Mini n00b needs info please...

[frankthedm]

Do you have away to get a sheet of 1" / 25mm perforated hardboard?

http://www.answers.com/topic/perforated-hardboard

If so lay the peg board over the vinyl, doting each hole with a permanent marker making your battle grid.

marine vynil - fabric stores often have it.

Pegboard should be available at a hardware store.


Heck the pegboard, if slick enough, could be used as a battle mat [I'd still put a layer of plexiglass or clear plastic vynil over it]

 

[mach1.9pants]

Thanks again guys, I have a large order from oryan77 coming and couldn't really find anything that I would like as a mat- so I ordered a chessex megamat (man the mondo mat is HUGE!).
Anyway, my next question- storage. How do you guys store your minis? On chessex they have cases but they take about 80 figures for 30US, which adds up to around 300US to cover the figs I am going to buy. What would be cool would be a set of drawers with very thin drawers (like map drawers etc- we had heaps in the RAF not much use to me now though). Can't find any around though, NZ has a pretty small market for such things I would imagine.
So how do you guys store your minis? especially those of you with big collections..I have about 350 coming from oryan, 80 ordered from the new release, and looking at 3 cheap 12 pack cases of other sets as well (about 100 each)
Cheers
again
M1.9P

 

[SavageRobby]

I have something over 6,000 of the suckers, so storage is a big concern for me. I also want to be able to find them in relatively short order, without searching through a pile for the right one.

So, after a lot of searching around, I use Akro-Mils Large Storage Cases (you can google for that) to arrange and hold them. In a single compartment you can fit anywhere from one large to a dozen small or medium minis, and each case has 18 compartments. Actually it has three rows, and you can add in dividers (that come with) in preset slots to create up to six compartments per row. So in many cases, I use 2-4 compartments worth for a single mini type if I have masses of them.

In addition to ease of storing and finding, they stack nicely (I have mine stacked 6-7 high with no worries, 4 stacks per shelf on 3 shelves), and they also transport nicely, since they're of managable size, and I can just grab the one(s) I need for any given session.

I know that a fair number of other folks use tackle boxes to store their minis. I decided not to do that because they're not transparent so I can't see into them easily, and they don't have as many compartments, so you either have to bag the minis or mix them up - which increases the time to find any given mini, which I didn't want.

 

[blargney the second]

I use the big baseball card boxes. They'll hold a truckload of minis, they're very inexpensive, and transport is easy. Added bonus: DDM cards fit perfectly and they can be handy for RP purposes.

I use the boxes from the gargantuan minis to hold my huge figs. The windows are handy, especially the double window on the garg white's box.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I store mine a couple of ways. The majority of my minis (over 1,000 of the little suckers) are stored in snap-lock bags in a couple of plastic storage containers. The minis in the various snap-lock bags are sorted into groups such as Orcs, Kobolds, Skeletons, Zombies, Underdark, Animals and Goblins.

My human, dwarf, elf, halfling and gnome minis are kept in a different storage container. Since there are a lot of these I have sorted them a little differently. The humanoids are sorted by race: Dwarves, Elves and Little People (Gnomes and Halflings). The humans are sorted into Sword & Board, Single Handed Weapon (No Shield), Two Handed Weapon, Two Weapons, Polearms, Exotic Weapons, Casters and finally Cultists.

In a third storage container (a flatter under-the-bed container) I keep all my Huge-sized minis as well as quite a few Large-sized minis.

Finally, I keep some other minis in some transparent Plano (Plano is the brand name) tackle boxes. Since they are transparent I can quickly look at them and see what minis are in each box. I have 4 tackle boxes in two different sizes. The smaller sized boxes fit my Medium-sized minis and short Large-sized minis. The larger sized boxes fit the taller Large-sized minis (although some Large-sized minis still don't fit, such as Frost Giant Jarl).

In one of the smaller sized tackle box I store the players' PC minis along with all of the minis that I expect to use in the next session or two. The other 3 boxes have mainly "monster" minis. These are mostly DDM Rares of various monsters like Dragons, Beholders, Efreeti, Shield Guardians and Ogre Magi. Most of them are minis that I found hard to put into a particular "category" for storage.

So there you go. My system is a little complicated, and it took quite a while to sort all the minis into various categories. However, since I have sorted them out finding the exact minis I need for a session has been a lot easier.

If there is one thing I would suggest, it is that you keep an inventory of the minis you have. Use an Excel spreadsheet or something similar. This will help you keep track of exactly what minis you have so that you don't accidentally order minis that you already have (not that I would do something stupid like that! ). And trust me when I say it is a lot easier to inventory them as you go along rather than after you have collected over 1,000 of them!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Gamer since 1977, including buying the minis. My minis collection outweighs some human families.

1) I have several battlemats/megamats. Personally, I prefer using hex-marked instead of squares- it eliminates confusion over diagonal movement & reach.

2) I really like the Chessex boxes, which come in several configurations. Just looking around, I must have at least 34 of them- some double deckers for small minis, some configured for large minis. I also use those plastic Sterlite stacking drawers, which come in a variety of sizes. I also have a 4' tall Elfa cart and some stacking tubs full of as yet unopened minis (mainly Chainmail, DDM, and HeroClix of various kinds).

3) For additional fun, I've invested in non-PC structural & environmental minis- columns, benches, trees, and so forth, as well as a lot of Dwarven Forge Dungeon & Cave pieces. Those, however, I only use for major conflicts since they take a lot of time to set up.

 

[frankthedm]

D&D minis: Any closeable cardboard box. Seperation by type is great if you have a bunch of small boxes. Throw em in by the handfull, pre painted plastic was made to be abused.

These boxes are small baseball card boxes
Angels: Very lonely box. Just a dream blade angel& a FF7 Kefka figure.
Drow: Ettercaps chilling in here too.

These boxes are about the size of as Giants of legend box
Casters and Cultists: Spell casters and evil looking bipeds end up hear
Hellhounds: Big Evil Dawgs
Commoners: rogue minis also hide in here
Tanks: Melee combatants with armor
Aquatic: Fish, amphibians, KuoToa and other fish men
Corpses: Undead that have some meat on their bones
Fleshless: Bones and spirits
Sci fi & Modern
Troopers: Power Armor and other Sci fi ‘Soldiers’
Reptiles: Lizard men, some smaller dinos and dragons
Bugs: Creepy, crawly and bigger than a bread box.
2 unsorted boxes

Trio of boxes almost twice the size of a GOL box
Mounted figs and mounts
Gnolls and other Beastmen: AKA Box of Vile Furries
Orcs: Right now goblins and hobgoblins are chilling in there too.

These boxes are about 2-3 times the GOL box size.
Giants
Elementals
Evil Outsiders
Animals
Things: Bizarre monsters with a heaping helping of tentacle.
Huge: As many big hitters that fit into an Xbox 360 box
2 Unsorted

Precious hand painted metal figs however...

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/5313/planominicaseis4.gif