Showing posts with label storage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storage. Show all posts

Friday, 23 June 2023

Racking II and prepping

It has been on the hot side for painting, so I've either been writing TtS! army lists (for the July-Ancients  and August-Medieval releases), racking the BigRedBatCave or prepping minis. 

Above is the main area of the cellar, now racked along one side with six 90cm wide storage racks. There is potentially room on the other side for some more- perhaps three or four. That is pretty much the last storage space I can generate in this house. Once that's full, I'll have to start selling stuff in order to fit new things in. And I still have a ton of boxes in the loft that I need to move down into the remaining spaces, perhaps enough to fill them.

Below are some minis which will become Parthian cataphracts. My plan is to use (mostly) Aventine miniature riders on plastic Gripping Beast steeds, alongside some of the GB riders from the new Parthian set. The advantage of using the plastic Nisean chargers is that the army will be light to transport, so I can use it at tournaments like Britcon or Godendag to which I travel by train. I will spray paint these in metallics (per the two test figures on the left, Gold-fingerrrr) and then paint the non-metallic areas and ink wash. Sounds simple- probably an awful lot of work in it, for which reason this army may not be ready in time.

By the way, I just booked my tickets for the To the Strongest! tournament at Britcon in Nottingham in August- it's a great show, and I really like Nottingham, too. I hope to see some of you there!

Sunday, 11 June 2023

Racking


Above, today I've been racking the BigRedBatCave. The main cave is around 30' long by 6' high and should take a good few minis, although, I fear, by no means all of them. It should enable me to reduce the number of minis in the house, somewhat, to the relief of my beleaguered family.


I'm also working on a new project, of Teutonic bent. Here are some new standard bearers; mostly Foundry, some Black Tree. Later they will be joined by some Victrix. I'm trying to build in a lot of variety in the standards, and as many horns as I can find.

Saturday, 1 January 2022

A Happy New Year to All!

Here in the BigRedBatCave we've had a busy Christmas and I've only managed a little modelling. However in the days before Christmas I finally managed to paint the walls and floor of my cellar storage space, which I hope you'll agree is looking pretty tidy. I only have around 5' 9" of headspace, but it will enable me to store a lot of minis, once I've fitted racking and sorted out the humidity.


Below is the "before".

My resolutions for 2022 - 

  • Finish and publish Renaissance
  • Finish and publish the playtest game, Ceresole 1544 and a secret associated project
  • Finish the Swiss army that has been in hibernation for a year.
  • Put on some banging games at shows
  • Catch up with everyone who I've missed in the last year or so!
I hope everyone is safe and well. I feel very optimistic about 2022. I feel the prospects for life and gaming are likely to be much better, for us, this year- let's hope than none of our cards are Aces! 

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

Dungeon level, plastered

 

The dwarven construction team have finished their delving and departed, leaving me something that is starting to look distinctly room-like and rather less dank than previously. Just needs a bit more fitting out; painting, heating, more lighting and racks (no, not the ones for making you taller!). Progress.

Friday, 14 May 2021

Dungeon level, revisited

Some of you may recall that I've been trying to create some much-needed additional storage space- got to put those minis somewhere! This is my dungeon level, now with added lighting and (much needed) waterproofing. Still some work to do... but coming along nicely.

You can see last year's dank hole here.

In other news I've a lot of modelling underway but nowhere and no time to take photos until next week. Also I'm getting together the end of May release of the Medieval Army List eBook- there should be three or four new lists and other new material. At the moment we have a new 100 Years War English list, for action in Britain as opposed to the continent. Also there's a Golden Horde list and a nice list for the obscure but interesting Zanj Revolt against the Abbasids; think Spartacus meets Isis.

Thursday, 17 September 2020

Dungeon Level, explored

 


...since there was so much interest in the hatch, I thought I'd post some images of the new dungeon level at the BigRedBatCave. Above is the larger end of the space, with the old, damp, clinker floor removed. This will, shortly, be covered with a concrete slab.


Here's the area under the hallway, before painting. 


...and after, now coated with a damp-resistant slurry, in a dungeon-friendly battleship grey. I may add some manacles.


Next step is for the concrete slab to go in. In the coming weeks, I plan to get the pipework tucked away and put in some ventilation.

