Heychadwick's Storage Solution

By heychadwick, in X-Wing

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These topics come up often enough. I have talked about mine, but I have recently needed to expand my storage solution and been quite frustrated about it for a while. I am pretty happy with the results that I've gotten now, though.

I post this for those that might get something out of it.

For one, I am an "affordable gamer"....or...a cheapskate. Various foam options are NO WHERE NEAR CHEAP and utterly not needed with these pre-painted minis in my opinion.

PHOTOBUCKET GOT GREEDY AND BLOCKED ON THE LINKS. You should be able to just view them here: direct link to pics

When I look at my options here, I spent: $47 total.

$20 for Plano 1374

$10 for 3 Plano 3000 cases for Epic ships

$12 for the Broken Token card case

$5 for the pill case for my tokens.

First off, my Plano 1374:

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The top has a little section I put easy to get to things, like spare pegs and all that.

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When I open the top, I have a lot of room. I used to keep my CR-90 in here or a bunch of my large based ships, but I needed the room for all my extra stuff. Here is my custom template tray and custom templates:

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Removing the tray, you can see I've got a lot of room for my various pilot and upgrade cards, dice, tokens, plastic sleeves, and laser pointer.

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I bought a pill container for $5 or so to hold the tokens I use the most.

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Here is my Broken Token card solution. I removed a few things like the 8 Determination EPTs that I didn't need, but I still need a little bit more room for all my cards. I'm going to remove the wood separators and add in paper ones.

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For my pilot cards, I won a few of these in my early years in the game and they hold all my pilots. I'm showing my Imperials, that I have the most of.

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OK....not sure how many photos it lets me post at a time, so on to the next post....

Edited by heychadwick
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When I open my Plano, I have 4 trays. I use one for each faction, and another for my various extra tokens, asteroids, bomb templates, etc.


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My Rebel ships still have room to grow a bit. I like that I can fit my ships on pegs for easy pulling in and out. I store my movement dials either with the ship or at the front.


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My Imperials are REALLY crowded and I have to store a lot of them off the bases. I like to have my Tie Fighters ready for using, mostly for HotAC.


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This tray holds my Target Locks...that I have used a small rubber band to pair them up. All my obstacles and bomb tokens go there. My damage deck goes there. If I am flying a list often enough, I'll put the ships there. I needed the overflow for my 4 Tie Bombers that I flew a lot last year. I used to put my movement templates in here before I got my custom tray.


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Last is my Scum tray. The upper left is missing 2 Scyks that I loaned a friend. I also stuck my K-wing and Tie Punisher here as those ships are bigger and this tray has room for bigger ships.


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...and on to the Epics....

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I had bought the Plano 3000 trays to hold my epic. They hold them great! They don't make a case for those trays, though. I have two trays for my epic and another tray for my large based ships. I wanted the ability to carry them all with me and have them fit into one bag. I looked in our attic and found this one. It's rather huge and even a little too big for what I want, but I found I could even store all my Heroes of the Aturi Cluster stuff in it, as well. There is still room for more.


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One thing that is kind of cool about it, though, is that it has wheels and a handle! I can just roll it along if I want to.


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Opening it up, you can see some of it is a tight fit:


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I struggled for a long time with storing my large based ships. I had printed out Sir Willis' awesome tuck boxes and used them. I had originally put them all in the top of my Plano, but as I got more of them....and more other cards, I needed another solution. This Plano tray holds them all in their tuck boxes...and a couple of 3D printed boxes. The 3D printed boxes did melt a bit in my trunk during work hours.


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Even the bases and cards are a bit obnoxious for the large based ships. I had gotten this plastic thing in the top of my Plano when I bought it as some sort of bonus. I never had a use for it...until just recently. It fits in my monster bag quite easily. It's even got 3 compartments for me to put in the ship cards for my 3 factions.


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Under that is my Raider and Gozanti tray. I can hold all the extra epic cards and such in here, as well. I did cut out some foam I had to ensure these guys didn't rattle.


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CR-90 tray. If I had the GR-75, it would fit, as well.


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Just a shot of this one open.


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OK....hopefully this was worth looking at and maybe gives some of you ideas for very large collections. Personally, I think the Plano 1374 is the best option to go with. If you want to start, just get a Plano tray or two and use an old back pack. Then move into the larger Plano.


