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Author Topic: Renovating the Wargames Room - The new wargames room is complete  (Read 5198 times)

Offline Diablo Jon

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Wasn't sure where to post this so hopefully I have the right board but I thought I'd start a post on my efforts to give my wargames room a bit of a facelift

My grandly entitled wargames room is actually a garage. When my wife and I arrived at our current house, with a new-born and toddler in tow it was decided I could have the garage, at the bottom of the garden, to store my stuff as there just wasn’t room in a house dominated by small adorable children. The garage had some advantages it was a double length garage, brick construction and being away from the house it was a good place for a bit of one on one time, with my favourite Metal bands, without disturbing anyone else. On the downside it floods, as we discovered in the first couple of weeks of moving in, during extremely heavy rain, It doesn’t have much natural light ,just one small window and some glass panels on the back door, and it could get very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.

So I enlisted the add of my dad and we set about making the garage a wargames room, we dug a soak away in front of the back door to help deal with the water run off that caused the flooding. Inside we built a new floor with batons and chipboard and added a drain by the door so if the soakaway didn’t work the flood water would run underneath my wargames room and out through the dig door on the other side. The brick walls were board it out for insulation purposes and a false ceiling, with insulation, was put up. Two thirds of the way down we put up a stud wall so the end, with the large garage door, could store my motorbike and be a workshop. Once we added some new electrics and a lick of paint I ended up with a pretty respectable man cave.





That was fifteen years ago in that time I’ve given the room one cosmetic make over with some new carpet tiles and a lick of paint. The furniture was upgraded with some display cabinets, from the old front room, that where replaced during a make over. After all that time the wargames room is now starting to feel its age. The chipboard false floor is starting to sag in places and has become rather uneven, the garage flat felt roof sprang a couple of small leaks which I only twigged when the ceiling stated getting brown water marks. I’ve fixed the flat roof leaks but its time to replace the floor and ceiling with new wood, and while I’m at, it re-jig the electric sockets, add new LED lighting, new flooring, re-organise my storage and build a new gaming table . This a major renovation project which I hope to do the bulk of in my week long August holiday break.

Talking it through with my wife it occurred to me that everything was going to need to come out of the wargames room to give me space to do the renovations. It was at the point I realised I had accumulate rather a lot of hobby stuff in fifteen years none of which was packed or stored in any way for transportation…

I’ve made a start on the easy stuff books are being packed away in temporary cardboard boxes (thanks to Amazon we have plenty). I’ve purchased more lidded plastic boxes to start packing scenery and the lead pile of shame into. I’ve also taken the decision to magnetize as much of my miniature collection as possible to aid with safe storage and transportation in the future (more of that in another post). I was pleasantly surprised to find I could get the lead pile of shame into three plastic storage boxes one each for fantasy, sci-fi and historical projects still plenty of packing to go though.

« Last Edit: August 24, 2021, 04:40:26 AM by Diablo Jon »

Offline nonsuch

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2021, 09:55:03 AM »
Grand job you both did too, splendid man cave.

Offline has.been

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2021, 07:24:11 PM »
Good luck with all the reorganisation.
People that know me will tell you I am always
'going' to completely reorganise. In reality I
only 'paper over the cracks', but one day...

Offline vodkafan

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2021, 10:40:30 PM »
All your unpainted leadpile in only 3 storage tubs? That's pathetic man call yourself a wargamer?  lol
I am going to build a wargames army, a big beautiful wargames army, and Mexico is going to pay for it.

2019 Painting Challenge :
figures bought: 500+
figures painted: 57
9 vehicles painted
4 terrain pieces scratchbuilt

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2021, 06:24:41 AM »
Grand job you both did too, splendid man cave.

Thanks sadly those photos are ten years old nnow its not looking quite so dandy now which is why its time for a renovation.

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2021, 06:27:03 AM »
Good luck with all the reorganisation.
People that know me will tell you I am always
'going' to completely reorganise. In reality I
only 'paper over the cracks', but one day...

yeah been there done that. I've had a few major tidy ups over the years which in reality was me hiding stuff in cupboards or just moving everything from one end of the wargames room to other for zero gain  lol

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2021, 06:28:26 AM »
All your unpainted leadpile in only 3 storage tubs? That's pathetic man call yourself a wargamer?  lol

A hang my head in shame  :( in my defence those boxes don't include the painting shelf of shame..

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2021, 06:32:49 AM »
Magnets thousands of ’em...

