Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Movement Trays - What's Your Poison?

Inspired by some mail banter this morning, I've decided to post up some thoughts on movement trays. I don't think I've covered this before, but if I have, sure, what the hell, it's not like it'll be on the news.

Anyway. When I were a lad movement trays were a bit of cardboard painted green and that was that. Times moved on, and a few years back I thought I was spoiled with being able to order custom laser- cut trays, which I would then add some basing to fit with my army theme. A bit of work, but they added to the visual appeal of the army no end.

Movement tray from Litko with basing materials added.
These are still a good option depending on how detailed you want your army trays to be. I've seen these just painted black to match the sides of bases, and they looked great. There's a pile of companies that do this. I used to use Litko for these, but there's plenty of others like Back to Base-ix. The variety is huge, from regular trays skirmish trays, trays for round based models so they can be used in regiments for square base games and loads of others. Truly our movement tray cup runneth over.

This tray allows you to use your round-based skirmish models in a regiment.

Games Workshop do modular trays as well for those who want to make their trays themselves, but I haven't used them myself. My current thing is resin movement trays, I love them. There's generally no assembly, and the really do look great. I use the trays from Base-X-of-War. Don't be put off by the pretty terrible website, they have a huge variety of resin bases and movement trays, and will make custom size trays if you wish. They will also add metal foil to the tray for a little extra, which is super handy. Prices are very reasonable.

Base-X-of-War resin movement tray.
Other companies such as Microart Studios do these trays as well, though they are at set sizes and there isn't as much variety. I'm not aware of any other companies that do them yet, but I'm sure they are out there.

Now, onto the gaming end of things. Obviously trays are needed to move your troops around, but there's a bit of debate on how ostentatious they should be. Personally speaking I think the resin trays I use are at the upper end of elaborate, but they don't interfere with the game. I always measure from the models, not the tray, which seems obvious but can be an issue if folks forget, or measure from one or the other depending on what the situation is. Most players are decent though, so it's not a massive issue.

Over the top, but completely awesome.
It's possible to go over the top with trays, but in Warhammer, as long as your trays allow your units to get to within an inch of each other when in the tray I think that's a pretty good guide. Good trays really add to the aesthetic, theme and consistency of the army and if you're into your painting they are well worth making the effort on.

12 comments:

  1. They make all the difference between a whole day playing a game or just the afternoon. Essential really.

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  2. I think that you forgot one element for those of us that put in a ton of time converting and painting a high end army is protection by building a tray with wider edges. The last thing I want to see is an opponent, whether intentional or unintentional, slamming his all metal unit into my pretty unit.

    I build all of my movement trays with plasti-card and apoxie sculpt to match the theme of my basing and in attempt to add eye-candy to the army.

    And I play lots of tournaments with my stuff. The one thing I do is that I make it a habit to explaing to people where we are measuring from, never had an issue yet with anyone after explaining.

    GW's modular basing is actually not bad, if you need something really quick. Quite boring to look at, but very fast to put together.

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    1. That's a great point, one that hadn't occurred to me. I have winced once of twice as block of spearmen made robust contact with my minis, though no casualties yet thankfully.

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  3. I'm just starting down this road so this is a timely post for me. I absolutely understand the need for trays...the cardboard ones I've been using are just too floppy and look lame. But I'm not really into the elaborate trays....I've been working on making a couple of my own using some HDF as the base then building up the sides....the first one I terrain end to look like my bases....but I think is ill end up with just black ones....expect a future post from me about this.

    Thanks for all the useful links....I'll have a nose around...maybe I won't make any more!

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    1. I look forward to seeing what you come up with, I think Ben Johnson used the all-black tray approach, and they looked good.

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  4. I take a different approach to movement trays. I wanted mine to be as unobtrusive as possible. So here's what I ended up doing:
    http://adventuresinminiaturegaming.blogspot.com/2010/12/warhammer-fantasy-movement-trays.html

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    1. An interesting approach, taking the tray to it's minimalist extreme. Eminently practical.

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  5. Considering a requirement for increasing unit sizes in fantasy battle movement tray are becoming a must for me a) logistically- transporting and moving a ton of infantry without is no fun! b) they make a better base for unit fillers (more controversy) than just having these sat in the midst of a unit. c) they just look really nice and don't have to be too complicated. I generally cut rectangles of MDF, edge them with thin strips of MDF and use wood filler to build up to the level before flocking. Cheap as chips! And I can make them whatever size I want.

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    1. Unit size is certainly a consideration, and with tournaments you just can't not have trays.

      I used to use a local signage company to cut mdf bases for terrain, I gave them an Illustrator file, and they fed that into their industrial router. Same could easily be done for trays, and I'm sure most sign-making companies would have a router on site. They could even cut the tray lip in one piece for you if you gave them the vector shape.

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  6. I've actually done a series of posts on my blog in tutorial form on how I make them out of plasti-card.

    http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/10/introduction-to-my-method-of-making.html

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    Replies
    1. Great post, you've gotten beautiful results. Your bloodletters, from what I saw there are very nice indeed, by the way.

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  7. I use the Litko trays (and Back 2 Base-ix for varieties Litko can't provide). I find it's too much trouble and the results of doing it myself are imperfect enough that it's worth just buying the dang things.

    I very much dislike the GW trays. I don't like the weird gaps, and I don't like large margins they add between base and tray rim.

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