"When you've painted them you have to play..." Topic

So, having finished painting the British I have plenty of new units to baptise in the rolling flames of hostile dice.

I set up a fictional encounter for my Peninsular forces to battle it out on, keeping the terrain simple to aid speed of play – eye candy terrain clutter (like fields, bushes, scrub, etc.) looks great but it does get in the way of things.

Here it is:

link

with plenty more pics, and battle report at the link above.

Looks great!

That was very cool to read. Table looked great, but the room looked great too. I like the cabinets on the right of the first picture. What is the table size? How much room is there around the table for players?

So the table is 12' x 6', or 14'8"x 6' with the extension up. It is based on two banks of kitchen units for terrain storage, seen here under construction (lengthening with new units, by 4', some time ago). You can see the drop leaf extension plonked to one side of the table whilst the extension is made – this is fixed to the table end with a 6' piano hinge and is held up by (detachable) legs when in use.

The room, at it's widest, is 19' x 14'. The gap between table and cabinets on the narrow gap side is about 20". It's easily enough room to play but there is no room to pass a stool (if you'll excuse my French) so you can't sit down on that side. Note that I've now got the cabinets the other way up, the jutting out shelf is now at the top, well above head height. You can also see the industrial lighting I use – not pretty but, 9' of strip lighting gives strong well defused lighting above the table.

These six cabinets are CD cabinets, each with 8 shelves (19" x 6") capable of holding about 4.5K figures.

The room doubles as my office (prof. painter) so the gap is much wider on the desk side. The wonderful desk was my bargain of the century: £10.00 GBP at a 'everything not nailed down must go' business liquidation sale.

At the other end of the room, here pictured with table extension up, are three cabinets for bulk figure storage – each with 10 shelves (30" x 14") capable of holding about 12,000 figures. With extension up the gap is narrow: it's about 15" – enough to pass, no more.

Lastly, extension down, you can see the last of my storage. Ikea filing box units (now finished with brass knobs) and a glass fronted cabinet. The cabinet was another bargain – it had shelves missing so I got it at an auction sale for £2.00 GBP The Ikea ply wood filing box units were also very cheap, a horizontal bank of three were sold at £10.00 GBP each, once upon a time; I've now got them six high (one more became available from elsewhere in the house so I nabbed it quick).

It's a great space and I'm a very proud of it; I'm a very lucky boy to have it.

A great looking game.

Very nice looking minis/game and fantastic room!

I am in need of additional lighting, above my game table, as well. I need to convince my wife to let me hire an electrician to wire them. Need a long LED light, similar to what you have, directly over the tabletop. My table is 5+ x 9+. Recessed can lights in the ceiling, located to the sides, not lined up with the table, of course. Planning to go with 5,000 K LED strip lighting, hopefully 9 feet long, centered over the table.

I use my table for mini's gaming, RPG games, and my wife uses it for quilting, warping her looms, and other fiber-related hobbies. I think she will agree to better lighting… I hope. Thanks for sharing! Cheers!

There can be a problem with recessed spots over a table, especially if the ceiling is low. A friend did it when he set up a wargame room in a cellar with a ceiling barely 6'6" high (which was fine provided you didn't get excited and start jumping about). Because the ceiling was low he went for recessed spots but the lighting was so close to the table that circles of light were plainly visible on the surface. You obviously put some thought into the positioning of your spots.

Strip lighting (ugly stuff) is definitely best, if you can get it past the wife. Tell yours from me, eye strain isn't good as you get older: Eventually it makes your ears bleed, then your eyes fall out, and then you get fat.

Actually, the house had can lights when we moved in. The game table came later, after we moved in -- custom built. Never thought the can lights, near the walls, would not provide enough light… I was wrong. I replaced them with newer LED's, which are much brighter, but their off-center positions really limit the light reaching the center of the table. The can lights are great for the RPG players, with their books around the edges of the table. Just the center is poorly lit up. House was not designed for a gaming table, or even a pool table. Really need a strip light over the table center.

Youngest son will inherit the house, and the table. Package deal, that table is solid Hickory, and it weighs 500+ pounds… It will live/die with the house! The strip light will be function over aesthetics, and most welcome for it. Cheers!

OMG your hobby space is epic man!!!

Whenever Olicana displays his huge and gloriously painted collections, I feel jealous. So now he goes and shows us this magnificent setup for his gaming. Sigh………..

Looks like a relatively effective use of a nice sized room. The figures and scenery always look good too. Congrats!

That's a mighty splendid table space you have there. Must be wonderful to have a devoted wargame and painting room to escape into!

Fine painting technique too, I must say. Great shading and colour depth. Personally, I'm not into black outlining, but I can certainly appreciate the technique when it's done so well, as with yours. I presume your figures are 25/28 mm?