Product Review: Battle Foam P.A.C.K 720 Transport Bag

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! It is July 4th here in the States and it is the day we celebrate our Independence and generally go overboard with the patriotism. For the past several years it is also the day I have a game of Warhammer 40k with my good buddy Mordian 7th, however this year he had some band-stuff to work out today so the game is tomorrow. I figured this would be the perfect time to break out a Christmas gift and give it a try......the Battle Foam P.A.C.K 720 army transport bag.

First Impressions: 

The P.A.C.K. 720 is what I would call a mid-sized transport bag, it supposedly can hold 720 marines (hence the name). I am not a huge 40k player and don't have massive armies (don't play Guard!!!) so I found this bag to be a good size for me.

Bag and tray dimensions:
Outside Bag Dimensions - 18W x 14L x 14H" (457W x 356L x 356H mm)
Tray Dimensions - 15.5W x 12L" (394W x 305L mm)


Front of the bag with the very good-sized front pocket:

Side shot with another pocket and I.D. spot on the back of the bag:

The other side with another pocket and showing the shoulder strap:

This is the standard way to open the bag:

Showing the ability to pull out the foam trays from the top:

The bag can be opened further to allow access to the bottom trays:

This allows you to get to the bottom trays without having to remove the top trays:

I found another big pocket inside the bag (also provides some side protection to the foam):

The codex is pulled out to show it fits in the pocket, when ready to close the bag it is not exposed at all.

 The bag comes with (in my chosen load-out) with 12" of foam trays:

Using the P.A.C.K. 720 to pack my army:

I have a 2000pt Blood Angel army to transport tomorrow so I jumped in and started to pack it all up. Here is the army waiting to be packed:

As you can see there are some large vehicles including a Storm Raven and a Land Raider. I was a little concerned that I did not have the correct foam to pack the Storm Raven but I did:

The rest of the vehicles packed:

Terminators on their custom (pain to pack) bases:

The rest of the infantry:

Everything all packed up in the case:

The bag easily holds all the other necessary gaming supplies:

My thoughts on the Battle Foam P.A.C.K. 720

Good:
1) So far I am finding the bag a joy to use. I had plenty of room to pack my miniatures including 2 large vehicles.
2) Battle Foam offers a custom tray creator which I think might be handy for the vehicles.
3) The bag is light and not overly large so it is easy to handle and store.
4) There is a shoulder strap that I find convenient to use.
5) There are pockets everywhere to store your other supplies including a 7" tablet and smart phone.
6) The ability to swap out foam trays from the front or top.

Bad:
1) The company states that it is carry-on approved for air travel but I would not be so sure about that. I travel frequently and I have only seen a couple of planes that I would say you could carry this on and store.


I hope you have found this helpful. I will have some additional thoughts after the game and travel/use of the bag. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Product Review: Battle Flag Paint Racks

Greetings once again InterWebs! It is Sunday evening here in the Rocky Mountains and it is time for a little hobby update. If you remember a previous post I reviewed a paint storage rack from a company called Back to Bas-ix and while I found those paint racks very nice and useful I wanted to find something a little closer to home so to speak and one with a more reasonable shipping charge.

After a brief search on the Internet and eBay I found a very interesting option from a company in England called Battle Flag which I went ahead and ordered. Well it showed up over the weekend and I had some free time and a desire to 'clean-up' the painting area some more; here is a review of my experiences with my new paint rack.

Cost: 
The price of 'The Paint Storage Tray' is not too expensive ($35.00 US) and the shipping was only $10.00 US. This was a more reasonable overall total compared to my other storage systems from Australia. I would be willing to order from them again when and if I need more paint storage trays.

Packaging:
The entire storage tray came in a flat cardboard box which held everything tightly. If there was going to be an issue during shipment it would have had to have been fairly major to affect the piece. Here is a shot of the packaging:

 Note: It is the small box labeled 'fragile' sitting on another shipping box that also arrived.

Shipping Issues:
Basically there were none! I was very impressed with how well everything arrived from jolly olde England. The storage tray was also wrapped in a layer of bubble-wrap like so:

Inside the bubble-wrap the paint tray was wrapped up with an instruction book which I thought was nice.

Assembly:
Here is where this paint storage set differs from my others (which screwed together), this set needs to be assembled with the use of glue. Since this is a hobby support item it should not be to difficult of a task for most of us and there is an instruction booklet included with pictures!

All of the pieces laid out:

Also of note is that there are several of the smaller pieces attached with other smaller pieces on one sheet of laser-cut MDF. It was not any big deal to separate the various pieces from each other on the sheet, everything was very finely cut with the laser. Here is a shot showing what I am talking about:

Here are some various views of assembly process:

Note: I used 'Tacky Glue' hobby glue because it has a bit of stickiness/tackiness to it which allowed the assembly to go quickly. The company suggests wood glue but I went with something that dries clear, wood glue can dry yellowish.

