Transporting miniatures cheap, easy & safe with magnets

When it comes to transporting miniatures, foam trays are the go to option. They’re fine for more sturdy miniatures like the 40k Space Marines. But my choice, specially for more delicate minis like Infinity or Malifaux, is to use magnets.

You just need a couple of things. Some magnets and a metal tray. Well, and some glue. I use Superglue (Cyanoacrylate), but I’m not going to tell you where to get your glue. To learn which magnets and tray work for me, keep reading.

The magnets are easy to get, most hobby stores carry them. I’ve bought mine on eBay from China. You can get around 100 magnets for $4 or less easily, with free shipping. The downside is that it’ll take a lot for the package to arrive. It could very well be two months. But if you’re not in a hurry, it’s the cheapest option.

I use the 6x2mm Rare Earth Neodymium Magnets and they work fine. If you’re thinking about using them for Infinity, be aware that this size is bigger than the hole that comes below the bases. For regular models I use a single magnet, for bigger things like TAGs you should use at least a couple of them.

You can even use it for you Kings of War multibases! Unless you’re using some heavy metal miniatures, just a couple of magnets are enough for the whole base!

With all your bases magnetized, you just need some metallic tray to carry them. While there are plenty of custom gaming solutions, what I use is nothing fancy and it works great. I bought a few Kitchen Craft Non-Stick Bake and Carry Brownie Trays.

The magnets keep the miniatures in place without a problem and it comes with a cover with handles, to carry it, in a really fashionable pale pink. Or you can do as I do and use a wide bag to carry it with all your other gaming extras.

For games like Infinity with one tray you’ll have more than enough. For Kings Of War I was able to fit my whole 1000 point Undead Army on it, but barely. For higher point games I’ll need to use two trays, but you can stack them just fine.

The cover adds some extra protection and this particular model has enough height to accommodate regular miniatures without problem and even Dreadnoughts. TAGs might be a problem. I can’t close the cover with my O-Yoroi, for example. In that case you could leave the cover out or put the TAG sideways.

If you’re careful, the sideways option works fine. Without the cover I become paranoid, fearing that all my miniatures will be stomped on by someone clumsy.

So, for some of the taller and heavier models this might not be the best option, but other than that it works great for me. I’ve been using it for years and I’ve only had the magnets unglued from a couple of minis. And it was most likely because I didn’t leave enough time for the glue to dry before placing the minis on the tray.