Tuesday 26 July 2016

Miniature storage solutions

Nothing painted since my last post, sadly - my painting desk is still covered in half-unpacked stuff, and with my wife working most hours that I'm not currently it's not left much time for hobby stuff...

I have, however, made some strides in sorting out my storage for painted miniatures - the sweet basement in our new place came with some built in shelves that I thought would be ideal for storing painted miniatures - my original idea was to magnetise the bases of all my miniatures (cue ordering some tiny magnets from Hong Kngnthat too an age to arrive) and use metal trays, so that whenever I needed miniatures for a game I could just grab the relevant tray and be ready to go, but then I thought about the possibility of getting some stackable boxes to really maximise the space, and soon found myself grabbing some Really Useful Boxes:


Three for a tenner for the 4L model from our local Rymans, which looked it would fit most miniatures quite comfortably (pikes notwithstanding).

So, I started digging out my painted zombies and survivors to see how many miniatures I could fit into each box, and barring the occasional lost limb that a quick dab of superglue was able to fix, found only one casualty of the move:


He bent back into shape carefully, with only minor chipping (and as he's a zombie, a little splash of blood is probably the easiest way to cover it up!)


And so, that's how many zombies you can fit into a Really Useful Box!


And lo, maximum space was used! Handily, I think I should be able to adjust the position of the shelves, as they look like they're on adjustable metal bits, so I should be able to raise the shelf they're currently on so that I can fit three stacked boxes on the shelf below.

A day has passed since I wrote most of this post, and so in the meantime I've had a rearrange of some shelves and bought some more boxes:


Mmm, efficient. Well, more efficient than the previous shelving:


which was a frankensteined monster of several drawer units spliced together, with a mix of finished, half finished, and bare metal miniatures in it. Once everything else is sorted, it's just going to be pure supplies...

Now comes the fun but - digging through my miniatures:

(Currently quite a mish mash, I'll sort them more when I get some more boxes!)

Back to the Really Useful Boxes though, I'll probably still look into magnetising the miniature bases and the bottom of the boxes, for ease of transport - I had a nose in a few shops around town after work, but couldn't seem to find any sort of magnetic tape or sheet - has anyone had any success with something like this?

5 comments:

  1. This company is worth a look for magnetising your figures and trays: http://www.first4magnets.com/
    Take a look in the A4 sheets section - they have sheets of pre-cut "dots" which might be good for the figure bases.

    Magnetic sheet doesn't bind strongly to itself, so you might want to buy some steel paper or flexometal/flexible ferrous sheet to line the trays

    Another, possibly cheaper company is http://www.abelmagnets.com/

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  2. Great storage option. Magnetizing the figs would be a good option. I like the amount of figs you should be able to pack in a pretty small space.

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  3. Try Magnect Dispays, Trevor Holland does free postage. I would magna base the figures. I also use anglers float box foam which is self adhesive to anchor larger items in place.

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  4. I have to confess that I have fully embraced the 'really useful box' as well, interestingly they now receive more disdain than the lead that arrives through the letter box - it must be a size thing.

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  5. I use galvanized steel sheet on a roll from the home improvement store. Mine came in a roll that was 12" wide. Make sure to get steel.and not aluminum so it will stick to magnetic bases. I use rare earth magnets for my bases.

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