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I've decided I would like to buy the 1520 battle foam Pack system but the description below says it only comes with 2 1inch trays of pluck foam. I'm assuming the 1inch trays are for the troops. Since i play orks I'm not sure if that will be enough room for my boyz. Does anyone know how many troops you can place safely in those trays? Also I was wondering what peoples opinions on the trays themselves were, pluck foam vs custom. I'm leaning toward pluck myself so that I can design it to my specifications depending on what I need at the time. Google doesn't seem to be co-operating with me today so i figured I would check with my fellow gamers here on dakka.

A 1" pluck foam tray might hold 50 boyz, if you go with 1" by 1.5" cut outs. The half inch wall between each model greatly reduces the capacity. The laser cut trays are much more efficient for troops because the walls between each slot can be thinner.

so whats more cost effective then. To buy the empty one and buy the lazer cut trays individually or just buy the full custom 1520xl?

I didn't go with 1" trays for my orks, but I guess a lot of models would actually fit okay in it (I ended up getting 1.5" trays for the extra peace of mind).

When I ordered from Battlefoam, I needed a lot of custom foam and I ended up building a spreadsheet of options to see which ones worked out the cheapest. Because the custom foam is a fixed price no matter how thick you get it, it makes sense to buy thick pieces individually, while thinner custom/pre-cut trays should be used to fill up the bag. A 1520 packs a lot of foam, but I'd try and avoid layers thicker than 2" or so in order to maximize the value.

I am generally of the opinion that pluck foam should be avoided if at all possible. Battlefoam is pretty good about designing trays for a given army, but if you don't like the layout of a tray, the company makes trays for so many armies that you can easily look around to try and find a tray that meets your needs.

If you are nervous about not getting the right tray, you could always contact the company and discuss it with them, or even take your army to an event where battlefoam has a vendor table and test fit your models. You may also be able to locate folks in your area with battlefoam products and see if they are willing to let you test fit models into their trays.

I've never done the custom cut foam because the standard trays have always suited my needs perfectly fine. The only problem I ever had was with the Heavy Gear Blitz! Large Gear tray, but that was because I had put my gears on larger bases. They still fit into the tray, although the 40mm bases peek out over the top of the foam a bit. Nevertheless, the tray goes into my bag just fine and I haven't had any problems.

I suppose what you might be able to do is put your models on a sheet of paper, draw a box around them that you are comfortable with, measure it, and then either look for trays with similarly sized cells or create a custom foam tray.

wowsmash wrote:so whats more cost effective then. To buy the empty one and buy the lazer cut trays individually or just buy the full custom 1520xl?

I think you usually can get several trays as part of the 'Custom Loadout' offers. Probably the best deal if you do want a lot of custom cut stuff.

I've placed two orders with BF. I did the first one the wrong way (With a 1520) and learned from it.
Don't teach yourself an expensive lesson. Learn from my mistake.

First and foremost, if you have the ability to afford it, do NOT get the pluckfoam. Spend the extra for the laser cut trays. Dollar for dollar, they're BY AND FAR your best and most economical option.

Before you make any decisions on what trays are best, you have to KNOW your army. Battle Foam is worth it, IMO, but it's an expensive investment. Take the time to do it right.

First, make a list of what models you have. If you've got 50 Space marines, but 5 are Power Weapon wielding Sgt's, 5 are flamers and 5 are LasCannons, don't call them "50 Space Marines." List each model type separately.
If you can, make a basic spreadsheet. You'll be better off for it.

Are your models on special bases? I use DragonForge resin bases on my DE army. Because of the extra base decorations, my models sit a bit higher than the average DE. If you buy a generic SM tray, it may not take your needs into consideration, and the slots could be a bit too small. In this case, measure the height of your models. be sure they'll fit in the slots.

Once you know what you've got, take a peek at the pre-made trays they have. Do you find any that PERFECTLY match what you need? If the tray hold3 50 SM's, but doesn't have any places for LasCannon marines, then it doesn't. Right?

By all means, select all of the pre-made trays you can. Save yourself time there. Use the Custom Tray Creator on the rest, though. It's slow to use and slightly cumbersome, but the end result is FULLY worth it.

**Note** Custom trays are more expensive than the ones they already have on the site. Put these in your order with your 1520 and save a few bucks per tray, as there's no charge for custom cut foam if you get the custom load out, rather than the pluckfoam.

**Note #2** The Creator will cause any overlapping spaces to turn (IIRC) red. Your initial thought might be to say, "Damn." I can't do that." You'd be wrong.
I custom built special shapes for all of my DE Dark Lance wielding warriors. Why? They're better (IMO) than the ones that BF made. I found that the ones on the BF tray were a bit too small for comfort. As they're dual purpose, and supposed to hold the Sgt's, as well, they just didn't fit right in the BF tray I bought. In the custom "Eric" tray, though, they're AWESOME.
I built these shapes (and many more) by overlapping shapes. It took a PM conversation with Romeo for me to even realize that they'd do this. I just presumed that, if any shapes overlapped, my design would be rejected.

