Monday 1 November 2021

Space Saving

At SELWG the other week I mentioned to David-in-Suffolk (a.k.a. the Ragged Solider) that my collection doesn't take up much space due to the small scales that I game in. Some time after I checked how much space. Well here's how much:

Under 3 feet wide. 34 inches or 87cm in new money.


To be a little more precise, there are 32 plastic boxes c.21x21x4cm and 7 thick card boxes 24x30x6cm (internal dimensions). A fraction of cubic metre. In fact about 10% of one cubic metre!

In those boxes are 11 'armies', all of my buildings, castle sections, river sections, woods (2 of the card boxes alone), hedges, fences, earthworks, bridges, and my unpainted lead pile. The 'armies' are:

Period

No. of painted and based figures

Armies

Scale

SYW

3520

Austrian, Prussian, Russian

6mm

ECW

1482

Parliamentarian and Royalist

10mm

AWI

305

American and British

10mm

Napoleonic

1956

Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish and Prussian

6mm

WWII

160

Finnish and Soviet

10mm

Total

7423




Guns, limbers and wagons are not included in those totals. The WWII stuff does not include any vehicles yet.

Quite a modest total by some people's standards. But my wife thinks it's enough, and who am I to disagree. Openly.


18 comments:

  1. You are just getting started, my friend. Next time your wife thinks you have too much, let me send you a photo or two...

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  2. Interesting to see the volume of the collection. The great advantage of the smaller scales!

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    1. It started when I lived in a one bedroom flat and seemed the logical thing to do then. When more space became available I just took the opportunity to ‘command’ larger armies.

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  3. Interesting thoughts……..if there is one thing I have learnt about wives is they really aren’t a good judge on size of wargaming collections. Your collection is quite modest 😀

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    1. Thanks. I will show her the second part of your message but not the first.

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  4. Looks like a decent number of figures to me - the clever part is they are all teeny weeny and fit in a small space, including when you are gaming with them - my problem is I like the look of larger figures - I might even be tempted by 40mm for skirmish games one day!

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    1. I do like larger figures. It’s just I can satisfy my megalomania easier with smaller ones.

      I’m toying (pun intended) with the idea of larger scale figures for Colonial wargaming. Something along the lines of the Men Who Would Be Kings rules. I can’t seem to find what I’m looking for in 10 or 6mm.

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  5. Modest in size - but not in ambition. Interesting range of periods there.

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    1. Yeah, nearly all gunpowder era though.

      Unfulfilled ambitions to go earlier to when the men all had pointy sticks, and slightly later to when the Brits had rifles and the enemy were armed with mangoes and kumquats. Oh and that little local difficulty the former colonies had mid-19th Century has an appeal too. But that’s more gunpowder. Then Spanish and Russian Civil Wars are something I’ve always fancied.

      It’s nearly all civil wars I know. Weird.

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    2. Very impressive, and a great advert for smaller scales! I am sort of 'stuck' with 25mm 7YW, 20mm WW2 and 15mm Pike and Shot, all of which I will keep for sentimental reasons. BUT I would be strongly tempted to go for 6mm (or maybe even 2mm!) for any new ventures. Full-sized battles in a small space, easy storage and low cost - what's not to like?

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    3. What you do lose with these scales is instant recognisability (if that’s a word) of what those troops are. It’s a bit better with my new lighting though. But I still struggle with Prussian fusileers/grenadiers. There’s also a charm factor with some larger scale figures. I don’t have that connection back to my youth with these figures, but I’ve now I’ve had the 6mm SYW stuff far longer than I had my Minifigs!

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  6. I love this. I echo Jonathan's comment. allow me to send you a photo of workspace and storage if you continually find yourself in hot water with the Mrs!

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    1. Heh heh! It’s like 1941 again with you Americans helping us Brits out with resources to resist the Axis powers with. (If I can characterise Mrs Nundanket that way).

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  7. What a delightfully modest collection, as mine is only 28mm it does take up considerably larger area,when I built the 22m2 shed it was with the best intention of it being a multi purpose spacebut gradually it evolved into being entirely mine ,until recently when one half of a recycled kitchen cabinet was taken over by my wife who proceeded to mark it up with tape as a "no little men zone" as I have taken over most of the sideboard to house work in progress figures I guess that's fair!
    Best Iain

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    1. It’s all about give and take. I’m hoping that in my case Mrs N does the giving and I do the taking 😉

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  8. Wow, that is compact!
    I have recently introduced two drawer sets into my shed...!
    Regards, James

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    1. After finding a table solution, somewhere to store the boxes is next.

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