Here is the total assembled piece. Do not fear about the 'white' glue showing, once dry you won't see a thing.

After Assembly:
There is some time after you have assembled the piece before you can use it, the glue needs to dry. I let it set over night to ensure everything was nice and dry and therefore solid. There were some leftover pieces of thin MDF that were only used to hold the smaller pieces together during shipping.

In the morning I made sure everything was nice and dry which it was. I was a little afraid it might be flimsy or wobbly but it was not, it was quite solid as I bounced it in my hand.

One Little Issue:
The bottom of the paint tray is flat; while that may be OK for some folks it is not fine with me. I did not want the paint tray to mark up the surface of what I put it on or slide around if bumped. Here is a view of the bottom of the paint tray:

It was a simple fix using these:

Here is the bottom with the bumpers installed in the corners:

At this point I set out to load up the paint tray with my paints!

The paint stations in all their glory!

Final Thoughts:
I am impressed with this and the price (with shipping) was right. Battle Flag makes paint trays that are designed for other paint brands which I might look into for some of my non-Vallejo paints.

What I liked:
1) Nicely packaged item sent safely from overseas
2) View of the paints, being able to see almost the whole bottle is handy when the paint levels get low
3) Overall cost was reasonable
4) Decent instruction booklet

What I don't like:
1) Having to glue it together might not be for everyone although I had fun with it. I put it here because the use of glue might not be for everyone.
2) The flat bottom, but again, some might not have an issue with this but I personally didn't like it



Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! I hope you have found this somewhat helpful. I know I looked at various paint storage/display options and I think these will work the best for me. I love being able to see the various colors, washes, inks, etc all laid out before me. Back to painting the last of my Blood Angel infantry! Take care all!

Product Review: Back 2 Bas-ix Paint Racks

Greetings once again InterWebs! It is a busy holiday season here in the Rocky Mountains and we are looking at snow for Christmas Day. I have managed to sneak a little 'hobby-time' in however; my lovely better half recently purchased a paint rack system for me. I have been looking at 'The Rack' system from an Australian Company called Back 2 Bas-ix. I will be the first to admit that my painting area needed some organization and the way I stored my paints was annoying (having to dig through a box to pick out the right color)! Here are a few views of the before:

Not very organized at all! With the help of a straight section and a curved section I set out to bring order to the chaos of the painting desk!

Cost: 
The overall price of 'The Rack' components is not very expensive at all; however the shipping from Australia was NOT cheep. I would be willing to order from them again even knowing the shipping is going to be steep however I would like to find a closer to home alternative.

Packaging:
Both pieces were shipped together in one large padded envelope with some additional 'bubble-wrap' protection. Here is a shot of the packaging:

Here are some shots of the individual packaging of the 2 sections:

Straight Section of 'The Rack':

Curved Section of 'The Rack':

Shipping Issues:
Both items arrived relatively intact, there were 2 problems with the straight section. The first problem was immediately apparent when I open the shipping envelope and several pieces of hardware fell out onto the floor.

It seems that the packaging for the straight section had broken inside the mailing envelope scattering the pieces of assembly hardware. After collecting the scattered pieces I was not sure if I had found everything and therefore was not sure if I had enough hardware to assemble the piece. It turns out that Back 2 Bas-ix had included a few extra pieces so I was safe!

The second problem was discovered next when I went to put the sections together. It seems that in shipping one of the little slot holes had busted. In the end it had little effect on the final assembly and structural integrity of the piece so it was no big deal. This is to be expected when dealing with thin, fiddly bits of MDF I guess.

Assembly: 
It was time to assemble the 2 sections so I looked on the Company's website and was directed to their series of assembly videos on YouTube. I found these to be helpful although assembly of these sections is not hard at all! The only tool that was needed was a simple Philips Head Screwdriver:

While watching some American Football I spent about 10-15 minutes each assembling the 2 sections. Here are some views of the assembled pieces:

Side View showing assembly hardware:

The 2 sections connected together via magnets:

Back 2 Bas-ix was nice enough to include small magnets which are used to 'connect' the sections together. I thought this was a nice touch. Now that the sections were assembled it was time to fill them up with my paints and get started painting again!

Final Thoughts:
I am impressed with these! I wanted to get these sections as a test to see if they would work for me or not. It seems I have found a very good storage/display option and I will have to order another couple of sections to hold the rest of my paints. I might even look into their tool storage options as well!

What I liked:
1) ease of assembly
2) view of the paints
3) magnets to hold them together
4) cost of the sections

What I don't like:
1) cost of shipping

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Back to painting and holiday cheer! Take care all!