A new hobby room means I need to get painting!

[zoggin-eck]

Hello everyone! My last few days off have been spent clearing an ugly old computer room and making a proper space to paint and display miniatures. I thought this was enough of an excuse to drop my rarely updated logs and just make one big one.

I'm lucky enough to have recently crossed off two of my "hobby wishes" by being lucky enough to have two rooms to play with. One "wish" was to have a room to playing wargames (OK, and a place to keep books and other household items, but the floor space is for wargames!) where I'd be able to leave games set up if need be and have enough space for lots of terrain and boards, plus easy storage for the odd army. This will hopefully make it easier for my group to organise games and encourage more battles and hopefully branch out into different systems.

Secondly, I finally have a room with dedicated areas for painting, photographing, illustration and the odd display case, too! Until now I've had to pack things up after painting (unlikely), or be a total slob and leave my kitchen table a mess, leading us to eat in front of the television (more likely).

In short, I now have no excuses for not painting or playing!

Below are my two display cabinets (the ubiquitous Ikea "DELTOF"). The plan is to only fill them with finished, recently painted models, rather than rushing to fill them with something I painted years ago. Basically, as I finish a model, in it goes! If I run out of room, then that's a "good problem" to have.



Which, once full, I can gaze lovingly at as I type. Or, if I really crane my neck, as I draw at my slanted desk! (The plan is to convert it into an animators desk with light box)



One thing I want to do, is display some of the prints I've collected over the years. I should have rolled this one back the other way after unraveling it, it still wants to roll itself back up!



Painting desk, suspiciously neat. Can you tell how I made the paint rack?



Yes, it's ten Ikea "BEKVÄM" spice racks They are held together with vecro sicky dots. This way, I can take them apart again later if I want to. The bottom ones have felt pads so I can move them easily. I worried that they'd be unsteady stacked this high, but it doesn't seem to be an issue. I'll add a couple of angle brackets to the bottoms to act as feet, just in case.



That's it for now! I've enjoyed living vicariously for years watching other people set up rooms, so I hope you enjoy.

[Sparda]

I just want to let you know... I'm mad jelly. Thats such a cool room. So whats first on the list to be painted?

[zoggin-eck]

I just want to let you know... I'm mad jelly. Thats such a cool room. So whats first on the list to be painted?

Thaks mate

I've got some wraiths undercoated, some Warzone Imperial Guard proxies, plus a ton of goblins half-finished, but I might try something special instead! I have a few 80's citadel dragons I should paint soon.

[zoggin-eck]

OK, better post a few photos of what's in the cabinets so far Most of this I've shown before, so I'll paint some new stuff tomorrow, I promise...











I placed the log ram I built recently next to these two trolls. The pose they have makes them look like they were made for it!

[Sparda]

My votes for the dragon. Nice work on the stuff so far I really like the dwarfs makes me want to paint up mine.

[Dino]

Well get to painting. I can't wait to see what else you make and paint. Keep it up.

[arakis10191]

I think I've just turned green with envy. Nice painting area. I haven't been able to get the wife's study sorted so I have to make do with the dinning table. Ido have the garage converted to man cave tho

[banedrom13]

Very jealous of that neat workspace.

I too have dabbled in the IKEA products. I have a question for you. How did you install the lighting in your cabinets? I can see some sort of lighting on each shelf. I searched the internet for days trying to find some sort of lighting.

[zoggin-eck]

thanks for the kind words!

arakis10191, a proper garage is what I'd love to have to play games in, just to be like the guys in the White Dwarf articles by Mike Walker

Very jealous of that neat workspace.

I too have dabbled in the IKEA products. I have a question for you. How did you install the lighting in your cabinets? I can see some sort of lighting on each shelf. I searched the internet for days trying to find some sort of lighting.

Haha, for lighting I ended up going to...... Ikea! (This is really sounding like an advert for them) I went for the "DIODER" LED set. A few words of warning for people looking at the same:

The cords are pretty ugly. Each of the four lights has its own cord. Starting from the bottom shelf it looks fine, but by the time you get to the hole in the top, you have multiple cords. I held them together with white/clear cable (or "zip") ties, which looks OK.

The LEDs are "warm" (or "yellow"), and not nearly as bright as I thought. I was under the impression that they were "cool" (or "white"). Either I didn't look properly at the display, or they have changed. Reading online, it seems people who have bought new ones to add to existing setups found the same thing, claiming they changed manufacturer. Regardless, had I known, I would have used the "strip" version in the same "DIODER" range. I'd actually ask someone there to open a pack and let me test it before buying it, if I were to do it again (the lady of the house wants one now, so I may get a chance!).

