The most extensive P.A.C.K. Air review ever

At this point, I have traveled with Battle Foam's P.A.C.K. Air accross the Atlantic three times and in a nutshell I have to say this bag is no good for air travel although it's a supreme quality product. If you buy a competitor's product, you'll probably run into the same amount of trouble or even worse, but although the Air implies it is good for air travel, I think I will use it for surface travel in the future only.

See, the problem with the Air are its dimensions. According to Battle Foam they are

25W x 16L x 11H" (635W x 406L x 279H mm)

but in reality they are a little bit larger because of the rail, the weels, etc. Even with empty outside pockets my bag didn't fit into American Airline's carry-on sizer, so the bag with my miniatures flew as a checked bag twice in connection with the 2012 Wargames Con. Now for Battle Foam's defense I have to admit that they print this on their website:

Please check your airlines carry-on rules before travel.

which I didn't do, of course, until my last flight. I mean, when you purchase a ticket, you usually look at departure times and ticket price, but not the carry-on dimensions, right?

Well, before my last flight I did check on carry-on dimensions and found this one the AA website:

Total dimensions may not exceed 45in / 114cm (length + width + height). Length shall not exceed 22in / 56cm, width shall not exceed 14in / 35cm and height shall not exceed 9in / 23cm. The bag must fit in the baggage frames located throughout the check-in area at the airport.

So based on the AA information I would have had no chance (25/22, 16/14, 11/9) to even remotely fit my Air into the carry-on sizer. However, curious me still tried to do it and the only thing that made me fail was the rail on the Air's backside. If you somehow could unscrew/take off the rail,  you could fit it into the bag sizer.

To wrap up this part, I can say that

1. Having to check carry-on dimensions is bothersome and not reliable.
2. Using the Air for air travel is bothersome.

To be honest, my best air travel experience with a Battle Foam product was during my initial journey to the 2011 Wargames Con when I borrowed a P.A.C.K. Plus from a local colleague. Traveling with that bag was simply smooth. National flights in the USA normally feature smaller airplanes with less overhead cabin space and a flight attendant was sceptic the Plus would fit there, but it perfectly did.

Now that I rechecked Battle Foam for this article for the Plus I noticed in its product description that 

The P.A.C.K Plus was designed for airport travel and meets all FAA regulations for carryon luggage.

Heck yes! So take this advice from a fellow gamer: if you are looking for an awesome reasonably sized pack for ground travel, go for the P.A.C.K. Air. If you need something for air travel, don't let its name fool you and go for the P.A.C.K. Plus instead. The Air may work on your flight, but chances are very high it won't. With the Plus you are on the save side, though.

I for my part will definitely purchase a Plus on top of my Air. It can easily hold a large WM/H army, probably even two of them, but my 2011 experience while traveling with Blood Angels tells me that for Warhammer 40K the options are rather limiting your army list. Since I don't intend to take any competitive 40K lists to the USA anyway, I don't really care. So yes, the Plus it is.

Now let's look at the damage to my miniatures that traveled in my check Air:

On a first glance, everything is ok.

What I found really impressive was that the rods on my Stormcallers nicely stayed on. The antennas of my two Dust artillery observers got slightly bent because they were moving up and down in their compartments. (other than that, WM/H small infantry Battle Foam trays are perfect for Dust miniatures) The part that makes my heart bleed is that pEiryss lost her arm again - and so far I haven't been able to find it. Normally, broken off pieces stay in their relevant compartment, but her arm managed to slide to a place I haven't found it yet - and this happened despite the top beaing heavily covered with foam layers.

I also found very impressive, too, that the Fennblades took absolutely no damage, although their swords are oversized for their compartments. The Kriel Stone fell off, but this can be expected from such a heavy piece resting on two small joints only.

eCaine lost both his arms. Luckily I was still able to find them (unlike pEiryss' arm), but it's still kind of bad because it damages the painting job. On the other hand, eNemo's staff nicely stayed on although he suffered the same averse conditions.