Just like you're making sure your models fit in the shapes on the tray, you also need to make certain your tray is deep enough.
How do you want to store your models? Some prefer lying down, while others will ONLY let them stand upright. What's your choice? Whichever it is, you have to be sure your tray's deep enough. Better safe than sorry. Make sure your models don't sit above, OR EVEN FLUSH WITH the top of the tray. The tray should ALWAYS be deeper. BF makes great trays but, if YOU do things wrong, your models WILL get broken (trust me on this LOL).

Now that you've chosen/created your trays, take some time to figure out how you're going to order them. If you've got enough space in your 1520 for all of the trays you created/chose, then GOOD FOR YOU. If not, though, then you're going to have to pay for some separately. Take the time to look at multiple configurations to figure out which trays will go into the 1520 to maximize your used space, but minimize your cost. You MIGHT find that it's cheaper to pay for one THICK custom tray than 2 or 3 thinner STOCK trays. Of course, if you've got a stock tray and a custom tray that are the same thickness, you'll put the custom tray IN the bag and pay for the stock one.

In the end, you'll have to use your noggin to figure that last part out.
Lastly, don't forget spacers. They have 1/4" thick sheets that they include with your order, if your trays don't exactly fit the case. I cannot recommend these more. You need one for every infantry tray, if you're being safe... one per two trays, otherwise. You can buy extras, if you need them. I also advise that.

I hope you find this helpful. Feel free to reply with any questions, I'll happily oblige.

Eric

I still think the tray I did for my Heavy Gear Caprice forces is nifty:



The Caprice Mounts are a 4-legged piece with a sort of ball-joint to the main hull, Mine are all magnetized, so I can store them in the tray shown above.

I'm considering re-doing this to lose some of the 4-legged Mount spaces and add the 24 or so hexes needed for my Caprician Infantry... Or maybe a custom tray for the infantry and their APCs, then a tray for the other Mounts.

Anyway, I'm posting this because it shows a great use of the laser-cut trays. I don't think I'd be able to fit all this in on pluck foam, due to the minimum-thickness. Plus the BF guys presumably glue the tray walls to the base after cutting, so there's glue where you need it.

Pluck foam is useful if you need a generic tray or two, though.

Spacers are great for protecting your models and taking up any excess space in a bag for a nice, tight fit. However, I don't think that they are entirely necessary to keep an infantry tray safe, unless you are talking about the top tray in a bag. In those cases I always use the spacer.

Sometimes I use a spacer with the "interior" trays and sometimes I don't. I've never had an issue either way. I tend to be a little liberal with my battlefoam trays. I bought my battlefoam bags and trays for my large IG army, but I use the trays for models of all sorts. Some fit very nicely into certain cells, while others are a little loose. Again, I haven't ever had any issues. Sometimes I shoehorn models into cells that aren't designed for them. I use foam spacers when necessary, but if the profile of the model is below the top of the foam and it isn't swimming in the cell (either because the cell is sort of the right size or I've added a home made spacer), then I'll put it in there.

I have found that many, many 28 mm infantry fit into the generic Space Marine Troop tray somewhere, unless the pose is very dynamic.

weeble1000 wrote:Spacers are great for protecting your models and taking up any excess space in a bag for a nice, tight fit. However, I don't think that they are entirely necessary to keep an infantry tray safe, unless you are talking about the top tray in a bag. In those cases I always use the spacer.

Sometimes I use a spacer with the "interior" trays and sometimes I don't. I've never had an issue either way. I tend to be a little liberal with my battlefoam trays. I bought my battlefoam bags and trays for my large IG army, but I use the trays for models of all sorts. Some fit very nicely into certain cells, while others are a little loose. Again, I haven't ever had any issues. Sometimes I shoehorn models into cells that aren't designed for them. I use foam spacers when necessary, but if the profile of the model is below the top of the foam and it isn't swimming in the cell (either because the cell is sort of the right size or I've added a home made spacer), then I'll put it in there.

I have found that many, many 28 mm infantry fit into the generic Space Marine Troop tray somewhere, unless the pose is very dynamic.

Before I had mine, I presumed that same thing. My experience has been the opposite of yours, though.
What army/armies are you referring to?

I have my Dark Eldar in there. The Dark Eldar army is a VERY pointy army. I've had quite a number of breakages happen (I'd say 10+) because of jostling. When you have anything "pokey" in a tray, if the case is jostled too much, it might bounce... bouncing pokey things tend to stick into the soft foam above them. When you slide that tray out, the pokey thing breaks off (at worst) or comes unglued (at best).

