Rapidly reorganising a rowdy rabble of Russians

In the aftermath of the Leipzig game I unpacked and then re-boxed all the toys I'd taken.  Packing up after a game - especially when it's mostly done by other people - always results in a degree of disorganisation.  None of this matters, though, as long as the toys are safe.  While I had the table covered in toys I had the presence of mind to take a few photos.  I'll leave it to you to decide if you are inspired or appalled! above  - Barclay de Tolly and Wittgenstein (great Russian names!) with four regiments of line infantry.

Barclay is a Supreme plastic figure and has real attitude.

Order being established.  One of these A4 size boxes accommodates two 18-man regiments.

As you might imagine I have a few of these boxes, so labelling them seems like a good plan.

Russian staff in their box but no doubt continuing the post-battle debate.

Even more storage solutions

 I have mentioned in the past my acquisition of more than a few of the Really Useful Boxes.  These are stackable plastic crates with lids which lock on.  A few months ago I decided to rationalise the storage of my 25mm pointy-stick armies as despite being all neatly labelled, preparation for a game seemed to involve rooting through large numbers of 4 and 9 litre boxes.
I thus decided to move largely to the larger but still quite shallow 10-litre boxes for storage, and to decant the required figures for a game into (usually no more than two) of the smaller boxes for transport.

This means that rather than being scattered across several boxes, my Roman legionaries and auxilia are gathered here in one.

  Similarly we have the 'Persian Cavalry' box.

While the 10 litre boxes can accommodate all but the longest pointy sticks some oddities have to live in taller boxes,  Behold the 'Elephants and Camelphracts' box!

Tidying up

As previously mentioned, I have been putting things straight following a period of domestic disruption caused by building and decorating work.  One of the items I had to move was this 200x80cm bookcase - one of IKEA's finest - which lives on the landing outside my toy room door.  Clearly I had to empty it first - which revealed just how much stuff it held!  Before I re-stocked it therefore, I decided to thin out the contents a bit and have it looking a bit neater than before.
It is now much tidier - but then it was pretty bad before.

The shelves hold mostly wargaming and modelling books.

The wargames books - the oldest acquired in the mid-'70s, the newest a couple of weeks ago.

I have a full set of these splendid little Airfix books.  They took many years to accumulate.

The lower shelves house various wargames rules, boxed games and these ring
 binders which contain various articles archived from magazines.

Boxing clever

The toy room was in a bad state for a few weeks as we've had some work done on the house.  This meant that all sorts of junk was piled in the toy room - restricting my ability to paint toys or even photograph stuff I'd already finished.
To celebrate, here is a photo of part of my recently uncovered wall of boxfiles.  These contain some of my 20mm Megablitz toys - specifically the French, Italians, Brits and some of the Germans and Soviets.

The Modelling Table

In response to a request from Peter Douglas, here is my modelling/painting area in all it's glory!

Occupying the window end of my 'toy room', the Formica-topped table began life in my parents' kitchen in the '60s, and has been my modelling table for 30 years!  It's matching chairs perished in the 1970s.  At 2x3 feet, it is also the ideal size for pasting wallpaper - a role it has performed in at least four houses (most recently last week!).  No doubt it will collapse in a heap at some point, but I see no point in seeking a replacement until that happens.  The chair was liberated during an office clearance, as indeed were the bin and metal drawers (albeit different offices).  The Anglepoise lamp is at least 30 years old and uses a 'daylight' bulb.

The metal drawers to the left of the table contain various bits including balsa wood, some works in progress and (in the top two) tools. 

In the corner of the room lurks this 30cm wide cabinet (from Ikea) in which I store flock, decals, glue and my reserve stock of paintbrushes.

Perched atop the cabinet is this drawer unit which escaped from my father's office in the early 70s.  Following a long career of toy car storage it now accommodates paint.  The separate tray on the top (from JR's attic) is filled with Vallejo paints.  Does anyone know what 'Dewhurst's Sylko' was?

