Goatboy’s Warhammer: Cheap Army Travel Hacks
Goatboy here and I do a lot of traveling with my army to get my tournaments in. Here are some hacks to do it on the cheap.
“Hobo box” – ugly, but free.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Hobo Box
Weekends are hard to get time to play with the family wanting some time with me for some reason. This means I usually have to find some way to travel with my stuff and while nothing is more fun than flying with a hobo box (giant box used to hold paper full of bubble wrap and phone) it can be annoying. Plus my friends make fun of me a lot when I took 3 Lord of Skulls in a hobo box ride to the last LVO I was able to play at. But on the other hand – a Hobo Box is basically free.
As Long As It Fits…
There is a plethora of stuff to travel with nowadays. I have tons of bags here and depending on the army (usually smaller stuff) I try to fly with one of them. As long as it can fit in the overhead bins of a plane I don’t have to worry about it getting crushed in a cargo hold – I’m ok. But sometimes I have things that just don’t fit in foam. Or, I don’t have the foam set up to get them to sit right. Take for instance my Dreadknight army for the last two NOLA events. The first time I drove so a hobo box was alright. But the second time I decided to fly. This meant I needed to figure something out.
Really Useful Boxes
I ended up going with a Really Useful Box (Look it up online tons of places sell it) and throwing a sticky magnet strip on the bottom. I threw some magnets on my guys and while I couldn’t flip it over like a Dairy Queen Blizzard it was stable enough for a jerk in the Airport bathroom to accidentally toe-tap it when he wasn’t paying attention. Nothing was broken and it flew just fine. The box is pretty dang sturdy, you can put stuff on top, and it was pretty simple to buy locally. Of course, this isn’t nearly as sexy as a foamed-out box or a Table War case. But it gets the job done and is great for storage afterward.
In fact – I plan on getting some more to help stack my armies out and ensure I got most of my stuff set upright. As you know staying with this hobby means you end up having a ton of options all over the place. Heck, my room is a nightmare of bits, paint, and boxes. Just having a better system that isn’t purchasing another glass case can be great. Plus it lets you move stuff around easily and quickly. This won’t set you back too many dollars.
Getting Fancy With Magnets!
I have thought about not just using the magnet sheet and either finding some kind of other magnet option or hacking apart a magnetic dry erase board. The size should be alright and with some strong glue, I can get it stuck to the bottom. Heck I could even figure out some sweet vinyl sticker option that has my logo or face on it if I wanted too. I could also just go with a ton of other options but this one seems simple enough to do. Adding magnets on the bottom of a Really Useful Box adds some cost, but can really keep the minis under control.
Making Check-thru Easy
The other fun thing about it is you get to explain what the heck it is throughout the airport as people can see thru the box. This isn’t getting stopped when it runs thru the scanner as it is pretty obvious what it is. This is also a help as you just don’t have to worry about it too much. The only frustrating thing is carrying it around can be a pain in the butt if you have an army that is kind of big. I thought about creating some kind of strap but will see if I want to invest more time in this other than keeping my minis in a good prison as they await their battle.
What do you guys use to transport your minis? As I continue my quest to play only big base stuff it does get harder to find things to carry these monsters in. It also keeps me from playing a 150 model count army as I don’t want my back to explode as I move things across the tabletop.
~What are your army travel tips?
