The first thing I would like to do with this update is to thank each and everyone of you that pre-ordered the Hangar Trays is past summer. I know the delay has been very long and your patience is truly appreciated!
I'm still amazed at how hard it can be to find a company that is wants and is willing to product products. I can only imagine how things must be for companies like Ares. They have at least a small staff to try and keep projects on track, and they still have lengthy delays. As a one man shop, it's even harder for me. That being said, I've not wasted the time that has gone by.
First, to help regulate any delays in the future, I have purchased my own laser. I don't know how much any of you know about lasers, but it is a big investment in the 10s of thousands of dollars. Having my own laser will insure that I can produce the Hangar Trays in house if the production company should have issues. Having my own laser will also allow me to offer the custom Hangar Trays again. These custom trays will give you the option of picking which types of planes you want to go in them. You will no longer be stuck with the layouts that I normally stock.
Secondly, with the long delay many of you have had, I wanted to give you guys something better than my old style trays. To that end, I've spent a lot of time searching for and researching different foam types to use. I've narrowed it down to two main types of foams. These foams are not being used by any of the other miniatures storage companies. These are a higher quality and denser types of foam and will allow for some very unique and useful options to the trays.
The old style foam (and the foam used by "the other guys") looks like this:
As you can see, with just a little pressure you can easily compress the foam. This type of foam gives good protection to your minis from bouncing around in the cutouts, but offers little protection to the top layers of minis if something, or someone, should fall on top of them.
One of the new types of foam I'm testing is shown below. As you will see in this photo, the same pressure applied to it hardly makes a dent in the foam at all.
This is the same type of foam, only denser than the one above.
This new type of foam has a much smaller "bubble structure" and gives it great strength. These new style trays should not bend with you load them full of planes and pick them up from one end. It also has a much smoother surface, so some of the pointy bits of your minis will be a lot less likely to get stuck in the foam. The other type (see the next 4 photos below) I'm testing has a larger bubble structure, but is chemically completely different. It has a very nice looking textured surface and will offer great protection in every direction. With both of these new foam types, I'll be able to offer some visual combinations...
Entente and Allied trays:
Central Powers and Axis trays:
Having different colors for the base layer will allow us to quickly identify which side's planes are in which trays. Just open up your bag and you can instantly see which trays hold your German planes for example.
The base layer is also of a even more dense foam, again adding to the protection and durability of the trays.
One final option I'm looking into is the plastic base layer:
As you can see, this plastic can be laser engraved to add labels to the trays. The big advantage though, besides even greater protection, is how thin the base layer can be. On the old and new all foam trays, the base layer needs to be .25 inches thick. The plastic base layer only has to be .125 inches thick. That means for every 8 of the old style trays, you could actually fit 9 of the plastic/foam style trays. More trays in the same bag is always better. I still have to find out what colors the plastic comes in and what the price is going to be.
With any of the new foam types I"m looking at, there is another benefit that I'm excited to tell you guys about. And that is that not only can the cavities be cut out with the laser. but I can actually engrave on them too!
That photo does not really do it justice, but the word Plane is engraved right into the foam. It is a very clean engraving and would allow me the option to engrave the name of the plane next to each cavity, or even which types of planes are in that tray. With that last option, you could open your bag and the sides of the trays would tell you which planes were in each one! I can only do this on the long side of the trays as the laser I'm getting is not deep enough to engrave on the short end of the trays (they are 13 inches long that way).
That's a lot of information, so what does it really mean for the Hangar Trays and your pre-order? In short it means that the trays will most likely go up a little in price to offset the higher quality and that there is still going to be some type before they are produced and ready to ship to you. The good news is that everyone that has already placed a pre-order will be getting the nicer trays in place of the old style at no additional charge. It's just my little way of proving that "good things come to those who wait", as the saying goes.
About that waiting... I should have quotes from the production company (I'm on my 4th one since all this started by the way) sometime this coming week. As long as everything checks out, trays will go into production as soon as they have room in their production line for them. Also, my laser will not be delivered until the 30th of this month as well. This means we are realistically looking at January or early February for the trays to start shipping out to you guys.
It has been a long wait and I hope each of you will think it has been worth it. If anyone has any questions or comments, please post them here or feel free to email me directly at colhajj AT wingsofwar.org
Thanks again to everyone!
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