DIY Miniatures Transport Case

Transporting loads of miniatures can be difficult. Miniatures get damaged and paint flakes off. There are commercially available transport cases but they tend to be rather expensive and lack flexibility. This manual helps you to build your own cheap transport cases, as individual or flexible as you wish.

Tools & Materials

• carpet cutter
• pencil
• ruler (I recommend metal)
• try square
• “sturdy” felt (thickness 4-5 mm)
• boxes in appropriate size (e. g. for tools)
• glue (I recommend Pattex)

Cut the felt into shape
This is the most difficult part. You will have to be precise at measuring and cutting. A little patience and a sharp cutter will show up to be very useful.

Think carefully, how many trays you need, how many pieces you have to cut and how to keep the amount of leftovers small. In the end I will give a detailed list of the pieces I cut.

Keep in mind, that you have to fill the whole box with trays so they stay in place.

When the felt is cut, draw lines to know where you need to apply glue (red arrows).

Apply glue
When “Pattex” is applied it has to dry for 10 to 15 minutes (refer to instructions for details). The pictures show the amount of glue applied and which parts should be glued first. The lines will be very useful here. The lower picture shows, how the parts are put together.

Apply glue – second step
When the “grid” is ready, apply glue to the bottom plate (here the lines will be useful again) and the “grid”.

Press the pieces together

Separators for single miniatures and cover
I use pieces of foam and felt to separate single miniatures from each other. A thin layer of foam is useful as the cover for the trays (look for the foam from “Feldherr”, it can be cut easily).

Some sizes of felt pieces, plans and tips
Felt pieces I used

Bottom plate size: 16 cm × 22 cm

Inner Box size: ~10.6 cm × ~22.5 cm × ~32.5 cm

Side view of the trays

Trays of the given heights (add 0.4 cm everywhere, the thickness of the felt) are combined to fill out one box. The white squares on top just resemble some appropriate cover, felt or foam.

How to draw lines to apply glue

Costs

Felt: 1m × 45 cm = 7 €

Box: 5 €

Glue: You will need a lot! I paid 6 €

Large Miniatures

They are better put into cardboard boxes with some foam. Even cheaper! They can replace a felt tray

THANK YOU FOR READING!

Worthwhile ?