"Storing terrain with not a lot of room, my setup" Topic

So I guess this post is the result of a 15-year journey through the gamer's perpetual dilemma of his/her hobby getting out of control, and coming back to a place of peace and prosperity.

The thread on the forums about how much unpainted minis/terrain do you own is what inspired me to share this.

I realize that it's something of a universal running joke, the notion of our gaming hobby "having us" rather than us having it. Closets and rooms filled with unbuilt and unpainted miniatures and terrain. Stuff everywhere, most likely never to be opened, let alone actually finished. Thousands of dollars spent and tied up in a glut of purchases that we can't display or enjoy.

I once was that kind of hobbyist, but I got to a point where I was not enjoying it, it was causing me more logistical and financial stress than I was getting enjoyment out of it. I had to really shift my brain into a new mode of thinking and abandon the "old gamer" that I was.

That said, please do not take this as if I'm up on some kind of lofty pedestal looking down. Far from it. I only wish to share this in the hopes that some of you may take some inspiration and direction from it.

The point to my rambling story is that it IS possible to have a fully functional and enjoyable wargaming hobby, and do it in not a lot of space! I mean a REALLY small space.

Now, I can't lie here – obviously you have to be organized and you have to make tough decisions as to what you really want and don't want. Through various circumstances in life, I never was able to have a dedicated gaming room, everywhere I've lived never had "that room" that was big enough to have a true gaming table set up permanently and with space to move around it.

Gamers that are blessed enough to have full basements for hobbying areas, separate painting rooms, a big house with big rooms for gaming tables, that's awesome. But for many of us, we do not have that luxury.

Now, living in a modest house with my girlfriend, I have managed to create a comfortable if somewhat small space for my wargaming. The house has six rooms, all square box-style, and they are very small rooms. My gaming room is all of 15 x 10. It's SMALL:

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The only major compromise that had to be dealt with was that you can only access the table from three sides, not four. But games CAN be played, it's just a matter of reaching a bit further to move things.

The painting and hobbying space is minimal. One small painting desk with paints and lamps above, and everything else stored underneath and in one small modular drawer unit:

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Next to the hobbying station, one small two-level book case, which holds every wargaming book that I own, fantasy and historical. It also holds all my gaming counters, markers, dice, and miscellaneous supplies. The top of the book case is free to place some buildings for display:

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My ENTIRE terrain collection, with the exception of some larger display pieces I have stored elsewhere, is under this 4 x 6 table! The only feasible way to do gaming in a room this small is to use very available bit of space. Under a gaming table there is a great amount of dead space which is perfect for this.

Under this table there are full sets of hills, trees, rocks, roads, walls, fences, buildings, ruins, for both spring/summer tables as well as autumn/fall and winter tables.

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Next, the miniatures! Probably the most crucial part of all this! There was a time when I was trying to live in a one bedroom apt. and do four different scales of wargaming, for BOTH historical and fantasy! It was simply too much. In the end, I had to choose what I really wanted and what I didn't. Couldn't have everything.

What you see in this clothes closet holds five Warhammer armies, as well as two American Revolutionary armies. All told about 1,500-1,750 figures give or take. This closet holds my ENTIRE miniature collection. Most of it is painted. That which is still unpainted is out in front of the "rotation" and on deck to be painted in sequence. The main point here is that I have NO mystery closets of unfinished stuff. I know exactly what's not painted yet. And I have my head around what's left to paint. I have control of it, it doesn't have control of me. It's not an insurmountable mountain that has taken over my life!:

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The key to this is that I chose ONE historical time period to game. Had to pick a favorite. I chose AWI in one scale, 28mm. And I have one set of fantasy armies for three primary fantasy games: Warhammer, Age of Sigmar, and Kings of War. Couldn't do science fiction, and Zulu War, and Civil War, and all the rest. Would love to do all those, but I couldn't. And I'm really all the happier for it!

So, in conclusion that's really all I wanted to share. Just wanted to do this to show that with one 15 x 10 room and one small book shelf and desk, it is possible to have a permanent 4 x 6 table space and space for hobbying and storing books as well!

Happy gaming everyone!

I use stackable under the bed plastic boxes with lids and store under the gaming table. The boxes in the uk are cheap and can be bought in any pound or dollar store

Inspiring solutions. Thanks.

That's a very nice looking table set up. I applaud your focus and ability to separate the wheat from the chaff. The older I get the more I find myself concentrating on only a couple favorite subjects and willing to part with others. I have a large collection of 54-60mm unpainted plastic Alamo figures and terrain consisting of all the playsets and plastic figures produced by Conte, Toy Soldiers of San Diego and Paragon Scenics. I love the stuff but realize I'll never use it in the way I had originally envisioned. It takes up a lot room. There's no way I could ship all this stuff. Maybe someday I'll meet someone within driving distance who wants to buy it.

