From painting to converting, you spend a lot of time on your minis. Here’s how to upgrade your hobby game even more on the table!
If you’ve already cut out metal sheets and threw magnetic material on the bottoms of your minis’ bases, you might have a few extra scraps. Here’s a cool trick to help you make use of everything left over.
Here’s a hobby/game aides upgrade idea from EllTee
Creating Your Own Magnetized Movement Trays From Scrap
Store Your Miniatures Smarter For Under $20
Let’s say you’ve already magnetized your model bases and cut out sheet steel to go into all of your containers – what are you going to do with all your scraps?
Here’s a bunch of random movement trays that he picked up over the years from various manufacturers. You might know that keeping the models on there is a bit fiddly. Just magnetize them! This works for MDF trays, 3D printed trays, or even the plastic new GW trays.
Cut Out Magnetic Squares For Your Movement Trays
All you have to do is measure the size of the square that you want your scraps, use your tin snips to cut out a strip that length, then mark and cut each little square.
Glue the Small Squares Down
Now take a dab of superglue and put it in the middle of each square and you’re good to go. If you’re using clear acrylic trays you may want to use the fancy non-fogging glue.
Here are the size squares used for each:
- 5/8” squares for 25mm
- 3/4” squares for 32mm
- 1” squares for 40mm
You don’t have to be super precise – the magnet on the base of your model just has to have metal underneath. After you glue them in you can spray paint them black for a more uniform look, or spray from a different color for squad marks.
Now to go for the true Magnet Maniac version, you also want to magnetize the bottom of the movement trays themselves.
Magnetize your Movement Trays
Take the flexible magnet sheets and use the movement trays to mark the outlines and cut them out with scissors. If you get good with movement tray Tetris you can get a lot of trays cut out of a single sheet. Peel off the backing and stick it to the movement tray bottom. I added some superglue to the sticky magnet just because.
The results – A well-organized tray for storage and gaming. Store your squads together and you’ll never have to hunt for the sergeant and the intercessor with the grenade launcher.
Not only does this cut out the need for space-consuming foam, but your squads will stay together with their battle-brothers until you need them again! This can all be done in just a little bit of hobby time with the right tools, and your models will thank you (and maybe even play better).
What do you think about this hobby project? Have you magnetized your movement trays before? Do you prefer to use storage foam?
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Store Your Miniatures Smarter For Under $20
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