So I am expanding my collection slowly and tried to keep up with the storage foams for my ships. But since there was a big sale at my local distributor, I find myself in possession of a new faction, not to mention the new LAAT/i gunship. And here is my problem starting. While there are foam trays for old ships like ARC-170, Y-Wings and so on, I fear that the new ships won't get the same treatment any time soon.

I have been looking for alternative foam providers than Feldherr. But sadly nothing really fits. I found this site, where you can plan your own foam and they make it for you and was curious if anyone has tried it? The app is named CreateIt or something and it seems to let you design your foam cutouts with the use of a few simple shapes. Does anyone have any experience with it? Or perhaps knows of an alternative way of making custom foam trays?

Raster foam, contact glue, exacto knife.

Or if you're really patient: foam block and exacto knife.

Or less patient: raster foam and done.

pluck foam for sure

1 hour ago, svelok said:

pluck foam for sure

I went with Battlefoam for the ability to create custom trays. But just ended up using pluck for everything.

Foam for X-Wing? shivers

Get thee a Plano 5231 as the Maker intended! 😝

I really can't recommend battlefoam custom trays for Xwing.

I had a really good experience with them for WH40k and thought it would be ideal. I created 6 trays for my collection with the idea being that as the collection grew I would simply expand the number of trays. Out of the box there were issues with the xwing shapes. They were far too tight and and I was worried that I would damage they guns (which I later did, despite being very careful). I spoke with Battlefoam as soon as I found the issue and they were simply not interested. The short version is "the community didn't like the old xwing shape so we made a tighter one, we don't offer the old shape, there is nothing we can do, you can cut your foam but you void warranty, bye". Needless to say my review never made it onto their sales site...funny that.

Enter........(drumroll)........SirWilliblads! http://sirwillibald.com

Sir Willi produces pdfs for cardboard hangers in a variety of different configurations as well a other things. The PDFs are free. Your only costs are a ream of 200gsm paper, a glue stick, your printing and your time. I use the individual ship boxes (microhangers) and a friend of mine uses the ship+base+plastic boxes(gearboxes).

The protection is surprisingly good as the boxes are tight but square allowing you to pack them and they don't move around. They also take up waayyyy less space in what ever container you decided to put they in. I carry my collection is 5 plastic boxes I got from the reject shop. one each for Empire/Rebels/S&V, one box for Resistance/New Order and one box for Galactic Republic/CIS.

The only downside was that SirWilli stopped making PDFs a while ago but I used the link he gave to a maker site and I spent the time to make my own boxes with the same art work.

Enter.......(drumroll)......FastWalker. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1srCpFP_8qhPpWnbtQ35FiyCAxmWN5QMQ Sadly a little late for me as I had already done my own ships but FastWalkers designs are equally good and are a good match up with SirWillis.

I have seen both these guys on the Forums here and cannot thank them enough for the hard work they have put in.

In my opinion the cardboard is far, far superior storage for a more elegant gaming experience.

Started out with custom battle foam but as my collection grew and assorted ships coming out that I didn't expect Like Most wanted etc my custom system quickly got overwhelmed. Although i did like fiddling around with the custom configurator.Then when they expanded the factions I was totally screwed..lol as I only had 3 Battle foam 720 cases and they are EXPENSIVE...Anyway my temp solution was pluck foam, but then i thought i have all these cool ships that are packed away and i have to rummage through them every time I want to try a different build so my solution now is a Travel box that only holds what i need to play. aka the "skinny box" on Esty it will fit on the table between the mats, holds my templates ships that i need for THAT tournament and is easily moved from table to table. I see folks come in with massive boxes that they have to put under the table or stack in some obscure corner of the LGS and didnt want that. The rest of my collection is going to be unpacked from the 720 cases and put on a display shelf with skinny glass adjustable shelving, that way my ships are ready to be picked for various builds. It also looks cool and is much much much easier to pick out various ships for game play, the aforementioned X-wing battle foam shapes were particularly finicky to remove. Bottom line is that you dont need to bring and or pack your entire collection to go play!

For the pluck foam advocates, any recommendations on what heights of pluck foam to go for?

If it helps, current collection includes a Firespray and a Falcon (Lando's if it matters), along with a range of the small base ships.

50mm/2" is fine for most ships, without bases. 40mm is fine for most small ships. You might want something like 60mm for chunkier stuff like YV-666.

90mm, or two smaller that amount to that on top of eachother lets you fit ships with bases, for ready to play cases.

I’m a long-time miniatures war gamer (WarmaHordes, etc.). So, when I tried out X-Wing, foam trays seemed to be the answer. Turned out it was the wrong answer. One “unit” in X-Wing is not 10 figures that fill half a foam tray and always get used together, like so many other miniatures games. I found it much more practical to just use a tournament tray for transport to the game store. Put it on the passenger seat and don’t drive like a maniac.

For storage, nothing beats card stock boxes as Phoenix4427 said. If you can use a precision draw program, like Photoshop, you can even make your own custom boxes, like I did. I highly recommend the gearbox idea to hold the base, cardboard, pegs, and dial for each ship. Once everything is in a box, you can store it all in anything from a cardboard box to a clear plastic storage bin. Organized, minimal space, nothing breaks, and way cheaper than foam.

For transport I have my trusty Feldherr bag. I was more speaking of storage at home. I like the foam trays, because they give me a feeling of "safety" when I drop the ships into a box.

Idid try the paper microhangars as @Phoenix4427 mentioned and was really happy with them for a while. But just the whole mess of taking ships out and all that was too much for me.

Now I am mostly looking for a tray, that would allow me to carry specific large ships. For now I have a Lambda, Decimator, LAAT and two Falcons that I think require this treatment. Although maybe the ARC-170 could use it as well? I store all the other ships like X-Wings and Ties in generic rectangle slots.

