Hobby Article: Organization

For the first in a series of hobby articles I have planned to post is the topic of organization. When starting a new army, unit, model, etc. it is important to have your "bits in a row" so to speak. If you have the hobby A.D.D. that I have and jump back and forth between projects this could be very useful. Below I have a picture of my bitz box for my Space Marines. As you can see in the picture I have things separated by heads, left arms, right arms, close combat weapons, ranged weapons, backpacks, legs, torsos, etc. This box is very full and that is after I have just built a 10,000 pt Crimson Fists Army, but all these bits are still useful for my other projects. I also have one of these tackle boxes for every army I own models for. Every box is labeled on the end with the army name inside and sorted similar to above. I feel that when building models that this method of organizing my bits helps tremendously when converting or just building troops as it helps me find parts quickly. Finding parts quickly is very important when you have little time for the hobby like myself. In the small amount of time I have to devote to the hobby I want to be making progress, not digging through a box of 1000's of bits looking for that one meltagun I know I have. I also keep my tools, paints and work area organized as much as possible as this helps me to just sit down and get right to the models when I only have a few minutes to spare.

So, I guess the moral of this post is that the more organized your bits are the more time you get to spend doing the important parts of the hobby, instead of searching. I know most people already have a method of organization, but for those who don't this is a suggestion of how I keep my bits organized and it makes my hobby time more enjoyable for me.