Storage Solutions - The Perfect Platoon Box ?

As many gamers know Really Useful Boxes are really useful. They are robust, stack easily, have secure locking handles and come in a wide range of sizes. My one complaint, and this is very much a 1st world problem, is that they don't offer the perfect platoon sized box.

My two "Go To" boxes for figure and vehicle storage are the 1.75 and 2.5 litre respectively. 

Figure Storage

For my figures I base individual section members on pennies (20.4mm diameter), Junior Leaders on 20mm square bases (mdf or FDM printed) and Senior Leaders on 2p pieces (26mm). The advantage of using the coins is that they are cheap, and also magnetic. Based on these dimensions I can fit a maximum of 63 figures (seven rows of nine figures on 20/21mm bases) into the smaller box. While this number drops when adding Senior Leaders and weapons teams on their larger bases there is still ample space for an entire platoon. 

I place a piece of magnetic sheet cut to size inside the box and this is sufficient to hold all the figures very securely in place. I can actually turn the box up side down and nothing falls out, although I try to avoid doing so for obvious reasons.

So why is this not the perfect platoon box ??

The 1.75l box has an internal height of 60mm, more than ample for that of a typical 15mm figure (say 20/22mm all in allowing for helmets and waving arms), in fact over double the height if not nearly three times that required - All that wasted space.

The solution is as easy as it is obvious - add an additional layer to the box. This was done using a piece of 3mm mdf cut to size, a small drawer handle purchased from Amazon - two handles for £3.99, and four FDM printed supports. These are no more that square pylons 10mm x 10mm x 27mm. I topped and tailed each pylon with a penny, added a 20mm square of magnetic sheet to each underside corner of the mdf, covered the top of the mdf with more magnetic sheet and attached the handle.

This additional shelf will comfortably fit a 40 man platoon which I believe is the largest in game. You can actually squeeze in a good many more, but I like to keep access to handle easy, so I can lift the shelf out without touching the figures. With a platoon fitting on the shelf the bottom of the box is available for all the other infantry support options and smaller vehicles. 

With the first box being a success I will do this for my other platoons.

The British Infantry Box contains

Shelf: full infantry platoon, plus an additional PIAT team in the prone position.

Base: a fourth infantry section, sniper, FOO, four engineers, a MMG team, two carriers, and two anti-tank guns.

The base still has space, with a medic and couple of additional JL and SL being the obvious next figures to paint and add. 

Maybe this is the perfect platoon box after all.

Vehicle Storage

For vehicles I use the larger 2.5l box, with an insert of 5mm foam board on the base. In order to arrange and keep them secure within the box I printed bespoke tabs for each vehicle (with their own length, width and height) added a magnet to the tab and a ferrous strip to the underside of each vehicle. The printed tabs are glued to the foam board and the vehicles held secure by the magnet and the tab fitting snugly between the tracks/wheels.

The platoon box is perfect for carrying a platoon and associated support to a games night, while both are great for safe storage at home.