My collection has finally graduated to the point where a Battlefoam has gone from "That seems excessive" to "This is a very practical purchase." The plan is to go straight for the 1520XL with custom foam once Wave 8 hits and they get the shapes posted. I'll probably leave myself a little extra space for ships that I might get later.

Has anyone else done this? How did you handle all of your various tokens, upgrades, templates, pegs, and flight stands? Did you try to plan ahead and leave some extra space for future-proofing? Do you have it set to stack multiples of the same ship body in one slot, or did you use individual slots for each ship?

I went the economy route with a 432 and the basic X-Wing loadout. Overall, I am very pleased, but if I were getting it now, I would do all ships with foam. It is easy enough to plunk a plano box down in the case for tokens and is a much better value than putting them in the foam. The pegs will fit about anywhere and the large bases are hard to fit in anything. I think I only have one spot the large bases will fit, which is not enough by a lot. Having one tray devoted to bases might not be bad, just make sure you account for how many of the large (and huge) bases you need to account for. Also, don't forget about the pilots for the large bases. The YT-1300 is large enough to store one underneath and the Tantive / Transport default tray has some storage there for some, but it is worth accounting for as those are also large and painful to store if you are not putting them in the pockets.

I'd say what you want to look out for is the ever increasing cost to purchase more foam. The more you buy the more you need to purchase. Battlefoam is quite expensive. I've found Plano cases to be the best, affordable option.

I've seen foam used for minis that are hand painted and can tend to break, like metal Warhammer minis. I don't see the point for X-wing minis.

I'd say what you want to look out for is the ever increasing cost to purchase more foam. The more you buy the more you need to purchase. Battlefoam is quite expensive. I've found Plano cases to be the best, affordable option.

I've seen foam used for minis that are hand painted and can tend to break, like metal Warhammer minis. I don't see the point for X-wing minis.

For me, its several things:

1) My FLGS runs fairly regular Epic events, and I want to be able to carry my CR90, GR75, Assault Carrier and Raider in one protected package. I already have the Rebel Epic foam tray to keep that stuff protected, and want to get something similar for the Imperial side.

2) I'm fairly confident the Ghost will not remotely fit in any of the trays in my Plano. The Hound's Tooth barely fit as it was. As I really want to fly the Ghost once it hits, I need to figure out a way to safely transport it.

3) I want to get things back down to one bag. Currently I'm doing a double-bag combo that's rather bulky getting out of the door. I rarely know what I'm going to fly at the local FLGS until I get there. Usually I'll see what faction most people are not flying, and go with that.

I'll still have the Planos to handle some overflow if I need them, but this seems like a good way to simplify things a bit. I'll probably also order through my dad, as he can save 15% with his military discount. That'll save me close to $50 right there.

Look out for drop bears!

Whatever you do, do not rely on Battlefoam's shapes. Some of them are decent (B-wing), and some of them waste a tremendous amount of space (X-wing; a 0.5" x 1.5" slot is much better in 1.5" or 2" foam).

Even in cases where the shape doesn't waste space, look for places where you can stack ships (lots of shapes work for this) or overlap cut-outs (if you have two Decimators, for instance, you can overlap the front ends and save a lot of space; same for YT-2400s).

Decide in advance how you want to store dials: do you want to store them near their associated ships, or do you want a tray dedicated to dials? If I were doing it from the beginning, I would have a tray dedicated to dials, with nothing but 1.5" squares. Pluck foam would work for this and be cheaper. Depending on the thickness of the foam, each squares would hold three to six dials. It's more space efficient to store them on their edges (assuming 2" foam), in long 1.5" wide rectangles, but then they are difficult to read, so what you save in space, you lose in prep/gather time.

Don't forget cut-outs for templates and range rulers, pilot cards, ship tokens, ship bases, ship pegs, and upgrade cards. Token cut-outs will depend on how you like to keep them organized. Finally, don't forget a few large and medium cut-out for things like bombs, obstacles, and mission tokens. Extra cut-outs can also serve as ad hoc storage for when you've got a few ships too many, but not enough to get a new custom tray yet.

Finally, a core set box custom tray makes a great tournament tray. I taped all corners and edges of my original core set box (including on the inside corners and edges!), making it extremely durable, and I use it when I only want to transport one or two squadrons.

I originally went with Battlefoam custom. In terms of quality it is really good stuff. But since then my collection has grown significantly (Xwing, Armada, Imperial Assault) so I switched it up to a pluck foam solution and am much happier with it:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/catalog/product/view/id/40543/s/gps1001/

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/catalog/product/view/id/44131/s/gps1022/

I have 2 of the above bags, with enough foam to fill both. They will not fit the Raider or Corvette though. Both products are excellent.

