Bookshelves: Then and Now

James at Grognardia has stared something that a few other Bloggers have taken up and as you'll probably have guessed by now I'm loath to ignore a good meme. James wrote; "What I'd love to see are more photos like this, with people showing off the shelves to which they most frequently turn in their writing and (especially) gaming". I had actually done this way back in May 2009 when I wrote The Sourcebook Treadmill so I pulled up those old photos to reuse here. But it soon became apparent that my bookshelves have changed (and expanded) a bit in the intervening years. So I grabbed the camera and shot some new photo's to show my 'work area' as it looks today:

There be dragons!

My Fantasy corner. A collection of RPG rulebooks and campaign settings all overseen by faithful dragons and my trusty Axe.... There's also the model tank my kids made me for my Birthday earlier this year and (on the far right at the end of the books) my drinking horn. And yes, it has been used, on more than one occasion!

The old core rulebooks are still there (I'll never part with these) but most of the D&D sourcebooks have been sold or given away. This reflects my changing needs as a gamer and the fact that with 4th edition D&D any real possibility of my running a game as GM pretty much faded away. My focus has also changed a bit since then with much more wargaming and historical material moving onto my shelves.

The Wargaming section

On the other side of the room some of my Wargaming rulebooks and historical reference works are kept. I don't actually have space for everything so increasingly books are being boxed up and stored around the house. I have already 'bagsied' my daughters bedroom when she leaves home. That may be a decade from now, but I'm patient. I also have a pitifully small number of my painted models on display, but as you have probably guessed by now free space is at a premium in our house.

Painters corner

A wider shot showing my painting desk and the bookshelves beyond. Don't be fooled though, most of those are actually the wife's cookery books. Her book collection makes mine look tiny!

My tiny painting desk as it looks today

My work desk, where I do most of my painting, is actually a small writing bureau in the corner of our family room. Its not nearly big enough for my collection of paints or the multiple projects I always seem to have on the go at any one time. Here you can see some 15mm figures and vehicles, a 1/72 plastic Jagpanther, two platoons of 1/300 tanks (Panzer III J's and Panzer IV F's) and 30 bases which I am painting for later use. I would like a much bigger desk but and at the moment there just isn't any space.

I'll only get the bigger work space I crave when my wife gets rid of her Piano - or hell freezes over. Having said that we are planing on re-decorating next year (so I am told) and this may be my chance to make some changes. Hmmm maybe that bigger desk isn't a pipe dream after all...

DIY Painting Tool for 6mm

Following on from my post yesterday showing the first of (hopefully) many 6mm models I thought I'd share this simple painting stand I threw together. At this scale painting really is a production line and anything that helps speed the process along and minimises the handling of the models while painting is a good thing.  

This was built using a simple off-cut of wood about 3cm wide by 15cm long, chosen because it fits nicely in the hand. I then picked three long coffee sticks and glued them together with PVA glue and clamped them while it dried. Any thin strip of wood would do but these were the materials I had to hand.

The beauty of this set-up is that I can fit five or six vehicles on it (I just uses Blue-tack to stick them but you could use a glue gun) for painting while still keeping it easy to handle. Then in between each stage I can put the whole thing down on the table to dry without the risk of them being knocked over. Another important advantage of this painting stand over the traditional 'lolypop stick' method is that the model is raised slightly and it is possible to paint from below for those really difficult to reach spots.

I may adapt this idea and make another version with individual dowels for holding vehicles but this Mk.1 version worked just fine and will be ideal for painting 6mm infantry. 

Aww shucks…Thanks!

Some of you may have become aware of a little Blog meme that is currently rippling across the wargaming community blogosphere (and elsewhere). I'm not strictly eligible for the Liebster Blog Award because BLMA has over 200 followers but I have been given an Honourable Mention by Neil at the excellent site Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles.

I've been trying to find the origin of this award to no avail, so if anyone knows where it started let me know because its bugging me!  

The rules of the Leibster Blog Award very simple:

1. Copy and paste the award on your Blog linking it to the blogger who has given it to you.
2. Pass the award to your top 5 favorite Blogs with fewer than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award 
3. List your nominations (complete with links) on your own Blog.
4. Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that you have just made someone's day!

As already stated I'm not really eligible to take part but exclusion has never stopped me form participating before and I don't see why it should now! I've stuck to the rules for nominations so my five Blogs of choice are all mostly small emerging sites that I think deserve a little publicity (the aim of the award after all). If your Blog isn't included it may be that you already 200+ followers or have already been nominated (there have been some great nominees so far). I follow in excess of 300 blogs on a regular basis so choosing just five has been really really hard and I have spent quite some time pondering my final selection. 

1000 Foot General - This blog has a lot of what I like, a wide range of games, excellent pictures, humour and some very interesting terrain building projects. One of my recent favourites was the  Desert Terrain Cloth tutorial. 

One Inch Warriors - Some excellent little articles and good pictures. Not a high volume poster but quality beats quantity any time.

Model Dads - I'm not actually sure how many followers this site has but its almost certainly over the limit of 200. But ignorance is bliss and so I'm nominating this excellent blog for a Liebster. This is by far one of my favourite blogs out there and one I read religiously. If you haven't seen their site yet then get over there now!

Sgt Steiner's Wargaming Blog - Another great blog with a wide variety of articles, good humour,  a satisfying dose of nostalgia and some great photo's. This is a true Grognards blog and well worth a visit.

DJK's Fantasy World - For my final nomination I think I can justly be accused of bias as young master Derek is a member of my RPG group. But that shouldn't detract from the fact that this is a great little Blog and deserves a nomination just for the articles covering his amazing scratch built buildings.

Congrats to all and let the meme roll on! 

M14/41 Compagnia Carri

The Italians are coming...in their little tanks! Well I've been hard at work trying to paint the first batch of models from my newly acquired collections of 1:300th scale models. I'm still waiting for a few other purchases to arrive so I decided to have a go at some Italian tanks first. This is the HQ and first two platoons of M14/41 tanks from an Italian Compagnia Carri (Tank Company). I need to buy a few more of these to bring this company up to three platoons but in the meantime these will get me started.

The M14/41 was a slightly improved version of the earlier Fiat M13/40 with a more powerful diesel engine. It had a limited production run as it was already considered obsolete by the time it entered service. Despite the upgrade the M14/41 was unreliable, cramped, and caught fire easily but and was only really suitable for recon missions.