Movement Tray

My "How to" on the movement trays I'm making for the Wars of the Roses project.

Firstly the raw materials - sheet of 5mm MDF cut to size (mine happens to be the bases of some old draw units we threw out some years back - all good wargamers I suspect see some use from salvage & scrap) and the wooden stirring straws found in many coffee houses*. I'm basing the figures in ranks of six on 20mm square bases so the internal dimension needs to be 120mm by either 80mm or 60mm if four or three ranks. I allow an extra 10mm on each edge for the stirrers - now this sounds excessive when you look at the width of the stirrer but I've found that once the filler is used the extra depth is not that great.

*I've found that the sticks from Cafe Nero or Starbucks are almost 120mm in length, coincidentally the width of the movement trays!

Cut the sticks to length and glue in place with wood glue. I use two layers of sticks which seems to be the right height for the bases on the figures. Leave to dry overnight. A word of caution here - try and make sure that the sticks are as close to the edge as possible and that the top layer does not overhang on the outside, otherwise the figures won't fit and it's a devil of a job squaring up the outer edge with filler later.

Once dry apply the filler to the internal and external edges of the sticks, filling all the gaps and sealing the edges. Apply extra filler at the corners to hide the joints.

Once dry sand the outer edges smooth so that the bases will butt upto one another on the tabletop. Also sand the inner edge so that the figure bases line up neatly. Coat in your preferred earth tone - for me that's Burnt Umber (cheap craftshop version in 250ml pots).

Once dry I highlight with a light stone colour, usually something along the lines of Mid Stone emulsion in those little tester pots from DIY stores.

Next a further drybrush highlight this time with Caramel to give it a warmer feel and I find a little more depth. Usually I just squeeze a little onto the pallet and use the same brush as the stone highlight with no washing in between.

Lastly I flock the base, this time using Summer Meadow mix applied onto a PVA wash.

Once I've painted the figures for the tray I also liberally spray base and figures with a matt varnish which helps to fix the flock in place and stop some of the wear during play.