Custom Movement Trays

Given I always use my regulars in Muskets and Tomahawks in a firing line I have been looking to buy some movement trays that allow the miniatures to stay in base-to-base contact (6 wide, 2 deep - 12 miniatures).  There are some options available out there but I figured I would give making my own a go before I bought.

I have lots of 3mm MDF sitting around (I use it for lots of projects/terrain basing).  I also have a nice home drill press along with a 1" (very near 25mm) drill bit.

My drill press and the MDF I used to make the base.

This shows how I plotted out the tray on the MDF (X marks
the spot for the middle of the drill bit).  This is of course
after I had drilled out the holes.

Above you can see how I plotted out the movement tray on the MDF (using a ball point pen).  Each of the squares in 25mm square (since I use 25mm round bases).  The "X" lines through each box would tell me where to align the drill bit (which has a point at it's center - that is what caused the indentation in the middle of the circles).  I aligned each X one at a time, clamped the tray then used the depth measure on the drill press to know just how far down to drill (essentially routing out the base).  Before I started all this I used a test MDF part to figure out the depth I needed to use.  After all this it was just a matter of aligning each hole and drilling to my depth setting.

After cutting out the base using a jigsaw and sanding the edges.

After all the holes got drilled (not all the way through), I used my jigsaw to cut out the base.  I used a 5mm buffer around the edges of the base.  After cutting it out I used sandpaper to take the edge of the sides of the base.

With miniatures.

Next up I checked that everything fit and they did - all in base-to-base contact.  I can use this for the firing line that is 6 wide x 2 deep, or if they are marching down a road it can be 2 wide x 6 deep.  What is great about this is that it is a single piece of MDF and costs next to nothing provided you have the tools.

Lastly I sanded the base, sprayed it black, then drybrushed my normal progression (scorched brown, graveyard earth and foundry base sand 10C).  A few wilderness tuffs from Army Painter and all set!  Completed pictures below --- not too shabby for the effort.

Completed movement tray.

Completed movement tray.

Completed movement tray.