Mid-May Mix-Up!

May is turning out to be a month where I’m not finishing anything, even though I’m keeping busy! I just thought I’d write a quick update on what’s going on but it’s hardly exciting reading!

Most of the month has been taken up by cleaning, preparing and basing figures and I reckon I’ve got about 70 done. These are from a range of projects, some full units, others just odds and sods to add to existing armies. Most of the figures are related to some extent to a change round I’ve made with my figure storage boxes. I think I’m a bit OCD about storing figures and like to keep armies and periods together, but some of them were starting to get out of hand and spread about too much for my liking. The main culprits were VSF figures and Boxer Rebellion armies, which both occupy multiple boxes anyway but were starting to spill out into others.

I reckon I had enough boxes for my current and likely future projects, so it’s just been a case of switching some stuff round. This is sometimes complicated by having the odd flag-bearing figure that fits some boxes but not others that have less headroom! With re-arranging some of the boxes I also planned in enough space for the next figures I intended adding to the armies, along with working out how much space that would leave in future. Sounds a bit too organised, even for me!

I last updated this storage chart in January (you can see it here). With this update I’ve created a new version on my Chromebook, but it doesn’t translate across into an image very well (even though I’ve left some of the columns out of the view above) and I’d imagine it’s not readable for anyone viewing it on a phone!

So, what does this all mean:

• I’ve got enough room to store all my existing, in-progress and planned figures (assuming the last-mentioned does not increase).
• I’ve rationalised the contents of the boxes to make it easier to store related figures together.
• Most of the boxes won’t have much space left in them if and when I’m done, so I’m making the most of my storage space.
• Storage for my VSF figures is organised now, whereas it was more than haphazard before. There are three boxes now; one for Martian/Squid/Invader forces, one for human forces and one for larger models (like fighting machines) from all armies. Part of the problem with arranging storage for these was due to the fact that most of the human figures and machinery had been planned but not started (although some of the figures prepared this month are VSF figures).
• Updating my Boxer Rebellion Chinese forces with newer equipment and troops meant that they really needed another box of their own. It turned out that re-shuffling them has almost filled another box, although some of the figures are also newly prepared and stored.
• Two boxes have been set aside for new projects that I’d like to work on in the not too distant future. One of these is a Mahdist army for the late 19th Century to use to beat up my British. Having adopted The Men Who Would Be Kings colonial rules means that I can add this army without it having to get too large. The other project is the War Of The Pacific that took place between Chile, Bolivia and Peru from 1879 to 1884. To some extent I can use figures from my Paraguayan War Allied armies as Peruvians so I only need to add Chileans and a few Bolivians. This cuts down the number of figures I need to paint and, once again, I’m not intending to have huge armies.
• Two boxes have been set aside for further projects I have in mind or as overspill boxes. I’ll have to see what becomes of them!

So, I appear to have a plan! Unfortunately it doesn’t cover vehicles or ships, which remain two cans of worms best left unopened!