How do you travel with Warhammer?

[heychadwick]

Hi Guys. I hope I'm not posting too much on your forums. As stated, I am sitting in a recliner for 2 weeks while I recover from an ankle surgery. Not much for me to do!

Eric, as you know, we don't have any tournament within 6 hours of us besides the Brawler Bash. I'm lucky enough to get to go to Adepticon this year. I'm flying in. I'm wanting to bring my army, but I've never traveled far for a GT. How do you do it?

Personally, this could be a good thing to talk about for your podcast. I'd like to hear how people deal with different ways of traveling for GT's.

Display Boards = I know Battlefoam has the new X-board, which is a portable/collapsible display board. That's great, but I don't see me traveling much besides Adepticon. I think if you have the cash, there are always great products to get. I'm wondering what you do if you don't have the cash. Also, I play OnG and we can get a lot of minis and need a display board that isn't....small. Is there anything I can do for a display board?

If you don't have a display board, how do you move your army around between games? How do you store them at night?

Army Case = What do you do? As I stated, I have a large army and I will need to transport it. Personally, I don't want to spend a lot of cash on a transport system that I am not going to use too much. I've seen a company that has foam trays in cardboard boxes that isn't too much. I might be able to borrow something from a friend, too. I know there are a million products out there, as well. Someone could talk a lot about this.

One thing I have done for local transport is get a large plastic container (the kind that fits under a bed) and I put a sheet of metal in the bottom. I then put rare earth magnets on the bottom of my movement trays. I magnetized my units/trays and I can put my army ready to go in my travel container. When I hit the store, I pop the lid and am ready to deploy. It would be super cool to have some sort of long distance system that worked like this, but I don't know of any. (by the way, I did a tutorial on how to build one of these in the next Da Warpath Quarterly web-zine - which is not out yet).

Any other things to know about traveling long distance for a GT? How do you guys carry your rule books, dice, templates, etc? I use a messenger bag, but I also got that Karl Franz bag with the Gamer's Version of the rule book when it came out.

[Tom McClure]

Certainly don't worry about posting too much! and great topic! I honestly haven't flown with any armies. So I'll have to ponder about just how I would do so with an O&G force. I do know of a cost effective, robust carrying system that a friend and I actually use for normal fig storage and catalogue-ing as well. It's actually intended for jewelry. I'll get the details to share. I have an idea about how to use it for a display base as well. Pics will be worth a thousand words. I'm a big fan of the rare earth magnets from K&J Magnetics, and I have friends that transport their armies in movement trays like you mentioned. However, they certainly need to be right side up.

[heychadwick]

Yep, yep! K&J Magnetics are the best.

OK.....well I have a question. I am going to Adepticon this year. I got someone else to pay for the whole thing. I can either drive the 11-13 hours from Charlotte, NC to Chicago or I can fly. Since I am not paying for it, I am thinking flying. With that, though, I need to deal with getting all my stuff to the event via plane.

Any ideas are appreciated! I can't even really plan it too well as the new OnG book will come out before Adpeticon and don't even know how many minis I will need (or what kind).

[Erik Lindley]

Post away my good man! Post away ;D

Truthfully I have never flown with my figs either. We always drive to IL (but I also take at least 4 people with me when I go :>)

I think Sabol is a good choice for the value. It IS still expensive though. For local transport I use the clear plastic tub just like you. most of my armies are magnetic so they stay put pretty well.
Unlike you, I don't go the distance and add magnets to the bottom of the trays and line the bottom of the tub with metal. I find that for my needs, just a simple sheet of that rubberized "bartender's cloth" (you see it in silverware drawers also) cut to fit stops any sliding around from the trays.

