The Man Cave shuffle (Part 1) !!

No not the latest title of some weird musical experiment, but a direct result from some planning and organisation that has been needed in the Great Hall for a while now. As I eluded too in a previous post here I was going to get the hall in better shape and more organised, especially as I am painting to earn my keep. I moved in here in a bit of a rush and did not have the luxury of time to sort out completely the best way to have everything. So having been in here 9 months I needed to lay it out much better. So stage 1 of the shuffle begins, which is concentrating on the workbench as that is without doubt the most important aspect.

Whilst I was organising I decided to go with Vallejo as my main paint of choice. I am happy I made this decision and did not stick with Foundry paints, even more so since the announced that they are having price rises across the board. For me Foundry figures and paints are at the ceiling of what I am willing to pay already so any increase or removal of discounts lost me as a customer from that point on. I digress though and back to the main point of this post.

To properly re organise meant that I had to sort the storage of paints out much better, my rack is great but not large enough to cope with the full range plus extras. I also wanted to use them effectively for the dropper bottles and make life very easy for myself going forward. So pencil was put to paper and I began the task of designing racks that would suit my purposes. I apologise for copy protecting the next two images, but I have also allowed these to be produced commercially.

The plans were completed and sent over to Martin and Diane at Warbases to have three of these racks cut for me. Hence one of the reasons for my trip to Scarborough this Saturday. So with the racks being designed all I had to do now was fill the gaps in the range of paints so I had the full set. This was achieved by contacting David Holland at Northumbrian Tin Soldier, a bit of negotiation and a deal was made for me to collect a batch of paint at Scarborough. Once again fantastic service from this new company ( I also parted with a purchase of more NightFolk more on that later).

I am rather annoyed as I had taken pictures of the racks before assembly but alas gremlins have eaten them so I can not show the Giant jigsaw puzzle of parts for the racks. However these were very easy to assemble, they should be after all I had designed them!

So after they were assembled the hard work really began as I knew how I wanted the racks to look exactly. I had prepared several items in readiness for this stage. I had designed labels for the front of the racks with a space to add a dash of the correct colour as well. Everything was laid out exactly as they are in the Vallejo racks so future purchase should be very easy too.

Oh the sheer pleasure of completing this task knowing that things should run a lot better from here on in.

All labelled up and paint applied for recognition ( Thats OCD for you).

A view of the back, the bottles go through the two layers and rest on the knuckle of the dropper at the back, thus a slight downward angle and the rear board holds the bottle tightly. Must remember to affix lids properly. The frame ensures the full rack is very stable and that the bottles are enclosed.

Now one big advantage of having almost the full range, yes I have a few missing ones as I cocked up most unusual but it happened. I designed a colour chart so as I was applying colour to the racks I also had a square ready for the correct colour to be put in, and now I don't have to rely on the wildly inaccurate printed one I had from Vallejo, that's the problem with printed versions they are not at all accurate in many cases and I have been shocked by the discrepancies before. I will make these charts available to view permanently once completed on a separate page.

So having got the racks filled and sorted the only thing left to do was put the workbench back into a very usable layout.

Now I have the computer sorted and on the left of the workbench, the mouse and keyboard can also be used from that position rather than where they are for this snap (I was not painting). Paint racks run across the back with my medication and music speakers on top. Lamp and brushes off to the right side giving me a large central zone to work in.

I have given rights for Warbases to reproduce these racks, and also to adapt to smaller sizes as required, mine hold 90 bottles each. The down side of this would have been postage costs not only because of the weight but the dimensions. So I am sure Martin will adapt the design for a smaller post friendly version.

Well good people that is part one of the shuffle completed, next I will be reorganising the shelving behind me for better storage and preparations. But before that I now intend to sort the new paints into triads and will present my findings for you all.

Loki