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| Deroy's Division on the move |
When the Spanish Army is finished, when the missing Portuguese Brigade is finished, when a number of other incomplete projects are finished, I'll have a lot fewer Very Useful Boxes containing unpainted units sorted into freezer packs, a lot fewer cardboard boxes full of things still to be promoted to labelled freezer packs (or, ultimately, disposed of). My main "showcase" storage unit (which is a laugh, since no-one can see into it unless they open the doors), known here as The Cupboard, will correctly contain the Napoleonic French and Anglo-Portuguese armies (minus the artillery, logistics vehicles and staff, since they won't fit), and everything else will be stored in an orderly manner in magnetised A4 boxfiles.
I'll have a lot more space - it will work - I will be able to find things - I have the spreadsheets to prove it...
This is not entirely down to my becoming more peculiar as I age, though a big driver is the ease with which I am able lose entire regiments - for a recent battle, I dug my heels in and refused to give up on searching for a French general in a carriage - it took about an hour, but eventually I found him in a boxfile labelled Mules & Carts - that's not too good, is it? Happy ending, and he got to be Massena for the day, but things have to become more organised. He should really have been in French Staff & Odd-Bods, obviously, but that is now full, and waiting for French Staff & Odd-Bods (2) to be commissioned.
The current (ongoing) expansion of my French army means that The Cupboard has to be cleared of anything that shouldn't really be in there - the buildings have mostly gone, the strange little wooden trays of things that came from eBay and are still being thought about are in the process of being relocated. Yesterday's big step was to re-house my Bavarians into official boxfiles. That has always been the plan really, but I'm kind of sorry to see them move - I've got used to seeing them lined up on the bottom shelf, but they have to shift so that Ferey's Division and Taupin's Division and the new Guard Division can be accommodated properly in their rightful place.
Anyway, they'll be happier in their new home. I thought someone might enjoy the sight of a couple of boxes of Bavarians - the dragoons and three brigade commanders are still be be painted, but it is evident that a Bavarian division fits neatly into two A4 boxes. That's rather satisfying. A Bavarian division, in passing, is a nicely-sized and balanced force for a wargame, it seems to me. This morning's extra task will be to replace the household's labelling machine, which finally died of exhaustion...
Ah, storage, the bane of every wargamer's life. Mind you, I did get a bonus recently when the bottom of my wardrobe collapsed under the weight of 25mm Napoleonics, gaining me an extra 4 inches of headroom.
ReplyDeleteThe A4 storage boxes are great, but the ones I have are stacked on the floor to ceiling shelves in our bedroom. (It's an old house with usefully high ceilings) Trouble was my missus thought they looked a bit incongruous in the bedroom and insisted that we wallpaper the boxes in keeping with the decor. No problem to me - I can still label the boxes - but it does mean army expansions might be held back if I can't get any more matching wallpaper.
Yes, you're right - those Bavarians are a very satisfying sight. Well done!
I am very impressed by the wallpaper system. I think it might be a good idea to get in a special stock of the paper now. If you have a ready supply, then the arrival of new boxes is less obvious, as they literally blend in. No chance of adding another complete wall, I suppose?
DeleteBooks take up any unclaimed wall space in our house. And floor space. And any other horizontal surface.
DeleteBut I'm liking your idea of getting in a stock of suitable wallpaper.
"Is that a new army?"
"No Love, of course not. Look, it's in the same wallpaper as all the others."
Assuming I can learn the art of stealth wallpapering, of course.
It's simpler to paint the walls the same colour as your boxes ;-)
DeleteEven with 6mm I still have a similar problem. When I get round to building the east wing of the house (an extremely unlikely prospect these days) I've promised myself a room with a permanent gaming table and all the storage space a man could want. Yeah…in my dreams!
ReplyDeleteI find that posessions increase in proportion to the space available to be filled.
DeleteNow that really is a law of Nature - we extended our house 14 years ago - for a while we revelled in the extra space, but now we just have more accumulated rubbish and no space at all. Not sure how this works, but it's true.
DeleteIt must be one of Foy's Laws!
DeleteOutstanding collection of Bavarians, all needed filed away.
ReplyDeleteFigure storage is a problem but a problem I hide under the table, in the storage room, against the walls, in the closet, under my bed,...
I really should stop replying from the iPad. Autocorrect is killing me. My first sentence should show, "...all neatly filed away."
DeleteSheesh.
Jon - Autocorrect - a plague - I know exactly what you marmalade.
DeleteYou know, it's funny. . . My own collection is not all that large and occupies six or eight large clear plastic tubs with lids that live stacked on the middle and upper shelves in a large closet here in my den. Yet I still somehow have difficulty finding things in it. The unpainted, carefully bagged and stored figures-yet-to-be-painted (Dickens coined the term in an early draft of one of his stories. Or maybe it was Tolkien.) have somehow spilled from one drawer to my left, which is jam packed, into a second drawer now, also almost totally full at this point. Surely, someone, somewhere has written a paper on this strange phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
"One of the great truths of the world is that painted soldiers take up a lot less space than soldiers which are being painted, or which are about to be painted."
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the truth (and I use 18mm!)? Or some kind of Law of Nature. Foy's Other Law...
The wall paper is a very clever idea.
Thank goodness for Basements in the US! Still, even with that, storage is an issue. I recently added a 5th shelf unity to accommodate the growing collection, and am close to concluding that I have *nearly* enough troops (Joe and Barry are laughing hysterically somewhere in the background, I know).
ReplyDelete