Knowing my love of wargame size shipping containers my buddy recently gifted me a Tempest Terrain Rapid Fire Dicebox. (I teach a weathering class at the Historical Miniature Gaming Society conventions using Reaper miniatures shipping containers and have amassed a decent size shipping yard over the past few years.) I just got around to painting this cool container and figured I’d give it a review!
This unassuming shipping containter transforms into a dice storage system and dice tower.
This side drops down for the dice to fall through, and the top lifts up to drop the dice in.
These containers come in sizes suitable for 16mm dice or 12mm dice (pictures). I can’t find any sizes on the companies website for the overall containers but looking at the two products it appears as if the outside boxes are the same size, it’s just the guts that change sizes. This is cool because it allows you to use both types on your gaming table! (The container I have is 5” long and 2.25” high and 2.25” wide.)
Another cool feature is the bottom of the container comes off for dice storage so this container is in fact a container! It hold 60 12mm dice, or 30 16mm dice. I didn’t realize this until I was reading their product description so I initially forgot to take a picture, which is why as you’ll read in a little bit I forgot the name of the product! I couldn’t quite fit 60 in the bottom, but a few extra could easily fit in the top.
Tempest Terrain offers these products for sale as both physical and digital versions. The physical versions are normally $41 USD, but as the time of this writing are on sale for $33 USD. They also offer a plain shipping container that is not a dicebox, normally $11 USD, but as of this writing $7 USD. The digital versions are $16 USD for one size, $19 USD for both sizes, and $21.50 to get the non dicebox shipping container.
These boxes are designed for FDM printing, but my buddy printed mine in resin. I can’t speak for the FDM but in resin this is a gorgeous piece. It feels sturdy and looks incredible. I wouldn’t find having a few of the non-dice box versions for a science fiction table! My buddy sent the whole thing to me assembled but it doesn’t look like a difficult product to put together. Tempest Terrain provides both written and a link to video instructions for assembly.
The only downside is I had to keep the side try closed by attaching a piece of blue tack to the inside but beyond that everything else stays shut nicely. I do remember it was staying shut when I first started spraying it so maybe I screwed something up.
I used some basic weathering techniques and decided to try some OSL (Other Source Light) for the lights on the short end of the container because I saw a wonderful tutorial by elminiaturista on Instagram using dry brushing. I’m really glad I saw that video in time to do this project as it was inspiring and timely!
Funny enough I couldn’t remember the name of the company when I was writing this blog and while scrolling Instagram I not only stumbled upon a post but found out they are running a Kickstarter for a Fantasy Edition of this product. They have added some cool features such as sliding locks to prevent the boxes from opening during transit so if Fantasy is more your jam than Science Fiction check them out, the campaign is live until July 16!
This is a cool product that is not only functional but looks cool too!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 