Carrying Tray

So I've seen a few people at the gaming store carrying around their army from table to table with a tray that has holes cut out in it for the various base sizes.  I decided that I could make such a project work and started in on one.

My first attempt was using MDF.  Not a bad choice but I always forget how much dust is created when you drill or saw it.  I also wasn't sure how close I could put the holes to each other.  So I measured a bit lean and ended up drilling out the pieces between holes.

So I went back to the drawing board.  Decided to use a bit tougher material and remeasure the holes to drill.  I went with 1/4" sanded pine, which came in 2'x4' sheets.  Since the holes for the bases I was going to be cutting were measured in Millimeters I decided to cut my board into 30mmx30mm boards, which gave me 8 total.  I split these into 2 piles of 4 boards.  My thinking was that if I made a large base hole in the top level, then a medium base in the next one down and a small base in the next one, I would have one more board for a base to cover all the bottom.

My next step was drilling the holes in the boards.  I had recently acquired a drill press, now I just needed some bits to drill the holes I needed.  I borrowed some wood hole drill bits from a friend and tried those.  The large and medium bits were alright at drilling, but the small bit would just heat up and burn the wood.  After some investigating I decided to get a set of Forstner bits.  I found one that had all three sizes I needed and proceeded to work.

After drilling through all the holes for the project I got really good at making them without ripping out the backside of the board.  Which I tended to do quite a bit of when I first started.

Once I had drilled out all of the holes it was time to line up all my boards and put in the bolts to hold everything together.  This along with the bolt holes for the handles finished up all the drilling I would need.

Now to finish any sanding it needs and to paint it up. Any color choices from the internet?