Movement trays for Kings of War?

[ManvsMini]

Hi all,

 

I've been looking to buy some movement trays for my Kings of War undead troops. I've heard of Litko, but not really keen on using them because I'm told without using the "roomy" option, the bases won't fit the tray (i.e. a 5x4 tray has the 5th figure overhanging without their roomy option). I also think, personally, that it is a bit steep to pay a dollar more per tray on the roomy option, for a mere extra 3mm to dimensions. But I digress...

 

Has anyone ever used Sarissa Precision or Tectonic Craft Studios? Their trays would save practically 50% of the cost from Litko, but that's irrelevant if the miniatures don't fit or are too snug after painting. I'm putting in an inquiry to both places, but am curious if the community has any input or experience.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

-MvM

[Edsterdoom]

I have used sarissa precision, but not for these bases the quality of the their products is top notch.

[TGP]

I thought Kings of War troops are always supplied with a tray?

 

And it has little round holes to fit each figure's round base?

 

Explain why five zombies on 22mm (is it 23mm?) round bases would not easily fit inside the width of a five inch (127mm) wide tray. I feel like I am missing some key info here...

 

Are you re-basing Warhammer troops for KoW?

[ManvsMini]

@Edsterdoom, thanks for the feedback on Sarissa. They do look nice.

 

@TGP:  No, these are normal KoW figures, not re-based Warhammer stuff. Things I got from previous kickstarters that I am just now getting around to.

 

Never received any KoW figures with a tray. All of mine came with individual bases, (20mm square bases with round hole that the figures fit into). I haven't measured the actual dimensions of bases to see if they are true 20mm, but saw a youtube video with the same troop type and same Litko tray I was thinking of getting. And the point of the video is that they didn't fit (a tray ordered for 5x4 didn't fit 20 figures).

 

Litko trays seem not to work for KoW if your order the exact rank and file troop dimensions you want; you have to order their "roomy" option which adds 3mm in both length and width. Sure, this would work, but Litko trays (imho) are pretty expensive already, and to get this roomy option you need to pay an extra dollar per tray. I need to order several trays (20), and am on a budget - an extra $20 on trays seems ridiculous, especially if there are much cheaper and workable options available.

 

Sarissa and Tectonic are already quite cheaper than Litko, I am just curious if anyone has experience with them so I don't waste money on trays that can't accommodate the ranks I need.

[lowlylowlycook]

If you are interested in a very minimalist solution, you might want to look into Shogun Miniatures.  I think their trays work really well with the bases of my Mantic orcs since the bases' sides are vertical.  I just paint the bases edges and trays black and they are invisible.  

 

For transport I just use boxes with magnets glued to the bottom.

[BuzzardB]

This topic is relevant to my interests.

 

So far I have bought bases from Warbases for my Undead an Orc armies and most of the bases they fit just fine in after painting there were a couple (one for a regiment of orcs for example) I had to file down the inside of the tray to fit them.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

As somebody who has recently delved into cutting such things, that 3mm means that they can fit fewer pieces out of the same size piece of stock, which drives the cost to the manufacturer up, which drives the price to the consumer up. Or they have to use a larger piece of stock which costs them more.

[McSmash Smash]

Since in KoW you don't actually remove models and their bases have flush sides, couldn't you just glue the bases together?  Glue them together in ranks of 5 so you can adjust for larger or smaller units depending on the size of your game.  Unless this would make it more difficult to transport.

[ManvsMini]

If I only used them for KoW, sure they could be glued together I suppose. But I don't use them exclusively for that, they get used for D&D and Pathfinder, so they would be unusable.

[pinkymadigan]

If I only used them for KoW, sure they could be glued together I suppose. But I don't use them exclusively for that, they get used for D&D and Pathfinder, so they would be unusable.

 

I feel ya on that. I love the way some of the unit basing looks that some people are doing for KoW, but yeah, I want them separate for other uses.

 

I've been making my own with bass wood and wood glue. Pretty simple stuff. I cut the floor out, glue some bass wood rods around the edges, sand everything, then thin some PVA glue and smear it over everything to give a smoother, more plastic-like surface, then paint and add sand and foliage.

 

The KoW 2 kickstarter has some you can buy ready made, I got at least one of every size just 'cause I'm a bit lazy and wanted to speed up the process.

[Chaoswolf]

That's actually not a bad idea. I'd use the 'official' ones as templates to ensure the ones that I made were the right size.

[ManvsMini]

 

If I only used them for KoW, sure they could be glued together I suppose. But I don't use them exclusively for that, they get used for D&D and Pathfinder, so they would be unusable.

 

I feel ya on that. I love the way some of the unit basing looks that some people are doing for KoW, but yeah, I want them separate for other uses.

 

I've been making my own with bass wood and wood glue. Pretty simple stuff. I cut the floor out, glue some bass wood rods around the edges, sand everything, then thin some PVA glue and smear it over everything to give a smoother, more plastic-like surface, then paint and add sand and foliage.

 

The KoW 2 kickstarter has some you can buy ready made, I got at least one of every size just 'cause I'm a bit lazy and wanted to speed up the process.

 

I was unable to do the KoW 2 kickstarter, seems I missed out on a major part of it. Oh well, I may just have to make my own out of styrene to get exactly what I want. I'm just sooooo lazy though...

[McSmash Smash]

Another thought would be to buy magnet sheets which can be found at most office supply stores.  They come in 8.5 x 11 sheets and are quite thin because they are meant to be run through a printer to make your own decorative magnets.  You could cut the magnet sheet to the correct size and glue it onto some sytrene for some rigidity and then attach rare earth magnets to the bases of your models.  This way you have movement trays with no perimeter ridge.  So no arguments with your opponent about measuring distances, base to base contact, and such.  Plus, I think the magnet sheets you can get a 5 pack for $10 and as far as rare earth magnets, I just bought a pack of 100 off ebay for $6.  So they would be pretty cheap to make.   

[ManvsMini]

Yup, was planning on magnetizing them anyways. Can't really use rare earth magnets on the KoW bases, they are flat/flush to the table on the bottom, no recess to place the magnet. I just use the fridge magnet sheets on the base, and sheet metal on the movement tray.

[Eilif]

The warhammer movement tray kit is actually a pretty neat modular product that you can use to make any of the various sized bases you might need for KoW.  Most of the KoW base sizes, unit sizes and Tray sizes are copied strait from WHFB anyway, a legacy (or perhaps a continuation…) of when Mantic was mostly selling their product as WHFB proxies.

 

For my human KoW army I picked up a batch of standard plastic movement trays from what I think was Renedra.  They work for most of my units, but I'm going to hack a few apart to make the more unusual sizes.