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has anyone else had any experiences (Good, bad, or otherwise) with Battlefoam trays for Dystopian Wars? I got a couple made recently and am a bit annoyed.

First off, i got the P.A.C.K. Go, and it is a very nice bag. Lots of useful secondary storage, etc. Might take it to GenCon this year as it's easier to carry a backpack than the smaller Heavy Gear-branded bag.

Two of the trays in it were designated for Dystopian Wars and here is where, unfortunately, I am a bit unsatisfied. There were some issues with the trays themselves... They looked like they had been stacked poorly and were crushed. Not sure if this happened in shipping or production, the box looks fine. However, I used Battlefoam's Tracy Creator and it looks like the pre-made cut-outs for Dystopian Wars minis are either extremely tight or in at least once case just too small.

Most are just extremely tight, as in the edges of the minis are touching both the sides of the cutout. In one case (I believe it's the Illustrious Class Sky Fortress) there's literally no room for the model as assembled by default. The propellers will be hitting the side of the cut-out.

has anyone else had issues like this? I think I would have preferred if the cutouts were maybe 5% larger to better accommodate these. if I re-order them in the future, I'll probably just go for rectangles/squares... Galf of my DWs are in these anyway, as the available shape roster is a bit behind the full range for this game.

(My Dystopian Wars stuff is Brittanian,, with a few 'oddballs' such as the big troop ship.)

I sent an email to Battlefoam about the issues (the crushed trays moreso than the other issues) but have not received a response as of yet.

I own a number of BF trays for my DW stuff (both stock and custom), and I've had good luck. The cutouts are fairly tight, as you say, but I've never had issues with something not fitting. Hopefully BF customer service will be able to help you out.

I emailed them again... The biggest single issue is the Brettonian sky-carrier doesn't fit at all as the cutout isn't sized to include the propellers!

Yeah, that definitely sounds like some sort of manufacturing error.

They did get back to me and mentioned their designers might have somehow 'shrunk' the tray layout, though I'm not sure how that could've happened. I'll wait and see. They should get back to me no later than the 1st of the month.

 Balance wrote:
They did get back to me and mentioned their designers might have somehow 'shrunk' the tray layout, though I'm not sure how that could've happened. I'll wait and see. They should get back to me no later than the 1st of the month.

Having toured their factory and seen their manufacturing set-up, I could see it. Custom and low-volume trays are made using a computer-controlled laser cutter, so it's possible that the operator somehow incorrectly sized the particular cut-out you are having difficulty with. This would be much more likely with a custom tray, which it sounds like yours was.

Apparently the cutout for the Brit air-fortress assumes the propellers are assembled differently. Not sure how I'd do it differently... They go on pegs on the mounts, only real option is rotation, which would make it worse.

Anyway, they're going to re-cut the tray for me. I need to trace my airship and send it to them.

Makes me wonder if you'r the first to have the complaint or if they haven't just been going "good enough" all this time in the hopes no one would notice

My only thought is maybe some people don't attach/magnetize the propellers on the sky fortress, or perhaps they made their cutout off the resin hull without the add-ons and I'm the first to order it.

Thing is though the propellers arnt REALLY that big compared to say the ones on the tenkei for example and not overly prodtruding or oddly angled unlike the CoA stuff, and if your having a tray done i would actually be surprised if your the first one to have stuff attached :/

In all fairness to BF, this is currently pending action on my side.

(They generally do good work... Don't want to exaggerate my concerns.)

Sorry to necro a thread, but BF did 'make good' on the bad cutout for the KoB sky fortress. I will probably order 1-2 more trays in the future and will stick with generic rectangles and similar for future work.

One change I might make if I get a second 1" tray is to use 1" x .5" rectangle 'slots' for Tiny Flyers that can then sit sideways in the the slot, instead of laying normally in a 1" square. I think BF does this on their pre-made DW trays, and it seems less fidgety than trying to pick up minis from the squares.

 Balance wrote:
Sorry to necro a thread, but BF did 'make good' on the bad cutout for the KoB sky fortress. I will probably order 1-2 more trays in the future and will stick with generic rectangles and similar for future work.

One change I might make if I get a second 1" tray is to use 1" x .5" rectangle 'slots' for Tiny Flyers that can then sit sideways in the the slot, instead of laying normally in a 1" square. I think BF does this on their pre-made DW trays, and it seems less fidgety than trying to pick up minis from the squares.

Its what i do with mine, on a pluckfoam tray all thee eotbs medium and small tanks fit into a 1x2 gape, and the planes fit nicely back to back so the planes dont touch at any point but are easy to remove