One of my most recent purchases that is a box-insert-offender is Star Wars: Imperial Assault from Fantasy Flight. Basically, the insert that came with it was meant for the trash can. It did nothing to aid in the storage of all the small tokens, cards, and pieces the game came with. Again, I don’t really blame Fantasy Flight for omitting a fancy box insert. But it is nice to see publishers at least try, which Fantasy Flight did not with this game. But when it is not done properly there is something we intrepid board gamers can do to right it. Enter: foam core box inserts.

REQUIRED TOOLS/MATERIALS:
5mm Foam Core
Self-healing cutting mat
Metal ruler with cork back
Elmer’s Glue All
Retractable Utility Knife
Dressmaker pins
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If you haven’t built a foam core insert before check out our Foam Core Basics post.
Now, on to my experience creating my first foam core insert. It was easier in some ways than I thought and harder in others. Once you get the measuring and cutting down this is easy. You will probably end up needing many of the same size pieces so once you get one done you can use it as a pattern for others. I figured the larger pieces would be harder to do than the small ones but (at least on this attempt) it was the other way around. Smaller, thinner pieces are harder to cut and get glued properly. This may change with more experience working with foam core but expect this in your first attempt.
Here is the final product. It turned out much better than I figured a first attempt would. I hope this encourages you to give foam core inserts a shot if you are interested at all in them.
- Take your time. If this is your first insert plan for it to take a while. Don’t rush it. This one took me several evenings to complete. Probably a total of 4 hours.
- Keep your blade sharp – this is how you get clean edges
- Stand up when making long cuts. It makes it easier to get the right angle on the cut and the enough pressure on the ruler so it doesn’t move.
- Don’t try to cut through the foam core with one deep cut. Use 2 or 3 cuts to make it through. This produces better, straighter edges.
- I prefer notching and connecting pieces if I can instead of cutting shorter pieces and gluing them individually.
- Straight pins aren’t optional for holding the pieces together while the glue dries. They make it so much easier.
CHECK OUT SOME OF THE PUB’S FOAM CORE PLANS
Foam Core: Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
Twilight Imperium is a big game with some interesting storage and set up challenges. This insert addresses them and adds a way for you to save the progress of a game to come back to later.
Foam Core: Anachrony
Anachrony is a beautiful game chock full of components that make setup and tear down a beast. Our box insert can help with that.
Foam Core: Scythe
Scythe is a big beautiful game with tons of components. The question is, how do you fit the base game and expansion all in one box? I’ll show you.
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