Wednesday 15 May 2013

Boxing miniatures

Boxes, not Boxers

In other words, not 28mm Rocky Balboa.  Rather, how do you store your figures?  This is an age-old issue for model-makers and gamers: it's hard to achieve the right balance between the cost of storage solutions, the protection afforded, the efficiency with which items can be packed, their portability and any number of other considerations.  Each gamer probably puts a different emphasis on these various elements, but here's what I do:

The Old-Fashioned Way

 Once upon a time, I made my own storage boxes out of 3mm MDF.  The base is a standard size, though I vary the height depending on the intended contents.  This means that such boxes always stack very well together!

The lid is hinged by sticking a strip of cloth tape over one of the edges.  Make certain that no glue is on the middle line of the cloth tape!  I've coated these boxes with various paints that were bought on sale at local DIY stores; the colour doesn't really matter so cheap, end-of-range paint is just fine.  I stick a couple of strips of foam on the inside to protect the figures.  However, many of my boxes are now somewhat overloaded and the miniatures are in danger of rubbing against each other anyway!  Over the years I must have made nearly 100 of these wooden boxes.

Pro: cheap.  Also, they come in exactly the size you want.
Con: making your own boxes does take quite a bit of work.

The New Way

A few years ago, I discovered a company called Weston Boxes that made simple polypropylene boxes.  Officially, these are sold for storing craft materials, but they work just fine for my purposes.  This is the 'peel off' craft box; it's just the right depth for 28mm miniatures on the common 25mm/1" bases.

These boxes are very simple: they have straight sides (so no wasted space!) and a lift-off lid.  I suppose that I could hold the lid on with a rubber band or two, but I've never found that to be necessary.  These boxes are not as cheap as my home-made ones, but they're still fairly inexpensive.

The A4, A5 and A6 boxes are all rather deeper than the peel-off ones (about 55mm rather than 28mm); this makes them suitable for larger models or multiple-figure bases.  All these products come in different colours, though my preference is for the clear ones - it's easier to find what you're looking for when you can see into the box!

Pro: readily available for no real effort.  Very solid - offers good protection.  Reasonably cheap.
Con: postage costs can be an issue for bulky sets.  Not easy to modify - if you want internal dividers then good luck with sticking those to a polypropylene box!

Afterword

These are the types of box that I use for most of my figures, though some of the largest and most awkwardly-shaped models are kept in an odd assortment of cardboard boxes.  Also, my gaming terrain is kept in much larger cardboard boxes.

There's no right or wrong way to do this (well, actually I can think of several wrong ways to store carefully-detailed models); how do you keep yours?


13 comments:

  1. I should start thinking about some boxes as well!

    I've actually invested pretty pennies in my KR Cases case for my FOW army.

    I keep my 28mm zombie and SA stuff in my drawer - just like that :P

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    1. KR cases are certainly nice and very good for travelling. A bit expensive for a large collection, though?

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  2. Box files for me. Although as I move more towards 15mm I find myself wanting a shallower alternative. Might have to check out those plastic ones you mention!

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    1. Ah, yes - box files! Certainly cheap and easily sourced, but don't you find that they waste space by being taller than needed? Or do you use internal trays to subdivide them?

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    2. Yes, they are a bit on the tall size. Okay for standing up 28mm but I'd need some kind of internal trays to properly use them for 15mm.

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  3. Originally, tool chests, were the norm, then came the cheap heavy duty card file boxes. Next I went to old draws, (large, and some and segemented off; I also have a metal multidrawer metal (the type you see in offices for paper) with a large number of figures in it, all with magnetic bases.
    My oldest storage item is an wooden eight drawer chest)about 40 years old)and my latest is A KR type case that holds about 400 figures-for my zombie stuff.
    This doesn;t include the inumerable other bags, plastic cases, boxes and odd drawers that house figures too.
    I'm sure I'm not alone in the diversity of storage.

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    1. I've used the occasional toolbox myself a long time ago. Drawer systems are great for fixed storage, but not at all portable!

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  4. I was using the Sabol Designs Army Transport case and its trays. Now I have moved almost all my Zombie and Survivor/Ganger/Police/Military minis over to Pistol Cases 5 of them fit into the Army Transport case, along with two Mantic "dvd" figure cases. Both the Mantic cases and the Pistol cases have foam to help hold the figures in place.

    I am not sure of the exact number of figures fit in each pistol case since some figures like Reaper Chronoscopes Harvey the Psycho Killer is larger then say Hasslefree's Rose, and then you have Reaper Chronoscopes Edna the Cat lady that has 5 or 6 cats, which I have bases each one individually on smaller 20mm square bases then the normal 25mm rounds I try to use. If I had to hazard a guess I would say maybe 40-50 figures on average.

    The same goes for the Mantic cases, though I believe they average about 25 figures per case.

    Now for my cheap figures (Wargames Factory plastics) right now they are all stored in a cardboard box that my Horrorclix singles arrived in, while the horrorclix are in another small shipping box right now. Once I get another Pistol case or two then the figures will be moved to those.

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    1. I'm not familiar with pistol cases, but a quick online search suggests that they're similar in concept to the popular KR cases. Not sure how easy they'd be to find in some countries, though.

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  5. I'm the same the proper carry/storage casee's are so expensive. at the minute I store mine in old lurpak butter tubs 12 figures to a tub. They don't generally leave the house that often but when they do I use kitchen roll to act as dividers and stop them banging into each other.

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    1. If these are the smaller lurpak tubs then that sounds like quite an efficient storage system. Always good to re-use something like this rather than just throwing it away!

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  6. My old WHFB figures are mostly in purpose made figure cases, I don't recall the brand. For 1/72 figures I've been buying cheap plastic boxes from craft and value stores. Bob Cordery recommends the Really Useful Boxes which seem pretty good.

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    1. The Really Useful Boxes have the advantage of clip-on lids to seal them, but I always felt that there was too much wasted space with the ribbing &c round the sides.

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