Citadel Crusade Case Review (WARNING: picture heavy)

G'day folks, Macca here and today I am going to take some time out of my very busy moving schedule (I'm moving house across the state!) to talk about the new Citadel Crusade Case in depth.

The Size and Design:

The case is quite large, and very solid. It has several locating lugs located on the outside which allow it to interconnect with other figure cases, which would allow easy stacking and storage. This is a marked improvement over the older style case, which stacks poorly (the cases can slide off each other as the logo protrudes from the surface!).

Size wise, the new case is almost twice the size of the previous generation cases. This means you can actually transport a whole army in one case!

The clips on the outside are a concern. The old case (left) has significantly larger clips than the new case (right). These clips are known to be brittle, and I'm wondering if the smaller clip will be able to cope long term. In my mind, 4 clips of this size would have been the better alternative, but this is really a non-point.

The design of the internal foam is also significantly different. The older style used large sheets, formed specifically to fit 20-25mm based miniatures. The new style however offers a lot more freedom.

In the old days, in order to get a bike, or cavalry into this foam, this is what you had to do. Cut the foam and make a larger compartment....

...however, with the new foam, you can easily part the foam to allow larger miniatures.

This is due to the fact that the foam zig-zags (allowing it to stretch without breaking) and it's also not secured to the base of the foam 'box'.

As you can see, it stretches quite a bit! This is excellent for those large and cumbersome miniatures.

The Actual Storage:

This is the inside of the Crusade Case. It allows 8 sets of the foam showed above to slot into it.

In this tray, I have 12 power armoured marines on 32mm bases and 10 terminators. There are some issues to keep in mind however;

1: The bases have a tendency to slide under the zig-zag foam, meaning that delicate details on top of the bases may risk catching and being torn off.

2: The base only really allows models that are 'marine sized' to fit comfortably standing up. The minute you have something taller, it sticks out dramatically and risks snapping off.

As you can see, the banner sticks out nearly half of its length. I would not trust this in transport, so this miniature has to lay down, reducing the storage capacity significantly.

In the next tray, I have a small squadron from my Battlefleet Gothic as well as Ferrus Manus and a Contemptor all stored. This isn't how I'd really do it, but it's a good test to see how the foam shapes. I am actually quite happy with how well Ferrus is protected.

3: This case does not fit my Shadowsword. Yes, although you can see it in there, it's NOT a good fit. In fact, I have the vibe (cynical however it may be) that Games Workshop deliberately showed the Baneblade in their product video, as the Shadowsword clearly doesn't work. Now, why?

As you can see below, the muzzle is clearly butted up against the plastic, (the fuel tanks at the opposite end are bulging through the foam as well). The down sides of this are pretty bad, with either snapping the whole barrel off likely, or damaging the paint (a worse sin!).

When removed from the case, the foam loses its shape due to the deformation caused by the Shadowsword. This isn't a big drama, it's just something to be aware of (a hobbyist could catch his sleeve on this and drag the whole mini over the edge of the table...).

This is the damage caused to the barrel just from testing the fit, as you can see, the light grey line around the base of the muzzle is pretty clear evidence of bad news.

A further problem with the foam is that the foam trays no longer can connect together, thanks to the large size of the tank. Compare the left (normal) and the right (tank).

Oh, and the barrel still sticks out..... so you can't make the tray even fit if you put it upside down!

This is how much the vehicle sits above the surface. It's roughly from the underside of the barrel up. This is absolutely no good, and will likely lead to snapping parts in transit if you just placed more foam on top. Even foam can exert pressure.

Overall, I really like the design of the case, HOWEVER, I would suggest custom foam for anything larger than a Rhino chassis, as the depth of the foam trays is a real limiting factor. My suggestions are either Laser Touch (here in Australia) or perhaps KR Multicase for the European and American market. As I have used both these products, I know I could make a tray to fit the Shadowsword with ease.

As for the actual storage capacity, I would suggest no more than 40 'marine' sized miniatures in any one tray. You could likely fit more, however, the foam is very deformed by that stage, and I highly recommend that you don't try to overfill it. If you stick to this figure, a 'horde army' would safely fit 320 miniatures into the case (40 minis on 8 trays).

I hope this review is of some help to anyone looking to purchase a figure case in the near future,

~Macca