After I completed my Wizard’s Tower diorama I announced that it was time for a break. I think I also mentioned that I have a major storage headache to resolve before I can even consider undertaking anything new. Well things have changed and I thought I would post an update on recent events which have led to this.
The first event of significance was the annual Table Top World Competition. In all honesty I did not know they ran one, I only discovered this when l browsed their website yet again to drool over their exquisite buildings only to be hit by their home page advert. After a little inner debate with myself I decided to take the plunge and enter the Wizard Tower. Fortunately I never took the trouble to look at past competition entries before I did. Had I done so I would never have entered. Some of the dioramas which people have submitted to this annual competition are simply stunning but with a top prize of 500 euros to be won and spent in their shop it is hardly surprising the standard is so high. Feeling somewhat embarrassed that I had now entered and not exactly put myself out to take better photos I decided to forget all about it.
Having done such a good job of forgetting about the competition it then came as quite a surprise to receive the following email from Ivan at Table Top World (the company is based in Croatia if you weren’t aware).
—000—
Hello David,
we have chosen your work as one of the few that we decided to grant a 30% voucher this year, since you where very close to entering the top 3!
Keep up the great work!
Here is your 30% coupon for our webshop.
Kind regards,
Ivan
Tabletop World
—000—
Now the cynic in me immediately concluded that probably everyone who entered most likely got a similar email but then I decided to accept things on face value if for no other reason than it made me feel better. More importantly, given how expensive their buildings are (and even more expensive now due to import duty having to be added now the UK has left the EU), there was no way I wasn’t going to use the voucher!
Highly motivated to build a very large diorama (very large for me that is) I was determined to solve my storage problem, something which had been bugging me for some time. I’ve known for a while that our double garage held the key but it is well fitted out already and extremely tidy too so a quick win was never on the cards. Then I had a light bulb moment!
My car and the family estate are both kept in the garage but She Who Must Be Obeyed keeps her car parked on the drive. She does this because she drives our daughter to school on a daily basis (had it not been for lockdown my daughter would have passed her driving test and driven herself) and it is easier than opening the garage (yes you’re right, she is a lazy women!). The thing is her little car is much shorter than the family one. Short enough to enable me to buy and install a meter wide six foot high office style filing cupboard giving at least 5 meters of shelf space!
My daughter finishes school shortly and then has a four month break before hopefully heading off to university. The thing is she wont need driving to school any more and therefore SWMBO can “keep her precious car” (that’s the selling line) in the garage instead of the estate!
Brimming with confidence that I can sell this to SWMBO I have now placed an order for four Table Top World buildings and a few accessories that they do as well. I suspect it will be several weeks before they arrive and I need to wait for my daughter to finish school before I can buy and install the filing cupboard, therefore nothing to do for now but wait.
I’ll issue further news updates in the weeks ahead but all being well a new diorama and an accompanying Dio-Bolical Monday series will start later in the year. A series which will run far longer than anything previously so consider yourself warned. 🙂
TIM
PS – Although she doesn’t read my blog, which is just as well, Happy Birthday to my lovely daughter who is 18 today!
The Imperfect Modeller 
Congratulations on the win and I like your cunning plan. P.S. Happy Birthday to your daughter.
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Cheers Steve, always good to have a cunning plan! The weather is glorious today so hopefully she’ll have a good day. 🙂
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Not quite sure that plan’s as sound as you make it out to be! Happy birthday to your daughter! 🙂
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I think we both know that women are unpredictable John but it’s important to approach the matter with confidence, even if it does prove to be short lived! 😉
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Cunning like the foxiest fox! 🦊
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Just as long as I don’t get caught by the hounds! 😉
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Firstly Happy Birthday to F-SWMBO (The F is for Future 😊) Secondly I really like the plan man. 5m’s of space is brilliant. Thirdly hmmm… no I think that’s it actually………
Haha Noooo… Bloody well done on the submission win and YES it is a win in my book. A win for your confidence in your abilities and a win for your wallet. Congrats man. Well deserved too, although I think it should have been first place.
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Cheers IRO, kind of you to say so. Some of the stuff is breathtaking though, well worth checking out. Best of all I’m all fired up again for what I hope later in the year will be a great project. 🙂
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Can’t wait to see it mate
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Amazing result there and very well deserved!
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Cheers Dave. It’s not really a win but it was a motivating email and more than chuffed to have a discount! 🙂
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On first read, i have to admit I was a confused about what was stlred in the garage. Having just dealt with some upcoming “family estate” issues with an elderly in-law, I was leaning that way and wondering hiw much stuff you had stashed in tbe garage. Then I realized you might be talking about a type of car. Many of us speaking English, with barely a common language betseen us!