Personally, I think I have had maybe 2 things break while in the Plano case. The first was a Tie Advanced panel popping off. I just glued it back on and haven't had it happen since. I'm....not really sure if there is a second case, but there might be. There have been some breaks, but they have mostly been down to me breaking them outside the case in some stupid fashion. I know the foam people like to talk about how their precious minis need to be in foam, but besides that one instance, I can't think of another time when they broke due to storage. I've never had a gun break off or anything. I actually think storing them on the pegs helps protect them.


Also, if you go to look at a tackle box at the store, open them all up and check out the trays. I did that at some sports shop and ended up swapping one tray to get the cool 3rd storage tray and 4th Scum tray with the open space.


I hope this is helpful and gives ideas to other gamers. Let me know if it has as it lets me know it was worth the time to take the pics and post about it. :)

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I bought a quarter sheet (54"x24") of 2" thick polyethylene foam that I'm using to cut into trays. Those trays will go into a cantilever tool box.

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I bought a quarter sheet (54"x24") of 2" thick polyethylene foam that I'm using to cut into trays. Those trays will go into a cantilever tool box.

Sweet! Post pictures when you can.

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I use a couple Plano 767's which hold over 100 ships (including the epics), cards, and bits. I think they were 45.99 apiece a couple years back.

Though I love it as a storage solution, I really need to get off my butt and build a proper display table. Love that woodwork by the way, did you do that yourself?

Edited by EastCoast
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A lot of people use the 767 in my area. I think the 1374 holds more. It's definitely half the price.

The template tray? Not I. I got it off Etsy from High Bridge Brewing. He made the super cool lid for it, as well. The damage deck holders are also nice...and only $5.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HighbridgeBrewing?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Edited by heychadwick
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I will admit that storage is becoming frustrating. I think I have bought and carry too much stuff. 2 to 4 of every small ship (eight TIE L/n); 1 or every large (two Lambda's) and one each huge Epic ships. Even the cards and upgrades are becoming a pain.

I've gone the foam route. Yep! far more expensive, ouch. I started with Plano and quickly moved away from it with the Large Ships. I didn't like how they slide around. Agree that for most it really isn't necessary but it's like the plastic crack models we are collecting, once you're in... Plus and most unfortunately I'm more of a collector than player but I would love the opportunity to change that.

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I bought a quarter sheet (54"x24") of 2" thick polyethylene foam that I'm using to cut into trays. Those trays will go into a cantilever tool box.

Sweet! Post pictures when you can.

Yes please show us and how you're cutting it.

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heychadwick

Do you use Card Protectors?

I've thought about it but don't play often enough to worry about it yet.

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I've gone the foam route. Yep! far more expensive, ouch. I started with Plano and quickly moved away from it with the Large Ships. I didn't like how they slide around. Agree that for most it really isn't necessary but it's like the plastic crack models we are collecting, once you're in... Plus and most unfortunately I'm more of a collector than player but I would love the opportunity to change that.

For the epics, I had bought an egg carton bed cover/topper a while ago. I could list that as a $10 price in the overall, but I've used it for so many projects at this point that it's paid for itself. It's the bed cushions that you put under your sheets to make your bed more comfortable. It's super cheap at place like Wal-mart. I just cut it up to fit in the epic trays. I cut out a few little spots to make the ship fit in better, too. I can take better pictures of those if you want.

Yeah....once you are in the foam, you gotta keep getting more. Your collection grows more than you figured. Each little tray is another $10-15. Then, you need another bag. Another wave means another tray. It REALLY starts costing a lot more than you originally thought.

heychadwick

Do you use Card Protectors?

I've thought about it but don't play often enough to worry about it yet.

Yeah....but I'm not sure if I need them. For one thing, the small upgrade cards can fit more into the Broken Token box I got if they weren't in the sleeves. So, I'm thinking of leaving it on the big ticket ones that get used a lot (or just come with the epic ships - X1 title, Emperor, C-3PO, Auto Thrusters, PTL, etc). I need to get the rest of the cards in that box. I just...haven't found the time.

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I've thought about sleeving my cards, but I've found now with squadron builders I rarely pull them out any more. Obviously not a viable solution if you're a tournament player, but definitely less clutter in casual play.

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I've thought about sleeving my cards, but I've found now with squadron builders I rarely pull them out any more. Obviously not a viable solution if you're a tournament player, but definitely less clutter in casual play.

I'd love to do this, but since I always do wacky scenarios and such....I don't often plan what it is I'm going to do. It's gotten to be just a pain to pull out all the upgrade cards these days. Well, the card box does help and it is a recent thing. It's made finding EPTs easier as I put them in by cost.

