I mentioned in The Wolves Progress that I’d got hold of a piece of wood that sits between my two desks to give me an extra bit of working area and was using this to keep my Space Wolves out as I work on them. This has been fantastic and I’m really making good progress on them (bearing in mind that I’m trying to get two units almost fully painted by the 29th).
One small problem I have encountered though is that if I want to work during an evening or when there is low daylight, my daylight bulb and main light aren’t really strong enough to work by, which results in me sitting at a funny angle and holding the miniature up to the room light. Sadly my daylight lamp has also developed a bit of a wiring fault which means that there’s a high chance it won’t turn on.
After a bit of research I located a strip lamp on Argos that has very good reviews both on the site and within the miniature painting community. It isn’t cheap (coming in at £20), but includes the bulb and comes with a solid base (very heavy) and a desk clamp so you have different ways of putting it on your desk.
I received mine yesterday and am happy to say that the reviews are right, this lamp is an ideal addition to a hobby desk. The bulb is a pretty good match to daylight, a nice warm light, with a tiny bit of yellow but not as much as a regular bulb. Because it’s a strip bulb rather than a round bulb, you have the benefit that you’re not battling with shadows, plus because you can move the arm and shade round, you can angle it so that it’s raised up but not glaring in your eyes. Finally the on/off switch is actually on the top of the shade rather than halfway along the flex. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it’s tiny things like this, that make the light actually worth it’s price tag.
For anybody who does get one of these, you will need a screwdriver to tighten the knuckle joints. Strangely although one of the joints does have a knob on it, two don’t and if you don’t tighten them the lamp will just fold up under it’s own weight. However once tightened in the position you want, the whole lamp is very solid.