So, I've taken to doing two things:
1) I ALWAYS put my infantry on top of everything else.
2) If I have enough spacers and room, I put a spacer on top of all the trays. If not, I put them on the highest trays and, once I get to the trays with no spacers, I LIFT the tray that's above it before sliding it out.

Not a single breakage, since.

As always, of course, YMMV.


Eric

I agree 100% with Eric. I spent about 2 months planning my 1520xl. I basicly did just what Eric did. I took all like models and counted them. Then I measured the volume they took up so I knew the size they needed. I found that for their precut assault marine sizes were not big enough, so most of what I made was full custom cut that I designed. The only problem I have is the Blood Angels tray was not deep enough (I cound have gotten it deeper) and some of my Sang Guard do not fit, and therefor get broken.

I canot stress enough, plan your purchase out ahead of time. Otherwise you will have dead space or trays not deep enough. And the Custom foam is worth the price ofver pluck. Both in better fit and time saved.

Honestly im a little comfused with the whole interior bag design. I've tried playing around with it a bit but i dont really understand how to just select the pre cut trays. I'm runing orks so will the 1"inc troop tray that holds 60 be enough or do i need the 1.5 inch tray. I'm actually trying to figure out how to work the custom load out. All the options are blank and the only thing to click is the browse but but that doesnt help me either. Its very confusing.

wowsmash wrote:Honestly im a little comfused with the whole interior bag design. I've tried playing around with it a bit but i dont really understand how to just select the pre cut trays. I'm runing orks so will the 1"inc troop tray that holds 60 be enough or do i need the 1.5 inch tray. I'm actually trying to figure out how to work the custom load out. All the options are blank and the only thing to click is the browse but but that doesnt help me either. Its very confusing.

With the custom loadout, if you're going with standard trays, I'm pretty sure you just write them in the 'standard tray list' text box.

You're not paying for individual trays, you're paying a set price for a 1520XL and enough foam to fill it, so there's no reason you need drop down menues. They've opted for this method. Find all the trays ou want that fill out the 21.5" interior height (remembering that the trays are 0.25" higher than advertised because of the tray "floor"), and just type them into the "Standard Tray List:" text box. The 'browse' buttons are for adding stenciled custom trays you're created yourself, or created with their custom tray creator.

MagickalMemories wrote:

Before I had mine, I presumed that same thing. My experience has been the opposite of yours, though.
What army/armies are you referring to?

I have my Dark Eldar in there. The Dark Eldar army is a VERY pointy army. I've had quite a number of breakages happen (I'd say 10+) because of jostling. When you have anything "pokey" in a tray, if the case is jostled too much, it might bounce... bouncing pokey things tend to stick into the soft foam above them. When you slide that tray out, the pokey thing breaks off (at worst) or comes unglued (at best).

As always, of course, YMMV.


Eric

Well dark elder is the difference. Dark elder are a difficult infantry type to put in any case because they have very dynamic poses and they are covered in thin, pointy bits.

I primarily use IG models in my trays. Pointy bits can be a problem, such as the bayonets, but I usually pre-shove those bits into the wall of the cell. In any case, I lso always slide ALL of my trays out of the case at once and slide them all in at the same time for the very reason that you mentioned. Te battle foam bags rely on a tight fit in the bag, and I've found that not only does putting in/taking out all trays at the same time make it easier to get them in and out, but it also prevents the catch and break issue that you mentioned.

I also put Mantic undead, Freebooters Fate, heavy gear blitz, Quar, Red Box Games, & Perry Brothers models in my trays in addition to GW orks.

weeble1000 wrote:Well dark elder is the difference. Dark elder are a difficult infantry type to put in any case because they have very dynamic poses and they are covered in thin, pointy bits.

I'm in total agreement. That's why I led off by telling him to know his army. When I started (blindly), I did not consider the pointy aspect. I went forward with a certain about of presumption, combined with a bit of obliviousness. LOL
Another DE space issue I have is that all my skimmers are attached to their bases. This means I need a LOT of height for those models (which is one of the factors in my choosing BF for storage - they were the best prepared to hold my vehicles with the best and, actually, cheapest options).

I have a 100% converted (GW legal) Necron army I'm building up. For now, I'm storing most of it in my spare trays from the original DE purchase. I have NONE of the breakage issues with them - and that's in non-optimal foam. I expect that my non-DE experience with BF will continue in this manner.

As I have my SM, CSM and Ork armies in Sabol pluck foam, I won't be upgrading to BF for them (2 Sabol trays will fit in a BF case side by side with a little extra space, anyway, if I need to carry them in a BF case). I look forward to having my collection of BF trays for my Necrons grow, however.


Eric