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I am currently working on my own army transport for my units. I am working on 3 trays at a time, and will be making more later. I have a video of the contruction process. If anyone wants to see it I can post it. Here is 1 foam not touched, one foam cut, and a foam cut and glued. They will all be painted after completion.

Hi,

I would be interested in seeing your process. The trays are looking really good from that pic.

Unfortunately the video is lost. But i can describe the process in detail. I purchased (so far) 3 pieces of foam, and a portion of 1/4" thick foam. I laid out the grid I am going to cut on one side of the foam pieces with a marker, and a ruler. The cutting is done with drywall putty knives, which I sharpened to a reasonable edge. The knife is driven down through the foam into a piece of wood. The lines were spaced out so that the knives are driven down through it in one motion. This is done so that the edges of the holes are straight, and meet a perpendicular edge nice and square. In other words, each cut it merely the length of the knife, and no more (Then end holes are an exception. There was surplus space left at the ends, so I used the room I had, and had to shift the knife a little bit after driving it down once, and drive it down again, to widen the cut). And so on for each hole. I find this to be better than using a regular knife like a scalpel or something because the cuts are straight and crisp. The edge of the knife should be sharpened after maybe 10 or 15 cuts (3 or 4 quick strokes of a file) to keep the knife going through the foam nicely. I can cut row of holes in about 5 min. After all of the holes are cut, I glued the 1/4" foam onto the back of the large foam piece, and let it dry. I am going to paint them all later on.
Hope that was clear enough.

Hey, thanks for that. I was mainly wondering what you used to cut the holes. A knife can be sloppy. I've seen a guy here on dakka use section of sharpened copper pipe. Putty knives, huh. Are you in Toronto by any chance?

By the way, does 1/4" foam backing seem to flimsy to you?

EDIT: double post.

I bought the 1/4 inch foam becaus that was all they had available at the time. I bought some more today, but half inch. The 1/4 inch isn't that bad though. I was satisfied with it. Though I do prefer thicker foam. I am in Woodstock actually.

I am thnking about making a punch at work out of steel or something. You gave me an idea with the copper pipe. I could square off an end, sharpen it, maybe harden it, and cap the other end, to make a single action punch. I was thinking about cookie cutter, but hardy find rectangular cookie cutters, and also they aren't very robust.

Let me know how the punch works If you do make one. Also, there is an excellent foam shop in Toronto. I bought a lot of custom size inserts when I was there on vacation recently. Google foam + Toronto + Danforth.

Here is where I currently stand with the army transport. Construction has been on hold for a week or so, as I have been looking for suitable containers to hold the foam trays. I was looking around in Princess Auto and found these gems. Film reel containers. I cut the foam squares I already made to fit inside the cases, and am planing on gluing fit foam circles on the inside of the cases, and the grid foam glued to the bottom half of the case.

Here is a couple of angles, 5 Open, 1 closed. The one with the yellow is the one that is glued, the others need a thin sheet of foam glued to them. Also, I have paint that is suitable for the foam. The entire inside of the cases will be blue.