Getting Started

We are going to make a simple movement tray out of balsa wood. You could instead use cardboard, plasticard, or foamboard, but such materials can warp (bend) when painted.

We will use a piece of 2.5 mm thick balsa wood. A 1,000 x 100 x 2.5 mm sheet can be purchased from a hobby store and should cost about £1. (This sheet should be sufficient to make about 6-8 trays, depending on size—so this is very cheap!)

You'll also need a blade, a ruler, some PVA glue, and your choice of paint, flock, etc.

Making the Tray

Now you need to decide what size movement tray to make. We are going to make one for 15 Chaos Warriors on 25 mm square bases and we are going to have a 5 mm border round the edge to hold them in.

We need to cut 5 bits: the base and 4 edges. The models will be arranged in 3 ranks of 5, so the base needs to be (5 x 25 mm) + (2 x 5 mm) = 135 mm wide and (3 x 25 mm) + (2 x 5 mm) = 85 mm deep. The front and back borders will be the same width and 5 mm deep; the two side borders will be 75 mm by 5 mm.

Use a pencil and ruler to draw the shapes onto the wood before cutting and try to be as space-efficient as possible. It's best to make your long cuts along the grain of the wood, as they will be neater. It's a good idea to use a set square to ensure right angles. Then carefully cut along the ruler's edge to ensure the cuts are straight.

Finishing Off

Glue the bits together with a generous amount of PVA glue, including the connecting ends of the borders for extra strength. You might want to place some models or just the bases into the tray to check that they fit, but wipe away any excess glue with a tissue or cloth first. Allow it to dry. Then add sand and paint it just like a model's base.

For mine, I undercoated it with Chaos Black spray, painted a coat of Graveyard Earth, drybrushed the sand Bleached Bone, then added some static grass and clump foliage.

Magnetic Trays

It is common to magnetise units so that models don't fall over and they can be stored quickly in a specially made army case. If you're planning to put magnets under your models, then you need to give a metallic property to the movement tray. You could paint the main area of the tray with magnetic paint or you could make the tray itself out of a thin steel sheet. Both techniques achieve the desired effect. (See the magnets page for more details.)

If you're using magnets, it's a good idea to make flush movement trays—i.e. trays without borders. These are easier to make and they remove any confusion that borders sometimes cause when measuring range. They also make it easier to change the formation of the unit: for example, I use 5 x 2 trays for my infantry which means I can put one tray in front of another for a deep unit or two trays wide for a horde. In big games, it saves a lot of time.

Another great feature of flush trays is that they make it easier to remove casualties, especially in armies with weak infantry that die in droves. For Vampire Counts, they also make raising new models much quicker. Just deal with a whole tray at a time instead of loose models.

To make flush trays out of balsa wood, simply cut the wood to size, paint 3 or 4 coats of magnetic paint (allowing each to dry), then undercoat and paint as normal. Magnetic paint is iron filings suspended in paint, so it's a good idea to gently file down any lumps and then apply a watered-down PVA (1:1) wash to seal it before undercoating.

Cheaper Options

If you want an even cheaper alternative to balsa wood, you could try using readily available cardboard, such as a cereal box, and matchsticks or plastic sprue remnants for the border. The result will be quite flimsy, but it will suffice for moving a unit around on a table.