GENERAL: Job done...for now

I've had a good clean up of my games room to try and help me get a handle on all my projects.

It might not seem that much tidier on first glance but it really is. Look at my desk for example, I've moved my cutting mat onto my paint station and taken all of the Ork models with it. The idea is that I can tuck the paint station away on my central table and then just move the whole thing over to my desk when I need to. I wouldn't normally have an entire 1500 point army on there, of course!

You can see the Orks right at the back of the photo above. The rest of the island table is cluttered with stuff but virtually all of it is with current projects.

In the front are my Planetstrike goodies. I've tucked the craters and some other loose bits and pieces away in a box and stacked it all together.

Behind them are my Planetary Empires boxes, and you can just see my half finished Mighty Empires tiles laid out behind them. Once my Ork army is built I'll finish the tiles, which will be a quick win, and then I'll hide the boxes away. I'll return to Planetary Empires after my Planetstrike terrain is completed.

I feel a bit better having tackled the worst of the mess and things will only improved further as I finish each task.

Righto, those Orks won't build themselves...

GENERAL: How clean is your games room?

Today will be a day when I get things done.

I've been suffering from a little post-holiday ennui regarding my gaming activities, largely because I have so many projects rumbling along simultaneously. This is also in part due to a six day working week I just finished last night. Hey ho, at least I got back in time to see Newcastle United slot four past a hapless Ipswich team. We are top of the league, say we are top of the league!

Ahem.

I've taken a few pictures of my games room so you can appreciate my plight. I bought all of my Planetstrike terrain, bought Planetary Empires, I got a tonne of stuff out for my selling splurge on eBay, then the remainder of that got Mighty Empires tiles piled up on it while I painted them, then Space Hulk arrived with some Planetary Empires tiles, then I bought two IA books, then I got all my Orks out to build my next 40k army then I came back from holiday and dumped all my stuff on top of all that.

This is the result:

I need a major tidy up.

The main focus of my efforts will be on the 'island' tabletop surface in the middle of the room. This is formed by two long Ikea cabinets where all of my models live. It also forms the surface where I can place my gaming table and play games.

You can see my table in the photo above, in 4 foot by 2 foot sections, on end wrapped in bubble wrap just to the left of my painting desk. They have never been unwrapped since we had the conversion done on our house two years ago. The island table has never been clear in all that time.

Today that will change.

I hope that by having a good clear out I'll feel more like I have my projects under control.

I plan to blog again later in the day with my progress, and also with some news from UK Gamesday which is taking place today. Early reports say that the Tyranid codex is confirmed for January 2010 and is to be written by Robin Cruddace.

Okay, I have stuff to do.

GENERAL: Games room under siege

When I renovated my house I was very lucky to get my own dedicated games room. I decked it out with shelves, cupboards and a big painting desk, as well as space to set up a table. But I never got round to putting anything other than my tournament certificates on the walls.

That changed this evening when I was dragged around IKEA by my girlfriend and I took the opportunity to buy a large picture frame. I squeezed in the map from the Forge World Imperial Armour 5 - The Siege of Vraks supplement.

It fits nicely at what would be the head of my games table (if it wasn't covered in boxes of models and spare boxes for eBay).

Now I just need to find a frame big enough for the Sabbat Worlds poster...

GENERAL: I love it when a plan comes together

Since I overhauled my painting desk with painting racks back in April I had a few pots of paint rattling around with nowhere to live. I bought some of the new Citadel Washes last week and this exacerbated the problem. So, to keep things neat and tidy, I ordered another rack.

I put it together last night and it had dried sufficiently by today to whack all my spares in it.

There we go. By my reckoning I must have 96 pots of paint altogether. Does any painter really need so many?

And yet there are still gaps in my colours; I have very few blues or flesh colours. Hmmm...maybe it's time I expanded my palette. In any event I'll certainly be experimenting with the new Washes in the coming weeks.

And before I forget - here is a link to a battle report I blogged a couple of days ago. It's another game featuring my Daemonhunters against Ken's Khorne Chaos Space Marines. I seem to remember he had a great army, full of conversions and good paintjobs. Pity I never took a photo of it.

GENERAL: No excuses

I have completely finished the overhaul of my painting/desk area and you can see the results in the photograph below.


The lamp should help me to get models painted on dark winter nights and the fan will keep me cool in the summer. I now have no excuses not to paint!

Watch this space as I start on my works in progress.

GENERAL: Nice rack

Phase one of my plan to rejuvenate my games room is now complete. I have put together the paint and tool racks from miniature scenery (which took far longer than I expected) and have populated them with my paints and tools. I'll probably write a full length review about them in the future but for now they seem to hold most of my hobby stuff admirably.

Despite throwing away half a dozen dried out paint pots I have quite a few that don't fit into the racks, mostly metallics and inks, so I may need to invest in another rack. I also can't find room for my saw (bottom left) as it is just too big.

Moving all my stuff from my old Games Workshop painting tray meant that I could put my cutting board on it and use it for storing my works in project. I'll drag it out of the corner and use it to paint on when necessary.

It's a bit cluttered at the moment, largely due to two Apocalypse behemoths; a Baneblade and my Brass Scorpion interpretation. If you look closely you might also see a Khorne Berzerker squad, an Abaddon blister and some stuff from the Battle for MaCragge box. Although the Phoenix campaign is completed, I still want to finish my Chaos models for a big Apocalypse dust up.

My next job is to put together the desk lamp and try to fit it onto my desk then try to find somewhere to put all of the stuff that has accumulated on my gaming table/model drawers set up.

GENERAL: Order out of chaos

After an exhausting couple of weeks at work I've taken a few days off to concentrate on hobby related shenanigans. Huzzah!

So what will I be getting up to?

The main thing I want to do is wrap up the Phoenix campaign. If you've been following the action so far my Exigators Chaos Space Marines have been involved in a vicious tussle with Gary's Eldar on the planet of Kutch in the Skolarii Sector. We've played nine games and everything is in the balance for our tenth and final game. I'll be getting the battle report typed up over the next two days and then I'll be looking back over the whole campaign and discussing what worked and what didn't.

The other big task I have set myself is to sort out my gaming room. I don't think I've ever posted pics of my home set up on lone pilgrim so here's my chance.

The gaming room is a real luxury for me as for many years I painted my models from the sofa and played my games at the local store or on a rickety table in the living room. Not ideal.

When we sorted out our new house I got my own gaming room and made a real effort to get a decent set up organised. I bought a big desk, lots of shelving and cabinets which could store models and also support a gaming table.


That was about a eighteen months ago and since then I have made very few changes. Until now.

The place is a right mess, it needs a thorough clean up. I need to find permanent living spaces for the stuff I want to keep and e-bay the rest.

I'm not using the storage space as well as I could either. I need to go through all the stuff I just whacked in boxes when I first moved in and put them in some sort of logical order.


As I've mentioned before I'm also going through a bad phase with my painting. I think, in part at least, it may have something to do with my set up. I have therefore bought some specialist paint holders and a new lamp to reorganise my desk. I'm hoping that this will give me a nudge in the right direction.

If I have any free time after this little lot I want to try my new painting area and finally get my Chaos Space Marines finished. I've got the rest of the Berzerkers to paint, my Brass Mantis to construct and paint and a few other bits and bobs.

I plan to blog a lot over the coming days so watch this space.