Archives for August 2015

I recently bought the Badger Patriot 105 as my first airbrush for learning how to paint tabletop minis using an airbrush.

I’ve also been buying a few other accessories for my airbrush setup, as well as some airbrush paints from Minitaire.

One of the accessories I purchased recently is the Iwata Medea Airbrush Cleaning Station.

 

I ended up getting this cleaning station from Amazon, as they had the best pricing on it.

I’ve never used one of these before, but a lot of people recommend getting one so I did.

Apparently these stations make it easy to clean your airbrush without overspray or making a mess on your desk.

The station also comes in with a built-in filter as well.

The other benefit of it is that you can use it as an airbrush holder as well since it’s heavy enough to stay on the table with the airbrush in it, as shown in this pic.

My first impression of this cleaning station is that it’s made well, with high quality materials.

Once I’ve had a chance to use it and test it out for a while I’ll do a follow-up post reviewing it in more detail.

Do you use a cleaning station for your airbrush?

If so, which one?  And how do you like it?

Today I decided to look for a paint rack for my Minitaire Airbrush Paints as well as the Citadel and P3 paints that I have.

After doing some extensive research, I decided to compile a guide of the various options available on the market right now.

(July 2018 – ARTICLE UPDATE: I now design and sell my own range of Modular Acrylic Paint Racks for tabletop miniature paints.  If you’d like to check them out, click on the image above.  Now back to the original article…)

The Paint Rack – Back2Base-IX

One of the first acrylic paint storage racks I came across was from a company called Back2Base-IX.com.

Back2Base-Ix carries a selection of different types of paint storage rack solutions made from either Coloured Acrylic or Medium Density Fibre Board.

Here’s an example of one of their Coloured Acrylic racks:

And here’s another one of their racks made from the Medium Density Fibre Board.

The Back2Base-IX paint racks range in price from around $35 for a single rack to around $200 for a full rack system.

For a full listing of the various paint racks available from Back2Base-Ix, check out their website by clicking here.

Inverted 72 Dropper Bottle Paint Rack – Ironheart Artisans

The next paint rack solution I took a look at was from a company called Ironheart Artisans.

Here’s a picture of the solution they offer:

This paint rack holds 72 dropper bottles, facing dowards, and costs about $30.

To learn more about this product, check out the Ironheart Artisans website by clicking here.

Workstation Combo – Hobby Tools Australia

The next pain rack solution I found was from a company called Hobby Tools Australia.

Here’s a picture of their Workstation Combo solution:

This product sells for about $100, and you can find it by clicking here.

They also have another one called the Master Workstation Combo which you can see here:

This one sells for about $220 and you can find it by clicking here.

Mini and Full Monty – TGJ Hobbies

The next paint rack solution I took a look at is from TGJ Hobbies who carries a range of customizable high-end paint racks.

Here’s one of their products, called the Mini Monty:

This paint rack cost about $125 and you can learn more about it by clicking here.

Here’s another one of their solutions, called the Full Monty:

The Full Monty sells for around $175, and you can learn more about it by clicking here.

Modular Paint Stand System – HobbyZone.pl

Finally, the last modular paint rack system I found was from a company called HobbyZone.pl based out of Poland.

This is a picture example of their modular system assembled in various different ways.

These sets cost anywhere between $25 – $75, depending on what combination of racks you want to purchase.

The only challenge I found with ordering from HobbyZone.pl is that shipping to Canada / US is about $50, which is too bad because outside of that their product pricing is really good.

To learn more about their products, click here.

Summary

After doing my research I still haven’t decided which paint storage rack solution is going to be the best for me.

I definitely want to get something to organize my paints, but I’m not 100% sure yet if I want a system that holds a lot of paints on my painting table or if I want to purchase or build a wall-mounted paint rack system instead.

There are some pretty simple wall-mounted system designs that I think I could build myself for relatively cheap, but that would mean that I would have to get up out of my seat and walk over to the wall to pick the paints that I will be painting with before or during each painting session.

This may not be a big deal since I will most likely only be painting with a select set of paints at any given time, but I still have to think about it some more to figure out the best solution for my hobby room.

I do like the convenience of having the paints on a paint rack sitting on my painting table, but then that would also mean that it is taking up space on my table.

Ultimately I may need to combine the two types of systems, building a wall-mounted rack to store the majority of my paints, and then just take the 5 or 10 or 15 paints that I will be using during a session down to the table and keep those organized in some sort of desk paint rack organizer.

What do you think is the best way to keep your paints organized?

What sort of system are you using?

 

 

(July 2018 – ARTICLE UPDATE: I now design and sell my own range of Modular Acrylic Paint Racks for tabletop miniature paints.  If you’d like to check them out, click on the image above. )