Seriously though, is there a worse hobby for moving house than wargaming? Maybe horse-breeding? Restoring old cars?
OK, I guess any pastime where one collects things, living or not, is problematic for a big move. Wargaming proves no exception, especially for those of us who focus mostly on the DIY/crafting aspects of the hobby.
OK, I guess any pastime where one collects things, living or not, is problematic for a big move. Wargaming proves no exception, especially for those of us who focus mostly on the DIY/crafting aspects of the hobby.
My wife and I have been planning a move since the springtime, and it’s finally here. The house is under contract and soon we’ll be leaving after 10 years in the same abode. Unlike past moves, we’re downsizing drastically instead of just shipping everything. Getting the house prepped for showing over the last month meant getting rid of many things, forcing me to do a lot of self-reflection.
A decade is a lot of time to accumulate junk, especially when you have the “scratch-builder’s eye”. “Ooo, that food packaging looks like the perfect robo-tank turret. I’m sure I’ll use that soon; let me just put that here in the attic for safe keeping”. Of course, I never used most of the stuff I squirreled away, and that came back to haunt me when I finally had to get rid of it.
How much crap did I collect? Behold, the hoard!
Our house features a luxurious “crawlspace“ that’s closer to a basement, with enough headspace for me to stand and hang Christmas lights from the floor joists… the perfect man-cave. And a perfect place to store every bit of foam for terrain making. Of course, no major metropolitan administration wants to deal with foam so getting rid of this pile-o-plastic looked problematic. Luckily, one of my gamer friends came to the rescue and took it all! To sweeten the deal, I gave him a box of thousands of Middle Earth CCG cards. And you know what? I don’t miss them at all.
A decade is a lot of time to accumulate junk, especially when you have the “scratch-builder’s eye”. “Ooo, that food packaging looks like the perfect robo-tank turret. I’m sure I’ll use that soon; let me just put that here in the attic for safe keeping”. Of course, I never used most of the stuff I squirreled away, and that came back to haunt me when I finally had to get rid of it.
How much crap did I collect? Behold, the hoard!
Our house features a luxurious “crawlspace“ that’s closer to a basement, with enough headspace for me to stand and hang Christmas lights from the floor joists… the perfect man-cave. And a perfect place to store every bit of foam for terrain making. Of course, no major metropolitan administration wants to deal with foam so getting rid of this pile-o-plastic looked problematic. Luckily, one of my gamer friends came to the rescue and took it all! To sweeten the deal, I gave him a box of thousands of Middle Earth CCG cards. And you know what? I don’t miss them at all.
I also gave my friend my DIY airbrush spray booth. Since the prices of those duct fans have jumped so drastically in the last year, that one hurt a little. So why not take it with me? The missus and I are planning on moving internationally, and unfortunately, very few of our electrical devices will work properly or safely in our new home. Oh well; it’ll give me a chance to build a new and improved (sorry George Carlin) version of the spray booth.
My D&D compatriot saved me from the crawlspace hoard, but no one could help me deal with the real man-cave, the hobby room. Spending over half of my five decades of life in “conveyances of war”, as the VA calls them, has left my back, neck, and spine an angry mess. Prowling eBay all these years to slowly rebuild my RPG and wargame collection felt good; boxing them all up and carrying them off to storage in a single day did not. Why did I have to pick upstairs for the hobby space?
Halfway through my packing up of the hobby space, I decided to capture its memory with a panoramic picture. A pity I didn’t think of this BEFORE I started dismantling it. Oh well. Below I present my half-dismantled hobby room, with the description that follows serving as the Worst Hobby Room Tour Ever.
I shot this panoramic photo sitting on a swivel chair against the middle of the north wall of the room. The far left side of the photo therefore actually shows looking directly East along that wall, while the right side of the photo shows looking directly West. More simply put: the entry door and the window actually sit opposite each other. Great lesson-learned for me: when shooting panoramic photos, maybe do two 90 degree shots versus one 180 degree pic.
