Tuesday 20 October 2009

The Practical Wargamer



An unusual post, to be sure, but one certainly of interest. The table you see in the picture was acquired free of charge and is of a sturdy, fold up variety. It is 3ft by 2ft (exactly) which means that it is ideal for use with Tabletop Top Battles by Mike and Joyce Smith or any of Bob Cordery's When Empires Clash rule sets - all I need to do is to grid an appropriately coloured cloth to drape over it and I will be in business. It also serves as a handy table for anything else you care to name. It would also be an ideal DBA/HOTT table as you would have spare space on the surface for placing casualties and assorted gaming paraphernalia.


The box with the lift out tray I acquired at the lazybones boot sale for £2.50 and it is really useful. I wanted something like this for transporting figures etc on club nights and which was sturdy enough to withstand the inevitable bashing around in the car. Transporting figures etc and storing them is the bane of most wargamers lives and I for one am quite lazy about making custom boxes etc. As a result I am always on the look out for such things as box files and other such storage items. The trays contained within the box (I think it was designed for the artist although it was unused) are around 30mm deep which is a little limiting but ideal for 1/3000 and 1/2400 ships and anything 6 or 2mm. Certain 15mm armies could fit in them although such things as lance armed cavalry may be a little problematic. Certainly the 12mm plastic Risk figures fit in very snugly.
The Black Sea Russian navy is currently residing in the top shelf whilst I ponder the best way to store the rest of the fleets and also given that potential new addition to the 1/3000th naval collection may require rather more room than is currently available........................;-)




4 comments:

Paul O'G said...

Brilliant- and whata bargain too! Solutions like that are fantastic for naval figs and youd fit 4 or 5 Land Ironclad armies in there!

To stop the models sliding arund, you could cut out magnetic tiles or glue down old flat fridge magnets on the draws, then attach that very thin metal paper to the bottom of the model bases- they'll stay in place then and not slide around within their compartments.

David Crook said...

My thoughts entirely - all the 1/3000 ships have metal paper onthe undersides so I need some magnetic strip to line the boxes. Good call re old fridge magnets!

Paul O'G said...

those advterising style ones that come in the mail box, and from the back of old calendars, work partiularly well

David Crook said...

........yet another credit crunch gaming idea! Wait and see whats coming re VSF.............