If you, like me, own a plethora of miniature figures and enjoy the occasional trip to the gaming store to showcase your army you have most likely grown tired of the lengthy process of packing them neatly only to witness the horror of bent cannons and decapitated figures upon arrival at the game store.
Pro tip: Crying in front of the store clerk and his friends will not fix your Space Marines. It will, however, end up being the topic of the evening.
I needed to come up with something that could hold my entire army at home but also transport them to and from games/conventions.
My workshop looked like a mess and with my girlfriend moving in I had to figure out a way to make it look more organized without breaking any of my beloved and pretty expensive minis.
After a couple of hours, I had moved my entire army from “all over the place” to storage boxes that I kept in the garage. I was now the owner of an apartment with a spare room.
We’re moving from this apartment in a couple of months so I have decided to keep them stored because it turns out these boxes are a great way to keep your Warhammer figures secured when moving. As you can see I am pretty pleased with the outcome.
By now you probably know how fragile these miniatures are and how well protected they need to be – with the time and money spent on buying and painting them we want to keep them for as long as possible. There are several ways of achieving this without going bankrupt or having your swords bend during transport.
How to store miniature figures safely
If you’ve asked other players how they store their figures I’m guessing you’ve heard of methods that don’t provide a lot of care, like plastic bags or shoving them in a box. On the other hand, you’ve also heard about people who go through quite a bit of hustle to guarantee the safety of their miniature figures.
Storing miniatures with magnets on a baking tray
This method requires
- Baking tray
- Magnets (Search for Rare Earth Magnets) on E-bay.
- Super Glue
- Accelerant
- Recommended: Tupperware with a lid to store the baking tray in. (Make sure the baking tray fits perfectly to minimize the amount of movement during transport) If you are having trouble finding a well-suited set of Tupperware you can glue a little bit of foam around the edges, creating a department for the baking tray to rest on.
The baking tray will act as the foundation on which the miniatures will stand safely with the power of the magnets.
I bought my 2.5x3mm magnets on e-bay for a couple of cents each and I used 2 per small miniature base and about 4-5 magnets for the larger figures, I have used magnets measuring up to 2x6mm for some figures but I rarely use more than 1-2 of those.
The super glue is used to ensure that the magnets are kept in place. And lastly, the accelerant will speed up the process.
First of all, open the pack of magnets and remove them from the packet.
If you’re using a foundation that isn’t made of metal you’ll have to glue magnets onto the tray or Tupperware and then do the same with your miniature figures too, in that case, make sure that you mark the positive side of every magnet you remove to make it easier for you to keep track of which side you need to glue to the tray to prevent them from repelling.
(I used a pencil to mark the positive side of the magnet and made sure to have that side pointing downwards in order for it to connect to the negative side of the magnet that I glued to the tray)
However, if you’re using a baking tray that the magnets can stick to then go ahead without caution. Start by applying a bit of glue to the base of the figure, that’s where our magnet is going. Spray the magnet with just a little accelerant and then apply the magnet to the glue-covered base.
When the glue has dried up and the magnet is stuck in place, put the figure on the baking tray to make sure it sticks. With magnets like these, you should be able to flip the tray without the figures falling off.
I’ve saved more than hundreds of dollars by doing this.
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How to create your own custom-made tray for miniature storage with magnets
If you would rather make your own tray instead of buying one, you’ll need
- Plywood, particle board, or MDF to serve as the tray that we will be putting our figures on. I bought mine at a hardware store in town.
- Thin metal sheet. I think these are used for ventilation originally but make for a perfect foundation because of their magnetic properties.
- Glue, preferably Gorilla Glue
- Clamps or heavy items to press the metal sheet onto the piece of wood while the glue is drying.
- Clear coat
- Alternative but entirely cosmetic: paint to color your tray.
How to:
I plan to transport my tray so I’ve measured the size of the Tupperware I will be using to make sure that the piece of wood I get fits. You want it to fit perfectly so either bring measurements when buying wood or, if you’re good with tools, do it yourself at home.
That’s the first step (If you plan on having the tray stored without Tupperware then you don’t need to worry about the size).
Once that’s done and you’ve got your piece of wood, cut the metal sheet so that it fits perfectly on your piece of wood. Now that you’ve got your piece of wood and metal sheet cut out, prepare the surface of the piece of wood by cleaning it with paper.
Afterward, apply glue to the piece of wood and place the metal sheet on the piece of wood. Put pressure on the metal sheet overnight by using clamps or heavy objects, make sure to use something that covers large parts of the metal sheet to avoid denting.
If you decide to paint your metal sheet or give it a logo for your army this would be the time to do it, painting the sheet after applying a gloss clear coat will give it a sticky finish. When painting my tray I used Primer by Rust-oleum, you can get it online but I’m sure local stores have it.
The edges of the metal sheet are pretty sharp but we’ll fix that by applying a layer of gloss clear coat, this will give the metal sheet an oil slick surface and make the edges blunter. With the metal sheet glued on the piece of wood and the magnets glued onto the base of the figures, they will stick to the metal sheet.
To further pimp your tray you can place handles on it, making it easier to move in and out of your Tupperware. Place one handle in the middle of the tray or one on each side of the tray.
