallet:

https://www.displaycabinetsuk.co.uk/
https://glasscabinetsdirect.co.uk/

I had a look at the Fabrikor but it's a little industrial (not quite my aesthetic!).

I did know about the deeper Billy but I couldn't find it so thought it had been discontinued. Presumably I'm just bad at IKEA searching! It looks like it might only be available in the tall version, but that may not be the end of the world. If I could get it in half height, it'd be 80% perfect (which would do fine!).

I think the cabinets zedmeister linked fall into the "expensive" end but actually some of them aren't too bad. Certainly not as bad as some of the prices I've seen elsewhere.

One other thing I'd considered was getting some aluminium frames with T-slots and building them together with acrylic panes, but I'm not the world's best engineer...

We fabricated a deep set of shelves by stacking 2 billy bookcases in front of each other and leaving the back off one of them. To make it look nice and to be properly sturdy it would probably need some nice brackets to hold it all together.

One thing you might look for at resale/swap/cragislist is wooden glass front gun cases. They usually go cheap since no one with any sense puts their guns in one.

You'd have to add shelves, but that's not hard since they're wood. I bought one for 40 bucks (and I've seen them cheaper) and turned it into a case for a couple of bass guitars.



Asside form some padding, the only mods I made was unscrewing the gun butt gide in the bottom and repainting the hardware from faux-hammered-copper to an iron color.

Have you looked for going-out-of-business retail stores, and consignment shops? perhaps not the look you want, but often display cases are available.

Gun cases are probably not really a thing here, but thank you for the suggestion!

Out of business stores could be worth a shot, there's probably going to be a number of them in the not too distant future unfortunately.

Doubling up the two Billys might work too. Do you have any pictures?

Theres often a fair number of glass fronted book cases and cabinates at auctions and provided you can get it home, it tends to be on the cheap end these days. However many are also locked down and shut right now so it's a plan for the future

Ive went and bought from displaycabinetsuk.co.uk
You need to buy the extra shelves to make the full use of them as they only come with 4. And i still need to connect up the little led lights across the top. But i think they look ok.

That cabinet is stunning!

caylentor wrote:
Gun cases are probably not really a thing here, but thank you for the suggestion!

Out of business stores could be worth a shot, there's probably going to be a number of them in the not too distant future unfortunately.
?

Ha! You're right of course, I didn't slow down enough to notice the flag.

I think you're probably right about second hand shop fixtures. You might even keep an eye out for closed shops and call the owners. Stinks that this is the case but if it gets some cash in the former owner pocket it could be a small good from a bad situation.

caylentor wrote:
I know the go-to for most people is the IKEA Detolf, but it's probably about half as wide as I'd need to

I may be stating the obvious, but how about two then

 lord_blackfang wrote:

caylentor wrote:
I know the go-to for most people is the IKEA Detolf, but it's probably about half as wide as I'd need to

I may be stating the obvious, but how about two then

I'd rather have all of each faction on one shelf, rather than in two shelves in separate cabinets. Partly aesthetic, partly convenience for taking them in/out.

Just bought myself 2 ikea billy/oxbergs. Glass doors option are extra shelves...

Only issue is I need to nail them to the wall. Seems when the door is open it tips forward. Bit of an oopsie if all my dudes were in!

It's a good idea to secure cases to the wall regardless of having doors or not.