Wait - no calling the local PD for a wellness check on me. Hear me out.
A friend was moving and per my request gave me a bag full of old cotton t-shirts he wasn't going to wear any more and/or didn't want to move. I have a use for those kinds of shirts.
But before I get into that here's the end result.
Shirt carcasses on the left, shirt bones on the right.
Seriously. No wellness check.
What I did was cut out all the seams and hems from the shirts. That leaves me large amounts of plain t-shirt fabric, if you use the side that doesn't have a design on it. Why would I need large amounts of plain t-shirt fabric?
This! This is why!
Those are foam transport trays for miniatures. The vast majority of minis I paint are army miniatures and don't go on display. I store them in the transport trays so if I ever get the chance to play I can grab the necessary trays, put them in a transport case, and off I go. Yes. I will label the edges of the trays so I know what's in them.
These things are great but almost everyone forgets something. The foam is a mild abrasive. The sticky-out bits of minis can and do get the paint worn off them from being moved around in transport trays. Sad but true. The very thing that's supposed to protect them is doing them harm....
Still no wellness check needed.
What I do is use pieces of the t-shirt fabric to protect the minis. It's more work when taking them out of the trays and putting them back but in the long run it means far less work repairing the paint jobs on them. When you have seventeen armies that can add up.
If you're going to do this yourself make sure you're using 100% cotton shirts. Polyester may feel soft but it's not. Go for the cotton.
The well washed ones work best because they're nice and soft. That's why we always keep them around far past their lifespan. Here's a use for them that will keep them in the game, as it were.
For those who aren't as familiar with deboning t-shirts here's how I do it. All cuts are done next to seams so I won't put that in the instructions.
- Cut one sleeve up to the shoulder
- Cut the sleeve off the shirt completely
- Cut the seam off the sleeve
- Cut the hem off the sleeve
- Repeat on any remaining sleeves (there should only be one more but I don't judge)
- Cut from the shoulder seam to the neck
- Cut around the neck to the other shoulder seam
- Cut down the shoulder seam to the remaining sleeve seam
- Cut around the sleeve seam back to the shoulder seam
- Cut around the neck back to the original shoulder seam
- Cut around the sleeve seam
- Cut the hem off the shirt body
Here's the fun bit. At least I consider it fun because it's a bit of a challenge and if you have a lot of shirts to cut up you can get into the routine.
Steps 1 through 5 can be done and leave one bone for each sleeve.
Steps 6 through 11 can be done to leave one bone from the body.
Step 12 will always be a separate one since there's no seams from top to bottom.
You don't have to try to keep them as single pieces. That's my thing. As long as you get rid of ALL the seams you'll have nothing but nice, smooth, soft fabric to swaddle your troops.
Even if you don't have a lot of minis or fancy transport trays this is a way to safely store your special minis. Wrap them up and put them in a plastic shoebox. The shirt fabric will pad them and keep them from rubbing on each other and as long as you don't jam too many in there it will also keep swords unbent.
Yes. It works for transporting a single mini to a game as well. Drop it in a sandwich bag and you're golden.
Remember - 100% cotton is the way to go!
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