Thank you for join me again. This week of break between quarters has been a good one for getting things done around the home, bicycling, reading, and old and new projects. Today I'll relate the restart of a make your own miniatures case battle box which I had collected some parts for years ago and only just recently purchased the rest of the materials.
I was looking for ways to store my miniatures without spending a lot of money especially because I had a quickly growing collection of Games Workshop Imperial Guard tanks. If you can I do recommend just getting some battle boxes and trays because it's a lot easier, you're going to get good results, and it's just such a time saver; however it is still expensive. I came across these empty tool boxes which are about 60 cm (24 inches) by 40 cm (16 inches) and 12 cm (5 inches).
Really big, good handles, designed to carry lots of weight and with very nice latches. Exactly what I had been looking for. To give you another idea of how large these boxes are here's a picture of one that I currently use to store unbuilt, stripped and in need of repair miniautres:
The red boxes just had simple supports of flat 2 mm plastic which were easily removed with a hack saw:
That was all that I needed to do to get it ready for installing foam. With how easy both of the Hilti boxes were it shouldn't have been a surprise the DeWalt one would be incredibly difficult. The DeWalt style box was made to hold a cordless drill and many accessories so it was made with a vacuum form to fit the specific tools and parts with a lot of empty negative space. Spot welding or some chemical bonding is used to reinforce and fuse the custom interior piece with the generic outer shell. I decided the best approach was to separate the interior form from the outer edge and then remove the interior in strips and pieces until only the welded areas were left.
There is a lip much like that after opening a can with a can opener just remember to not cut away any supporting material for the handle and latches.
The weld spots were challenging but with time, patience, a long hacksaw blade and many breaks it gets done. I made use of a special handle that can fit a wood saw or metal saw blade and the flexibility of the metal saws.
I was looking for ways to store my miniatures without spending a lot of money especially because I had a quickly growing collection of Games Workshop Imperial Guard tanks. If you can I do recommend just getting some battle boxes and trays because it's a lot easier, you're going to get good results, and it's just such a time saver; however it is still expensive. I came across these empty tool boxes which are about 60 cm (24 inches) by 40 cm (16 inches) and 12 cm (5 inches).
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Really big, good handles, designed to carry lots of weight and with very nice latches. Exactly what I had been looking for. To give you another idea of how large these boxes are here's a picture of one that I currently use to store unbuilt, stripped and in need of repair miniautres:
The red boxes just had simple supports of flat 2 mm plastic which were easily removed with a hack saw:
That was all that I needed to do to get it ready for installing foam. With how easy both of the Hilti boxes were it shouldn't have been a surprise the DeWalt one would be incredibly difficult. The DeWalt style box was made to hold a cordless drill and many accessories so it was made with a vacuum form to fit the specific tools and parts with a lot of empty negative space. Spot welding or some chemical bonding is used to reinforce and fuse the custom interior piece with the generic outer shell. I decided the best approach was to separate the interior form from the outer edge and then remove the interior in strips and pieces until only the welded areas were left.
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There is a lip much like that after opening a can with a can opener just remember to not cut away any supporting material for the handle and latches.
The weld spots were challenging but with time, patience, a long hacksaw blade and many breaks it gets done. I made use of a special handle that can fit a wood saw or metal saw blade and the flexibility of the metal saws.
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The top had a raised impression of the brand name which I considered covering with a two part putty that hardens into plastic. It would have worked followed by sanding would have provided a flat surface to paint on. Instead I cut out the name with my scroll saw and am constructing a 3D model to be 3D printed.
I used a hot wire to cut some 1/2 inch sturdy foam for the bottom and hot glue to fix it in place. The softer foam for the models I will cut to size but it won't be glued in until the spaces for the models are cut out. I think for the red boxes I will use a 1/8 inch thick neoprene rubber or something similarto use for the tray base.
That's all for this week even though so much more happened. The LEDs for the lamp arrived so I will begin working upon that soon.
Until next time happy creating.
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