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Do you have a link for that Plano 3000? I've never heard of that one. I've cut my own foam for everything except my epic ships so far (hard to find thick enough foam in the dimensions I want).

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Do you have a link for that Plano 3000? I've never heard of that one. I've cut my own foam for everything except my epic ships so far (hard to find thick enough foam in the dimensions I want).

You know, I'm not sure where I got the 3000 from now that I think about it. I just looked up my order and this is what I found:

http://Plano 23731-01 Stowaway Deep Open Compartment

So, $6 per tray, which really isn't bad. Throw in the $10 for a bed cushion and you are good to go!

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2-3731, thanks. Didn't think that was tall enough. (the link directs back to the top of this thread)

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I've thought about sleeving my cards, but I've found now with squadron builders I rarely pull them out any more. Obviously not a viable solution if you're a tournament player, but definitely less clutter in casual play.

Same here. Also, I've been playing some of the known Imp Vets stuff for months, since the app gets updated that fast.

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2-3731, thanks. Didn't think that was tall enough. (the link directs back to the top of this thread)

Oh, that's where I got the 3000 series. It's listed as 3731 tray in a lot of places. The 3000 series are all around a similar size, but none of them have a case for them. I read on here that they do fit the epics and bought a few on Amazon. It's true, they fit! I saved the 3rd one for my large base.

If you just want the 3 large trays, I know you can find a smaller bag than that huge duffel I am using, but it's just what I had in my attic. Also, I can fit my HotAC stuff in there, too. I've even got room for smaller items, as well.

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Thanks for clarifying.

I use the 1374 and a slew of different trays for all my tokens and bases (3701 and 3750 mostly, a couple deep with dividers for all the spare focus and shields, etc., but I don't have the 3731 yet as it didn't seem big enough for the epic ships).

For my pilot cards I use binders, but for my upgrade cards I use ultra pro 250 card acrylics with Sir Willi's dividers:

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For my small and large base ships I use custom cut foam. JoAnn had 2"x22"x22" that I cut into 11"x11". I found 12"x12"x12" pizza boxes for cheap on amazon. They hold 4-5 of my trays each plus the pilot binder for that faction.

I didn't like the foam tray options online - they waste so much space. I was able to use the smallest ship profile given 2" depth for all the ships and was able to fit a ton per tray. (I didn't expect the foam to yellow so quickly. Had I known, I'd have bought a sheet of charcoal online.)

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All that's left to decide is if I need the feldherr epic ship foam trays, or if there's something I can make myself without too much effort. Those Plano are tempting now that I know they work.

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I like how you store the upgrade cards. I might have to do something like that after I expand out of the Broken Token box.

I think it's brilliant to use the pizza bags! Nice idea. I've not heard of that before, but I'll definitely keep it in mind. I've played a number of game systems before with minis and never seen that. I will spread the word on it. I might even get one for the WWII 15mm that won't fit in my army bag. You always get more than you think you will....

Any links to the pizza bags or the foam?

EDIT: Found some for $10 here:

https://www.restaurantsupply.com/winco-bgdv-12

I think we should do an episode on storage options.

Edited by heychadwick
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I used this foam from JoAnns, and turned it into 4 trays/per. Picked them up local with a coupon (they always have coupons):

http://www.joann.com/pellon-indoor-foam-pad-22x22x2/14589691.html#q=foam&prefn1=prod_type&sz=36&start=37&prefv1=Product

I bought this 1/4" charcoal for the bottoms:

http://www.thefoamfactory.com/packagingfoam/charcoalfoam.html

I should have bought 2" charcoal from them too, but at the time thought it would be too hard to cut from such a large sheet.

Those you linked are the bags I got. I picked them up on amazon with free shipping, but the per bag cost was slightly higher (they've since gone up in price slightly on amazon, too). Thinking of adding faction patches to the tops so I don't have to keep opening them to check which bag is which.

These are the upgrade card holders:

https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-2-Piece-Storage-Count-Clear/dp/B0002TT3LQ/

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Just get your foam on the street, guys! Plenty of spare, free foam just lying around, from shipping boxes, etc.

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Maybe in NYC.....when you steal from the bums.

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Be sure to cut that polyurethane foam in heavily ventilated areas, as it releases carcinogenic fines. Because of that reason, I sold my huge amount of PU foam and bought 1.7 lbs density polyethylene foam. It's more rigid, but still slightly spongy; bending it with concerted force will lead to it cracking, but it's absolutely strong enough to withstand prolonged packing. It's also easier to cut with hotwire.