A little box in a big box

My Battlefoam case finally arrived. Well in truth I had to go to customs to collect it. I of course misunderstood what I would need to bring as the forms were completely in German. I eventually convinced one of the guys there to search behind for the box. It took them a while but they got it for me. That was great because I don't leave near the customs office at all! I really didn't want to have to return home for a tiny slip of paper, especially with the chill winds around today.

Looking at what arrived I was quite impressed that it need such a big box. The foam was not inside the case but packed all around it making for a massive box. I got five trays all custom cut. One is purely for storage of cavalry models rather than transport. Anyway when I looked at the trays first I thought "damn, my army wont fit in these". I was wrong and not for the first time today as you will see. Anyway I grabbed out all my models and started fitting them in. I was most concerned about the hounds as there appeared to be no correct spaces for them at all. Funnily when I started packing things in I noticed that the spaces I assumed were for Chaos Warriors were actually for the hounds. It is a snug fit especially for some that I have lifted from their hunched pose. Its great though all twenty of them will fit in. I wonder will I ever use that many though. The marauders fit in fine too. The cavalry fit but its not great. The tray for them is four inches deep while the models (mine at least) are much lower. In some cases they are over an inch short leaving a lot of 'wiggle' room in the case. I am not sure if this would lead to any damage especially as they are plastic. Mine are so short because I have cut all the horns off and don't use the lances or standards. It would have been nice to have made that tray a little less thick. I still have to check how my characters fit in though. I am assuming that they will be taller. Some of the holes on the tray I have no clue what fits into them yet!

My second wrong assumption came up at this point. I have seven inches of foam but the case only fits six. When I went to put the trays in I couldn't fit one of them. At this point I got really annoyed, especially when considering the extra height on the cavalry tray thats not really being used! I tried a few things but they just wouldn't go it. So to the phone and one embarassing phone call later I managed to get all the trays in! Firstly I had to remove the top protective sheets and then I just followed the guy on the phones instructions to push and in went all seven inches of tray! I really felt stupid but to be honest it wasn't that apparent when I was just looking at them. The trays do take a little bit of force to get in and it really is a snug fit. What would concern me is that some models don't fit 100% within the trays and things like weapons and shields hang out. This is partly my own fault as I have not always glued the models in the standard poses. Shoving them into the case would result in breakage I am sure especially as the protective lids of the trays don't fit. I can pack the larger cavalry tray on top as none of the models look out of that so it saves scraping against the interior on the way in and out. I am not totally convinced but hopefully all will go well.

As for the tray and the pack they are well produced. I had some text put on them and it looks good. On the infantry trays it is a little crooked but it would seem that there was not much space to work with really and having any text there at all is pretty impressive! They are well constructed and glued together. The pack has good pockets for extras such as movement trays dice and books. With the pockets filled I hope it still fits in the overhead luggage compartment. Looking at it now I am thinking it probably has some room to spare! Ryanair seem to have generous volume for hand luggage. I will be testing it in about two weeks I think.