Movement trays - making them prettier!

Movement trays in 'On Bloody Ground' are an essential part of the core rules mechanics. They provide a constant point of reference for the area taken up by each unit, which then allows us to measure both to and from units as they are moved, charge, or make a shooting attack.

Many rules systems either don't remove casualties at all as they are inflicted, or only when a whole 'stand' is removed. We like to show the gradual depletion of each unit as wounds are inflicted, or casualties are suffered for whatever reason. This will obviously mean that a movement tray, which should start the game full to bursting with troops ready for battle, will often empty the rear ranks as troops fall to enemy attacks, or the less keen amongst them slope off as battle rages.

Whilst removing troops as casualties is a great way to show the state both yours and your opponents units are in during the heat of battle, an empty movement tray can sometimes be less than attractive on a great looking battlefield, full of beautifully painted toy soldiers and terrain, so we thought we'd offer up a quick and simple solution.

In this example, we decided to use five movement trays for the Caesarean Roman army that Dan has just finished painting, and that will very soon appear in our new rulebook for the 'On Bloody Ground' series.

What you'll need:

Javis flocked paper, PVA glue, movement trays (we use warbases.co.uk), spray and pot paints, scissors, a ruler (preferably the metal type) a brush or two to apply glue and paints and a Craft Knife.

Nearly forgot, one scribbling stick!

First, mark out the sizes of the movement trays you're working on.

Then, cut them all out. They may need some trimming later on, but that's easy!

Now, measure the size of the rim on your movement trays...

...and draw this onto the back of the flocked paper you've pre cut.

With a sharp knife, and preferably, a steel ruler, cut the outer rim out.

Once you're finished, you should end up with something like this.

Next, try the tray insert for size. I usually find this will need a little bit of a trim, which can easily be done, either with the craft knife, or a pair of scissors.

Voila!

Once you're happy with the fit of the main insert, apply a generous layer of PVA glue to the movement tray, be careful to make sure that the glue goes right up to the edge of the trim. It's not a problem if you get glue on the trim itself, but it is really important to make sure the glue covers right up to it, or the paper may lift when drying.

Lay the flocked paper onto the glued tray and gently dab with tissue, just to make sure the paper has made full contact with the tray.

And, you should have this as a result!

Now, you can put a generous layer of PVA glue all along the top of the rim, making sure to get full coverage to the edges.

And here we have the fully textured movement tray. I like to leave each tray to dry for 10 minutes, then if necessary, I trim off any excess paper with scissors.

So, here we have the five movement trays so far. Now, these could easily be left just as they are, but I think this will depend on your table top and the bases of the miniatures that are going on to the trays.

This next part is the really fun bit! This is where each tray will develop as part of an armies overall look and feel.

I gave these trays an initial light coat of Ultra Matt Brown spray.

Which made them look like this...

...then, I gave them a light spray of a mid tone green...

...which made them look like this! And now they really are looking rather nice. The texture of the flocked paper, combined with the added colour really has given them a lot more depth, but why stop there?

I usually use Tajima1 Miniatures | Home tufts, as they are excellent. Unfortunately, I've run out and they're currently on holiday, so I bought some from GamersGrass, and they're excellent too! There are tons of companies producing a huge range of tufts out there, so choice won't be a problem.

I try not to over do the tufts on my movement trays, as they can sometimes look a bit out of place, plus, I do like to use plenty on the miniatures bases themselves, so it all blends in pretty well.

The last stage is for me, the most fun of all, and that's dry brushing the flocked paper so that it matches your miniatures bases as closely as possible. I put the tufts on before this stage, as it lets me add colour around and over the tufts, to make things blend in even more. The end results can be really, really pleasing to the eye.

And here they all are! from start to finish, including photography time and tea breaks, this little batch took me just under two hours. Not bad at all when you consider the countless hours of extra pleasure they'll give me when gaming and taking casualties from my units (which I do a lot!).

To give you an idea of the reason why this little bit of extra work can make so much difference, here's how I will see one of my units, after they've taken some inevitable casualties of war!

And finally, here's the army in all its glory, ready for war!