Games Workshop: New ‘Stormvault Skirmish Case’ Revealed
Games Workshop has a new miniatures storage case coming soon and it doesn’t use foam to keep your minis secure.
The new Stormvault Skirmish Case is replacing the foam stuffing with silicone bristles to hold you miniatures in place. Sound weird? It does to me. But could it work?
Meet The Stormvault Skirmish Case
“Unlike previous cases – lidded with foam inserts – the Stormvault Skirmish Case is designed differently. Both halves of its interior are lined with silicone bristles to hold your miniatures in place. They’re spaced to hold miniatures on Citadel Round Bases between 25mm and 40mm, and can even accommodate cavalry and bikers on oval bases up to 75mm.”
Okay, so that’s not an Iron Maiden death trap for your miniatures. Those “spikes” are the silicone bristles that hold your miniatures in place while you’re transporting them. According to GW:
“When you close the case, these smooth bristles flex to accommodate your miniatures, ensuring that the thinnest spear or most delicate pennant won’t get snagged, or feel any pressure.”
From the looks of things the lid actually comes completely off, too. The case “is designed to be opened flat on the table” so you just set it down and pop the top off. There’s rubber grips on the back to help prevent sliding while you’re pulling your miniatures out as well.
“When you’re done playing, close the case and seal it with the four clips located around the edge. The case itself measures 278mm x 220mm x 41.5mm, which makes it the right size to bag up for an evening game.”
No Foam, No Problem?
There have been many, many, MANY storage and transport solutions for miniature over the years. I’m still a big fan of my Crystal Fortress case for displaying and transporting miniatures. I’ve also used lots of other brand over the years that use foam inserts as those worked extremely well and didn’t require magnets. But I’ve also had the same problem where things get snagged on the foam and can bend or snap off.
This case presents and interesting option. It doesn’t require any magnets for you to glue into your bases and the silicone (in theory) is soft enough to not damage your minis but sturdy enough to prevent them from shifting around. That said, I’d like to get my hands on one of these cases to see for myself. I don’t know if it’s the right type of transportation for all armies but it could work for most.
I’m also a little concerned about the footprint of these cases. From the looks of it, you can fit a squad of 10 Primaris Marines and a character in one half of the case. And this is called a “Skirmish” case so I’d expect that’s how many models it’s designed to transport.
Will you be able to fit another squad in the other half? Will it close and when you do close it, will the top miniatures fall out/slide down? How does this product hold-up over time? Will the silicone wear out or break with use (probably not, it’s silicone but it depends on how hard those bristles are.)
Basically, I’m in the same boat as you are reader: I’ve got questions! I am curious about this product but at the same time I’ve also got lots of other options already. So will this new container win me over? If I can get my hands on one to check out I totally will. But it’s got some stiff competition. It’s really going to boil down to cost and convenience. And not just convenience in storing models but also physically travelling with the case.
I’ll be keeping my eye out for this one to see if I can answer some of those questions. It might be perfect for a squad or two but I’m doubtful it can contain an entire army with larger, vehicle sized models. I wonder if GW has something else in mind for that…
What do you think? I’m in the “curious but not sold” boat on this one.
