Transporting the spikey

Hi All,
Just curious how you all go about transporting things like venoms, raiders and ravagers...
They're quite tall and spikey and don't play well with others.


What do you guys do?

Personally, a large box will plenty of space.
Each item is wrapped lightly in a dust cloth, and then placed in the box, surrounded by a lot of cotton wool or similar alternative (I actually use teddy bear stuffing).

I use smaller boxes, and magnetise things like the sails, guns etc (anything that might snap off basically). It means assembly takes longer at the venue, but saves a lot of frustration (i think the second or third time i took a finished raider to a game the end of the sail snapped, really annoying!

The crucial part is getting them snug in the box so they can't roll around, so as squidmaster said, pack them in and surround them with something soft.

I am looking to get some KR cases to take them places though, but probably not until autumn this year sadly.

At the moment, I've got tissue boxes or the like (raider shaped) surrounded by tissues. It seems that I'm not alone in the struggle

KR Multicase... its the only way to fly. Custom laser cut foam perfect for every DE vehicle and infantry. Mine has never failed me and its the only way I transport my dark Eldar. The rest of my models are a bit more rugged and can deal with other cases/packing methods but the DE are too fragile to mess around. The soft foam/snug fit prevents things from jostling around and even if there is a little movement, or things are poking out a bit the foam has soft give and wont rub the paint off and will yield a bit too allow an awkward fit for heavily converted models. Can't say enough about these cases... KR is the best.

Maybe it sounds funny, but I transport the spikey ones in tupperware. Stick them to the cap and
put the jar over it. You can stick them with double sided adhesive tape.

Cavalier wrote:

KR Multicase... its the only way to fly. Custom laser cut foam perfect for every DE vehicle and infantry. Mine has never failed me and its the only way I transport my dark Eldar. The rest of my models are a bit more rugged and can deal with other cases/packing methods but the DE are too fragile to mess around. The soft foam/snug fit prevents things from jostling around and even if there is a little movement, or things are poking out a bit the foam has soft give and wont rub the paint off and will yield a bit too allow an awkward fit for heavily converted models. Can't say enough about these cases... KR is the best.

Hey Cavalier, do you have any photos of what the case looks like on the inside? I've never heard of KR Multicase before

Sure I'll take some this afternoon!

I bought a $30 toolbox from Lowe's a bit ago:



This thing is great, and even moreso for the price. It's 24" long, 9" wide, and 10" high for stuffing it with stuff on the inside. That's more space than pretty much every army transport has to offer, but comes with a hard shell and loops for a lock if you want extra safety. It's relatively light, so that's huge. I've been using it for over a year now, but usually just stuffing Battlefoam Warmachine trays in it (they fit perfectly), using the extra space on the sides for the extras/hard to fit stuff. But yeah, Dark Eldar need a bit better approach.

So I grabbed some foam cushion stuff from my local crafts store. It was on sale for 50% off and I grabbed enough 3" material to make as many trays as I'd need for about $20. I used about 1/3 of it doing this:



It was a bit of a hassle, but that's 2 raiders and 3 Ravagers (the third one isn't built so I haven't carved out it's home yet, just enough for a template of it's shape). Mine aren't glued to their movement bases, but I made them tall enough for the bases to stay with them to make the ride safer for the bottom spikes. So after glueing some strips to increase the height I have a tray that's 6" high. A little more more, because I glued the foam to a piece of cardboard to make it more sturdy.

So I ended up with:



For about $40 bucks and a few hours of my time (some trial and error, and including serious Tacky Glue drying times). I still have 3" of height in the toolbox to add another tray, which I made, but it's currently for Reavers and Infantry. It's an inefficient use of the space, so I'll be making another tray for my harder to travel items once more of my army is built. More than likely the area will be dedicated the the Voidraven and Venoms (I have some stackable tubs that fit Razorwings pretty nicely). I expect to travel for tournaments, as that's my end goal, so I'll factor that into my transport needs.

I searched for other methods of holding my stuff. Cost -WAS NOT AN ISSUE-. I'd spend 1,000 bucks to keep my army safe, but all the other products made me feel like I was being ripped off and still not getting optimal protection.

