Army carrying case, The box

by TheGraveMind

I wanted to share with everyone my Carrying case for my Blood angels. It started when my mother informed me that storage/organizer boxes were on sale at the local hobby supply store. So I stopped by and got some of various colors and used a few for my desk, and put the others downstairs for later. Well one day I happened to my LGS, and two gentlemen had just purchased new foam trays for additions to their army. As they were gouging out spaces for their models, I asked if they minded if I took these pieces. They didn’t mind as they were going to throw them away. I got a back from the front desk and gathered up spare foam. I took it home and I had a project on my hands.

I was lucky enough that one of the trays designed for very large models, so I had large solid pieces of foam to work with. I started off by pulling a box from my basement that was about the color I intended for my army (yes I like them color coded).  I then measured the dimensions and compared them to items I might want to store in it and the size of my foam pieces. After planning it out on paper, I began gluing foam into place. Lots of elmers glue later, I had the bottom of my Box ready.

Along the front was room for two five man squads and some terminators in the middle. On either other corner is a space for rhino chassis. I left a middle section for another five marines plus IC if needed. It also turns out the spaces for the rhinos hold about 12 Jump pack marines, which is perfect for my two 10 man Assault squads with priests and Hqs. The front area also works for about 5 bikes.

I then measured how much space was left to the top of the box. Now I Could have taken the rest of the foam I had and put it on a sheet of some kind and that would have worked as well, but at the time I wasn’t sure what to use. Cardboard would not be strong enough and so I would have had to search for a suitable material and then have the sheet cut to the proper size. I would have done this had I not checked out the foam trays at the store. With the exception of one dimension it fit perfectly. I bought it, took it home, and cut it. I then removed segments for more options.

I kept about the same layout as the bottom, two segments about the size for rhinos, a line for about ten marines across the front, and a section for five plus extra in the middle.

Lets recap. For mech; I have room for 4 rhino/razorbacks, room for about 30 marines plus ICs, and 5 Terminators. A good core of a list, and I take a spare Land raider box to carry the other vehicles if I need them.

For Jumpers; room for two 10 man assault squads with priests, a five man bike squad, five man vanguard, five man honour guard, Extra magnetized options and some room.

I like my box, because of the versatility of it. If I happen to decide I wanted to bring dreadnoughts or Monstrous creatures, they also fit in the base of the box, and I would then only have to make a different sized top layer to accommodate the change.

In the current use of the box, I keep dice in the top center area, my Hq/ICs in one of the top corners, magnetized arms in the other, and in the top line other accessories (super glue, laser pointer, etc). The bottom holds the two assault squads, and the other random squads I fill my points with.

So everything would fit into this one nice little box, well almost everything. I still needed my rule book and templates. Another creative step easily solved that. Cheap elastic bands from a hobby store and some more measuring and I was set to go. I made sure both sides were small enough the Rule book couldn’t fall out, and I super glued the ends of the elastic bands into place. I held them there long enough for the glue to dry, and then I put Elmers glue over the ends to secure it in place just in case. The templates are held behind the rule book. I’ve also added Faqs behind the templates once I printed them off. Now the codex can be wedge in there if need be, but I generally just carry it on top, and the tape measure clips onto my belt.

There’s nothing like showing up to a 1750 tournament with an all jumpers list and people ask you where your army is and you hold up a small box.