Planning the Plan

Partially inspired by the indefatigable Bob Cordery via his excellent blog; I have take the somewhat unusual step of setting myself some targets to be achieved during the course of the next month. Working on the basis that even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (or the well worn ‘Rome wasn’t built in day’) I am going to content myself with some small ‘bite sized’ exercises in the hope that as a result they will stand a chance of being completed! The main task for the next few weeks is the planned relocation of my den at home and so time for other projects will be limited. I have a couple of written tasks on the go which serve as a good fill in to the main event – chief of which is producing a play sheet for Mr Fox for a set of WW2 skirmish rules (he will be happy to see that in print for sure, given that it has taken roughly 6 months thus far!). Once these have been tackled then the painting can resume in earnest.

As previously mentioned I am in the process of relocating my ‘office’ at home and this is in itself a major logistical exercise. Basically, I am acquiring an extra bookcase from my daughter’s room so that her ‘stuff’ will need a substantial reorganisation as a result. She is 14 and is growing out of the myriad amount of ‘little girl’ stuff so this means much shuffling around and boxing up of assorted items as her room metamorphosis’s into a young ladies boudoir. I expect this to take at least a weekend and my contribution will be limited to applying the muscle required for moving units etc and packing – the serious business of sorting will be left to the ladies of the house as they are far better at that sort of thing!

Whilst this is taking place in my daughter’s room I will be decorating the new den and planning what will be going where. The idea is to have the double bookcase along one wall and my existing two storage units across the other wall with the desk along another wall beside the door. My PC will be staying where it is and so the old office will become, to use the modern parlance, a ‘chill out lounge’ cum computer suite. Having the PC located away from the main bulk of the collection is a deliberate choice on my part as I find having both the computer and the bookcase in close proximity to be a major distraction when there is painting to be tackled!

The two big advantages for me of undertaking this exercise is that firstly, I will be able rearrange what is stored where and secondly, I will be able to see what I need to keep and what can be disposed of. My storage space is generous but of finite capacity so care still needs to be exercised in the boxing up and packing of ‘stuff’. For example, all of my War at Sea collection is in dire need of a thematic storage solution so this will be a good opportunity to tidy this up. My plan is to acquire some A4 box files that are half the depth of the standard version. I will be adding magnetic paper to the underside of the ship and aircraft bases and will line the files with magnetic strip. I was fortunate enough to acquire a large quantity of 3” by 5” fridge magnets (extolling the virtues of recycling!) that can be readily chopped up to fit as needed for this particular exercise. I also have the Balkan Wars fleets to consider although at 1/3000th they are not quite so imposing. I have a number of board games that will also need attention – Memoir 44 springs to mind – as well as the Space Hulk kit. Then there is the not inconsiderable 15mm WW1 collection – that will need a new home as well.

Oddly enough I am looking forward to tackling this 1:1 scale project as the end result will be really beneficial to my enjoyment of the hobby as a whole. I will certainly try to avoid the temptation to use the extra space as an excuse to expand the collections further though! Well, I can try in any event!