I use the cheap, disposable tupperware containers.
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I've been working on this too, actually. Here are my tips.
First you need to figure out your storage needs. Do you game at your house? Do your minis need to travel? How many minis do you have? This will come into play later.
Once you know that, we can hit specific areas:
Miniatures Casing: I went to my local Home Depot and picked up about 12 clear plastic tool boxes. They're pretty great; they look like thin briefcases and have small plastic pieces that let you customize how wide the compartments are. I set mine to be large enough to fit two miniatures abreast.
Protection:My miniatures need to travel, and I cringe every time I hear them shift inside of the plastic box. Even though they're lower quality, I don't want my WizKids minis to break and so help me if my prepainted miniatures that I spent hours on so much as chip .... To that end, I went to my local carpet store and picked up some carpet padding. Its not pretty, but its relatively cheap and it gets the job done. If you have a family-run store near you, they might even just give you the padding for free if you ask for scraps; I know mine did.
With this carpeting, I cut out pieces large enough to fit inside of each of the little compartments I squared away and stuck them in place with a piece of double-sided carpet tape. If you use carpet tape, the trick to getting it off is to cut the tap, place it on the back of the carpet padding, and then bend the padding a little bit to rip the double-sided paper so it will stick to the floor of your case.
For extra protecting, I went to a pool store and picked up some pool lining; its very thin foam that is a pleasing blue color. This went on the lid of the case so the miniatures wouldn't bash into the top part of the plastic. With those two layers, there's almost no movement in my boxes.
Paint Protection: Since you're a bones backer, you should plan on investing in a good set of paints; Reaper's are good as are Games Workshops and the prices are somewhat comparable with one another; that is to say, expensive. But take it from someone who tried to paint with canvas acrylics, doing so is a disaster. When you're happy with your miniature, make sure that you get a good matte varnish and lightly glaze your models with it. You might not need to do this with the bones models (I don't know, never painted one before), but with pewter models this is a must to prevent the models from chipping at the slightest impact or flaking away at the slightest touch.
Hope this helps.
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I've been working on this too, actually. Here are my tips.
First you need to figure out your storage needs. Do you game at your house? Do your minis need to travel? How many minis do you have? This will come into play later.
Once you know that, we can hit specific areas:
Miniatures Casing: I went to my local Home Depot and picked up about 12 clear plastic tool boxes. They're pretty great; they look like thin briefcases and have small plastic pieces that let you customize how wide the compartments are. I set mine to be large enough to fit two miniatures abreast.
Protection:My miniatures need to travel, and I cringe every time I hear them shift inside of the plastic box. Even though they're lower quality, I don't want my WizKids minis to break and so help me if my prepainted miniatures that I spent hours on so much as chip .... To that end, I went to my local carpet store and picked up some carpet padding. Its not pretty, but its relatively cheap and it gets the job done. If you have a family-run store near you, they might even just give you the padding for free if you ask for scraps; I know mine did.
With this carpeting, I cut out pieces large enough to fit inside of each of the little compartments I squared away and stuck them in place with a piece of double-sided carpet tape. If you use carpet tape, the trick to getting it off is to cut the tap, place it on the back of the carpet padding, and then bend the padding a little bit to rip the double-sided paper so it will stick to the floor of your case.
For extra protecting, I went to a pool store and picked up some pool lining; its very thin foam that is a pleasing blue color. This went on the lid of the case so the miniatures wouldn't bash into the top part of the plastic. With those two layers, there's almost no movement in my boxes.
Paint Protection: Since you're a bones backer, you should plan on investing in a good set of paints; Reaper's are good as are Games Workshops and the prices are somewhat comparable with...
It does, thanks a bunch :-)
For portable storage, I highly recommend:
The beauty of these cases is the that foam inserts/trays are all cut into detachable cubes. You just pop out which foam cubes you don't want, which allows for a custom fitting for miniatures... especially useful for large ones.
Also, for the do-it-yourself'ers...
For in-house storage, I used to use Ikea's Billy Bookshelf and glass doors. This allowed me to fill it with a LOT of miniatures.
For my rather extensive collection of miniatures, I purchased some foam sheets and created 12x24" trays to hold my minis. Most of the minis are in individual foam cells, although a few are double-packed.
I have a cardboard carrying case for them if I want to transport them. The whole point was to have a means to store and carry my miniatures while protecting them from damage. It was fairly inexpensive, highly effective and butt-ugly.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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This tacklebox will hold a full case of RotRL or Shattered Star, with Smalls and most Mediums in the small organizer boxes and Larges and big Mediums in the top compartment.
This one holds a full H&M case, similar layout.
I use foam-lined cases like these for painted minis.
To caveat on what Alexander wrote about Paint Protection, I have found that it works well to hit it with a high-gloss coat, then coat over that with a matte coat. For some reason, the glossy ones are more durable. The matte coat de-glosses it.