Saturday 29 July 2017

Suitcase for BOYL

Hey ho,

Couldn't be arsed blogging for a while, but hey, I'm back :)

Here's something I put together for my trip to BOYL that I thought might be of some interest....a "custom" mini case. I had to figure out how to transport all of my mini's, my Hovertank and Walker overseas, without them being trashed on the journey. All I have are those K&R cardboard cases, which are fine for mini's, but not for large toys. Luckily for me, the wife's handle on her old carry on case broke off about a month and a half before BOYL. So I claimed it and set to work converting it into a custom mini case. I also decided that while I was at it I might as well go ahead and try and sex it up a bit too, coz why the hell not hey?

I forgot to take a "before" shot of the suitcase, but we all know what a plain old suitcase looks like anyway, so your not missing out on much.

First thing I did was to gut the interior i.e. all the pretty padded lining. Then came the design part, figuring out how to mount the vehicles inside, securely. I didn't want to just wrap them in foam and hope for the best. So I decided to use polystyrene, as it's light and relatively strong. I began carving out an accurate negative form for the Hovertank chassis. I also made a simple circular recess for the Walker base too. I then used acrylic caulk & plaster screws to mount them both into the recess on one half of the case. To cover up the screw heads that were now protruding through to the exterior of the case, I glued a couple of thick pieces of card over it. I had cut holes in the card beforehand in the position of the screw heads. Then I applied some filler over them to make it all nice and flush.

In the opposite half of the case I glued in a polystyrene form to fit the positive shape of the Hovertank & Walker. I also glued some small foam padded sections to the locations that would contact the toys on the polystyrene as well. Hopefully, in theory, when the case was closed up, these two polystyrene forms would sandwich the toys with enough clamping force that they wouldn't be able to move about. My miniatures would be packed in foam in the empty space surrounding the vehicles.


Here's a few detailed photo's, in case my words confused you:







The next part was to decorate the exterior, which I didn't actually have any plan for. One idea was to cover it with some pictures from my collection. The one's I had cut out from my WD & GM magazines back in my youth....yep, unbelievably,  I STILL have that lot with me! Sticking a lot of pictures onto the case would take far too much time though. So I came up with something else instead. I'd been lucky enough to get hold of an RBT-01 box a few months prior to this project commencing. And seeing as I'd only be playing RT type games while I was at BOYL, I thought it only fitting to go with an RT theme. So I decided to plaster the case with the RBT-01 box images.

I scanned both sides of the box, blank cardboard showing and all, and printed off a few copies in high-res. After carefully trimming the printed images, but before I began applying the images, I gave the case a light scuff with a Scotch pad. With my Decoupage hat firmly on, I went to town with a weak PVA mix. And after a couple of days, when it was completely dry, I masked up the handle and zipper area and hit it with about ten layers of clear gloss coat. I hoped that be enough to protect to the images on the case from being damaged.


Here's an exciting picture of the High-res images I printed off.....exciting huh :(




And here's the final product, with a new handle as well...the wife will never know :)





Half way through the clear coating process my son asked me if I'd like to stick a good luck charm that he had drawn for me on it? "Of course!" I said. Besides the fact that it's a cool little drawing, he had the good sense to put a chaos god symbol on it too, unprompted and all! That's my boy :)

Ain't nobody gunna get confused at customs with this name tag!






I completed this case about three or four weeks before departing and the post was finished about a week before now, but I decided that I'd only publish it once I'd arrived for BOYL. I didn't want to jinx myself and have it possibly fail in some way on me beforehand. A little superstitious and a tad crazy on my behalf I know :) Anyway, here it is. What do you guys think? Was it worth making?

Cheers :)

22 comments:

  1. So glad it did the job so we could see those kick ass minis! 😍😍😍

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    1. Thanks mate :) I was shitting bricks that I'd have to open the bloody thing at customs, but luck must have been on my side. The Khorne drawing from my son must have done the trick ;)

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    2. Khorne always makes things better! 😎

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    3. Blood is a great soothing agent for the soul :)

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  2. Hahaha that is fecking awesome :)

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  3. It was so professional. Looked like official merchandise.