Best cheap cases for miniature figures
Some companies offer factory-made high-quality storage boxes with some impressive features. It’s an easy and effective way to store your figures but it costs a bit more than creating your own.
I’ve had the pleasure of owning some of these before giving them to my younger brother who suffers from the ownership of an even bigger army than mine. Nevertheless, I figured I would share my recommendations with you. I consider these to be affordable carrying cases for miniatures.
1. Battlefoam
I can’t recommend a specific case from Battlefoam as they have a plethora of boxes and I haven’t used all of them, the ones I have tried have all been very high-quality products and I would buy them again. They create carrying cases for a ton of different figures and prices. You can also order custom-made trays to fit your figures.
I would say they offer some of the best cases in the industry but some of their products are very expensive, making them less attractive for beginners who haven’t embraced the hobby fully – that’s no reason to be discouraged, they do offer a bunch of very affordable products too.
If I would have to recommend a case from Battlefoam, I would pick this one. It is not as affordable as the other options but it’s a high-quality bag with enough storage space to carry big armies.
When shopping in their online stores, remember that some cases come without trays so make sure to read their product description thoroughly.
2. Feldherr Maxi Figure Case
The maxi case holds 150 regular sizes (25mm/1 inch) figures plus numerous larger monsters or tanks. With the high-quality bag comes 4 foam trays, three of which are 35mm full-size trays with 50 departments each and the remaining tray is a 60mm foam tray with pre-cubed departments that offer the ability to pluck them to fit your models.
The pick-and-pluck cube tray is perfect for your larger models that need custom-made departments.
You can really tell how much effort they have put into this bag to make it what it is, the sturdy construction in combination with the elegant design and functionality has garnered a lot of good reviews – earning the product its “Amazon’s Choice” emblem.
This alternative is a good solution for storing figures such as Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons minis and any other 25-28mm bases. For such a reasonable price I would recommend this to anyone. Here’s a link to the product.
3. Games Workshop Citadel Skirmish Figure Case
Taking the size into consideration, I would recommend this case to beginners or players who plan on doing skirmishes with smaller armies. If you need to store big armies this is not the product for you.
The case itself measures 4.7 x 3.9 x 1.8 inches and weighs 1.5lbs but the foam inside is slightly larger than the box causing it to compress to make sure your figures stay in place when transported.
This case is very easy to handle, pack and unpack if you own figures by Games Workshop as they have created this box to fit nearly all of their miniatures. The skirmish and battle cases stack on each other to facilitate the storage of the cases.
To further improve the safety features of this product, Games Workshop has installed nylon catches to prevent the catches from breaking if the case is dropped. The added metal hinge is there to harden the case’s weak spots.
As I said before, this case is perfect for small games as it’s very easy to transport, store and pack/unpack.
If you’re the owner of any figures by Games Workshop – I’d recommend this case.
4. Feldherr Storage Box
Handling your figures delicately is essential when transporting them but just as important for storage at home, I would recommend this product for storage at home and get something more robust for transport.
Feldherr’s manufactured storage boxes will hold 15cm of full-size trays, which equals two 35mm trays for 36 regular models plus one 60mm full-size tray for bigger figures such as tanks. Adding the 10mm extra bottom, this setup provides extra protection for your precious figures.
The regular model holds 72 minis and a couple of big figures but other variations of the same box hold up to 200 miniatures. The storage box is made of cardboard with a plastic handle capable of heavy lifting. However, with the box weighing no more than 2.1 pounds, I’d say there won’t be a lot of heavy lifting but I guess you never know – 72 metal figures can probably make a little difference.
Of course, the box works for transportation but it won’t be the best alternative on the list. I would feel safe using it for shorter trips but to let someone else handle my bags at the airport would be a little bit intimidating with this storage box. You can find the box here.
Want to store specific armies? Feldherr has boxes made for specific figures at very good prices for the amount of value you get. Take a look at their collection here.
How to create your own miniature case with foam departments
Foam is widely used in the Warhammer community to store miniatures. To make your own box with foam departments to store your miniature figures you’ll need
- A Box or Cases like this one or any other size of the same box – scroll down to see featured models on the product page.
- Foam
- Cutting knife
- Foam Glue
- Yoga mat (1cm thick)
First of all, we need to cut the foam to end up with the piece that we’ll be turning into departments later on. To do this you need to
- Measure the inside length and width of the case
- Trace the measures on the foam
- Cut out
With the piece of foam cut out from the rest – we’ll focus on making the departments. For future creations, cut out a template of the department measures using cardboard.
This can easily be done by painting 1 x 2-inch boxes with 0.5 inches (these are the measures I needed, figure out what works for your miniatures) between them and then cutting the inner piece of the boxes out (like this) leaving only the 0.5-inch separations.
Apply your cut-out cardboard template to your piece of foam and start cutting out the departments. Now that we’ve got the case and the departments we’ll need to create the bottom of the foam tray, this is done by measuring and cutting out a piece of the yoga mat so that it fits perfectly under the tray.
With the yoga mat cut-out, glue the foam around the departments and place them on the cut-out piece of a yoga mat with evenly applied pressure and let it dry. With the foam and the mat glued together, you’ve got a perfect foam tray to store in your case.
For extra resistance against vibrations, you can measure the foam so it’s just slightly bigger than the case, forcing it to compress. This minimizes the risk of your figures moving around.