Looking at the Warjacks and Warbeasts. The Fireflies and the Impalers didn't care, neither did the Stormclad (except for its banner that fell of again; it was broken before the flight already).

The Thunderhead, however, fell into all its pieces.

The Hammersmith tilted in its custom sized cut out and lost his arms/Hammers.

The Stormwall... well, I really didn't expect any damage to it because it sat so firmly in its custom foam. Obviously, that wasn't good enough. However, the big relevant parts are still intact so it's not that big of an issue especially since it's not painted yet.

So here are my big lessons learned:

1. Battle Foam makes superb products, but the P.A.C.K. Air is not meant for air travel.
2. Although I had to check the P.A.C.K. Air twice, damage to my models was very limited except for bits that I am not able to find anymore.
3. The P.A.C.K. Plus does the job well. If you travel with that bag and carry it with you for the entire journey, you can expect to see no damage at all.

How to get the Stormwall safely across the ocean

The top layer of my Battle Foam holding the infantry models.

Whenever I go to a Warmachine tournament in Europe people keep asking me about my P.A.C.K. Air from Battle Foam. Yes, they are rather expensive compared to other products and yes, models still break, but ever since I had Battle Foam this has been reduced to a minimum. Every once in a while a model's arm may fall off, but that's nothing that can't be fixed with super glue in a couple seconds.

The only time I had several models break was when I flew to Texas for Wargames Con. I had only two foam trays in my P.A.C.K. Air to fill the remaining space with my new custom cut foam trays for my Cygnar/Trollbloods armies. I filled the remaining space with clothes figuring that would be soft padding and a filler enough for a safe transport. What I didn't realize, however, was that the clothes didn't exercise enough pressure onto the trays so about half of the models fell out. Although they were still fairly well padded by the clothes, they bumped into each other so paint was chipped off and several limps had to be glued back together once I had arrived in Texas.

Good thing I took my trusted superglue and minimal modeling equipment to Texas.

To make a long story short - in my eyes, Battle Foam is worth the purchase, you just really want to fill the entire bag with foam to prevent anything from falling out of anywhere. Thinking about taking other things than minis and foam in your Battle Foam bag for the weekend trip to the tournament because it's convenient? I suggest you take another bag instead.

The bottom layer with a custom cut for my Warjacks/Warbeasts plus  a cube for the Stormwall and the War Wagon.

Currently I am really excited about the new Stormwall foam tray as the Stormwall perfectly sits in its tray. The fit is firm and snugly so it doesn't go anywhere even if the case is being bumped. This kind of safety comes at a price, though, because one has to be careful not to exercise too much pressure onto the model when putting it into or taking it out of its tray. When pushing the Stormwall into its tray, I suggest to push it at the base with your stretched fingers. When taking it out of its tray, I suggest you gently lift it with a finger below its perineum. If necessary, wiggle the model carefully as you softly pull it out. The worst thing you could do is to just grab it by its shoulders and pull it out.

One thing I really like about the new Stormwall foam tray is how it lets you pluck part of the foam so it perfectly fits its arm positions. Here I even plucked so more so that its right shoulder canon doesn't rub with the foam either.

I am not affiliated with Battle Foam at all, I am just a happy customer. Since Battle Foam still mostly is a US company geared to the US market, Wargames Con is a great opportunity for me to buy their products. However, I suggest you advance order their stuff because they only have a very limited supply and it's flying off their shelves.

The Battle Foam stand at the 2012 Wargames Con.

This year they announced their presence at the Wargames Con and brought way more stuff, but certain things were either not available (foam toppers? they had no foam toppers - bought them at the FLGS instead) or only in limited quantities (they only had one display tray for WM/H - if I had bought it, they'd have had to keep it for the remainder of the Con to show it to other customers). An important point also is that the Wargames Con substantially grew in size since last year, but I hope Romeo ships the necessary quantities of products to the 2013 Wargames Con. After all, he'd be a fool not to.