From experience, here are some things to take into account before making a purchase:

1) Custom foam is permanent so you better be 100% sure of the layout. Future proofing is a very good idea. One of my mistakes when I originally got Battlefoam.

2) Foam Height is also a big deal. This needs to be taken into account in advance when ordering custom foam. You need to decide if you want to stack similar models in one opening. I personally preferred to not stack. With pluck foam I just choose the tray with the perfect height for the model I'm trying to store. I don't need to guess.

3) It will be harder to custom design storage for dials/cards/bases/tokens/templates etc. ahead of time. I personally keep that stuff separate in one of the pouches of the bag.

4) Custom foam is more expensive. Battlefoam also charges you shipping, whereas MM won't if you spend over $100...very easy to do when a new wave comes out and you need some foam...

Basically with custom foam you need to make all the decisions NOW...which is hard to do if you don't have any experience with it. With pluck foam you can make the decisions as you go and its not such a big deal if you make a mistake.

the scum tray from battle foam is really good already for holding all the scum models and I got that one.holds my entire scum stuff

I use Plano for all the cardboard components: bases, dials, tokens, etc, and have a 3-ring binder with UltraPro sleeves for the cards. I have two Battlefoam PACK 720's for permanent storage for ships. However I don't use their foam -- that would become insanely expensive -- I make my own. I use a tabletop hot wire foam cutter essentially using this process:

http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/topic/963-how-to-make-professional-looking-foam-for-your-minis/

This requires that you buy a hot wire cutter and a lot of foam up front. The upshot is that you can get a lot of it at discount, and hang onto it for future use. The battlefoam shapes aren't always very good either, so I end up tweaking them and making my own 12.5" x 15" templates with truly custom shapes and arrangements in MS Visio.

I actually use the same firm charcoal foam for both the cutouts and the base, and I find that it is still firm enough that I don't need something stiffer as a base. I use a 1/2" thick base for storing the Raider and CR-90 in foam (they're heavy), and 1/4" for everything else. [edit]: with the "soft" charcoal firm foam as a base, the tray will bend a little under its own weight with some minis in it, but this doesn't matter while it is sitting in a PACK and can't move.

I also won a PACK 432 last year at Mr. Nice Guy Games Regional, so I use that for carrying my squad around to game night and tournaments. The top foam tray, which I custom made, contains everything I need for my squad for tournaments, so I don't need to go digging through the entire pack. It's about as good as a standalone tray for me. I also have custom cutouts in other foam trays to hold mini card holders in my PACK 432 to hold the ship and upgrade cards.

I originally went with Battlefoam custom. In terms of quality it is really good stuff. But since then my collection has grown significantly (Xwing, Armada, Imperial Assault) so I switched it up to a pluck foam solution and am much happier with it:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/catalog/product/view/id/40543/s/gps1001/

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/catalog/product/view/id/44131/s/gps1022/

I have 2 of the above bags, with enough foam to fill both. They will not fit the Raider or Corvette though. Both products are excellent.

From experience, here are some things to take into account before making a purchase:

1) Custom foam is permanent so you better be 100% sure of the layout. Future proofing is a very good idea. One of my mistakes when I originally got Battlefoam.

2) Foam Height is also a big deal. This needs to be taken into account in advance when ordering custom foam. You need to decide if you want to stack similar models in one opening. I personally preferred to not stack. With pluck foam I just choose the tray with the perfect height for the model I'm trying to store. I don't need to guess.

3) It will be harder to custom design storage for dials/cards/bases/tokens/templates etc. ahead of time. I personally keep that stuff separate in one of the pouches of the bag.

4) Custom foam is more expensive. Battlefoam also charges you shipping, whereas MM won't if you spend over $100...very easy to do when a new wave comes out and you need some foam...

Basically with custom foam you need to make all the decisions NOW...which is hard to do if you don't have any experience with it. With pluck foam you can make the decisions as you go and its not such a big deal if you make a mistake.

Thanks. This fits with my current line of thinking. I'm trying to think ahead of where I can see my collection continuing to expand in the future. I feel pretty good on T-65 X-Wings, Y-Wings, HWKs, Firesprays, Falcons, Outriders, Decimators, Hounds Tooth, Phantoms and TIE Advanced, and don't anticipate getting any more of those. Same carries over to the Ghost and Punishing One, where I'll probably get one and be done with it. So any trays that have more or less slots for those than what I have just feel like a waste.

Everything else, I could see myself still getting one or more of them to flesh out my squads, so making the decision now of how much space I'd need is tough because of the cash involved.

Switching this out to a Pluck Foam plan may be more practical overall.

MajorJugglers's self made stuff looks good. It's the only way I'd ever consider foam. I just can't justify spending $300+ on something to hold my miniatures. 3 years of once or even twice weekly transport of my stuff in plano boxes and I've yet to see any damage to anything.

I'll agree with what many have said. Plano is a good way to go. I use Battle Foam 432 though.

