The Hobby Hole: Dedicated Transport

It may be the result of coming to 40k later in life or a natural and healthy aversion to sponges, but from the start foam transportation never made sense to me. It takes up a ton of space, you need different trays for different models, it seems to break models as often as it protects them, rubs paint off and the universe abhors porous solids. I attempted to go with the flow, bought some foam trays, broke some models and found the entire experience unsatisfactory. As is often the case with these situations I bitched and moaned about it until my wife took the initiative and came up with a better idea……magnets. While I am sure this is far from the first magnetic transport it is the first one designed by me and is therefore worthy of your attention

Starting at the bottom The key to this system is, obviously, sticking a magnet to the base of your model. I messed around with a couple of different ways to do this and finally settled on a 12x2mm rare earth magnet as the best size for any base excepting the smallest 25mm ones(for those I use a 6x2mm magnet), depending on whether or not you want to include a washer for weight.

I tend to like my models to have a little heft to them, so I add a washer to all my model bases. I have found it keeps them a lot more steady and gives them a more satisfying feel. Obviously some of the larger bases require that you trim out some of the supports to make room for a magnet and/or a washer, but they will take care of the base support for you. I won’t lie to you, this process is a significantly larger pain when the models are already attached to their bases but it can be done

A Surprisingly Useful Box For the actual cases I strongly recommend using the Really Useful Box brand boxes for a couple of reasons. They are durable, they (mostly) stack well, and the tops secure so they don’t pop off mid-transit. I purchased the metal sheets from a local hardware store (DO NOT BUY ALUMINUM…turns out magnets don’t stick to it) and a pair of tin shears to cut it to size, Careful note here, the sheers will leave you with something akin to a very sharp prison shiv, so be extremely careful as you put it into the box and secure it with liquid nails.

For most infantry I found that 4 Liter box is perfect.

The classic 4L model, good for all of your troop needs.

From there you can size up as needed, I have found that height is the biggest determining factor, just keep in mind that they might not stack perfectly as the sizes change.

Fits a Leviathan Dreadnought like a glove.

For most of my armies 3-4 of these cases will easily hold a 2000 point army securely and fit perfectly in my army transport bag.

Make it Your Own This is just the basics, but from here on out feel free to get weird with it. I myself am an OCD lunatic, so I purchased several plastic shelves, lines them with magnetic tape and use them to store my models when they aren’t in use.

No, they aren’t all painted, stop judging me.

The washers are extra helpful here, as they also stick to the magnetic tape and hold the models in place better. If you are willing to get creative you can move around anything in these boxes. I modified one to move a disassembled Heldreake

Personally I preferred to buy and make 6 boxes and cycle whatever I am taking in and out of them, but there is no reason you couldn’t easily use the boxes for storage as well.

There you have it, my (technically my wife’s, but I helped) humble solution to all of your transportation needs. It is not the prettiest but it is cheap, easy to make, and incredibly functional, and most importantly is a significantly better option than foam.

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