Can't think of anywhere else this would go, so here you are!

I've been working on a means of transporting and storing my WIP guard army. I know that there are more cases available than you can shake a stikkbomb at, but it's always more fun to do it myself.

So, the idea was to make trays, and then make them stackable inside another container. I needed a handle mounted to the bottom-most tray so that I could lift them all out simultaneously. So here are a couple pictures...

One of the completed trays with little metal and plastic men in their new homes...



Right now I do not have them sorted into squads, for the most part. That will come later, I'm sure.

All the completed trays



The one with the tall tower-like structure is the bottom tray. The handle for lifting them out is hidden inside the top of the stack.


You simply lift...



...turn...



...and open the handle!



All of the trays stack up...

to fit inside the handy dandy carrying case.


It's a little full now...


...but that's because of the really big tray. It's designed to hold my paints and modelling tools as well as some materials should I ever take along little metal men to paint in some location other than my workroom.

I still have many more trays to make, and then I will paint them (and the box)

This is really an experiment; I have two or three old DeWalt power tool boxes that I have ripped the guts out of, and those will eventually house my armies using a similar system of wooden trays, but they are in one state and I am currently in another, so they will need to wait for me!

Comments, critiques, pitchforks, torches?

Very nifty solution.

As you already dropped a case before, I don’t think it’s such a good idea to place it on your stove ;)

Yeah, this thing is designed to withstand the worst of a drop. Even if it should fall, the guys would be more or less protected (especially after I get some felt and foam to hold them in place).

And the case is on the stove because it was the best light I had at the time. Wouldn't dream of cooking an army, least-wise not in that manner! B)

I like it but with one caveat:


What type of wood is that handle made from? Im no expert but it looks like it could be balsa wood and large quantities of beloved models with paint pots and a balsa wood handle do not make for happy times.

I know you said its built to withstand a drop but the time the handle is most likely to break is when its been taken out of the main box. Is there anyway you could strengthen that handle?

The handle is not made of balsa wood. Heck no!

Balsa has its uses and is lightweight and easily worked, but in the dimensions needed it has insufficient tensile strength.

No, he handle itself is made of 3/8" plywood. The extenders are made of 3/16" plywood.

I cut the shape out of the 3/8" and then I removed the inner 3/16" using the table saw. (I just took five minutes and whipped up some diagrams...sorry if they aren't perfect, but you'll get the idea)



After the extra material was removed, I made the extenders out of 3/16" ply. The hole on top attaches to the handle while the groove is the slide to let it open up.



And then I had to cut the handle itself. The holes on each side are for the screws that hold on the extenders. The groove in the middle I made using a router. It is for the dowel peg the holds the handle itself to he riser and allows it to slide up and then into the notch that keeps it from sliding out of position.



I also cut off the very top of the handle (the part that opens and he part that I can grab) and opened it up a bit to allow room for my fairly large fingers.

The screws are, if I recall correctly, 4-62's (#4 screws with 62 threads per inch...sorry it's not all metric, but I am a simple American who is woefully behind the rest of the world as far as metrics are concerned), with nuts on the backsides. I had to grind down the ends of the screws and take a bit off of the nuts as well using a bench-grinder. A dab of super-glue (I couldn't find any of my Loc-Tite) holds the nuts in place now.

A word of warning when using a grinder; I was stupid and careless and accidentally touched one of the nuts immediately after grinding it. Managed to brand the tip of my finger. Not a pleasant feeling, for a pleasant smell. Be careful! I know better, and still managed it!

Anyway, that's the basics of how that was done. The rest of the riser for he handle is made of 1/2" ply sandwiched between 3/16" ply, with the "bread" of the sandwich extending above the 1/2" long enough to fit the handle inside. The handle is held in place with a 1/4" dowel peg that runs through the "bread" and through the groove in the handle.

That's about it. Pretty simple, but effective! My dad watched me do it, and his only comment was, "If only you would use your powers for good..." Then he walked away laughing.

Old goat.

Thats a pretty neat idea. I can't wait to see it finished with some foam/felt inside.

Yeah, it's neat and all, but I have discovered my first point of failure.

The original plastic handle.

I'm seeing stress points in the places of the lid where the plastic that holds the handle in place, the parts that keep the handle attached to the lid itself, are straining. Seeing the tell-tale white lines in the material. Now I need to figure out how to beef up the handle and probably the lid as well.

The lid has a lip, about 1" wide, that runs along the outside edge. I'm thinking of attaching a piece of thin ply inside that lip using construction glue or even contact cement as well as some form of mechanical connection (aka: screws). To that I will attach a new handle, a substantively stronger handle to attach to the substantively stronger lid.

I'll keep y'all up to date on this.

A fantastic idea. I'm sure once you get those lined with cushioning material your army will be well protected inside those trays. As for the magic handle, well, it looks really cool. Personally I would probably reinforce it with some brass sheet or something, plywood is strong but you have some narrow connections in that extending loop thing. Just a thought.

As for the case handle, well, if it were it me, I'd do one of two things. One, I would just cut out the area where the current handle is, and attache a sheet of 3/8 across the whole underside of the lid (you mentioned contact cement....) and then attach a metal or leather case handle directly to that. it would distribute the load across the entire lid.

Option two would be to just build your own case. You obviously have some skill building the trays, I doubt it would take much to build an entire case out of 3/8 or 1/2 ply. I would reinforce the corners/edges with trunk edge and corner hardware. And having it made out of wood instead of plastic would really open up possibilities for decorating the outside of your army case.

Heck, a friend of mine pointed out that I really don't even need the case. I could build on this thing till it was a couple feet tall, extend the handle, provide some sort of corner alignment/protection system and put wheels on the bottom and use they trays themselves as the case!

I am seriously giving this some thought...