Pack it up!

I just bought a sword bag from battlefoam, will let you know what the standard loadout is like and what easily fits. Don't have any gargantuan or monstrous models, but seems like those tend to have their own specific sets of battlefoam.

I have a few Sabol and battlefoam bags.

The sabol bags are more economic, but probably slight to somewhat less durable. That said, i have platoon bags over a decade old, as is my motorpool bag. With the exception of some old pin punctures, there's no rip, tear, or other damage past the motorpools rear elastic having lost its elasticity (which is honestly my own damn fault more than lack of quality). The biggest downfall is that the older models don't have rigid sides, and the ones that you can get rigid sides for are at additional cost, and really aren't all that rigid. That said, for bag sizes Platoon, Army, and Motorpool, the only reason you NEED rigid siding is if you were intending to put something on top of the bag. If you don't do that, like storing the bag up on a closet shelf with nothing heavy on it, the rigid sides are superfluous for a Sabol bag. Treated well, the bags will last decades.

Sabol's foam is hit or miss ; sometimes the glue job is not the best, and some of the foam is harder / scratchier than others. That said, GamePlus makes absolutely outstanding foam that fits in Sabol bags and is a soft foam without a trace of the glue issues Sabol has. Their foam is 5-10% more expensive depending where you get it, but totally worth it.

If you're budget conscious i'd recommend looking at Sabol with some GamePlus foam. Get the pluckable stuff and you will not have to worry about whether or not it fits 30mm bases or not because you can make it fit whatever you need it to.

I was a battlefoam resistor for a long time : horror stories about warranty issues (as well as ... "interesting" business stories) staved me off for a while. I won a pack 720 bag (empty) in a contest and I liked it enough that i bought another one gently used. They are incredibly durable and the rigid plates in them make stacking them a non-issue. They are really high quality and if you go with the MOLE loadout system you can basically custom tailor any bag to exactly what you want / need.

They are expensive, but they are very high quality. If you are planning on traveling with mini's on a plane then its almost no contest, Battlefoam's bags are basically the best you can get in my opinion. That said, if you don't travel for events or long distances or take planes with minis, they are kind of overkill unless your storage is limited and you need to be able to store multiple bags on top of one another. They are also a lot more customizable than any other bag system out there. There is a little add on bag that holds another couple inches of trays that will adapt to the top or bottom of the bags i have for instance, or i can connect both of my 720's together (albeit, for a very heavy and unwieldly bag, but it's an option).

My biggest gripe about battlefoam is it's foam. Its a pretty unique shape so you're basically locked into using theirs. I like pluck foam rather than custom cut foam as i buy / sell / trade armies fairly frequently. If you don't do that the custom cut foam might be a good solution if you don't have faction / game ADD. If you do, don't do custom cut foam - while its nice, its time intensive on your part and its (i think) extremely expensive for what it is (which is basically a CAD or Revit dwg cut into a piece of foam which you have to actually do most of the work to originally configure).

Also their small pluck foam is really great,  but the larger / taller trays only come with the pluck blocks that are much larger ;  this can make maximizing space difficult, and leave you with less than ideal shapes.  The larger sabol stuff retains the smaller pluck block footprint which means you can really tailor it to a mini.  I'm not sure why they do this,  but my guess is to sort of softly encourage the custom shape thing (as the margins on that have to be huge by comparison).


So my recommendation: If you're only traveling locally by automobile of some sort, i'd recommend Sabol with Gameplus Foam. If you're traveling even regionally, or in any way that will require putting your minis on a plane, Battlefoam all the way.

Personally, I just got super-lucky to buy a used army transport bag with foam included for $20 from a FLGS.

Previous to this, for years, I've been using two 24x12x6" photo memento boxes I got from a craft store. They're made of heavy cardboard and have leather handles and metal corners, so they're pretty durable. I had to re-attach the handles with bolts and washers last year, but they've held up very well. I took foam from an old couch cushion, which was left in my garage when I bought my house, and cut it up to make the foam inserts, then lined the three layers each with corrugated cardboard, cut to fit. Works great.

I have a smallish plastic box that can fit in a bag or small suitcase. I bought some cheap metal baking sheets that I cut up and attached to the bottom of the case, and lined the wall with thin foam. I can put a second plate that is held in place by magnets and wooden corner supports about a warrior model's height from the the lid of the box. All my models either have magnets in the base or pieces of metal (plastic models in particular I like weighing down with metal), and to be fair it takes at least 5 magnets for metal jacks but they don't move if you use the right amount of magnets per model. I've had the box get accidentally knocked off a table an only one or two guys came loose from the 40-50 models (who then received an extra magnet, and tested by me shaking the the plate with only those models on it upside down to confirm that they wouldn't come loose again).

They don't need protective foam in my experience because they don't move much (I do put foam from blisters around the heavy models though just in case), and it doubles as a storage solution. If you pack the bases in tight together, or place dividers they won't even move at all. To make the box costs less than 10 euro, and the magnets I can get from Germany for 0.14ish per magnet (here within a week), or China for 0.05ish per (here within a month). The removable metal tray also can double as a carrying tray, and I put magnets on my token/dice/etc box so I can put it in as well.

Just an idea as an alternate to the foam solutions. It is heavier, though not too much so I think (the metal sheets are pretty thin and the plastic is light).