The wolf has found a new home

[Saarlooswolfhound]

A quick metaphor: wolves are incredible animals for many reasons, but there are 2 in particular that make them remarkable to me. If a wolf or even an entire pack have suffered through some kind of debilititating event, they have been known to show amazing resilience and problem solving ingenuity to survive at any cost. This may incorporate their ability to wander until they find a suitable new region to inhabit (regardless of what they fled from; predation, disease, habitat failure, prey collapse, canine politics, etc.). They have been known to travel thousands of miles to escape whatever hardship they encountered, until they settle into a new place to call home.

Sorry for the out of the ordinary title; perhaps I am feeling a little nostalgic tonight. Longtime STS members may remember that my large collection used to be all on display bookcases, and while they were not anything expensive due to cost for myself at the time, I did enjoy carefully curating them; rearranging every time I got a new model, I cleaned them regularly, and enjoyed working on various projects like TAW or repainting models to add. All in all, for a 5,000+ something piece collection it was contained on over a dozen bookcases in a large basement room for years. It was my haven and I spent a TON of time with this hobby.

Couldn't find the photoset from 2022 but these images are from 2021 to give you an idea of my curation at the time:
































Unfortunately, I then had some personal upheaval that I won't detail here, but I ended up having to pack every piece of that collection up, along with other personal belongings, and move to a MUCH smaller dwelling and they had to live in storage. Luckily, they lived in temperature controlled housing for the majority of this time and they suffered very little damage. But, for about a whole year I had incredibly limited access to them, if any at all for some of the boxes. Roughly 6ish months ago I was able to relocate them to a much more accessible spot, but they still had to live in boxes. This new stage of their life has lasted nearly 2 years. I didn't know what to do with myself because I had so much extra time all of a sudden, and it was actually hard to adjust to being away from them for so long.

As fortune would have it though, I got to move to another state *again*; but THIS time I actually have proper living space for myself, my 2 dogs, and my Mom, and I even get an entire room for my collection! It still can't all be on display (gosh, I didn't realize how big it all was until it had to be packed up the first time...) but I have a little space that I can use to enjoy some figures... but now... what do I choose?





Of course it had to be my wild canids. I would like to put up my dogs too but again, I have too many to display them all! But this room is going to be amazing for me once I finish unpacking everything for it and get it all situated. I have a desk to repaint at or work on maintaining my website, another table for photo sessions, the bottom of my 3 wood bookcases have my animal reference books, brand catalogues, and books of animal stories. Then my actual collection, still in plastic boxes, occupies every other available space.

*this shelf is pretty dark, sorry*






I can't show off the entire room, but here are a few snippets for now. The room itself, especially the displays, will probably change as time goes on and I find/unpack things, but even just the last few weeks have been incredible fun for me to reorganize categories, check that the figures travelled well (they did by some miracle!!!), and ponder how I want to curate the room.





Anyhow, this is a bit of a "blast from the past" post as well as sharing my excitement over "rediscovering" my collection again. Here is everyone else tidily stored in their color coded and labelled boxes:







And lastly, just a bit of my new wall decor.






Anyhow, its a huge comfort to have finally found a place I can enjoy what I now understand is an integral part of *me* again. It took 3 states in under 2 years, but I finally have a new home.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I forgot to show this photo before... both my dogs hang out with me when I am working on putting this hobby room together. Flynn however, being a little "velcro dog" or my little black shadow, is ALWAYS in the middle of whatever I am working on. While I spent time updating photos for my website of new models I got just before and right after this last move they just lived on the floor in small piles while I got through them. He fell asleep *multiple* times right in what I would think would be very uncomfortable pillows...

[Gwangi]

Congrats on the new home and display space! It sucks having to keep your collection in storage but at least yours is very organized! 

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Belated reply, my apologies. Thank you! It is nice to have a little room for display, and at the very least room to keep it all stored safely.

oooookay, another quick update.

I got some maps put up now, something that I enjoy referencing every now and then when I learn where an animal is from or somesuch.
One world map with general climate pictured.


one world map with countries and capitals listed


A detailed map of the US and a small one of my favorite place on Earth, Yellowstone National Park.


Then I cleared the space in front of the lower bookcase shelves for photos. First are all of my reference books I kept after moving so many times.


Then I have brand catalogues and printed off PDFs of ones I am missing (my last project I did before I moved away the first time 2 years ago)


And then these are my collection of science and animal books I read for fun. Lately, its been more of an audiobook venture rather than reading the hard copies (I had a 40 minute commute to and from work I listened to them on). Still working through what I have on hand!


And lastly, at least for a few weeks, I put up my Breyer stablemates so they could air out. Even being in a box for 2 years with very little open air time, none of them broke or warped! I consider that itself, a miracle.

[EpicRaptorMan]

My original plan for my setup was to have a bunch of animal figures on a bleacher-styled shelf with a GIANT (wall sized) world map with extreme details behind them.

Obviously that plan changed to floating shelves.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

That sounds like a really neat idea EpicRaptorMan. Maybe someday it'll happen!

Its been a minute since I got to work on things I could post about. If my time isn't dedicated to work or my extended family/dogs, it has been working on smaller collection related projects to get things in order after my move. Yesterday I took the chance for reasonable temperatures and a good breeze (aka high 80s F and gusty winds) to organize my storage shed. I finally got some boxes out that I needed! Including some of my bamboo and plastic risers.




My new longhorn with his new friends. Funnily enough, these are the three cattle breeds I am most personally familiar with.


I got my PBR bulls out! This was a very expensive and difficult to complete set so I am thrilled to have it on display again.


And lastly, these are my "extra special" figures that are either easily damaged, difficult to replace, or older vintage style models (most are a combination of these three).


Overall, it feels really good to have even these small parts of my collection on display again. I have more risers and also found some of my old scenery pieces so now I will be fiddling with these and my canid displays...