Starting on the left, we see my custom computer desk. I got a bit of ribbing from my wife for this, but I constructed the desk out of insulation foam board for the table top, mounted on top of cheap MDF book cases. My design focused on two things: affordability and space-utilization. A small closet near the room’s entry door breaks up the space, creating a little “L”-shaped nook. Using insulation foam meant I could easily cut the table top to not only perfectly to sit in this corner, but also conform around my normal sitting position using an organic curve. The missus wanted me to get some fancy kidney-shaped IKEA office desk or some such, but I preferred the price on this custom build.
Continuing to the right we see a stack of nine plastic 3-drawer organizers. Although a jumbled pile and empty in this picture, during the hobby room glory days the organizers sat snugly in a nine-cube MDF storage shelf, each drawer crammed full of all manner of tools, parts, and supplies.
On the floor just in front of the stack of organizers sit three cardboard boxes, ready to ship off to Noble Knight Games. The boxes hold about 1/3 of my RPG collection, including all of my 1st Edition AD&D books. Yes, I finally sold them. Don’t despair though, I only sold those RPGs from my collection that I knew I could get (or already have), legitimately, on PDF.
Against the south wall lies a small door to the attic, which runs the entire length of the house and is SO convenient to access. Just imagine how easy it would be to throw unfinished projects in there. Trust me, it was. Oh dear...
Just past the attic entrance and almost hidden by the chair, sits an empty nine-cube MDF shelf system. Although we have (er… had) a separate library, I kept most of my RPGs and wargames on this shelf. It was a beautiful sight to behold, with every cube full and books and cards overflowing to cover the top. All of those games now sit in storage (or have been sold); all that is except my copy of Leaving Earth (and expansions), as seen in the picture. My absolute favorite gaming experience of the last decade, Leaving Earth will be hand-carried in my luggage so it can be the inaugural game in the new home.
Moving on, we see in the center of the picture, my gaming table, which indeed occupied the center of the room. Another custom creation, the table consisted of three layers of insulation foam board, resting on top of more MDF bookcases and covered by a felt gaming cloth. I stored my terrain in cardboard boxes wedged between the bookcases; these served to prop up the table’s center and prevent sagging. The stitching process of the panoramic picture makes the table top appear triangular; in fact the quite rectangular table top had 1.0m x 1.2m sides.
The bookcases on the far side of the table held all my old CCGs. Closer to the viewer we see the white cabinet with the door ajar. My miniatures lived in here, stacked tightly in storage boxes that shared space with boardgames. My miniature collection took up a surprisingly small amount of room but only because most of the figures are not based or painted, if even removed from their packaging at all!
Various hobby gear sits on top of the table, my trusty Milliput and Sculpey, my faithful paper cutter, my cliche Crown Royal tin of dice, and my pewter casting kit in the foreground.
Just left of the west-facing window sits my three-tiered supply shelf. The photo shows a cluttered top shelf but in normal practice I kept this surface clear for measuring and mixing silicone, resins, plasters and such. The plastic bins hold all the various media I dabbled in but never mastered: oil and polymer clays, sculpting and casting waxes, and all the requisite tools.
We have a wonderful organization here in my (current) hometown called a “creative reuse” where folks can donate crafting supplies that are then resold to generate money for charity. The store portion is “pay-what-you-can” so it’s incredibly fortunate that I never discovered this place years ago. I would have so much more to get rid of! Anyways, I found this organization when we decided to downsize, so a majority of the hobby room ended up there. I’m already kicking myself about a few of the donations. I had a beautiful slab of homemade toy wax that I could’ve easily shipped to the new place.
Still with me? Almost done.
Our final stop, sitting right of the window is my primary crafting space, the drafting table. The mouth of my homemade airbrush booth rests at the back of the table, with the remaining components neatly tucked underneath. My reliable, 14 year old Ott light illuminates my craft tool bag, a fancy shaving kit I was gifted (and promptly repurposed).
Over one hundred square feet of dedicated hobby space (not even including the crawlspace). It was great while it lasted!
If you’ve made it this far, I’m amazed and appreciative. In hindsight, I think this post was more for me than for you, just so I can remember the good hobby times in this house.
