Back at Baltimore Games Day 2010, John from Santa Cruz Warhammer and I got to talking about our work areas and how much "stuff" we have. He just didn't understand how I couldn't have any.This is my work area. This is everything 40k that I own.
Yep, everything. And it's Command Central for FTW.
What's the point? Like I mentioned in the summary, John and I were talking about our armies at Games Day this year and when I told him that my entire collection (minus a couple other painted figures) was in my carrying case with me, he just about fell in the floor.
Now the next picture, this is John's area... or at least part of it.
He's got everything here and more.
I don't even have a chair, I stand while I sculpt and paint all day. I will say I do have a little stool to sit on while I'm working on the computer though.
You can see my tiny desktop area with only the paints I'm using at the time on top. The rest are stored right below. All of my stuff is in the tall plastic bookcase to the right of my desk. Everything is in there from bits, to magazines to my carrying case... everything. The only things not in there are my models that have been moved over to my fancy display case across the room. And every model I own fits in the top half of the thing.
Right above my desk (just out of the picture) is a huge fluorescent light that I paint under. I have a smaller one mounted on the wall in front of my desk as well.
At the bottom there is my whiteboard that keeps track of all my projects and stuff I need to do for the site. I keep track of commissions, post topics and progress on there. I'd forget things if I didn't write it all down.
I take pictures in the middle of all that stuff too. I just sort of push a few things aside, hold up my fill light card and snap away. No tripod, no nothing else. Photoshop helps clean things up, but I don't have the dedicated space for a photo area or lightbox.
I only own one army. It fits on two of the six shelves in my display case.
Any terrain I make I donate to my FLGS (Game Vault).
I have no room for it at home.
I do have a couple small boxes and some foam that I keep in the closet though. They are my shipping supplies. I buy foam to pack my commissions in and my Wife doesn't like to have the stuff lying around.
John calls it's a "minimalist" approach to the hobby.
I call it being realistic about the hobby.
I mean when am I going to have time for more than one army? Don't even get me started about Fantasy, I think the models look cool and I'd love to rank up line after line of troops, but when am I ever going to do that?
I don't keep every single bit for that one project I plan on getting to someday. I know it's not going to happen. Sure, I'd love to build this or convert that or scratchbuild one of these... but I just don't have enough hours in a day. I've got tons of amazing ideas in my head, but I decided a while ago that I would keep my 40k sprawl in check and focus on the few things I do have time for.
Before I went into the "minimalist" mode, I had four armies. All of them painted too. I figured I'd play them... one day.
I kept lots of stuff for terrain lying around that I "planned" to use... one day.
I had all kinds of spare pieces and bits for armies I was planning on building... one day.
I had tons of JUNK. That's what it amounted to.
So I kept the one army I enjoyed playing most of all and jettisoned the rest.
I'd like to start another army actually. I do have half of a display case to fill and I want to build a Custodes force with the upcoming Grey Knight rules. It would only be a handful of guys so I could focus on the converting and painting aspect of it.
And they wouldn't take up any more space really.
