I know there is a lot of questions about storage, but by specific question is has anyone seen a pdf or image file with top down silhouettes of the ships that you can use to cut your own foam storage? all the pre-cut is cut for people buying multiples of each ship. So I figured this will be the most cost effective and scalable solution, but some of the ships are hard to trace, and I don't know anyone with the feldherr/battle foam to make a photocopy from.

I wouldn't think is really necessary. As an example I have my own storage solution that cost a fraction of the price of a precut one. It's future proof and has me good for at least 3 waves.

That being said an Isd has to be placed flat because of is height whereas I have Vsds at an angle to make the most of the space available.

In short a template would be useless for my type of storage as i cut to fit what I buy.

Dont know if it helps but I'm happy with my solution and cutting around the ships is all I needed, just be careful and a little generous with sizing.

I bought a sheet of 2'x6'x3" cushion foam from wal mart for like $15. I traced the outline of my tall tool box (I used this one) on it and cut it into sheets that fit snugly and stacked to fill the whole box. Then I sat my ships on top of the pieces, traced with a sharpie, and cut it out with a razor knife. Took a couple of hours, but I have enough space to foam store my rather large collection and still have space to expand since as of now I still have 1 and half layers unused. I also cut spots to store stands and bases in the foam so everything was local for me.

Cost less than $50 all told and I have a nice portable wheeled container that is big enough to schlepp all my Armada stuff at once.

The "cut to fit what I buy" is what I am going for, and I can see the benefit of having some ships diagonal or on side; but how do you get the right shape for something like the Mark II?

I cut my own foam for storage. I just lay the ship down in the orientation I want to store it, trace around it loosely with a sharpie, then X-acto around the sharpied profile. I cut pretty conservatively, then test-fit/expand/test-fit/expand/test-fit until I'm happy with the fit.

That said, you really only need to do this for the larger-profile ships. Corvettes and flotillas, I cut a ~1"x1" cross for each and stuff them in nose-first. Nebulons get one vertical slit and stuff them in nose-first. MC30's get a rectangle with one line extended to accommodate the tail section, like this:

 /-------------------------\____/------
(                           ----/``````
 \-------------------------/

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|                           |
|___________________________|

Just now, aceckert said:

The "cut to fit what I buy" is what I am going for, and I can see the benefit of having some ships diagonal or on side; but how do you get the right shape for something like the Mark II?

The AF2 is actually a lot easier than I made it the first time I tried it. Cut a slit for the wing and a slit for the tail on one side, make it nice and deep, and it'll hold the whole thing in there pretty nicely.

Just now, Ardaedhel said:

The AF2 is actually a lot easier than I made it the first time I tried it. Cut a slit for the wing and a slit for the tail on one side, make it nice and deep, and it'll hold the whole thing in there pretty nicely.

I call shenanigans on this. You only have MC30's and flotillas in your fleet. Stop fibbing

Side question, is the victory the only one with antennas? because most of the other ships could probably stand being bumped around, but that ship seems to be the most fragile.

I call shenanigans on this. You only have MC30's and flotillas in your fleet. Stop fibbing

This is actually true. My AF2's have been sitting in my office for like six months now.

39 minutes ago, aceckert said:

Side question, is the victory the only one with antennas? because most of the other ships could probably stand being bumped around, but that ship seems to be the most fragile.

Yeah, the biggest reason for doing something like this is if you have painted minis to keep the paint from chipping or wearing (the factory paint doesn't really chip). The VSD antenna is going to break pretty much regardless, and everything else is robust enough you don't really have to worry about it.

Or, if you're super irresponsible like me, having obvious places for everything helps you notice if you forgot something at home or the FLGS.