I should also have placed the light slightly towards the front. I put them in the centre, and all it does is cast shadows on models further forward. If the lights were as bright as I had imagined, it mightn't have been so obvious. Simply using blu-tack or similar would have made this obvious.

Finally, with the cabinets themselves, they are surprisingly heavy when packed up. Wasn't an issue for me, but anyone lighter built/younger may struggle. If I were a little bit shorter, setting them up may have been an issue. Typically, I ignored the part of the instructions that said you need a second person, but it probably would help.

From above:



Below:



Here's how ugly the cords at the top are! I plan on framing a couple of prints (from when GW gave away a copy of the codex/army book art when you bought the book) and placing them in front of them.

[zoggin-eck]

OK, so my first painted model on the desk is a Chaos warrior I undercoated years ago! Pretty simple stuff, but lots of fun. I need to do his base, but that's something I do for batches of models. I tried out the little photography corner I've set up. I plan on studying a few mini photographing tutorials, and might have a go at making a light box.

[zoggin-eck]

OK, so I went to a craft/art store after work thinking I might buy something to make a light box, then it hit me. Light......BOX!

A simple white cardboard box, about the size of shoe box, seems to do a decent job. The lid helps hold it upright and to extend the surface. The outside is gloss white, but the inside is a lovely matte finish. If I wasn't able to get this colour, I'd probably try one of the coloured/patterned ones and spray it with white undercoat paint.

I'm only using one light source, with a fairly orange bulb, to be honest. A second bulb (I have a small compact fluorescent in the room spare) might help, and I'll get it out when I want to take lots of photos. For the odd "look what I painted" photo, it works surprisingly well. They even had quite larger boxes which I might have to try for larger models/vehicles.

[Kisanis]

Simple solutions often work best eh?

[zoggin-eck]

Simple solutions often work best eh?

It doesn't get much simpler than that!

[3eland]

Looks good, I'll have to try the ol' box as a light box trick myself

[zoggin-eck]

So my next model to paint is a bit different. It's the "lesser goblin rabble" from Scotia Grendel. I originally bought two, not knowing if they'd be large enough to use as units on their own, or use as unit fillers. A single one fits fairly well in a 20 model footprint (if a little small), so I've just cut up some 100mmx80mm bases. They will be used, appropriately enough, as the unit "goblin rabble" in Kings of War! They came with some spear tips and standards to add here and there, but they are really thin metal, which looks way too easy to bend. I went for a simple banner (OK, spear and couple of Skaven scrolls) since anything else seemed too big, and added a few bells. I'll put a little more effort in for the next one. These are for the musician and standard upgrades, but just as much to make it clear which way they are facing.

[Caiphas Cain]

Haha, I love that! I might just have to get one for myself.

[zoggin-eck]

OK, got it finished earlier today (yay for a day off!). I'll hopefully get the base done soon. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I wanted to do all the shields differently, but it really would take forever.

Haha, I love that! I might just have to get one for myself.

Thanks, it was one of those models I could never make my mind up on, but I'm glad I did.

[zoggin-eck]

Got some bases finished tonight. Here's a comparison pic of the goblins, they are so tiny!

[zoggin-eck]

I finished a few models today, so I'm happy.

The Uruk-hai is a test, which I rather like. I have a ton of these guys, who I will use as "kingdom of men" pikemen and swordsmen in Kings of War as allies. They are a little smaller than humans, of course, but I love them. I imagine they are a sort of Hobgoblin, so went with the retro Citadel yellow/green skin. I think I'll paint all my Mantic Orcs just like them, and use them as Orcs with human (Uruk/Hobgoblin!) allies, painted fairly realistically, with no over-the-top "fantasy" units, sticking to infantry and human war machines (Kingdom of Men cannons etc. with Uruk-hai crew), and keep them separate from my Citadel Orc and Goblin armies, which are much more light-hearted, with squigs, giants and so on, and very bright green.



I also finished some of the old Citadel "Fantasy Regiments" goblins, and based my painted Mantic goblins (sorry Mantic, even if the casting were up to scratch, I still think they're awful). The old Citadel goblins had two head options, so I'll mix in some of the other one next time.

[Little Joe]

Simple yet great photo studio. Personally I do not mind yellowish bulbs as gaming or showing of miniatures usually is under such light, so it is closer to the truth.

I really liked that goblin mob! That would make a great snotling horde.