Wednesday, February 2, 2011

War gaming on a budget: Cheap quality army case part 2


Hey DFG readers. OST put in his thoughts in a week ago on a cheap case and what wasn't included is that he and I both decided to take on the crusade to fit our ridiculously huge armies in cases on the cheap at the same time. Though I liked his findings, I needed a little more space. Heres my final analysis.


After a day of scrounging all of Lansing for the perfect bag it was finally Walmart that saved me just as I was about to give up. I found this. Its a sports equipment bag by Riddell. The bag is perfect for wargaming if you need A LOT of space. The measurements are 15 x 15 x 40 (39 on the package).

These specs are actually amazing because they fit every tray on the market. If you shop around to different foam tray companies they come in basically 3 sizes; GW 14.25 x 10.2, Sabol 13 x 7.75 and Battle Foam (please don't sue us for using your name) 15.5 x 12. It doesn't always come out perfect to fit in a 15 x 30 but those extra inches can be used to slide your books between the trays.

This bag gives you options of mix and matching these trays to fit with little dead space in the bag. You can fit 6 Sabol trays, 4 GW trays, 3 BF trays and many combinations for example 1 BF and 4 Sabol.


So if I was making a terrible Battle Foam cheese video I'd yell excitedly that "This bag can hold up to 45 inches of foam!!!!!!!" But I wouldn't say "Which is over twice as much as our ridiculously over priced battle foam 1520 xl that only holds 22 inches and is almost 400$!" (with foam, I know, but still, thats crazy)

Finally the only gaming specific modifications I did to this bag was I cut some MDF boards to fit tightly in the sides to give it structure and more protection. The MDF board was 15$ and the bag was 15$ so this guy came out at a wallet busting 30$ For the walls and base all I did was cut 3 15 x 40 boards and 2 15 x 15 and they fit so tight that I just wedge them in and the bag stays in rectangular form even without foam in it.

Future project for it to combat the bulkiness of it (which is my major complaint...its almost too big) is to scourer resale shops and my friends and family for some old luggage with wheels on it and take the wheels part out and attach them to the bottom MDF board so I can just wheel it around instead of carry it. I can see it getting a little heavy for long carries. I'd say loaded up it weights about 25 or 30 pounds.

The size of this bag might be a big turn off for a lot of people but I like to take both my armies with me when I go out for game night and there is no way they'd both fit in any bag on the market. I still have a smaller Motor Pool bag from Sabol I'll use if I'm going to an out of town tourny or just need solely my 1850 list but for game night, this bag is everything I want!

6 comments:

  1. nice I have an old race team bag from Champ Car that is about that size. I should fix the zippper

    ReplyDelete
  2. I highly approve of the pot shots taken at battlefoam. (please don't sue me)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We can make DFG an LLC and they can sue us for the 5$ we had to put in the account to start it up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shit MI40k has $40 in the account...thats like a rhino!

    BTW if you havent at least gotten a DBA your losing out on some serious write offs =)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wonder if I can stretch my army purchases into the realm of "bussiness expense" if I get an LLC for commission painting....It seems I will be making a phone call this week....

    As far as DFG's account...we have a pretty extensive bits box...safety deposit box that is, OOOHHHHH!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice set up! i got luck and scored a pelican case for free. But that's a great idea! I'll be sure to point my friends to this post

    ReplyDelete