By Lord Tuman Elnikov
Many people have expressed difficulty in storing and transporting their figures. They
complain about figures being damaged, paint being chipped, difficult setup and cleanup.
So, I thought that I'd write an article describing the various methods, advantages, and
dis-advantages. After all, you've probably spent hundreds of hours painting your army
beautifully, don't you think it's worth the effort to care for it?
Egg-crate foam
The most common method of tranporting miniatures is to lay the figures on their sides on
so-called egg crate foam. This is a type of foam that is wavey, and looks like it the
cartons that eggs come in. In other words, it has little "fingers" that poke up
regularly in a grid pattern.
The disadvantage to this method, is that figures can easily get bent by this method.
Cavalry figures, and particularly monster figures are almost impossible to story this way.
However, for long distance trips where you are un-sure of how the box is going to be
handled (like luggage in airplane), this is a relatively safe method. Shotgun cases are
perfect for this method, however people will give you strange looks when you walk into a
gaming room carrying a shotgun case!
Specialized carrying cases - Specialized "figure carriers" produced by GW
and other companies have compartments cut out of foam inside of a hard plastic carrying
case. These are expensive and suffer from many of the same problems that the egg-crate
solution does. However, because of the compartmentalized nature of the box, the figures
have less of a tendency to bump into each other. Transporting a large army (say Skaven or
Goblins) for instance can be a be an expensive and bulky proposition as each case hold a
limited number of figures. This is probably the ideal traveling solution for
mass-transportation where others are likely to handle your figures.
Fiber fill or Christmas Snow It has been suggested that packing fiber fill (that
stuff that looks like really thick spider webs that is used for stuffing pillows and soft
toys) packed around figures in a box will protect them from damage. Personally I've never
seen anyone who uses this method not have figures that are all chiped and damaged. Add to
that the fact that you'll be constantly having to pick this stuff off of your figures, and
I'd have to say that it's probably the second worst solution available. The worst solution
I've heard (asside from just throwing them into a paper sack) was using "easter
grass". This has the added benefit of being dangerous to small animals as well as not
protecting your figures.
With each of the following methods, you must obtain or make a container for your figures.
It should be rigid and easy to carry. Be sure to consider the height of the tallest figure
in your army before you make a final decision on which container to use. Lance armed
cavarly can be up to 4 inches tall, and many boxes will not come that large. Also consider
how many figures you can fit into a single tray or compartment of the container. It's
quite convenient to have a single tray with an entire regiment (musician, standard, etc)
contained sepertely. This means that you can quickly and easily take out and put away your
figures. There are several methods for securing the figures to the bottom of the container
for transport. Don't imagine that you can just hold the box carefully, because the first
bump they get will send them flying.
Double Stick Tape - This is perhaps the easiest method for securing figures to the
base. Unfortunately, it is also the least reliable. Simply line the bottom of the
container with this tape, and stick your figures down onto it. Each time you use it,
you'll lose a little bit of stickyness as the tape collects dust and bits of flock from
the bases of your figures. Sooner or later you'll need to replace the tape. Luckily it's
realatively cheap and easy to come by. Unfortunately, even new tape doesn't stick as well
as other methods.
Sticky clay - Well, I've never tried it, but I've heard it mentioned, so for
completeness, I thought I'd pass it along. The idea here is to line the bottom of the
container with clay or plasticene, and push the bases of the figure in. I imagine that
this would require more time to set up and put away your figures than any other method. It
would probably also have a tendency to pull away from the bottom of the container and be
rather heavy. It would definitely have the best "stickyness" of all the methods
however.
Magnetic bases - There are three possibilities here. All of these methods require
the use of "sheet magnet". This material is sold in many forms, but I find the
most convenient to be that sold as "buiness card" backing. It comes pre-sticky,
and in convenient sizes. It can be cut with regular scissors, and is fairly light weight.
You can find this material at office supply stores relatively in-expensively.
Steel bases and magnetic trays - This seems to be the most common but I'm not sure
why. There are various methods to putting steel on the bottoms of the bases, such as
gluing washers to the bottom, and cutting strips of steel. This often leads to sharp
corners (even if it's the just corner of the plastic base itself) which means that it's
difficult to slide your regiments across felt covered surfaces.
Magnet everywere - The most "sticky" of the solutions would be to apply
magnet to the bottom of the figure as well as the bottom of the tray. The disadvantage
with this method, is that the figures must be oriented correcly, and will often not fit as
close to each other as you might like. This means that putting your figures away will take
more time as you must orient your figures correctly as you put them in. Forget letting
anyone else put them away for you!
Magnetic bases and steel trays - This is my favorite. Because the magnet is smooth
even after cutting, it allows the figure to be slid easily over felt covered gaming tables
without catching. Because the tray is steel (30 ga. galvanized works well) the figures may
be positioned and oriented any way you wish. The tray can be turned to a 45 degree angle
without the figs falling out (possibly more depending on how light the figure is) and they
don't fall over during transport. Other advantages include being able to use metal
tool-boxes, and metal movement trays. The best sheet magnet I've found is sold as business
card holder in office supply stores, and comes pre-sticky. It can also be found at shops
that make signs for car doors, but it seems to be more expensive and in larger non-sticky
sheets.
Carrying Cases - Once you've decided which sticking method to use, you've got to
get a carrying box. Some people use metal tackle boxes with trays that automatically
extend when you open the lid. I use two different types of boxes. One type is easily
obtainable at hardware stores is a "parts bin" which has 12 plastic drawers with
each row being covered by a piece of clear plastic and a catch to keep it closed. I've got
picture. The main
disadvantage to this case is that most cavalry figures and monsters will not fit into it.
The plastic handle tends to be a little bit "wonky" but it's quite service-able
if you're on a *really* tight budget.
The other, I build myself out of Poplar. It has a plexi-glass sliding door, and trays that
slide out. Each tray is covered in steel, and it holds my entire Bretonnian and Lizardmen
armies. You can see a picture
of it if you're interested.
So, there you have the basics. If you have any other good ideas, please e-mail them to me
so we can share with the rest of the world.
mailto:[email protected]
