Hello. I thought I'd share my design for my tray inserts made from foam core board for Imperial Assault.

I used under two full sheets of the cheap foam board purchased from the Dollar Tree for $1.00 each. The foam in between the two black sheets is white. I'm sure the all black foam board would have looked better but I wanted to keep costs to a minimum. Plus, I think the black and white contrast gives it that stormtrooper look.

The design consist of four trays. The bottom tray has two sections. One section is about 3" deep and stores the miniatures. The other section is about 2" deep and stores the terrain tiles. A small tray fits partially into the bottom tray and stores the small sized cards. A large tray fits over these two and stores the large sized cards. Another large tray sits on top and stores the hero cards, dice and tokens. These three trays are about 3/4" deep not accounting for the thickness of the foam board. The entire set fits snugly inside the original game box and all the booklets lay on top of the trays.

I used Elmer's PVA to glue everything together and used push pins to keep it all in place while it dries. In this case I preferred the slower drying time of the PVA as opposed to hot glue. This gave me time to get everything in place an at the right angle. Also, hot glue might have messed up the dimensions as it can add space between the pieces being glued.

I'm not sure how many expansions this design will hold but there is some room for a few more cards and miniatures. All of my cards, including the hero cards, are sleeved and the miniatures are just piled together.

A PDF containing the patterns for building the trays can be found at the following link.

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/113500/foam-board-trays-imperial-assault

Credit given to Jimmy Hudson with Board Game Closet for ideas and inspiration.

Does this system survive the box living on it's side for display purposes?

Does this system survive the box living on it's side for display purposes?

I wouldn't think so as there are no sealable covers for any of the trays. Cards and tokens could possibly slip through the cracks.

Does this system survive the box living on it's side for display purposes?

As designed I would say no, but you could easily solve this issue with 2 different methods.

Method 1 make a cover for each tray out of something like poster board and glue something to the corners so the covers fit snugly to the tray. Think little foam legs on the corners of the tray covers so that once put on top the legs kind of hold the covers to the tray.

Method 2 build a tiny rim around each section of the tray to act as a lip that things will catch on rather than fall out. this would be pretty easy with a square stick of balsa wood. Cut each piece to length glue it in and work your way around the sides of each compartment.

I would think though that if you are going to put the box on its side for display you probably dont want the models in the box if you painted them because they will get extra wear and tear being tipped over like that and jostled around. My suggestion if you really want to show off this would be to make a stadium style display for the models and place the box with all the bits behind it. If the models look great after painting them this would be really cool.

Method 2

Does this system survive the box living on it's side for display purposes?

As designed I would say no, but you could easily solve this issue with 2 different methods.

Method 1 make a cover for each tray out of something like poster board and glue something to the corners so the covers fit snugly to the tray. Think little foam legs on the corners of the tray covers so that once put on top the legs kind of hold the covers to the tray.

Method 2 build a tiny rim around each section of the tray to act as a lip that things will catch on rather than fall out. this would be pretty easy with a square stick of balsa wood. Cut each piece to length glue it in and work your way around the sides of each compartment.

I would think though that if you are going to put the box on its side for display you probably dont want the models in the box if you painted them because they will get extra wear and tear being tipped over like that and jostled around. My suggestion if you really want to show off this would be to make a stadium style display for the models and place the box with all the bits behind it. If the models look great after painting them this would be really cool.

Method 2

Not painting mine. I display all my games in various cabinets prominent art side facing the glass. RIght now the components actually fit fine with baggies and a fishing tackle box for tokens and small cards. But being able to just take trays out for a game and have everything already in an organized place would be nice.

Not sure I could make the design modifications needed to make these sealed. I"m good at following plans, not modifying them.

*edit* @the OP

Actually looking at the design, with the trays sitting on top of each other, the bottom ones should be sealed up. As long as the tolerances for the design are pretty tight. So only the top level would have a worry about scattering.

How much room do you have between the top level and the box lid? With your design that is? I like your design and if just making one extra foam lid that the lid will press into place makes it work, that would be cool.

Do you have the plans you used available digitally? Or did you just do everything on the fly?

Actually looking at the design, with the trays sitting on top of each other, the bottom ones should be sealed up. As long as the tolerances for the design are pretty tight. So only the top level would have a worry about scattering.

There may be slight spaces between each tray due to imprecise measurements, cuts and warping of the foam board. I could imagine cards possibly falling through these spaces. This could be minimized by precision measuring/cutting and higher quality foam board and glue to reduce any warping.

How much room do you have between the top level and the box lid? With your design that is? I like your design and if just making one extra foam lid that the lid will press into place makes it work, that would be cool.

With all the trays in the box, the top tray sits nearly flush with the top. I'd say it's about 1/8" to 1/16" short of being level. With all of the booklets stacked on top of the trays, the lid of the box does not close all the way down as it originally did. It floats about 1/4" to 1/2" higher.

Do you have the plans you used available digitally? Or did you just do everything on the fly?

I began by making the bottom tray on the fly. Then I created 3D models of the other three trays using SketchUp. If you're interested I can complete the model of all four trays for you. You can then use the included tape measure tool to get all the dimensions, or export a report of all the peices and their dimensions. I found it hard, however, to make the real life pieces equivalent to the digital model and had to fudge a lot on the measurements to make pieces fit and sometimes just had to eyeball the placement of other pieces.

Do you have the plans you used available digitally? Or did you just do everything on the fly?

Here is a PDF containing the patterns for building the trays.

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/113500/foam-board-trays-imperial-assault