That's great Slaven! I'll check the local craft store at some point, if they've got foam cushion then I may set up something like this.
I assume you carry your venoms in the same box?

I will once I get some built and start putting together the foam to keep them safe. If I planned it out a bit better and had more stuff together when I started preparing to protect everything, I would probably make the "posts" that are just glued in there (to give the Raiders/Ravagers the extra height they need to avoid being crushed) into Venom "pockets" so I could store all my Raiders/Ravagers and Venoms in the same 6" tall space. Just eyeballing the tray from the picture I feel I could have fit at least 6 Venoms on there without much struggle.

Excellent!
However, my venoms have the pikes on them, increasing their height by an extra few inches. In either case i should be ok. Thanks for your input. I have ideas now!

Heya Nexs, I notice youre from Oz. Cool! Unless youre trying to buy hobby supplies that is.

This is what I ended up getting, cost less than a KR, and is a pretty good use of space-

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So, its a waterproof case from Bunnings. It came with a panel of so a panel of pluck foam and the panel that sits in the lid. $60, if memory serves. $60 on sale.  Also picked up 2 panels of 10mm foam(one for the bottom, and one that sits between the vehicles and upper tray) and a 3" panel (another $20 or so). Then I took a hacksaw blade too it. The vehicle tray ended up fairly deep, lots of room for tall venoms.
The standard GW figure tray fits nice(you can fit two if you take out the top panel of foam)
Hope thats useful.

Here ya go my man. Bear in mind this is the smallest KR case, and you can buy cheaper stacking cardboard boxes that can carry their excellent foam.


These three layers fill-up the entire box:









Or four raiders (or a single razorwing as well)


Also they always include this nice little sheet just for separation from the lid of the box:



I cannot recommend this stuff enough also you can order just the foam and plop it in an appropriatley sized tupperware. I do that for my Nightwing/Razorwing. Anyway hope this helps!

One of the major benefits of the KR system I was reminded of last night is that their infantry trays comes in various different sizes - I ordered quite a small one and my marines fit snugly into the slots for them, no gaps at the top or bottom meaning they don't move at all when I'm transporting them - and I can fit more in! 1/8th of their standard cardboard case holds 25 infantry models! They also do larger slots though like those you see in Cavalier's pics, which would be better for taller models, dire avenger style helmets or models with banners etc.

Thanks for all the responses everyone!
Lots of ideas! I've just got a few more second hand skimmers so I may need to start some home DIY soon!

With all my army i put a neodymium magnet, usually a -o-3mm hight 2mm in the base, i make sure its surrounded by a thick gleu so that its gripped in from the top as wel as the sides. those magnets can hold up to 300/400 grams of weight ( quite strong )

for transporting my army ive made a leveled case with thin metal plates on the surfaces of the levels. you can put the entire case sideways and your models wil stil stay in place, ideal for delicate things like dark eldar skimmers.

Nice idea! I have plans on magnetising both my whole fantasy armies onto their movement tray... doesn't work so well with 40k though! Haha

it works great with 40k, ive magnitzed my daemon army as wel! whenever you travel your forces a lot, especially between rounds in a tournament, you'll find your modells tumbling, shuffling and getting damaged by either foam or any other medium wrapped around you models to protect them. how often wil a sword or spike get bend or broken when unwrapping it or after getting stuck in foam.

now all you got to do is make sure they are firmly pinned or plastic welded in the base and you can just clip and pull them of the base, whenever you carefully place them on the plates nothing will happen with your models after that point. its even easier to magnitize resin bases.

i've spend about 60 euro's on all the magnets, plates and other materials used to make a transport. considering the cost of any other case this just works really wel for me.

anyway if you ever consider building your own magnetic army transport and need some pointers just ask me!

cheers

Certainly!
I'm not so concerned with the infantry models, It's mostly the skimmers. I would consider magnets to hold them in place, but I don't think I can effectively get magnets in the flying bases. When I get a chance, I'll head to the hardware store and see what I can find

you can, ive replaced al flying bases with either oval or 60mm bases to make them stand out more and to be able to do more base work.

you could simply dril 3 2 mm holes around the center and place 3 2mm magnets in those, combined they are just as strong and wil give you a really good hold on any metal surface.

Sounds good! I'll give that a go!