Inexpensive Hard Case For Your Figs

My wife and I were strolling through Harbor Freight (a chain hardware and tool emporium that might as well be named ACME) when she points at an aluminum tool travel case and says “Could you use that for your armies?”  Kneeling down next to it and feeling the cool, bright aluminum beneath my greedy fingers, “Yes, I could.”

Harbor Freight is a great place if you don’t need tools or equipment that will last forever.  It’s pretty much all Chinese made, no name, stuff that gets the job done if you don’t work it too hard and is typically cheap as dirt.  Tools you don’t mind misusing until they break.

So, having opened it up and eyeballed this case pretty thoroughly inside and out, looking perfect for the standard 7.5 x 13 inch foamfigure trays I use in my soft cases, I bought one.  It had two large inside pockets for books/tools, opens from the top, combination security latches, was fairly light weight, and came with what is probably an inadequate strap.  I have tons of straps, so no big deal, there.

I got it home and found that with the pockets the trays barely fit.  The pockets must GO!  I cut them out carefully with my hobby knife (starting at the red line, below).  They came out pretty quick and as long as you cut on the inside of the pocket seam, between the folded over fabric, you have nearly zero chance of cutting the lining.  But, the lining isn’t held in with anything other than crappy glue, so it is possible to pull the lining off the walls if you use a bit too much force (which I did while cutting out the first pocket).

Once the pockets were excised, the trays fit perfectly and I promptly loaded the thing with about 3000 points of Dropzone models, a dice bag, a plastic pencil box with all the extra tokens and markers I use, my tape measure, plus decks for two armies and a large Flamingo Casino die I use for counting turns.

No more pockets!

I still had a bit of room to spare, too!

It’s advertised an 18 in. x 12-1/2 in. x 8 in. Aluminum Casemade by Voyager.  Seems fairly well constructed for being ACME grade and at only $40.00, is a pretty good deal.

I used it this last weekend and it got the job done very well.  If you want a cheap hard case that will fit your existing small trays plus a bunch more, this might be a purchase to consider.

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