Storage solution for 28mm WW2

Like many people with hobbies I've got stuff all over the house.  My wargames collection spills across  two rooms and into the loft.  A dedicated games room is not on the agenda so I'm always looking at ways to tidy up and make the most of space.

A few years ago I picked up a couple of Bisley metal filing cabinets from eBay at a very good price.  I managed to retain one and it's been very useful in consolidating a reasonable amount of my figure collection into the one place.  

Most of the figures sit very well in the cabinet.  However, the plastic 28mm WW2 figures which are on MDF bases are so light they move every time I open or close the drawer and I'm continually rearranging them. 

With my new found passion for magnets the solution was obvious.  To make the job easier on my old hands I even dug out my Dremel which has barely been used in the 20 years I've had it.  Armed with a 3mm drill bit it didn't take anytime at all to drill a recess into the bottom of the  bases.  A loss of concentration resulted in two Red Army soldiers being castrated as the drill went straight through the base and into their groin, but apart from that it all went very well.

The next stage was to attach the magnets.  This didn't happen until over a week later as the Post Office decided to stop delivering all normal mail to concentrate on parcels generating by all the Black Friday nonsense!  Once the magnets finally arrived it didn't take long to superglue them into the recesses I'd drilled.  

Red Army infantry in progress

After doing a couple I learnt to leave them for a while until the glue had set, if you expose them to any metal the magnet can pull out.  Another thing to watch out for was where I'd drilled the hole too deep as they work best when the magnet is flush to the base and touching the metal of the cabinet drawer.  I did use a bit of blu tack glued in to help with this. 

Germans will all magnets attached

And it works as can be seen from the picture below.  The tray is on it's side and all the plastics figures stay put.  The four metal figures in this collection are flat on the table.  They were too heavy to stay in place when I put the tray on it's side.  But they don't move when horizontal.  No more sliding about now when I open and shut the drawer.  I just need to do the same for the partisans and diesel punk figures.  All in in very pleasing, job done.

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