One Battle Foam 432 has every ship I have and I have at least 1+ of everything including Epic ships. Wave 8 may be an issue though.

Watch out for:

• X-Wing pre cut outs - They are a little tight on the weapons.
• Double check your depth for the ships you want.
• If you really want to be efficient don't use they pre-cut trays at all. Use the Custom Tray designer. You can store far more than their way of doing it. TIE Bomber for example can stand on their end and take up 1/2 the room.
• A lot of the Rebel ships will double stack Y-Wings (actually you can triple stack those); E-Wings; most Scum (Not Star Vipers)

MajorJugglers's self made stuff looks good. It's the only way I'd ever consider foam. I just can't justify spending $300+ on something to hold my miniatures. 3 years of once or even twice weekly transport of my stuff in plano boxes and I've yet to see any damage to anything.

Disclosure, the pictures in the link aren't mine at all, I just used his process. I tweaked it by not using a hard base, and first making my own cutouts in MS Visio. It's super easy to move ships around in Visio to see how they will look. Measure twice, cut once. It still takes quite a bit of time to cut everything out though. And I did still end up spending a little under $200 on foam, the hot wire cutter, poster board, and glue. But it was still WAAAAY cheaper than doing battlefoam. I have only used around 60% of the foam that I bought. I'll probably fill up another 720 just with ships before I need to buy more foam.

My issue is, I just can't see how anyone could spend more money on a carrying case then they do on two full waves of X-Wing.

With my 40k army that I painted it made more sense, I spent time painting and modeling those... but even then I spent some time putting foam into a plano case and got what was honestly as good of a system for about 1/10th the price.

I mean if I find I have a X-wing that's a big bannged up and I can't just touch it up with a bit of paint... I can for $15 go buy a brand new one. If I have to replace 3-5 models over the course of 5 years, that's a far better use of my money than 300+ for foam.

If you are ordering custom foam, it takes quite a long time to get it. 8 weeks is not unheard of.

That said, their bags are top notch. I recently went this route. I started with a Pack 720 with a Pack Plus zipped to the bottom. The Plus is where the Epic stuff and any other less often used overflow is stored.

Yes, Plano cases are much less expensive but it would take three of those to carry what I need and still might have issues carrying some of the odd ball stuff.

I moved to Battlefoam because it's easier to carry everything out to the car and back in one trip than the three or four trips it was taking me prior to that. The extra expense of their products is usually worth it. But as I stated, give yourself LOTS of time for order fulfillment if you decide to get custom trays. I went that route and because I had a few pluckfoam trays in a much smaller, off brand bag, I too used 1.5 x 0.5 rectangles for xwings among a few other other more efficient methods to store some ships.

Yes, Plano cases are much less expensive but it would take three of those to carry what I need and still might have issues carrying some of the odd ball stuff.

I got a duffle bag at a thrift shop for $2 and I can fit 10 plano cases in it, plus both my 3 ring binders, and room for big ships and a box for asteroid and mine tokens.

My issue is, I just can't see how anyone could spend more money on a carrying case then they do on two full waves of X-Wing.

I agree, buying the foam from battefoam gets crazy expensive and is not future proof. In my case I was also trying to get a space-efficient permanent storage solution, and Battlefoam with my own custom foam works very well. I have a LOT of ships (through wave 7, something like 134 small ships, 17 large base ships, and 6 epics), so spending $200 on supplies + another $200 on two empty PACK 720s (ok, actually those were Christmas gifts ) was not unreasonable in context.

I totally understand, VanorDM. I'm not saying your storage and carry solution is wrong. But it's not for me.

I also referee soccer games. When I started out, I took all my referee gear to matches/tournaments in a generic sports bag that cost me all of $10 brand new. But as I progressed up the referee ladder I had the opportunity to see how other referees who'd been doing it a while carried their gear. Bags with specific pouches for muddy, smelling, wet shoes and various other pockets and pouches for ball air gauges and gloves/hand warmers and whistles and AR flags and all the various odds and ends.

It does not make me a better referee because I have a specific referee bag. But the bag I bought next was made with referees in mind. And there are conveniences with regard to carrying referee equipment.

I could use a standard watch with a countdown timer on it, or I could get a specific referee watch that has a count down, count up, and injury time tracker on it and all presented on the face at the same time (and it vibrates on my wrist instead of audible beeps so a coach is not questioning me or the referee crew about time expiring).

We all have choices in how we store and carry our Xwing minis. There is no right or wrong solution. The right solution is the one that works for the specific person in question.

I have a LOT of ships (through wave 7, something like 134 small ships, 17 large base ships, and 6 epics)

Not quite as big of a collection here. 83 small, 5 large and 4 epic. It also depends on how often and far you travel. Myself I drive to a friends house or the LGS. If I flew anywhere I'd consider something a bit more protective.