Congrats in the voucher! I have drooles over thwir offerings for some time, and have yet to take the plunge.
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There are a lot of great products out there but these buildings are by far and away the best I have ever come across. Well worth the plunge I’d say. 🙂
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Congratulations of the win (sort of), if anyone offers you free (or even discounted ) stuff it would be rude to refuse!
Who keeps cars in the garage! chuck em’ all out and have lots of space!
Cheers Roger.
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My thoughts exactly Roger. Like your thinking about the garage, reckon that will be phase 2 once the cupboard is full. 🙂
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Well done on the win (a win is a win right). They do get some downright stunning pieces entered there, I was just looking through their gallery and the quality is jaw dropping. Still, the fact that you weren’t placed higher can only be explained one way – someone else must have bribed the judge.
Good thinking on opening up more storage space, although I think you might be missing a trick. You say your daughter is heading off to university soon – which sounds to me like an extra room is about to become available in your house. Plenty of storage space for more dioramas (don’t laugh – I came home one year to find my room full of bits of my dad’s motorbike…).
Oh and very happy birthday to SWMBO-junior!
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Well I guess it is a win of sorts but more than happy with the discount. The work some people are capable of simply blows my mind. I so wish I was a good many years younger but hey ho! The only problem using the kids rooms is that in a few years time SWMBO and I will probably think of downsizing. In the short term brilliant but later on a headache bigger than I have now! Right now if I can get the cupboard I’ll be dead chuffed… or just dead! 😉
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Congratulations on the recognition of all the work that went into the Wizard’s Tower, and 30% discount is nothing to be sniffed at.
Look forward to seeing what develops from your purchase.
As for the plan, can only see one wrinkle SWMBO, but if you spin it so she thinks it’s her idea, in with a shot I’d say.
Happy Birthday to your daughter
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Thanks Dave. You’ve certainly got my mind ticking over on how to get SWMBO to come up with the idea! 🙂
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Congrats on your entry doing so well. Much deserved.
Happy Birthday to your daughter too.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete.
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Congratulations on the voucher! Do you have pictures of the wizard tower? Also I’d love to see photos of the new storage solution when it gets up. I love seeing how people do things like that.
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Thank you. If you click on the “Wizard’s Tower” in the first line of the post it will take you to the final post of the project and plenty of pictures. Alternatively go to “Dio-Bolical Monday” in the menu and see all the posts on the build. 🙂 Will put storage photos up but won’t be until later in the year though. 🙂
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I’d definitely consider that a win! 30% off is nothing to say no to too. I know Tabletop World attracts hobbyists who really value their quality so I’m not surprised to hear there were a lot of strong entries. That would make me all the more proud to be a “finalist”.
As far as the plans go, they sound both creative, dastardly, and practical all at once 😀 I fully support them and I hope you’re successful too 🙂 I do agree with John that the fairer sex can be very unpredictable so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you in the meantime.
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Cheers mate. As for the fairer sex just remember you’re still single and the wedding can be called off! 😉l
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Haha, that’s a pretty good point, mate 😀
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Well, I’d have voted for it and what the hell, it’s free money anyways. Belated Happy Birthday to your daughter and congrats on the new space. I’m thinking you need to find a cheap apartment to rent or build a hobby house in your garden – and free up all the space in the house for SWMBO. Though I’m sure that idea has the buoyancy of lead!!!
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Cheers Mark. He future is full of options which is good but the here and now is the immediate problem. Getting a cupboard will keep going for a long time all being well. 🙂
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Blimey, well done. The competition must have been fierce if your work wasn’t even in the final.
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That’s very kind of you to say so but you are right, some of the work people have done is off the planet. 🙂
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Congrats on your daughters milestone, and for coming up with a solution to your storage woes, I never seem to be able to settle on a single storage/display solution, so I am looking forward to seeing what you decided on and how it will look.
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Thank you. Sadly it will be just a cupboard with loads of stuff just being stored in boxes. One day I would love have everything on display but that’s a very long way off. ☹
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Wow!! mate well done you old cynic, only you would see it that way!! great prize though ,very handy. You mentioned that you might be downsizing in the future, better start preparing now mate! We bought a house of similar size along with ashed and after getting rid of so much stuff I find the new house is crammed!! For the life of me I cant work out what happened !
I can only imagine someone lied about clearing stuff out!!
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It’s all down to the women in our lives Pat, they’re all horders! 😉
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I recon you have hit the nail on the head mate as there is only the two of us now and it was only the other day I went to the linen closet and it was fuller than the one back in the city!!!!
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Only a matter of time and Fiona will be moving into something bigger. 😉
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There is no chance she going to need to much out of that linen closet!! It’s not hard to work out the hoarder is eh!!
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