15 hours ago, lvaughn said:

For the pluck foam advocates, any recommendations on what heights of pluck foam to go for?

If it helps, current collection includes a Firespray and a Falcon (Lando's if it matters), along with a range of the small base ships.

I have quite the stack of Games Plus Products foam from Miniature Market. It depends on what you want to do as far as organizing your ships.

You need at least the 2" thick foam for most small base ships like X-wings to be transportable on their bases. ARC-170s on their medium bases will go in the three inch block. You could but I do not think it is worth it to try and transport the large base ships on their bases. You can put two Falcons and their bases tokens and dials in the 1.5" foam if memory serves. You are compromising between how much you want things to remain assembled and together with overall height per the bag you're using (if you're using one their bags.)

You can make trays for obstacles and bomb tokens and dice and maneuver templates out of the 1" block depending on your opinion on stacking that stuff.

The big benefit is that you can organize your stuff to your liking. I made a block for a Firespray a Jumpmaster and a Lancer and their bases. It isn't as cheap probably as the tackle box or plano box route. You also need to make choices for what you're going to take with you since your space is limited.

For going to the shop for me with a lot of stuff already put together I just have to pull the list out of the foam and put the list back in the foam. I labeled the sides of the trays so it is easy to find factions and ships. Ship tokens and dials live with the ships. So if I have all my Republic foam I have all my Republic models, bases, dials, and tokens except for cards (but you can organize the blocks for cards if that is your preferences.)

It works for how I like to do things. But I don't have a budget committee to answer to on this stuff.

On 10/10/2020 at 5:51 PM, CoffeeMinion said:

Foam for X-Wing? shivers

Get thee a Plano 5231 as the Maker intended! 😝

I've been using 3700s and 3750s; your post inspired me to try out the 5231, and I'm all in. Have four now, one for each faction I like. Just the right number/sizes of bins, and still small enough to fit on my gaming shelf. Only model I couldn't fit was my Lancer, but I had to custom cut a 3750 for that anyway, so I'm keeping that container and using it for stands and obstacles and templates as well.

Thanks for the tip! 😎 🍺

On 10/11/2020 at 4:42 AM, Phoenix4427 said:

I really can't recommend battlefoam custom trays for Xwing.

I had a really good experience with them for WH40k and thought it would be ideal. I created 6 trays for my collection with the idea being that as the collection grew I would simply expand the number of trays. Out of the box there were issues with the xwing shapes. They were far too tight and and I was worried that I would damage they guns (which I later did, despite being very careful). I spoke with Battlefoam as soon as I found the issue and they were simply not interested. The short version is "the community didn't like the old xwing shape so we made a tighter one, we don't offer the old shape, there is nothing we can do, you can cut your foam but you void warranty, bye". Needless to say my review never made it onto their sales site...funny that.

I want to offer a counter perspective from someone who has used battlefoam for a long time now for X-Wing and has had a good experience.

I originally started with one of their pre-built trays, but after a few years and my collection expanding greatly I ended up starting to use their custom tray creator to form my own designs that were efficient and purpose built for my needs.

I collect all 7 factions but naturally transporting them all is impossible. So I have two to three trays per faction (scum require three due to the number of large and medium base ships they have) and an 'auxiliary' tray for anything that can be used by any faction. This allows me to simply swap out what faction I am taking with me to a game night by just removing the faction specific trays, and putting the new ones in and then picking up my appropriate card folder.

Album showing my storage solutions

I've never had a customer service problem. I do recall the X-Wing shapes becoming tight to be Z-95 and T-65 cross compatible, but they have recently redone the shape again so it fits both the T70, T65 and Z-95 and it works very well, I've never had a delicate part of a ship break while it's been in one of these trays.

Not to devalue what Phoenix said, just merely to offer an alternative opinion, consider what he has said as well.

The downside is that I have completed my Empire trays, but now the TIE Brute is coming out, new releases will always cause a thorn in your side and for developing factions like CIS, Republic, First Order and Resistance, I've been hesitant to make a tray due to how new releases are always just beyond the corner.

A friend of mine and I recently did a stream discussing X-Wing storage among other things and the key thing is finding a solution that works for you.

What do you need your storage to do? Are you looking to bring an entire faction to a game night to keep options open? Are you looking to just bring a squad for that night? If the former, then Battlefoam is a good shout, if the latter then maybe a more generic tray that can fit a variety of ships or generic shapes so you can swap in and out as needed. It is worth mentioning that their trays are designed to fit their bags, but that shouldn't be an issue if you have a bag that fits similar dimensions of foam.

I do however share Phoenix's shout on SirWilliblads, it's a great cheap solution.

On 10/10/2020 at 9:42 PM, Phoenix4427 said:

Enter.......(drumroll)......FastWalker. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1srCpFP_8qhPpWnbtQ35FiyCAxmWN5QMQ Sadly a little late for me as I had already done my own ships but FastWalkers designs are equally good and are a good match up with SirWillis.

I have seen both these guys on the Forums here and cannot thank them enough for the hard work they have put in.

In my opinion the cardboard is far, far superior storage for a more elegant gaming experience.

Thanks for the compliment.

These MicroHangars and GearBoxes makes organizing and storing pretty simple. You don't need to rummage thru your collection for dials and base tokens. You just grab the boxes you need and go. The only issue is investing time to make the boxes, which i do while watching TV.

I used Plano for years (but the bigger one, not the smaller one everyone uses). It was fine, but I have had broken ships.

I went with Feldherr and been really happy. I found their prices better than the competitors and I like their box in a bag system. The shipping from Germany wasn't bad, either.

I use KR Multicase, but I am sticking 2 of most ships into each slot.

It's been fine so far, and saves having 5 boxes of ships, instead of 2 and a bit.