Review: Hobbyzone paint storage racks

I admit to having a case of "collect them all". It all began in the late 90's when my girlfriend bought me a Gameboy and the new game Pokemon for my birthday. Actually, I think it started way before then, but that was the first time I actually noticed it. I collected them all... 

So when it was time for buying new paints I got them all. When switching from Vallejo MC (good paints) to the Reaper Master Series I actually bought them all. I excuse myself a little since they're not stocked locally in Europe. So it was either getting them all and save some on postage or getting them triad by triad and having to pay quite a lot in postage. 

This made me end up with 200+ paint pots. That had to be sorted in some way or another due to the triad system. I do like the triads. When doing fast paintjobs it removes the "what color shades/highlights with what?"-step. But it's a pain when your paint pots are spread in a box and you spend 15 minutes trying to find one out of 200.

Earlier I bought some racks from Eslo Terrain (http://px40k.blogspot.se/2011/05/review-another-paint-storage.html) they were great once you got over the hurdle of assembling them. They were also a bit cumbersome to move around and although they were constructed really sturdy I felt they were kinda overbuilt.

That about that. About two weeks ago I stumbled upon the polish company Hobby Zone that had a bunch of racks avaliable. The construction was kinda slimline compared to the racks from Eslo. No need for glue. Best of all, they were really inexpensive! Order away!

A week later they were here, together with one of the work stations that I'll review later. Just give me time to use it for a while. :)

++ THE PAINT RACKS ++

The racks came in a "flat box". So you had to assemble them yourself. Not at all a hard thing to do. The three uprights slot into the bottom part (the part with a logo) and the shelves slides and locks, due to friction, onto the uprights. No need for glue! In the picture above you can see the sub-assemblies pretty clear.

The construction is made up of 4mm hardwood (MDF) that's CNC'd to fit your paint bottles.

Now, I said that there was no glue needed. At least not if you plan to have the shelves more or less stationary. I found while moving around the shelves that a bit of glue is needed due to the weight of the paint pots making the bottom section coming undone. Something that can be avoided if you carry it holding the bottom and apply slight pressure to the shelves. But, meh, a small blob of wood glue will take care of that. Don't add too much and you will be able to pack the shelf flat for storage (Why would you ever do that? The Hobby is your life!?)

All filled up they look like this! Holding a total of 54 (13, 14, 13, 14) dropper bottles neatly without any hassle. The staggered rows also makes for easy distinguishing of individual colors.

The Eslo racks held the bottles a little more securely due to recesses in the bottom plates. But I hardly found that to be of any use except for when the cats were on a rampage. Not that it mattered much since they use heavy furniture to stop on. Everything loose is just speedbumps.

Assembly was trouble free, as noted earlier.

There is of course racks made for bigger (36mm dia.) paint pots, like the ones offered from Games Workshop, P3 and others.


++ THE VERDICT ++

All in all a well designed product. A lot of value for your money, or at least a lot of percieved value for your money if you're a pedantic (like me) with your paint storage.

I could perhaps do without the logotype on the bottom of te racks. Just to make it even slimmer, but that's a small price to pay for what I consider to be the best non-DIY solution available on the market today.

Hobby Zone also has a range of organizers, dice towers and stuff. Go check them out.

Now I'm off to use/abuse the paint station. :)

I guess we have to post some 40K...

And I guess it's time to change the name of the blog... With Boomo posting a lot (way more than Lifter does... do you hear me Lifter?) it's not PX & 40K anymore. And to be honest, it's not "all 40K all the time" anymore either... Perhaps I should do some naming-contest thingie since I'm not at all good with coming up with names?

Anyhow... the iPad (no worries, this will be kinda 40K-connected soon) is awesome for watching movies while painting. I had to re-arrange my workspace a little with all the Reaper paints I got. So now I cannot see the telly while painting. iPad to the rescue!