On the subject of an army base... My suggestion would be to arrange for a local to loan one to you :> That is the benefit of having a national network of friends!
Especially in Chicago, I am sure we can accomodate you if that is the route you choose to take.
There are lots of "friends of the show" in that area. Get with me off the boards and we will get you fixed up.
[e-mail]

-Erik

[heychadwick]

Awesome

I was looking at the KR Card Case for $38.99. It's a card board box that holds the foam trays. Pretty clever.

www.krmulticase.com/krmulticasestandardint.html

[Tom McClure]

Here are the links for the jewelry trays I mentioned. I mainly use the 1" and 1.5", but the 2" can handle cav.

www.gemsondisplay.com/ 

Trays and liners

www.gemsondisplay.com/shopdisplaycategories.asp?id=39 

Also, here are the carrying cases for travel with the trays.

www.gemsondisplay.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?page=1

[Tom McClure]

The carrying case link isn't working, but check them out. They are reasonable!

[warhamsterdave]

I use a KR multi case and they are pretty good for their money. Noy sure I would put it through hold luggage though.

Battle foam are doing some cases that look pretty good for longer travel. More expensive but you often get what you pay for and I am thinking of getting a large case from them with the idea that I could get 2 or more armies in it.

[heychadwick]

Awesome! Thanks, guys.

[retroalias]

A little background. I'm a packaging engineer, so my day job is to design packaging that ensures our orthopedic implants get there in one piece. So when I look the various options deigned or created from transporting armies I obviously look at them from a different perspective. Over the years I've tried basically all the store bought options along with tons of things I created in the lab at work.

Collectively our hobby has two different trains of thought on how to transport an army. The first is what I dub - Isolation. Essentially you are securing the model with nothing touching the model except the bottom of the base. Your trying to isolate the model from damage that would occur during a normal impact (smashing into the side of a container, another model, etc). As it makes setup easy this is the best solution for transport by car. But I wouldn't trust the magnets to be secure enough for a plane trip.

The second train of thought is what I dub cushioning. It's just what it sounds like - basically putting the miniature into a cushioned tray that absorbs the impact thereby protection the miniature. There are lots of store bought options for this (and I have a ton the Sabol stuff) that work pretty good but have room for improvement. You need a tigheter fit so that the miniature doesn't move. Movement inside tray = more damage on impact, especially for pinned models. Movement also allows the foam to rub off the paint, So you need to stuff the dead space with extra foam. A side note - they are really not using the best type of foam for our application. They are using an open cell polyurethane, probably because of cost. A closed cell cross linked polyethylene would give you same same cushioning and be a lot gentler on the paint. All that being said - any of the store bought options will work for most travel.

Time to wrap up this long winded reply. You want a cheap way to take miniatures on an airplane? Or be able to ship it to your destination? This is how I do it. Purchase some small pre-formed bubble bags. Get ones with dimensions close to your miniature size. Then put each miniature into a bag, tightly roll it up and secure either with tape of a rubber band. Then just stack all your rolled bags into a appropriate size container and secure it closed.

cgi.ebay.com/100-4-5-x-7-BUBBLE-WRAP-BAGS-/140475110076?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b4f812bc

[heychadwick]

Great post and awesome idea!

[Chris M.]

For you guys that need some display boards when you get up here let me know how big you want I can cut some 1/4 plywood and do some basing on it for you... Just post a pic of your bases so that I can get the colors right and let me know if you need 1x1 2x2 2x1 1.5x1.5......or whatever.... I'll be happy to make em as long as when you get here you make sure to reimburse me for materials... and I don't assume they will be much... Like 5 bucks.

Chris

[heychadwick]

Sweet! I'll need something, but I'll get a new book by the time Adepticon is out. I won't know how many. Probably something bigger for Orcs and Goblins. Also, I use sand as the primary basing with some scrub scattered about.

[Chris M.]

Time is growing short between now and Adepticon. Do I need to start on any Display Boards for you guys? I need to know ASAP as its starting to get colder and I need to get cutting and basing.

[heychadwick]

I would like a 2x2 one. Wood is fine, but if you could glue some sand on it, that would be even better. Do you want to be paid in cash at Chicago? Or Paypal ahead of time?

I'm also emailing a friend of mine to see if he wants one.