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I'm starting to get into the hobby, going to be getting my first unit (Some skeletons) and am curious about what people use as movement trays. I hear some simple cardboard with bits of sprue works well, I'm going to go for something like that (With some shelf liner over the cardboard).
I know GW makes their own, but 17 dollars for a few movement trays seems way to much for me.

I prefer sarissa, but if that's not possible, get. Some balsa wood and make your own.

Plasticard with magnetic surface along with magnetic bases for all models.

http://shogunminiatures.com/
Steel trays from Shogun with magnetic tape on the figure bases. The grip is strong enough that you can transport units on the tray in plastic containers with non-skid kitchen cabinet liner holding the trays in place.

I use a mix between the Standard GW ones, and some from Micro art studios. But I support the suggesttion above for those from Shogun. very handy indeed

 RanTheCid wrote:
http://shogunminiatures.com/
Steel trays from Shogun with magnetic tape on the figure bases. The grip is strong enough that you can transport units on the tray in plastic containers with non-skid kitchen cabinet liner holding the trays in place.

Those look cheap and very very affordable , which is nice when playing Vamp. Counts which require a lot of trays. The only issue is, I have no clue what size bases are used by Warhammer minis.

I've made up a few trays using galvanized steel flashing. The stuff I use is plenty stiff (about 24g, by my estimate) for plastic troops with even the most minimal rim (sections of sprue, thin balsa, etc.), holds magnetized bases with stronger pull than magnetic sheet/paint, and is cheap - $.67 per at Lowes, which is large enough for two 20-man trays with plenty of scrap. I cut them 6mm larger than the troops' footprint: 5mm for the rim + 1mm slop (which I find is plenty) for ease of model placement/removal. Some people do find it a bit fiddly to cut and keep flat, but I don't have much trouble with it.

Regarding base sizes: 20mm square bases are standard for infantry (normal man-sized troops, like skellies/ghouls/zombies), 25mm for slightly larger troops (orcs, WoC - don't know of any VC troops you'd need them for, but I lack any real knowledge here). Cavalry go on 25x50mm, monstrous troops are on 40mm squares, and MCs are on 50mm. GW's site doesn't list base size for models, but there's a base size chart to guide you somewhat more concretely. Unfortunately, it's from 2009. And in French (as a PDF, no less, so no Google translate). Enough to give you the gist of things, though.

I made some painted cardboard ones of varying size about 20 years ago. Still going strong today!

Balsa wood & strip magnets

Cardboard and old sprue.

I make my own from plasticard sheets lined by plasticard tubes and with parts from the Pegasus Hobbies Chemical Plant for the corners.

I really like the metal sheet / magnetic bases trays though. They create an incredibly steady unit where no one tips over and the metal tray gives the whole unit a very low center of mass.

I use movement trays as movement trays. I got them on the cheap when the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker closed down (No offer will be rejected! ALL our stock must sell by close of business!) so I lucked out, there. Although, with things the way they are for GW brick and mortar stores, you might be able to find one that's closing down near you and scoop up some discounted trays.

...It also helps if the manager of the GW store that's closing is seriously mad at GW for shutting down his store (as was the case the the Bunker).

Like Oadie, I use galvanized flashing. However, I don't bother with any rim or edging. I seemed to play a lot of very argumentative people (when I played a lot of WFB), so I wanted my trays to be exactly the same size as the unit (no arguments about distances then).

By putting rare earth magnets on each mini, they hold to the tray very well. I primed the trays so that it wasn't too glaring when I removed a model (no shiny metal showing). I also used some adhesive-backed felt on the bottom of each tray. This helped the tray stay on the table when it was placed on a hill or other irregular surface (and also kept the tray from scratching people's painted terrain). I had to deburr the edges of the trays so that they weren't sharp, but that wasn't a big deal.

This also saved me the time of painting and flocking/basing/decorating the edges of the tray.

The magnets are strong enough to keep the models on the tray, even upside down, and it makes it a cinch to deploy and put away models.

Some folks I know use clear CD covers, with a little modification.

I can't say enough good things about the Shogun miniatures steel movement trays. I prefer plain without flanged edges and run 5x2. This allows me to easily create 10 models deep at a time, and moving hordes is easy by placing two trays side by side.

I bought 20 5x2 trays for my new skaven army an a bunch of calvary sized bases. My total order was like 20'ish bucks.

Well worth it. Bought from him before, and would definitely buy from him again.

I use corrugated cardboard with paddle pop sticks to keep the models on the tray, then i use a modeling putty (cheap modeling putty) to cover up the front of the base (and obscure the whole corrugated cardboard thing)

My dilemma is actually the various sizes of the movement trays. I have a skaven army which I like to vary their unit sizes as well as deployment frontage. After struggling with trays either too small or too big most of the time, i got a little turned off fantasy. Yeah I know it's a silly reason but I find moving hordes of rats with inappropriate trays too much of a hassle to play it often. So I have been on 40k for a while since.

So any suggestions? Short of making 6 of 5x5, 6 of 6x6, 6 of 7x7, 6 of 8x8, 6 of etc etc

 milkboy wrote:
My dilemma is actually the various sizes of the movement trays. I have a skaven army which I like to vary their unit sizes as well as deployment frontage. After struggling with trays either too small or too big most of the time, i got a little turned off fantasy. Yeah I know it's a silly reason but I find moving hordes of rats with inappropriate trays too much of a hassle to play it often. So I have been on 40k for a while since.

So any suggestions? Short of making 6 of 5x5, 6 of 6x6, 6 of 7x7, 6 of 8x8, 6 of etc etc

Just use larger trays. Get a general idea of what the largest squad your going to be fielding is, and use that size. Their arent really all that many drawbacks to trays being too deep, though to much frontage can be a problem.

 milkboy wrote:
My dilemma is actually the various sizes of the movement trays. I have a skaven army which I like to vary their unit sizes as well as deployment frontage. After struggling with trays either too small or too big most of the time, i got a little turned off fantasy. Yeah I know it's a silly reason but I find moving hordes of rats with inappropriate trays too much of a hassle to play it often. So I have been on 40k for a while since.

So any suggestions? Short of making 6 of 5x5, 6 of 6x6, 6 of 7x7, 6 of 8x8, 6 of etc etc

So what you want is a tray that isn't a tray. Well, I think this may be your solution:
http://puppetswar.com/product.php?id_product=231

Hmmm I'm actually gonna consider the puppet wars one. The question would be if I wanna consider rebasing the whole army or just add magnets to the bases and put these under....

This is a really good idea. Thanks!