A Look within the Lair...

Greetings all, a few people have been curious about the purpose built workspace I've had the opportunity to build in the new house. To answer these curiosities and to rabbit on a bit about my thoughts on a good workspace I'm letting you all into the lair of the Pirate Viking...

Now, please forgive the oblique angle of the shot. The room I have appropriated for my lair is fairly cramped, about 8'x12'. I've seen bigger gaming tables! As a result I've had to be very efficient in my use of space to create the most complete workspace.



The desk itself is deeply handy as it is a nice size with two units holding it up. The one on the right has all the stationary and filing that a business builds up, the one on the left is a false one allowing me to hide the computer away and thus save one hell of a lot of desk space. My favourite feature though is a little drawer between the two running right under my workspace that allows me to store all my tools immediately to hand.

The two bookcases on the desk are cheapy Ikea units supporting another Ikea shelf which allows me to have more storage above me (behind me are more storage units).

The units are laid out in themes, area 1 is for the daft amount of basing materials I have. Area 2 contains a neat wooden tray which holds glues, weathering pigments and the like. There is also a couple of storage boxes and a wet pallete (3) that I haven't made much use of yet. Area 4 has four 2.5L "Really Useful" boxes which I found were perfectly sized to take the new range of paints. 5 is a big ol' A2 cutting mat that I use as an assembly area to keep the paint station clear.

Speaking of the paint station, it may seem odd to use one when I have my own dedicated table but it allows me to quickly clear the painting over to area 5 and therefore have the centre clear for the keyboard and mouse that normally live over to the left. Area 6 has 3 boxes that are effetively my In/Out tray. Box 1 is for client painting, box 2 is for "industry" painting and box 3 is for my stuff. Helps to keep project in sight and in mind. Area 7 is a hanger holding my colour wheel and the laminated citadel colour paint poster I made from the promo poster White Dwarf gave away. It allows me to cross off paints I am running short of and prevents that "now what did I go shopping for?" feeling. Area 8 contains a printer and more excitingly a brand spanky new Iwata Neo airbrush. Coincidence that I am about to start on a couple of Warhounds? I think not...

Finally to the left of the desk is my photography box and lighting rig - to the right is a double bed as this is still technically the spare room!

So that is my lair, I spend a daft amount of time here so I have one hell of a good chair and a decent fan to prevent this small room becoming stifling. Hopefully this can show you that by thinking vertically you can have an enourmous amount of equipment in quite a small area. You don't have to be limited to a corner of the dining room... That's all for now.

TTFN