It's not like I watch it a lot though. I mean... I'm actually trying to paint stuff! But it's nice. And I can stream stuff from the computer. Which means that I don't have to watch the home shopping channel.

Emperors champion, WIP.

And now for the 40K stuff... It's the Emperors Mushroom! The GW-store in Stockholm has this Finecast painting comp and I thought I could paint it up for that one. Dunno how well it's going to turn out though. I'm trying to use directional lightning coming from the sword / left. Which means that the sword in itself later on will be -really-bright-. Hopefully it all will come together later on. If not, it's been a mini full with new experiences.

In closing, I'd like to point you to this article on Dakka about photographing stuff, and getting good results from using a crappy camera like the iPhone 3GS. Now I use a Nikon D700 with specialized macro lense and gak. Spent $6000 and I still take photos like I was blind or something. It's not the equipment, it's what you do with it! :)

The weekend failure orks & more workspace.

So... them orks. I started on them before going to Germany, in a vain attempt to actually finish painting them before I went away. Foolish of me, but as wise men say: Per aspera ad astra!

I've finally gotten them all ready for highlightning at least. And after that detailing, and after that basing, and after that... 20 orks takes a whole lot longer than I thought. That's what you get for having high standards and high expectations of yourself. :)

One of my more avid readers asked for a better picture of my workspace, and here it is. 

It usually serves as my dinner table (and gaming table). But when painting this is how it looks. 

To the left; Laptop and a box of "in the works" models. Tonight it's the rest of the orks (1 nob, 10 shootas). A wire-based tree as well that I work on during spare time (while watching TV etc.)

In the middle: Vallejo Model Color set, with assorted extra colors, additives and stuff in the lid. A lid from the Vallejo Model Air set (not pictured) with basing stuff, tools, Kneadite, glue, oil paints and assorted odds and ends. 

To the right: Painting area. On top is the bowl my cat's drink from. The brush holding thingie from here. My wet palette, assorted paints I'm using at the moment, iPhone (for texting Gork and Mork), the orks I'm painting at the moment, two lamps etc. 

Underneath it all is some ribbed rubber thingie I use for protection that I "stole" from a gunshop. 

All in all it's a pretty straightforward setup. I can move everything away when not painting since almost everything is contained in the Vallejo cases / lids. The rubber mat stays where it is (the cat's make a mess when drinking) and if I need any airbrushing done I just move stuff away and setup the spraybooth in the middle.

(Oh yeah, if you look to the right, at the windowsill. There's the Malifaux stuff I've ordered but promised myself not to open until the orks were done... >_<)

What does your painting area look like? Are you fortunate enough to have a man-/girl-cave or do you need to move stuff around like I do? Please leave a comment. 

Orks, workspaces and... Malifaux

The new workspace, the orks and the Malifaux

Yesterday was "meet friends"-day. I was originally expecting to meet a bunch of friends on the afternoon and then get home to eat some dinner and then finish all the straps on the orks. That didn't happen. I came home around 1900, but we did take a walk through the entire eastern part of Stockholm. So I was kinda spent. :)

I've also managed to make myself a proper workspace. I got rid of the sofa and put a smallish dinner table from IKEA or something there. Now I don't need to paint in close proximity to the scanner, printer, computer and drawing stuff. Which means I can actually work at my work desk, and paint and do hobby stuff at the new table. Without moving stuff to make room for work or hobby.

The orks are trundling along. The straps for them sucks to paint. It's not that it takes time. It's just a step that doesn't really show any progress. Not like painting pants grey or shirts red. It's just straps.

The Malifaux stuff arrived as well. I cheated a little and took a peek at the figures and rules, and -oh-my-lord- it's awesome. The figures are really screaming to be painted properly. The rules seemed a little weird when I looked through the book. But I guess that's just because of me being so used to dice and the Warhammer system.

Now back to the orks. Hopefully they'll be done before I go to Frankfurt. Hopefully.