Unpacking the models and terrain

The wargaming room is finally coming together now that our household goods have arrived after two and a half months in transit from Melbourne, Australia to Waikanae, New Zealand. One good thing of moving is the chance to reorganise all the wargaming models, terrain, and unpainted projects. How long it stays organised, though, is anyone's guess!

Positioning the shelving and old kitchen cabinets to see how they fit in the space.

All setup and ready for the unpacking of models and terrain.

I have been unpacking my miniatures, and thankfully the damage has been minimal. One old plastic Spencer Smith figure from my FIW collection broke at the ankles, but a little super glue appears to have fixed it. This older collection might be getting a bit brittle with age. My ECW figures on the other hand took more of a beating. Several cavalry units were bent sideways with horses lying down. I have since been able to straightened them out without any noticeable harm. A few minor pant touch ups will be required. I had carefully wrapped each base in bubble wrap, added cardboard between layers, and used supports to prevent crushing. However, I did not consider anticipate sideways movement, which caused some models to shift and cause the damage. I will be very relieved once everything is finally unpacked.

I made a quick trip to the hardware store to pick up some additional containers. The shelving units I am using now have fewer but larger shelves compared to the old cabinets at our previous house, so some nice stackable containers will come in handy. This setup is an improvement. Rather than removing models one unit at a time from the shelf, I can now grab an entire container of models and bring it to the tabletop for deployment.

Unpacking underway.

This process has been really helpful for taking stock of all my painted and unpainted models, as well as the periods I need to revisit. For example, my French Indian War (FIW) collection, which was used for a campaign way back in 2018 and has rarely seen the light of day since.

We are still waiting to get the internet connected, which means I have significantly reduced online time. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It has given me more time for reading instead of slipping into endless scrolling. One book I am in the middle of reading is “Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon” by Rory Muir. I am hoping it will prompt me to update my Napoleonic rules For larger battles to include horse artillery and light cavalry. 

So the question for me very soon will be - which period shall I wargame?