Renovating the Wargames Room - The new wargames room is complete

[Diablo Jon]

Thanks for the comments  guys

Operation ” Finish up” has started by finishing off these Four snow trolls from the painting shelf of shame. I went for an early easy win with these guys as they where 90% finished and only really needed a few small details painted, basing and sealing to be done. They are Ral-parth trolls, sculpted by Bob Olley, and where meant to be part of my Winter Wytch army see here https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=107692.0



One down quite a few more to go 

[Daeothar]

Looking good though.

Keep it up!

[Diablo Jon]

Looking good though.

Keep it up!

Thanks mate I have finished up another batch of miniatures pictures soon.

[Diablo Jon]

I’m slowly working my through wargames room re-organizing everything in preparation for moving it all out. I’ve run out of magnets, until I order some more online, so I’ve switched to sorting out bases, bits and dice in to storage boxes.

I’m sure I’m not the only one with a mountain of bits (especially if you have collected Games Workshop miniatures for a long time like I have) all those extra heads, arms and weapons that come of plastic kits are great for conversions and I always find them worth keeping. My old system was a large plastic box where I just chucked all my spare bits and sprues which was fine until I wanted to find specific bits which would then become a “needle in a haystack” experience. So I’ve sourced some workshop tray units the sort people use to nails and screws. These ones have quite large trays (and even then I had so many bits for some armies I had to use two trays) and I’ve labelled them up so that, for example all my Dwarf bits are in one tray and all my Beastman bits are in another. I’ve sorted out the first one which contains all my fantasy bits (picture below).

I have two more tray unit one for my sci-fi bits and another for historical bits (one of the nice side effects of historical manufacturers moving into hard plastic kits). These tray units can be joined together so I should end up with one unit of thirty trays when I’m finished.



I’ve also taken the opportunity to box up my bases and movement trays so they are all in place rather than spread out in different boxes all over my painting area. I have one box for round/oval bases and one box for square/rectangle bases.



Lastly I had a draw under my games table full of dice, templates and counters that draw unit is going during the renovations so I’ve used a really useful box with a tray insert to give them all a new home.

[Diablo Jon]

Another batch of miniatures moved off the painting shelf of shame this time the start of a solo  fantasy  dungeon crawl game that never quite took off.



I've posted more closeups on my fantasy thread on the fantasy board if anyone's interested https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=107692.30

[Diablo Jon]

Packing continues. Magnetising a whole wargames collection, in one go, is laborious to say the least. I have the timber for the room renovations arriving next Saturday in the meantime another unit is knocked off the painting shelf of shame this time Ngoni for my Darkest Africa project.

[2010sunburst]

Interesting to see this progress.  If you are in need of more trayed boxes later, Screwfix usually have an offer on Stanley organisers that can work out cheaper than RUBs.

[Diablo Jon]

Interesting to see this progress.  If you are in need of more trayed boxes later, Screwfix usually have an offer on Stanley organisers that can work out cheaper than RUBs.

Cheers I'll have a look. I must admit finding the perfect storage box is becoming a bit of an obsession. I want boxes big enough to hold 28mm models but not so big there is lots of wasted space between the models and lid. I've found a few that work but then there is always that standard bearer, mounted officer or guy waving his spear above his head that doesn't flippin fit 

Then it's a toss up between getting a different sized box for the odd models from different armies that won't fit in the standard boxes or getting a bigger box so you can keep those, one or two odd models, with the rest of the army in one box together. I haven't really figured out what I prefer yet.

[SJWi]

I still use box-files for storage. Full-size for 28mm and the thinner ones for 20mm and smaller. I find they stack well, are pretty robust  are easy to transport. My Company is currently clearing out lots of paper as we move to semi-home-working so I have managed to find and claim nearly 30 box files  which would otherwise have been binned. Result!

[Diablo Jon]

Another unit removed from the painting shelf of shame and into a nice magnetised plastic storage box, These guys are colonial Portuguese Cacadores for Darkest Africa gaming



Almost all my miniatures are in storage now just a few left in my display cabinets to go and some scenery to box up.

[Daeothar]

Moving at a brisk pace there!

Looks like you really planned this through, and organizing stuff is always great. In fact, I actually find it soothing to sort bits, minis, dice, cards or magazines.

I'm nearly done sorting all of my collection now, and I'm almost jealous to see you're sorting away at leasure still

I used to have several (3) of those organizers on my desk (32 small drawers and 1 big one on each), completely filled with bits (obviously sorted), like these, but also with a full width bottom drawer:



However; these had to make way for a full Hobbyzone setup.


So now I organize my bits in small and cheap organizer cases, which open from two sides. I've now got a dedicated one for just about each project, plus assorted other stuff, like one for plastic materials (think plasticard off cuts, non-polystyrene bits, etc), one for metal bits, one for stowage, one for vehicle parts; you get the idea.



I've now got 16 of them, and even though 5 of them fit perfectly in one of the Ikea storage boxes I use, I am planning on creating a dedicated shelving solution in my storage cabinet, so I can label them on the short side, and pull one out whenever I need it (without having to lift down incredibly heavy Ikea boxes (5 of these cases filled with pewter do amount to quite a weight!) from the high shelf I put up all around the room, and then to, according to Murphy's Law, only find the required one in the very last box. Because, of course )...

I find it interesting to see what ingenious storage methods other people come up with; there's usually something to nick learn there

[2010sunburst]

Hi DJ
For those “tall” miniatures you could always attach them to the side of the storage box rather than it’s base?  Magnets allow you that sort of flexibility 

[Diablo Jon]

It’s been almost a month since my last post mostly because I’ve been in full DIY mode and the only painting I’ve been doing is walls and ceiling. Still with the help of number one son over a couple of weekends and with time off work this week my wargames room renovations are taking shape nicely.

The 13 year old chipboard floor has been pulled up and replaced as has the water damaged ceiling. I have new LED lights and I’ve upgrade the electrics and moved some sockets. The walls are and ceiling are now freshly painted. Next weekend should see the new flooring go down and then I can start and building a new gaming table and work bench (for painting and modelling).

Anyway a couple photos of the building site that will be shiny new wargames room soon.

[Diablo Jon]

After several weeks of work my wargames room makeover is finally finished and it’s time to show it off.











This is my new gaming table a rather modest 5×4 foot but I’ve added under table storage in the form of a book case for rule books and I modified some racking shelves to store scenery on. I added an edge to help keep my terrain tiles firmly in place. I have made two of the sides adjustable with bolts and sliding brackets because on my last table the measurements where slightly off and the tiles wouldn’t fit perfectly. Now I can place the tiles on the table and clamp them in place.











I’ve also re-designed my painting modelling area to give my more space and to make it easier to find things my wife also added a new feature the sweetie box.








Overall I’m very pleased with how it turned out. The lighting is much better, the floor is flat again, the new lay out gives me more space around the gaming table and I don’t think I’ve ever had my hobby so well organised. Now its time to start using my room again the first thing I want to do is finish off the other projects from the painting shelf of shame (who now live in a box of shame as the original painting shelf no long exists).

[AKULA]

All the planning and hard work has really paid off - it looks great