...Well maybe not thousands but a lot of magnets. As I mentioned, in part 1, I need to move everything out of my wargames room to do my planned renovations. Most of my miniatures have been stored in cabinets which has worked well enough but has two disadvantages one the cabinets waste a lot of space as the shelfs have large gaps between them which aren’t required on little soldiers 30mm high. Secondly if I want to move any miniatures around they aren’t prepped for transportation.

Looking at what other gamers where doing, on line, I settled on plastic boxes and magnets as my future storage and transportation solution. I purchase a load of boxes and a bunch of self adhesive ferrous-rubber sheet and self adhesive magnetic sheets, both pre cut circular magnets in various sizes, and sheets you cut yourself. I slightly under estimated just how mind numbingly boring magnetizing several armies worth of miniatures would be. I think as something you do, on a few miniatures at a time, during an army build it would be fine and just become a process like basing or varnishing.

I hit a few issues during this process. Firstly every army seems to have a few miniatures that are to tall for my chosen A4 boxes whether it’s because of a flag, pike or horse, which is frustrating when you’d like a whole army boxed together. You can of course used bigger boxes, and I did buy some large ones for some armies, but then you are back to the feeling your are wasting space and I’d like my renovated wargames room to be as storage space efficient as possible.

Another issue I hit were Games workshop style bases. Some of my armies are based on thin plastic or MDF bases which gave the magnets a nice flat surface to stick to but GW bases are hollow underneath and the thin edge didn’t make for a good connection with my magnet sheets. In the end I purchased some small 3mm earth magnets that fit in the hollows under the bases and could be glued in place.

I still have several armies to go but I’ve made a good start so here are a few pictures of what I have managed so far.

1st the A4 plastic stack boxes. Each one of these stacks is about the same size as one shelf in my Ikea display cabinet so this stack took about five shelves worth of miniatures from my display cabinet and fitted them into the space of one shelf that is a considerable space saving. The self adhesive ferrous rubber sheets I purchased are also A4 so this meant one sheet stuck in the bottom no measuring or cutting needed.

As you can see on the last photo the magnets work really well that box is on its side and not a single miniature has moved. I even (after a deep breath) turned the box upside down and again the miniatures didn’t move.









I really like the A4 stacking boxes but they didn’t cut it for some of my armies. I found my 20mm ancient Phalanx’s pikes where to tall while my 28mm fantasy human army had to many mounted men with big lances. So I bought some other large boxes for these armies. The other (not) fun thing about these armies was having to cut magnetic sheets to fit the square and rectangle bases which just added more time to a rather monotonous job but hey at least it only need doing once.









Still plenty more miniatures to magnetise before August including some 40K armies and a lot of random miniatures that don’t really have an army to join. I’ve decided the easiest way to store some of my bigger 40K models and awkward to store miniatures is to put them back in my Ikea glass display cabinet once the renovations are over rather than buying lots of odd sized boxes. Right back to wargames room are more magnets…

Offline has.been

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room - Now With Magnets
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2021, 09:36:09 AM »
Good progress.

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room - Now With Magnets
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2021, 10:30:58 AM »
I love it when a plan sticks together...

Having recently (about 6 months ago now) finished my gaming room, and having transported all of my hobby stuff down two floors, I can wholeheartedly sympathise with your woes. But at least you have an up to date plan, and have started preparing well ahead of time.

I finished my gaming room according to the plans I had in my head for almost 14 years, but when it finally came to moving all my stuff in, I had not counted on the accumulation factor ::)

So, when it was finally all lugged downstairs, there was about 3 times the volume of stuff that I had accounted for, 14 years previous (including ample space to expand. Or so I thought). Turns out we're (almost) all hoarders when it comes to the hobby, and stuff just accumulates...

But luckily you have taken on the job with up-to-date plans, which certainly will help. Looking forward to seeing the end result; by the sound of it, it's going to be great :)
Miniatures you say? Well I too, like to live dangerously...
Find a Way, or make one!

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room - Now With Magnets
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2021, 04:33:38 AM »
I love it when a plan sticks together...

Having recently (about 6 months ago now) finished my gaming room, and having transported all of my hobby stuff down two floors, I can wholeheartedly sympathise with your woes. But at least you have an up to date plan, and have started preparing well ahead of time.

I finished my gaming room according to the plans I had in my head for almost 14 years, but when it finally came to moving all my stuff in, I had not counted on the accumulation factor ::)

So, when it was finally all lugged downstairs, there was about 3 times the volume of stuff that I had accounted for, 14 years previous (including ample space to expand. Or so I thought). Turns out we're (almost) all hoarders when it comes to the hobby, and stuff just accumulates...