Halfway through my packing up of the hobby space, I decided to capture its memory with a panoramic picture. A pity I didn’t think of this BEFORE I started dismantling it. Oh well. Below I present my half-dismantled hobby room, with the description that follows serving as the Worst Hobby Room Tour Ever.
I shot this panoramic photo sitting on a swivel chair against the middle of the north wall of the room. The far left side of the photo therefore actually shows looking directly East along that wall, while the right side of the photo shows looking directly West. More simply put: the entry door and the window actually sit opposite each other. Great lesson-learned for me: when shooting panoramic photos, maybe do two 90 degree shots versus one 180 degree pic.
Starting on the left, we see my custom computer desk. I got a bit of ribbing from my wife for this, but I constructed the desk out of insulation foam board for the table top, mounted on top of cheap MDF book cases. My design focused on two things: affordability and space-utilization. A small closet near the room’s entry door breaks up the space, creating a little “L”-shaped nook. Using insulation foam meant I could easily cut the table top to not only perfectly to sit in this corner, but also conform around my normal sitting position using an organic curve. The missus wanted me to get some fancy kidney-shaped IKEA office desk or some such, but I preferred the price on this custom build.
Continuing to the right we see a stack of nine plastic 3-drawer organizers. Although a jumbled pile and empty in this picture, during the hobby room glory days the organizers sat snugly in a nine-cube MDF storage shelf, each drawer crammed full of all manner of tools, parts, and supplies.
On the floor just in front of the stack of organizers sit three cardboard boxes, ready to ship off to Noble Knight Games. The boxes hold about 1/3 of my RPG collection, including all of my 1st Edition AD&D books. Yes, I finally sold them. Don’t despair though, I only sold those RPGs from my collection that I knew I could get (or already have), legitimately, on PDF.
Against the south wall lies a small door to the attic, which runs the entire length of the house and is SO convenient to access. Just imagine how easy it would be to throw unfinished projects in there. Trust me, it was. Oh dear...
Just past the attic entrance and almost hidden by the chair, sits an empty nine-cube MDF shelf system. Although we have (er… had) a separate library, I kept most of my RPGs and wargames on this shelf. It was a beautiful sight to behold, with every cube full and books and cards overflowing to cover the top. All of those games now sit in storage (or have been sold); all that is except my copy of Leaving Earth (and expansions), as seen in the picture. My absolute favorite gaming experience of the last decade, Leaving Earth will be hand-carried in my luggage so it can be the inaugural game in the new home.
Moving on, we see in the center of the picture, my gaming table, which indeed occupied the center of the room. Another custom creation, the table consisted of three layers of insulation foam board, resting on top of more MDF bookcases and covered by a felt gaming cloth. I stored my terrain in cardboard boxes wedged between the bookcases; these served to prop up the table’s center and prevent sagging. The stitching process of the panoramic picture makes the table top appear triangular; in fact the quite rectangular table top had 1.0m x 1.2m sides.
The bookcases on the far side of the table held all my old CCGs. Closer to the viewer we see the white cabinet with the door ajar. My miniatures lived in here, stacked tightly in storage boxes that shared space with boardgames. My miniature collection took up a surprisingly small amount of room but only because most of the figures are not based or painted, if even removed from their packaging at all!
Various hobby gear sits on top of the table, my trusty Milliput and Sculpey, my faithful paper cutter, my cliche Crown Royal tin of dice, and my pewter casting kit in the foreground.
Just left of the west-facing window sits my three-tiered supply shelf. The photo shows a cluttered top shelf but in normal practice I kept this surface clear for measuring and mixing silicone, resins, plasters and such. The plastic bins hold all the various media I dabbled in but never mastered: oil and polymer clays, sculpting and casting waxes, and all the requisite tools.
We have a wonderful organization here in my (current) hometown called a “creative reuse” where folks can donate crafting supplies that are then resold to generate money for charity. The store portion is “pay-what-you-can” so it’s incredibly fortunate that I never discovered this place years ago. I would have so much more to get rid of! Anyways, I found this organization when we decided to downsize, so a majority of the hobby room ended up there. I’m already kicking myself about a few of the donations. I had a beautiful slab of homemade toy wax that I could’ve easily shipped to the new place.