Increasingly sidelined by the Vallejo upstarts, the Humbrol acrylics (actually all my paints are acrylics).

Most of my books are in other rooms, but I keep a few to hand depending on what I'm painting.

A toy room essential - sound!  Some of these components are probably antiques by now.  The Cambridge Audio DAB tuner is a mere stripling of only ten summers while the CD player dates from 1993.  The amp and cassette deck (my apologies to younger readers who may be baffled by such things) date from 1983...

Funny Little Wars Storage Solutions - the Forbodian Army

Now that I've settled on what may well be a 'permanent' solution, I added my usual labels.

As the Forbodian Army lurched towards what may be regarded as completion, I decided it was time to sort out proper storage and transport arrangements for the toys.  I had initially used an assortment of cardboard boxes but these were never really satisfactory - not least because they were all different sizes, creating issues when it came to shelving and transport. 

Regular readers will know that I maintain a large fleet of box files which accommodates most of my toys including 20mm, 15mm, some 6mm and 1/144 aircraft.  The recent growth of my collection of 'proper' 25mm toys had led me to investigate the more 'Really Useful Boxes' range.  I felt that these stackable lidded plastic boxes were more suitable then box files for heavy metal figures - and I identified two sizes from the extensive range which would suit my purposes.  They are a 4-litre box which closely replicates the internal dimensions of a 'traditional' foolscap box file, and a 9-litre box which is simply a taller version of the 4-litre. 

For 54mm FLW toys, the 4-litre boxes will accommodate most foot figures - although standard bearers and the like will need to lay down.  The taller mounted cavalry figures easily fit in the 9-litre box.  I fitted dividers in the boxes to limit wandering.  Those in the 'foot' boxes are simply old kit boxes I had spare.  Unlike my smaller scale figures, I've not bothered to magnetise the FLW chaps. 

This is what the boxes look like.  The photo shows the taller 9-litre 'cavalry' box.

This box contains the Jager Regt (left) and the Foresters (right) with the Palace Guard nicely filling the gap in the middle.  52 figures in all.

As well as the Militia Regt (right), this box houses gunners (centre) as well as the Medical Detachment, First Brigade HQ and of course King Boris (seen reclining bottom left) and his staff.  The only metal figures are the King and his staff officers - the latter in the bottom layer of the red box.

The cavalry box - Light Regt on the left.  The 2nd Brigade HQ shares the space of the 'Heavy' Regt.

More Toy Soldier storage solutions - metal drawers

I first acquired a set of these metal drawers 20 years ago - I was clearing out an office and they looked useful!  A couple more followed over the years and they are now quite literally part of the furniture of my toy room.  The drawers are about 5cm deep, 24cm wide and 35cm long, making them suitable for most scales of toys up to 20mm.  Mine are used mostly for 6mm toys, and some have an additional 'floor' built in to make better use of the height.

Some of the (rather scruffy) drawers.

A typical drawer - this one contains 6mm USMC, Saudi and Kuwaiti forces for the 1990/91 Gulf War.

The 'Arab Mech Infantry' drawer.  This has two levels.   The top one was made from stiff card edged with balsa.

The bottom deck of the same drawer - balsa blocks in the corners and centre hold up the top level.

More Toy Soldier Storage Solutions - plastic drawers

Given the degree of interest shown in my posts on my box file storage and transport project, I have taken some photos of the units I use for some other toys. 
I first discovered these plastic drawer units in a DIY store in the 1980s and now use quite a few of them to store various toys, including 1/600 ships, some 6mm 'Modern' kit, and my 6mm Great War figures.

The units are about 21x17x17cm.  This is the unit used to store my Great War Germans.

The drawers are just the right size for my fleet of 1/6000 scale ships.

The labelling project is gradually spreading to these units!

Some of the individual drawers are labelled using a Brother label making device I use in the office for making file labels.

The drawers are a handy size to accommodate units for some of the games I regularly play.  This pair of drawers contains the whole of German III Corps for Op14.