Congratulations on your purchase of our insert for Warhammer 40K Conquest: The Card Game!  Our insert is designed to store the base game and expansions.  Construction is easy and only requires about 20 minutes.

HDF

Our inserts are almost always cut using a NAF HDF.  The HDF we use is formed using a special resin that results in a wood product that is impregnated with polyurethane.  This makes the resulting wood heavier than normal HDF, but this HDF contains no added formaldehyde, unlike 99% of the HDF available in the U.S. market.  HDF is constructed from tiny wood bits (essentially sawdust) mixed with a resin, and then heat pressed.  This results in a very uniform wood sheet that is smooth on both sides and contains no knots or patches.  Cutting HDF on the laser is like cutting butter with a warm knife.  It is the ideal material to cut!  However, keep in mind that all wood sheet products of this type do experience some color variation.  This typically manifests as slightly darker splotches a millimeter or two in size here and there on the surface of the wood.  This is normal.

Glue

Everyone has a favorite glue.  Mine is Sobo Craft Glue.  When building our inserts, you want a thick, tacky white glue that sets quickly and dries clear, allowing you to continue building and not hold pieces while waiting for them to bond together.  You don’t have to use Sobo, but you should use a tacky glue if possible.  It will make the experience almost effortless.  Also, we ship our inserts with the small bits of wood still present in the finger joint cutouts and you should use the longer sticks to assist with glue cleanup as you build your insert.

Painter’s Tape (Blue)

While a tacky glue makes construction easy, some blue painter’s tape will really help with the corner joins.  You can just hold the pieces together for 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, but painter’s tape will do the job for you and a roll can purchased for just a few dollars in any home improvement store.  Painter’s tape is ideal because the adhesive used is strong, but not too strong.  Stronger adhesives can damage wood surfaces or leave adhesive behind.

Work Area

A good work area will make your construction project quick and orderly.  You don’t need much space – maybe a 24″x 24″ area.  I like to lay some printer paper down on my work surface and I place an extra piece of paper to the side to act as a glue collection area as I use the glue sticks to clean up my joints.

Sanding

You have the option of sanding the pieces of your new insert.  We cut our inserts using a custom lamella arrangement to reduce laser flashback on the lower surface of the wood, and we use a nose cone that provides low-pressure air assist to reduce the amount of “browning” around the cuts, but some browning and flashback are unavoidable.  If you do choose to sand the pieces, use a 320 grit sandpaper and hand sand the pieces.  A very light sanding will remove any “browning.”

Painting/Finishing

We don’t recommend that you paint or finish your insert as this may interfere with the placement of the dividers.  They are sized to fit snugly in the lanes of your new insert.  The addition of paint will likely make it very hard to place them properly.  Staining will generally work great, but may require that you then sand your pieces a bit.  If you decide to stain, I would recommend you stain both sides of each frame, allow to dry, lightly sand as needed, and then remove the pieces from the frames.  Finishing in polyurethane is very tricky with inserts that have divider slots.  The polyurethane can get into those divider slots and cause problems.

Handle with Care

You should always use care when punching your pieces out of the frames.  This is especially important when punching lane rails that have many slots for dividers.  The HDF is tough, but applying a large amount of force is not recommended.  Use a front and back punching motion to free pieces from the frame.  Our inserts are designed to be punched from the containing frames without the use of a knife to assist.

Dry Fitting

Before you start glueing things, you should layout the pieces and dry fit them so you have a good understanding of how they go together.  This is Golden Rule #1.  This will  help you avoid mistakes such as glueing the wrong side of a piece.  Once you dry fit your insert, you can lay the pieces out in their approximate positions as a reminder of what goes where.  It helps!  When we produce an insert, we produce the entire box from the same sheet of wood to ensure that color and finish match.

The very first thing you should do is grab the base of the insert, remove it from the frame, and ensure it fits in your box.  While the laser is very precise, manufacturers do change box size sometimes.  If you find your base doesn’t fit into your box, let us know by using the contact form.

Constructing the Tray

The Conquest insert provides a three (3) compartment bit tray with an engraved lid to store your tokens and dials.  Let’s build the tray and then set it aside to dry.  You should punch out the tray pieces pictured below.

First, do a quick dry fit to ensure you understand how the tray goes together.

Now let’s get to building.  Place some glue on one of the divider pieces and then place the part

and cleanup excess glue (this part is always assumed once you place a piece.)

Next, place the other inner divider.

Next, place some glue on the notched ends of the inner dividers and the long tray side wall and connect them.

Repeat for the other long tray side wall.

Next, glue and place a short end wall

and repeat for the other short end wall.

Once the tray has had a few minutes for the glue to set, carefully place the engraved lid.

Go ahead and place the engraved lid on the stacked trays and then set them aside to dry.

Remove the Main Insert Pieces from the Frames

Next, punch out the rest of the pieces for the main insert.

Place the Insert Inner Walls

Gather two (2) walls and the insert base.

First, apply glue to the bottom of one of the inner walls

and place the inner wall.

Do the same for the other inner wall.  Once placed, make sure you clean the excess glue from the insert base and inner rails using a glue stick.

Construct the Small Card Storage Area

Next, construct the smaller card storage area using the three (3) pieces below.

Slide the divider into the small splitter piece.  You don’t need to use glue for this connection.  It will allow you to expand the small card storage area at a later time, if you wish.

Next, apply glue to the notched end of the “T” divider

and connect it to the small card wall.  Once joined, apply glue to the bottom of the small card wall and the small splitter piece.  Remember, you shouldn’t apply glue to the divider.

Now place the small card storage part to the insert base.

You can now remove the unglued divider and cleanup the excess glue.

Construct the Outer Walls

Place glue on the rear outer wall and place some glue on the notched ends of the already placed inner walls and small card storage area where the pieces will connect

and then place the rear wall.  Feel free to apply some painter’s tape to stabilize the wall placement.

Next, place the front wall.

Finally, place the side walls.

Placing the Insert

You should let your insert dry overnight and once dry, drop it into the box and fill it up with cards!

If the insert is obviously larger than the box, don’t force it as this will split the corners of the box.  Our inserts are designed to fit snugly into various manufacturer’s boxes, but sometimes a manufacturer may change the box design.  Be mindful of this possibility.

Sometimes, the printed paper that wraps around from the outside of the box and into the inside of the box will provide resistance.  Gentle, but firm pressure applied to each side of the insert, in turn, will slowly slide your new insert into the box.