Still with me? Almost done.
Our final stop, sitting right of the window is my primary crafting space, the drafting table. The mouth of my homemade airbrush booth rests at the back of the table, with the remaining components neatly tucked underneath. My reliable, 14 year old Ott light illuminates my craft tool bag, a fancy shaving kit I was gifted (and promptly repurposed).
Over one hundred square feet of dedicated hobby space (not even including the crawlspace). It was great while it lasted!
If you’ve made it this far, I’m amazed and appreciative. In hindsight, I think this post was more for me than for you, just so I can remember the good hobby times in this house.
I don't want to even think about what I would haver to do to pack up all my stuff! My wife keeps threatening me to get a shovel and shovel it all out.
ReplyDeleteHa! Our better halves do keep us in check Chris. When my wife sees me looking thoughtfully at some weird-shaped food packaging, she says "put it in the trash...".
DeleteThank you for the grand tour (space and time) of your gaming. When I look at something that may be useful for gaming (especially can be repurposed into terrain) I must have a particular look as my wife goes "gaming, huh?".
ReplyDeleteI moved 5 years ago, after 30 years in the one spot. OMG I did not realise how much space my gaming stuff took up until it wass in one spot for moving. Especially the terrain for 20mm WW2 gaming in lots of storage boxes. I got rid of a lot of the boardgames I was never going to play and some other gamng stuff I had been carrying around for decades for the "just in case" that I came to realise was never going to happen.
I have only one question: Did you keep you INWO CCG cards? I finally got mine out to play with my son but it never actually happened but still want to try out your solo version. I know it has only been 13 years since you posted them but hey, it is still on my to-do list :-).
Thanks for making it all the way through my blathering Shaun!
ReplyDeleteYes, the wives do know our "terrain-making" and "rule tinkering" faces, haha!
I did in fact keep all my INWO stuff. Given current events, it's not only amazingly prescient but still relevant. If you do decide to try the solo rules, I'd recommend looking at my last post on the subject, written maybe 6-7 (?) years ago, where I added deck-building rules. One of the reasons I don't play CCGs much as a busy adult is the time it takes to build a deck. I tried to make it easier with INWOSOLO.
Things are pretty chaotic with our move but if you'd ever like to play any CCG, just let me know. I played a bunch of Mythos and On the Edge via the forums on Board Game Geek, mostly with people in other countries. It was surprisingly easy and fun, with the forum aspect making it nice and slow, like play-by-mail. And that was almost 10 years ago. Now we have technology like Discord that makes real-time card games possible.
I will have a think on the CCGs. I have not played any for over 15 years. I also only have two - INWO and Star Trek: The Card Game (the TOS one). I used to have a couple of other WW2 themed ones from the 90s but no more.
DeleteI forgot to mention I also looked up Leaving Earth. It went on my list of possible acquires when you mentioned it years ago and you post got me to look it up. Very expensive to acquire now it seems!
I also forgot to ask but you mentioned an international move? If not too personal, I am curious to your destination.
Oh, no dramas on the CCG offer. I probably won't have access to my stuff until next spring or summer, so rush there. Funnily enough, INWO and the Star Trek TOS are two of my favorites. It's been decades since I've played either against other people. INWO really needs 3+ to be fun I remember; the Star Trek game is perfect as two-player.
DeleteYeah, there's a bunch of people waiting for the Leaving Earth publisher to catch up on about three years of overdue orders. I guess it's a hand-made game. Lots of drama about it on BGG. It's sad because the designer is a great guy and is no longer associated with the publisher.
We're still working on paperwork so I don't want to jinx anything regarding our potential new home. Many time-zones away but not the upside-down part where you are (although I have a good friend over there and schemed for years to end up down under).
*no rush there I meant
DeleteHappy to try out the ST:TOS The Card Game sometime when you are ready, definitely no rush from my side either. INWO is definitely more fun with 3 or more players so that is out.
Delete