Sheds

After sitting in a stack of parts in my driveway for nine years, my two sheds are finally together.

Three of our kids decided to visit and naturally I put them to work on an old fashioned barn raising.  These two shed served for at least ten years in California mounted on a concrete pad.  Here they will sit on graded gravel in the wind and the snow.  They are made by Lifetime and they are terrific.

I am placing only replaceable items into the sheds.  So in the event of catastrophe the contents can be replace by insurance money.  Not the case with many hobby items.

The first items are my collection of miniature trees.  All mounted on sheets of plastic or on old CDs.  Fully painted, flocks, and well cared for.  All very tidy.

Each box is labeled with the contents.  It's not hoarding if the boxes are labeled. 

An insect catching sticky pad and a moisture trap on the shelf it insure the integrity of the collection.  The shed walls and roofs have been reinforced with metal straps to hold the plastic pieces together, the floor has been nailed to the ground with 10 inch nails.  The seams have been sealed with foam or glue to prevent leakage and stop insects from gaining entry.

Each shed has a wasp trap and flying insect trap to catch flying bugs.

The interior of each box has a moisture absorbing packet to further protect the contents.  Both sheds are right outside my window and I inspect the exterior at least twice a day.  They sit under a porch light.

I needed a few extra screws to finish putting them together and a quick call to Lifetime and a very kind lady sent me 100 metal screws free of charge, despite the sheds being years out of warranty.  Excellent customer service.  I highly recommend their products.  Other than being a customer I don't have any connection with the company.

https://www.lifetime.com/storage-sheds  
 

Storage Plan

How does the Bunkermeister store his collection?  This is how I store some of it.  These are Sterilite   boxes, that have been discontinued.  They still make a very similar box.

Often, I put loose times in the box, but sometimes I put smaller boxes inside or more commonly zip lock bags as shown here.

I like waterproof, insect proof bags for GI Joe items since they often include cloth and I want to protect the collection from damage.  Also some GI Joe items are made by rubbery plastics that can have a chemical reaction against hard plastic toys.

Over the last two weeks I have been re-stacking and re-sorting the boxes.  Each box gets a hand written 3 X 5 card taped to the inside of one end of the box describing the contents.  I have recently begun moving the card higher up on the box because it makes it easier to read.  Also, in the past I did not tape the cards to the inside of the box and many have slipped down making them hard to read.

The white tape with numbers on them is the weight of the box, so that I can put the heaviest boxes on the bottom.  Also stacking the boxes like this can put a lot of pressure on the lower boxes.  After storing them like this for 6 years I have never had a box collapse due to the weight of the boxes above, but it is possible and I check for it frequently.

I am hoping that by the end of this year I can build a rack to put these boxes on so that I can reach the lower boxes without having to move all the boxes above it.  This project has been in the queue for 6 years with the delay caused only by a lack of money, materials, skill, tools and labor.  Of course, if I had the money the other four would be easier to get!

It's not hoarding if the boxes are labelled. 
 

Horse Wagons and Storage

More wagon wheels.  The Imex Conestoga Wagon set is great for conversions.  The box of the Conestoga is perfect for a pontoon for a pontoon bridge.  That leaves the tentage to use for other wagons, or as canopies for building entrances.  The horses are large and great for artillery.  The figures are generic enough to work from the American Revolutionary War to World War One at least.  A quick head swap can help modify them to more modern troops.

I cut the wire mesh with wire cutters and kept all the little pieces.  In the past I have used them for various purposes requiring a short metal pin, often to do head swaps for 54mm figures.

New York Police Department, NYPD, van wagon, one horse type.

Here is the wire mesh, 1/2 inch mesh.  Any home improvement store should have it.  This piece has lasted over 10 years.

Most of my vehicles are stored in underbed storage boxes.  I line the box with bubble wrap so the vehicles don't slide around, and the bubble wrap is taped into place.  Each box holds about a battalion of tanks or other vehicles.  These are my two wargame tables each 40 x 7 feet long x wide and 40 inches tall, like a kitchen counter.  Each box is labelled on the end and sides with the nation, time period and specific contents in large letters.  Those on the left at this end of the storage are WWII Soviet Union vehicles and figures.  Next are Cold War Soviet Union and finally WWII German.  The right side is WWI, WWII US Army and at the far end a few boxes of JGSDF, Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces, and Danish Cold War Army, and two "fictional" African armies, one Zebra and the other Giraffe based on their camouflage types.  

These are two sided shelves with other armies and air forces and navies on the outsides of the tables.
 

Storage Plans

The collection is being unpacked.

My plan is to dispose of all the cardboard boxes and replace them with plastic boxes.  Fewer bugs, no mice, and no water damage.  Plastic boxes often stack better and higher than plastic.

Lots of models are being sorted and need to be packed, but I am on able to afford boxes right away.

I am getting work done nearly every day.

But I still have a ways to go!

Hobby Storage

MRS Bunkermeister and I visited the storage sheds today.

We have six 10 X 10 sheds.  This one is nearly all hobby items.

These are underbed storage boxes.  Stacked 12 high, 6 across, and 3 deep; that's 216 of them.

More storage tubs, mostly larger items, like GI Joe stuff.  The flak tower is in the big custom built cardboard box in the lower right corner.

This is a close up into the depths of one of the sheds, the one with the flak tower.

Storage

US Army self propelled guns.

Tanks and armored infantry.

Boley trucks.  These boxes stack.  On average they weigh about eight pounds, and can stack about eight high.

Storage

The blue lid reflecting light makes these green buildings look blue.

WWII US Army Coast Artillery.

Misc.  WWII US Army vehicles.

US Army modern, Roco and a few others.

Roco WWII US Army tank destroyers.

Vehicle Storage

My collection of vehicles is stored in plastic boxes.  They are lined with corduroy cloth to keep the vehicles from sliding around.  The cloth is held in place by a drawer liner.  Modern US Army, mostly Hot Wheels.

Modern US Army, Roco and Hot Wheels.  There is a white box like this one in every box.  I use it to store parts that have broken off or fallen off.

Roco and Lindberg modern US Army.

Roco M41 and M103.  These M41 fought Godzilla recently.

This is a scrapyard box.  It holds bits and misc. vehicles that are waiting for use in conversions and other special projects.

Storage Tip

This is a large church model that I got, it is ceramic and rather fragile.

Rather than just put it in a box, I have used black foamcore board to keep it in place.

These pieces are there to stabilize the building so it does not bounce around inside the box.

I cut notches out of the foamcore board to fit both the models and the box.

Then the box is labeled so that I can find the church in storage.

Building Storage

This is one of those Christmas buildings.  They can be fragile.

It store it inside a plastic box, with a lid to keep out the dust and bugs.

I also cut custom pieces of foamcore board to hold the building in place, so it does not rattle around.

I also lined the box with corduroy so the building does not slide around.

Storage

Over the last seven years I have been working on a major upgrade to my vehicle storage system.

All of the cardboard boxes are being replaced with underbed plastic storage boxes for vehicles and taller boxes for other items.

This is a temporary storage space while I sort items into boxes and take some inventory.  These are Sterilite boxes that I typically get at Target stores.