DIYFTW (do it yourself for the win) is the part of the blog where I and other TW members display our canny crafting when it comes to conversions, terrain, or in today's post, carrying cases. Team member Popculture Archeologist isn't really big on pop culture, but he's a damn fine archeologist. He also has a penchant for putting MacGyver to shame in building random stuff. It probably stems from embracing his inner Ork. One of his most recent endeavors involves creating a carrying case well under $20. I got the chance to check it out over the last wargaming weekend, and to say the least I'm impressed. Check out what he did after the jump!
So here is what PA came up with:
Popculture Archaeologist
There is a constant issue we as war gamers face: storage and
transport of our models that we have invested copious amounts of money and time
into. While several companies offer
solutions to this problem, they are often more expensive than several units of
our precious army! Since a war gamer’s
purchase list is never empty, that's just not an option for many of us. The Internet
is also littered with many DIY transport solutions.. I took inspiration from several online guides
to create a novel solution that would allow me to easily and safely transport
my 100+ pts. of Cygnar.
Step1.
Container Selection. An important step is to measure the
dimensions of the container that will hold our trays. We could use about anything - tool boxes,
ammo boxes, pistol cases, and soft coolers all work. I utilized a 22” toolbox, which I obtained
from a tool store, Harbor Freight, for around 11 dollars (HarborFreight.com).
Step 2.
Foam.
This is an essential aspect of any transportation or storage
solution. It absorbs impact and prevents
miniatures from shuffling about, protecting your lovingly accomplished paint
jobs and construction.
Many choices for the type and source
of our foam exist. A Google search will list several websites that offer
differing thicknesses of foam with varying densities. For this project I purchased High Density
Craft foam from Jo-Ann Fabrics. This
cost me US $5.34 after tax for a 2”x15”x17” square it was on sale at the time;
however, it regularly retails for around $9.99 for the high density variety
regular and low density are slightly cheaper.
Step 3.
Tracing. The unmodified foam won't protect our
miniatures well or fit into many containers, so we need to trace slots to fit
our minis snugly. For this first attempt
I simply traced the 30mm, 40mm, or 50mm Warmahordes bases, with a little extra
area included for models with poses that stick out over the base - e.g.
infantry swords and warjack weapons.
Step 4.
Cutting our traced slots. There are two schools of thought on how we
should go about this. The first and most
common trick is to cut rectangles big enough for your models and lay them out
in a grid. This allows for the stacking
of trays vertically or horizontally. The
method that I utilized was cylinder cutting.
This allows for vertical stacking of trays, and in my opinion, more
effective protection of our models.
I suck at cutting. So, I began with a variable speed rotary cutter, and utilized a hobby knife to complete the cuts. (In the future, I intend to use hole saw power drill bits to make this process easier and more uniform.) I made the mistake of cutting completely through the foam, which isn't desirable since you want a small foam buffer between your stacked trays anyway. Part of the learning curve!
Step 5.
Loading. Now we just need to load our models into the
foam tray. In my case I've stacked 2
foam trays vertically, which contain all of my warjacks, infantry, warcasters,
and solos. My light cavalry units didn’t
fit in those two trays, but there was enough space to fit them on the bottom of
the tool box next to the lower tray. An
optional customization is to glue another sheet of foam to the bottom of each
tray. This may be helpful for extra
heavy or especially fragile models.
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