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    1. That's high praise indeed, thanks Scalene :) The tabletop you and Curtis laid on looked like a Hollywood movie set! I feel extremely privileged to have been able to play on it.

      Cheers man :)

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  4. I'm sure no one at customs had cause to ask you 'what's in the bag sir' :) Nice going.

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    1. I actually hid the case during transit. By that I mean that I had a cheap felt cover over it. My wife had bought a new case to replace this one and it came with a felt cover. I swiped it and used it to protect the case during the flight. So it didn't really raise any attention.

      Glad you like it Merjin :)

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  5. It was a brilliant and unique way to ensure your figures (now award winning) made it safe and sound. Well worth the effort, they were tremendous additions to Helsreach and the RT game.

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    1. Thanks Jon, my prayers to the blood God paid off :)

      It was fun having it on the tabletop with all you guys on Sunday too. These vehicles don't seem to last too long, in game turns, but they sure impart a great cinematic effect nonetheless.

      I'm happy my gaming buddies liked it, made the effort worth while.

      Cheers mate :)

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  6. Really glad you finally got your box. Suit case is awesome.

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    1. Yeah, cheers Erny. I'm happy with how it turned out too :)

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  7. Genius - this case sums you up perfectly! Attention to detail, practical, but with style and panache :-) Great meeting you properly mate, so good to see all your awesome minis for real, and so cool to get a bonus game to boot! I consider it a singular honour to have one of my tanks stomped on by one of the best walkers in the world :-)

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    1. Hey Alex,

      Sorry I took so long to reply, I wasn't online much during my holiday and trying to do blogger stuff on my phone is a real chore.

      I too was really glad to have met you as well. When I saw you put down your Jetbike I knew it was you, but I didn't know your name. I've loved seeing your creations on your blog. So, when I saw you I asked someone beside me "That's the leadballoony guy, what's his name?".

      I had a blast all weekend, and meeting my blogging buddies, face-to-face was incredible. Sort of solidified the friendship in a way.

      Anyway, I've digressed. Glad you liked the case. It was worth doing something unique for such a unique event.

      Cheers mate :)

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  8. What a lovely way to transport the larger models, although I am surprised that all your customization did not draw undue attention when flying. Over here anyway, anything that looks the slightest bit suspicious is cause for bag opening (e.g. electric shaver and cheese in close proximity in a bag)

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    1. I had it covered in a felt cover on the way over to the UK. On the way back it was uncovered, but the scanning dude was asleep....literally ASLEEP at his station! So it went through my whole journey without being opened. Glad about that :)

      Happy you like my geeked out carry on case Lasgun :)

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  9. Brilliant sir! I shall be filing this away for future reference. Ed also needs a box. Too many dang dangly bits on that one. If I build a more secure connection between top and bottom and admit I'm not putting the protrusions back on top then I think your system will work wonders. Also: Really glad to hear it all worked out well, and that you won awards. You solidly deserved them. Probably best I didn't come this year. I can be a sore loser. ;-) Keep up the FANTASTIC!!! work. :)

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    1. Thanks Composer :)

      I was glad the case made the trip and returned itself and contents intact. Winning the prize was a really humbling experience for me. I'm just a guy on the net, playing with toys. There was shouting and congratulations when I got an honourable mention. I'm not used to that sort of thing....made me really happy and self conscious all at the same time ;)

      Thanks again :)

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  10. Saw this linked on facebook. Great execution of a travel case. I need to figure out a better way to carry my figures. Currently my methods are quite hazardous to my figures.

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    1. Thanks Sean :)

      The idea of having to carry large toys OS was something that made my head hurt. I couldn't just trust to wrapping them in foam and hoping for the best. I was just lucky that my wife broke her case :D

      I've got some of those K&R cases and they're good at carrying minis, but they aren't good enough for carrying my kitbashed toys....they're too big. Another problem with those cases is that they aren't big enough to take advantage of the carry-on luggage size limit. So I would have to have another bag, but you can only take one bag. See the dilemma ;)

      Anyway, this suitcase that I re-purposed did the job.

      Cheers :)

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