Not every improvement I’m making this year is just about the figures I’m painting or the games I’m playing. I had planned to do some tweaks about how I present the figures I have and how I store them but through the process, I have actually managed to go a step beyond and open up some extra possibilities as to the type of projects I can attempt.
First up, I’m trying to find a better way of showing off the figures I paint up. In the past, I’ve bounced between just having them on the painting desk to trying to use the lightbox. All of these have been pretty unsatisfying visually, so for this year I’ve decided to step it up a bit.
To do this, I’m combining a few things. I’ve moved to my actual digital camera on a tripod rather than the phone, taking advantage of its feature set for a little more control (although I really wish it had manual focus). I’m still using the light box but I’ve solved some of the light direction problems by adding an LED light at the front – this helps to show off more detail rather than being heavily shadowed from above.
The big change is adding some decorative elements. For this, I went with a folded-up battle mat from Geek Villain (Rocky Grass in this case) with a few trees and lichen. I’m already happy with the effect but I think for more practicality I’m going to take a page from Dan at Desk-Ops and build up a few small tiles for backdrops, something big enough to store on my hobby table while still looking good (plus a chance to try some terrain building).
I’m going to try a few more things (such as maybe adding a background) but the pictures are already looking better as you can see above in one of my test photos. I think the main thing for me personally to remember is that I’m painting figures for wargaming with – they are going to look much better in situ than as a single subject. Time to play to that strength
The other change is more to do with my third favourite topic on this blog – my house! Well, more accurately my garage. Over the last few days after New Year’s, I’ve been nailing a few DIY tasks around the house (with the help of my Dad), painting up a few skirting boards and boxing in some wardrobes. However, the garage has been full of the old wardrobes (broken down into wooden boards) for far too long so we decided to get out there and put the material to better use.
First thing is storage. Now, you may wonder why I’m showing these shelves off seeing as it’s most general purpose. However, this is the first stage of changing how I store my terrain and figures. The line of boxes already out there on the third shelf are 50l really useful boxes with terrain in, as well as my childhood Airfix stuff in the nearest one (it is amusing how bad young Charge’s models are). Storing them out there gives me more space in my office room under the work table, meaning they are both easier to access while giving me more room to store the stuff I use every day.
Eventually, I’m going to adjust the bottom level, clearing out the bags currently on it to allow double-stacked 50l boxes. These are going to become the new home for my figures, through the use of magnetised sheets and insert boxes. Unlike the foam I am currently using, this should let me scale up the collection much more easily, both in terms of quantity of figures but also sizing as I won’t need to buy custom foam or pick and pluck for larger pieces such as Greater Demons or vehicles. I’m not planning to massively increase my collection, but as a man with a 3D printer it’s always handy to have extra space.
However, we had a lot of wood left over (taking apart fitted wardrobes in two rooms will do that) and simply binning it would be a waste of good resources. So instead, I got to build a workbench from it.
The image above was it before finally assembly but with a surface three boards thick and the right-angled struts holding it up, I’m able to have a pretty hard-wearing workbench at the right height to stand and use, without having to drill into the wall of my next door neighbour’s house. I wouldn’t want to bounce up and down on them, but for
Now, the garage is not going to be my main hobby room – it’s not insulated due to the house’s construction so it gets pretty chilly quickly and the floor is pretty hard to stand on. However, with plenty of space and lots of light, it can be a perfect space for doing projects that I wouldn’t really want to do in the same room as I play games and work from home. Large-scale terrain projects, spray painting in all weather and much more can all be done in the garage, as well as being able to be left in place rather than having to constantly tidy it away. Maybe it’s time to repair a few of my older terrain pieces…
These may not exactly be new figures but they play a pretty big part in improving my hobby time – showing off the figures in a better light is a hell of a lot more motivating than figure on black background. With more storage space and somewhere to work on messier project, I’m excited to what this year is going to bring.