But I also have issues spending money on extra stuff in general. I love my acrylic templates, but even buying a range 1&2 ruler seems like a waste. A official mat is to me a huge waste of money as well since I built a 4x6 table and have it covered with black cloth. But that's me and I don't expect everyone else to feel the same way.

But on the other hand I didn't have any issue dropping $50 on a bag for discgolf...

I totally understand, VanorDM. I'm not saying your storage and carry solution is wrong. But it's not for me.

Yeah not saying anyone else is wrong, just saying it's not how I'd do things

There was a recent thread about this where I added my thoughts:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/197503-help-building-a-battlefoam-pack-720-custom-load-out/

I currently use a 432 bag with custom foam. You can triple stack Y-Wings and A-Wings. Double stack some other ships. Use custom slots wherever possible and stand the ships up so they are facing you instead of lying down. This will save you so much space. Drop me a PM if you want to ask any specific questions as I will likely lose track of this thread.

My trays:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/velvet_presley/MsgBoards/X-Wing/Tray%201%20-%20Large%20Rebels_zpsgy8sld6y.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/velvet_presley/MsgBoards/X-Wing/Tray%202%20-%20Large%20Imperials_zps2wxbaoqo.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/velvet_presley/MsgBoards/X-Wing/Tray%203%20-%20Small%20Rebels_zps4mrvlozm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/velvet_presley/MsgBoards/X-Wing/Tray%204%20-%20Small%20Imperials_zpsyny06z8h.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/velvet_presley/MsgBoards/X-Wing/Tray%205%20-%20Ship%20Tokens_zpsrbqatbnq.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/velvet_presley/MsgBoards/X-Wing/Tray%206%20-%20Rules_zpsuxxioyhk.jpg

I also ordered one (I think it was a Flames of War pre-made tray) that just has lots of small square holes that I use to store the tombstone numbers and target locks.

Edit: to throw my opinion in regarding cost etc. My collection is mostly 2 of each small ship release and 1 of each large ship release for Rebels and Imperials. No Scum and no Epics. Even so, so the amount I've spent is significant, so an extra £100 on a bag didn't really seem like a big investment. I don't actually want any additional ships, I have them all already, so it isn't taking away £100 of ships from me. I also can easily afford it, which is a nice place to be. Yes it will cost me some to re-make the trays once I reach capacity (which will be the Ghost!) but it is likely I'll only need to remake one tray at that point, so it isn't too bad. I totally understand why someone with a larger collection would prefer a more cost-effective route since their collection will increase in size dramatically each wave, whereas mine is only going up by 2 ships per wave.

Well they are definitely expensive but nice too. They are not future proof and I do have a few trays that I no longer need. But for me it's worth it for transport, storage and ease. I'm considering getting a couple of trays for my armada ships.

Like a lot of what others said, I don't feel like its worth it. I say this having purchased 4-5 X-Wing BF trays. Why? In 6 months you have to buy more to accommodate more releases.

Now I just have a nice set of shelves to keep all my minis on, and when I travel I just throw everything I need in a Core set box. I taped some clear plastic over the window so nothing falls out.

I totally understand, VanorDM. I'm not saying your storage and carry solution is wrong. But it's not for me.

Yeah not saying anyone else is wrong, just saying it's not how I'd do things

Exactly. There is no need for any acrylic tokens or templates. No need for laser "levelers" or playmats. We could all just store all of our minis in the boxes & plastic molds that FFG displays them in. But most of us find better methods for storage that suits our own needs and wants.

Just the same, we COULD just take the bus to our local game store each week. It would certainly be cheaper. But many of us drive a car out of convenience. We could just buy the cheapest 1972 Volkswagen Beetle we can find on Craigslist. It would certainly be an economic solution. But some enjoy a few extras in their vehicle of choice.

All of that said, the worst decision anyone could make in storing/carrying their Xwing minis collection is an uninformed one. Look at what others have done. When you are at a tournament or your local game store casual night, look at what solutions others have used, copied, or even created on their own. Take a lot in before making a decision and choose what is right for you.

I'll definite look at the various solutions others have used before jumping in on this. I think seeing the Ghost in person, and seeing how people transport it, will probably be the key factor in any decision I make.

I know one other person who has a large collection and uses custom Battlefoam trays (which he also got with a Navy discount), and stores them in some file boxes that he already owned. Unfortunately, those same boxes would run me about $100 to pick up, at which point I may as well buy a BF case.

I got my 432 on ebay for half what BF wanted for a new one. I did get foam precut for X-wing, but not custom. I went in with a buddy to get our order into the free shipping range. Some of the shapes fit better than others. On the cheap I would go with a foam cutter and cut my own, I am still thinking about it, and use banker boxes for long term storage and use my 432 for travel.