But luckily you have taken on the job with up-to-date plans, which certainly will help. Looking forward to seeing the end result; by the sound of it, it's going to be great :)


I can't really take any credit for planning ahead that's the influence of my wonderful wife. I'm more of a jump right in and make it up as I'm going along type of guy (no wonder I suck at war gaming  lol) my wife on the other hand likes to have a plan for just about everything somehow between us we make life work.

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room - Now With Magnets
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2021, 04:35:43 AM »
I’m sure I’m not alone in this but I am a bit of butterfly when in comes to my hobby it doesn’t take much for me to get distracted or side-tracked when I see something new or interesting. Films, books, new miniatures, a rule set or seeing what someone else has done on the internet can frequently spark a wave of enthusiasm for a new project. Soon I’m researching, planning, buying new miniatures and looking at building new scenery and the painting table is unceremoniously cleared of whatever I was previously working on to make way for my newest obsession. “What happens to those half started previous projects Jon?” I hear you ask. Well in my wargames room they go to the painting shelf next to my painting desk where often as not, despite the lie I tell myself that I’ll finish them off soon, they sit there for a long time gathering a layer of dust.

As I was sorting out my lead pile into boxes I knew I’d have to confront the painting shelf, now officially dubbed the painting shelf of shame, so I pulled everything out and put it on my painting desk. This collection contained a whole load of stuff ranging from just converted plastic/lead all the way up to just needing the bases done. The list includes

12 random individual fantasy miniatures for a solo dungeon crawl project that never really got off the ground.

18 Ngoni conversion from Warlord games Zulus to add to my Ngoni army

8 converted Portuguese Cacadores for 19th century Africa

4 converted Lomwe tribesmen for darkest Africa

5 primus marines for 40K

30 odd Deathguard for 40K

4 snow trolls for my ice queen fantasy army

17 renegade imperial guardsmen for 40K

and since that photo below was taken I’ve now found

A half finished Pict army for age of Arthur game 50 odd miniatures

30 odd early imperial Romans

18 random sci-fi miniatures with a half painted APC



That’s quite a lot of abortive projects cluttering up my gaming room so I’ve decided to launch operation ” Finish up” I don’t plan to box up my painting stuff until the last possible moment, before the renovations on my wargames room begin in early August, between now and then I’m going to attempt to finish off as many of these half finished projects as possible (in between packing and sticking magnets on everything). I don’t know how good they’ll look, when they are finished, as I do my best painting when I’m really inspired by the miniatures I’m painting, but they will be finished so I can go into my new wargames room with a clean slate and painting shelf. I’ve already made a start and finished the four snow trolls pictures coming soon.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2021, 05:25:50 AM by Diablo Jon »

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room - The Painting Shelf of Shame
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2021, 08:25:29 AM »
I know all about the WIPs of Shame, as I too have a WIP display case, where minis tend to linger for years on end. I used to mix them with the finished ones (so they wouldn't stand out as much I guess), but I always knew...

Now I use my old (and woefully too small) display cabinet for just my WIP projects. Long term ones that is. Because I now have a HobbyZone setup on my desk, with a small WIP display case right on my desk too, but that's for the current ones.

And I can confidently report that this one is filled to the brim right now as well lol

Good luck with clearing out the WIP pile; that's a commendable goal. Here's to hoping you make it before your deadline... :)

Offline has.been

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room - The Painting Shelf of Shame
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2021, 09:54:42 AM »
A good week-end & you'll have that all cleared. :D

Some years ago a friend wanted some figures. A unit
of them was sitting on my 'WIP pile of Shame'. They
had been waiting for that perfect Zen moment, when
all the stars align & the paint flows 'just so'. = I had
done nothing with them for years. Because they were
for him & not for me, they were painted over a week-end.
Not the perfect job I was going to do, but plenty good
enough for the table & he was delighted with them.
Now I pretend they are not for me, but for someone else.
Result is that stuff gets done faster. Problem is I keep
acquiring more things. :-I

Offline khartoum2

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Re: Renovating the Wargames Room - The Painting Shelf of Shame
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2021, 11:56:39 AM »
Loving your area - Only wish I could have something that size

Re your cabinet and the space between shelves I not long ago bought a similar looking cabinet (picture in https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=129868.msg1661329#msg1661329 ). when I bought the cabinet from https://www.displaysense.co.uk/ I was able to buy packs of extra shelves.

Shelves arrived late and had to dismantle cabinet to fix them but if the cabinets are the same you might be able to add more shelves while everything is out to store more- all I would say in my case is that I didn't always give myself enough space between shelves to get my hands in to pluck things out

As I said before - great are and hope to see some of the renovated pictures

 

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