Tuesday, 15 September 2020

New Dungeon Level for the BigRedBatCave

 

During lock-down, it dawned on me that I have, at last, completely run out of figure storage space, with every corner of the house currently packed with miniatures. Nil desperandum, dear viewer! I've decided to extend the BigRedBatCave by excavating a new "dungeon level". The first step is to install a trap door, which you can see marked out, above.


Above you can see the initial hole cut, exposing the beam, and below the reinforced hatch.


Finally, below, is the finished hatch from above- I just need to remove the labels I used to mark it out.


In a later post, I'll show some photos taken within the new dungeon level, itself, which is currently being excavated by a crack team of dwarven miners.

Friday, 13 May 2016

Sorting out the lead mountain

This week I've been reorganising the downstairs portion of my Lead Mountain. Most of the downstairs lead mountain is stored above the bookcases in my lounge. Here are the "befores". The Foundry boxes would occasionally collapse leading to what I refer to as a "lead shower" - a very unwelcome and uncomfortable experience!



And below are the "afters" shots, with the minis sorted into new storage drawers that I picked in a sale at out local Futon Shop. I've added trays inside the boxes but still need to label them. The black objects are speakers. Alarmingly, all the boxes, together, have space for only half of the Lead Mountain, the rest of which remains piled up in the loft.



I clearly need to paint more minis or buy less!

Monday, 14 April 2014

BigRedBat's Salute

Mate Ian and I set off for Salute at 7AM, and were in the hall soon after 8AM.  My new trolley-of-war, below, made getting the minis from the car park to the table, child's play; much easier than queuing to bring the car in.  It'll carry 4' boards, too.


Unfortunately, despite having it on the trolley, I failed to put the camera in the car, so the only pictures I have are of Mark's elephant, and Guy's cliffs.  If anyone has decent photos of the game (the lighting was very challenging) I'd be delighted to see some.


The game set up was very straightforward; Guy Bowers and his Brixham Berzerk mates made some great terrain (cliffs shown, below). Mark Backhouse produced some lovely ships and Frontinus' elephant, and Legatus Hedlius a splendid trireme. Jay brought his warband along, but unfortunately it (and around a third of my chariots) weren't required; I intend to put this right at the earliest opportunity, by running a big game here in the BigRedBatCave.


The game was run three times by the Berzerks, and by Mark, and was very well received by the two dozen-odd players. I believe the Romans won twice and the Britons defeated them once.  Huge thanks to all who contributed!

My favourite game was James Morris and friends' Keren, which is described on Scriv's blog. Jaw dropping. I've not heard that it won anything; if not, the judges must have been blind!

At Salute I was delighted to meet lots of people who follow the blog including fellow bloggers, old friends, manufacturers, publishers and many gaming enthusiasts. 

I have read several pieces complaining that the Salute show, in its vast hangar, is crowded, smelly, hard on the feet and somewhat characterless, and that the goods on sale could be more easily purchased by post. In my opinion all of these are true to a lesser or greater extent. For me, though,  the most important reason for attending a show is to meet people and there are better opportunities to meet more people at Salute, than at any other show I attend in the gaming year, so it remains an absolute must!

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

BigRedBatCaveAnnex

Back in April, I managed to get a much needed wargames storage cupboard, built into an old laundry cupboard.  Today I (finally!) got around to fitting a shelf, and I've started to pack away the gaming boards that have, for several years, stood against the wall of my dining room.


It's rather more than 8' tall and will hold all of my 4' by 2' gaming boards, in 2 stacks, one above the other.  There should also be enough additional space in case I need to add a third set of gaming boards, down the line!

Sunday, 28 February 2010

BigRedBat's War Cabinet

One of the younger scions of the BigRedBat clan has laid claim to the room where I've traditionally stored my legions.  Accordingly, as part of a negotiated withdrawl, it was agreed that I could put a storage cabinet in another room.  I found a fantastic one at Ikea; the Bergsbo.  My son and I assembled it today, and this afternoon my troops marched to their new home with banners flying and flautists piping.

What excites me about the Bergsbo cabinet is that has the perfect dimensions to take an unfeasibly large number of the "Really Useful Boxes" in which I store all my minis., with almost no wasted space.  It is deep, and all the shelves are adjustable.   In (and above) the cabinet are no less than 68 storage boxes, of various sizes, containing roughly 3000 28mm miniatures and almost all my terrain.

Another benefit of the new cabinet is that it is now a lot easier to access the miniatures I need for a particular game, and I can see the labels on the end of the boxes.  Oh happy day!