"Unlimited Budget /Limited Budget Storage Solution" Topic

This is one I have not seen in a while. Hey, it is 2024! If you had an unlimited (or a limited?) budget, what display / storage system would you use for storing your based miniatures? My thinking, at least for 28mm, would be all glass shelving, perhaps 12" (freedom units) deep, 72 freedom units high, and 36-48 Freedom units winde, all with strategically placed LED lighting to heighten the effect. Bizarelly, I have not seen such systems for sale anywhere, but I haven't looked that hard. I go to Ikea, looking for a way to store thousands of based 25-28mm Nappy Miniatures, and have yet to find a good answer.

A follow up: Is storage and transport unrelated issues?

Thanks!
Daribuck

I don't play Nappies--only Napoleonics--but a display system is not a storage system, which is not a transport system.

Display needs to be open/transparent, well-lit and fairly shallow--probably 12" maximum depth. If you ever want to game with the figures, the shelves have to be high enough to let you reach the back ranks, so display kills a lot of volume. (It also tends to be a dust trap. Guys who keep units on display have to hit them with compressed air or reversed vacuum cleaners.) Anyway, display systems are no good for away games.

Storage means you can immediately locate all units and pull out that guard lancer unit on the bottom without disturbing the other units.

Transport means you can readily transfer the units you need for an away game to a vehicle--possibly by means of a bag or cart--and drive them to the battle table without repacking them.

For myself, even if money were not an issue, display would be limited to a few figures 28mm or larger displayed on open shelves. Storage needs to be uniform boxes--though some may be taller than others--stored no more than one deep so you can read the contents of each box, with shelving between layers--and the heavier the boxes, the more important frequent layers of shelving are. I know it's a disappointment, because display, storage and transport do wonders at absorbing surplus money, but a uniform set of "clamshell" cardboard boxes works quite well. A friend uses 12" x 9.5" x 5" deep for his multiple-figure bases of 30mm Napoleonics. I use foam trays in hard plastic or cloth for my 28mm castings, but they're individually based. In 10mm and 6mm, cardboard 8" x 10.5" x 1" deep serves me well.

But have confidence. I'm sure with time and persistence you can find a more expensive system.

When one of the companies I worked for shutdown, I purchased two computer report distributions shelves. each about 6 feet tall and 4 foot wide. Each shelf had a cardboard insert with two rows of three shelves. Each section just fit six beer flat sized boxes. Great for storage.

I found some cafeteria food tray storage units. I bolted them to my basement wall. They have 24" x 30" slide out trays.

My two storage units are for storage, not display. They hold roughly 1,500+, 28-60mm figures. I label the trays for their contents, organized by racial types: Goblins, Orcs, Hill Giant's, Dwarves, Gnomes, etc.

The figures are stored in my crafting/furnace room. I bring the trays out to my game room for table deployment, as needed. Cheers!

Had to look up "Freedom Units".

I didn't bother.

Overall, I agree with Robert.

If I had the space for glass cabinets, I would start by displaying my 60mm collector's figures, probably followed by my 54mm AWI.

As my armies don't go anywhere would love cabinet space in my game room

My miniature and terrain collections occupy a space 20 feet long, 7' high and 18" deep. To "display" my minis I would need a ballroom filled with shelves. Waste of time and money for me.

Regardless of budget I love this solution:

link

With an unlimited amount mitee budget I'd keep my existing storage solution, A4 box files lined with steel paper, stored on sturdy shelves with labels on them to say what is inside.

I would however spend some money to pay someone else to make the internal storage trays for layers of 2mm and 6mm stuff when required, and I'd also pay Viking to stop shaving a few mm off each new batch of box files. I'd buy intelligent drones to get the box files off the top shelves instead of me climbing a ladder, and I'd buy a lot more shelves.

Not interested in displaying them. There is far too much stuff and who is going to look at them?

Nicely done, EC! My 6's are in a poor man's version of the same system.