My gaming room is all of 15 x 10. It's SMALL:

My gaming room is smaller than that …

@Ragbones,

Thanks for the compliments.

I hear you completely. I amassed a collection of 15mm Zulu War, must have spent a good $400 USD on it by the time I had gotten all of the resin Rorke's Drift and other things. Not a single thing ever got opened or built, let alone painted. I got to a point where I was storing entire periods of historicals AND still buying new stuff on top of it. That's when I knew I was in big trouble.

I also got into this rut where I would assemble miniatures and prime them, but then would put them back and never get around to painting them. Had Civil War in 28mm all in that state, all primed black, and based. But never painted.

My apartment was insane. It looked totally neat and was not cluttered in and of itself. BUT, hidden away in EVERY square inch of closet was wargaming stuff packed right to the door. To get at one thing I had to pull out twenty other boxes. Was crazy. Couldn't store things like bedding and towels because it was all minis and terrain taking up the space.

It was when I began to layer new purchases on top of stuff I hadn't even finished yet that I knew I had to start fresh!!

@Major B,

Indeed! You must be organized and make the best use of the space you have!

Nice use of limited space. I have a little painting area in my small garage, with no room to leave a table up, but I can set up a table for a day.

The only suggestion I might have, and something I do, is to have uniform sized boxes for most of my mini's, with labels on the end of the boxes facing out, so I can find exactly what I am looking for.

I'm with you. About 10 years I did a HUGE clear out of all my unpainted. Sold it off and using the $$ I sent shed loads off to be painted. In 6 months I ended up with 5 or 6 COMPLETED projects. Suddenly I could game new periods and new armies!

Like you I have limited space. I have a 9x9 room for storage in my shop, along with my gaming table.

In my condo I have a tiny desk – 30x30" for painting, along with a rolling card of small drawers for paints.

Baranovich,
I appreciate your post and find it inspiring and helpful. I moved across the country about 18 months ago and came to realize how out of control my "gaming" had become (which is ironic since I wasn't actually gaming at all). I will _never_ be able to paint all the minis I own. And even if I could, I've realized that, for me, painting (while enjoyable) isn't an end in itself. I want actually to enjoy gaming with the darn things! But I can't do that when I feel compelled to paint simply because I've got a huge mountain of naked lead. So I'm now paring down my collection; and to succeed, I'm having to be ruthless (which is, to be honest, rather painful). I'm thinking no more than three periods in only one scale each. So I'm looking at 28mm Western and Prohibition-era gangsters (thanks to Great Escape Games) and 15mm WWII. I would _really_ like to include ACW, Vietnam, F&I War, Napoleonics, etc. But if I open the door to any of them, each will eventually find a way in. Your post helps harden my resolve to manage my hobby rather than have it manage me. Thanks!
Doug

Nicely done! And you're right: so nearly as I can see, all the people who have done a good job of managing the hobby in a limited space followed your decision to have a single climate and scale of terrain.

Good luck going forward.

Well done sir. Every tabletop gamer needs a little space to call his/her own, and I applaud your efforts to make it work.

I'm in the process of scaling back my own collection, even though I have my own dedicated office and adjacent game room/den. There's enough space, I guess, but I realized that I'd rather focus on a couple genres (fantasy and non-40k sci-fi) rather than bounce around from project to project, trying to drum up player interest every few months for something new and (most likely) weird.

anyway, I doff my cap sir!

Thank you for sharing, this is inspiring!

Interesting contrast between US and UK. If I had a 15 x10 room just for gaming, I would think I had arrived in heaven!

I'd like to recommend tiny armies such as those for DBA. They allow you to indulge in building armies you feel driven to collect, while still using very little storage space. It makes it less painful to cut back on periods.

I have one cupboard and one trunk. A shoebox for two matched HOTT armies with strongholds and an organiser box for 25mm armies.Once the box is full then the army is finished. Not a lot of room here.
Terrain goes in the bottom of the cupboard.

Still have a few based and primed armies, but hopefully the madness is under control.

+1 for labelling boxes.

Very good! I see you even have room for some hanging clothes in your closet! I'm afraid my stuff has spilled out of my room into the garage and a closet in another room, and needs to be driven back with whip and chair. I also need to clear a couple paths in my room, so I can access everything.

Grelber

@Baranovich. I think the key is, at least for me, is the mindset. Its not the room you have but how you use it and how we think about our hobby. I have a huge room with a painting space and a permanent table but I still need to scale down not for room sake but mental health! If I had time and money I'd try to build every army from biblical times to today's modern force, in every scale! I am thinking I need more play time and less painting/building time. I should forget some projects I am limping through and concentrate more on two or three. Its like bungee jumping off a bridge!