Work space and other trinkets

I thought I would start with showing how I generally keep my work space.

Recently moving allowed me to get a new desk and reset up my work space, which was really needed since my old one was quite anti productive. While it was a good concept, the design of the desk was quite horrid since it had a top panel which was design to allow for more room, it ended up creating less due to it being to high to put a computer monitor, and then having back openings of the top panel completely closed of so anything needing power was limited in being placed. Basically I had little room to do much other than use my computer, which I needed regularly for my Studies.

So I purchased a large flat top desk from Ikea, which pretty much allows everything to be placed in the one spot, and the house we moved into also has adjustable shelving fixed to the walls, so I was able to raise the shelves higher up and put the desk underneath them to create more storage space.

The general layout of things

I pretty much have things laid out nicely at the moment, but I presume as I go along I may find better ways to keep things organised, and of course new things are always going to end up being added and will need to adjust accordingly. I have a few Back 2 Base-ix desk organizer products which are really great to help save space on your hobby area, so most of my tools and brushes are stored on those. I also have a rack that fits 42 Vallejo sized paint bottles, and may end up getting some that fit Games Workshop pots since mine currently reside the tool box to the left, making it awkward to get to.

Le other angle

I keep two jars for water, one for general colours and paint, the other exclusively for metallics, so I don't get any metallic pigment mixed into other paints.
Then I have the general hoop-bla of cutting mats and paper desk mats so I don't damage/mark the table. I currently use a wet pallet for my paints since in the summer the room get quite warm so the paints tend to dry quickly on a normal pallet. I generally use a floor tile as a pallet since it works nicely and is easy to clean.

But of course, my workspace extends into further areas like some of my desk drawers, which have been dedicated to my Andrea paint sets, blu tack and other material.

The Andrea paint sets fit snugly

And of course the top shelving with more...shelving

Shelfception...

I also have an airbrush and compressor, which hasn't seen a whole lot of use yet. I have done some basecoating and messed around with it slightly, but nothing serious as of yet, but definitely looking forward to delving into that soon. I have the compressor nestled under my desk with the outlet hose coiled around the desk leg so it wouldn't pinch.

Compressed Compressor

Well that's generally how things are kept.

I would like to go into my current projects and such but this post is already quite long and it is quite late, so I will save that for the next one.

New Beginnings, First Blog entry

Hello!

Welcome to my miniature painting/wargaming blog.

Before I delve into anything interesting I would like to start with a introduction and why I am creating such a blog.

My name is Sam, I live in South Australia, and have been in the miniature painting hobby for around 7-8 years roughly. I am only 20 (well nearly 21), so started when I was around 13, give or take a year, so the first few years of my hobby might not really count :P. It was probably around 4-5 years ago when I started actually getting into it a bit more seriously and developing it something I actively did in my life.

I more of a painter and modeler over wargaming as a game. Not to say I don't wargame, its probably more I'm not much of a social person, and don't really know anyone in my locality who shares the same hobby to really game much. I started in the Games Workshop ranges, and as I've gotten older started taking interest in Historicals as well.

But over the last 2 years up till around July last year I had gotten little done in my hobby in terms of getting anything assembled or painted. In 2008 I was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis/Crohns disease, which at first wasn't overly an issue, but as time went on and I went into High school it started to affect me greatly. I was frequently sick and lost most of my motivation. I still hoarded models and expanded my armies but few items ever left the box/sprue.

However, over last 6 months I  have begun to overcome a lot of my medical issue and get it under control. I haven't been ill directly due to the disease in around a year now, and as my body has repaired itself and my health has gotten up to scratch my motivation has risen closer to what it once was. I also moved mid September last year, and was able to re-set up my work space with a new desk which allowed me to do pretty much all my work from it rather than separate areas for painting and computer use. I am also currently working on some models which a friend of mine commissioned me to do, which has been a great way to light the wargaming fire.

So my reasoning for creating this blog is to help keep myself motivated, to share my hobby and my collections with others, but also I am almost starting a new. Many of my older collections I sold off since I was no long interested in them (My old Space Marines I first started with for example) and many of my current collections under went a lot of stripping of old paint jobs from years back or are still in the box/sprue.

Within the next day or two I would like to post up an overview where I will show you my work space, and go over my armies/projects that I have reving to go. I would also like to get a post for each project specifically and lay out what I have currently and my plans for each one, and since many of my models are on the sprue or in the box I will try to review all those items before I start assembly and painting them.

Well this probably is a good point to end this ramble of a first post :P

So join me as a rekindle the fire, pick up the brush and start off a productive year