Mysterious boxes from Poland

I’d been looking for a better paint storage solution for quite a while when some of the Corehammer lads pointed me toward Polish company Hobbyzone – who had a variety of solutions on offer.  I’ll be honest, I was moving house in a few weeks / months, so being a bit prone to procrastination, I put off the inevitable purchase.  It was also going to give me a chance to see if any of the other lads bought one, and if they were gonna be much cop. However, much radio silence on the paint rack side of things ensued. Time passed by and I moved house. I got my little permanent painting corner sorted out (score!) in the kitchen, and thought I’d be a gent and try to keep the painting area a bit tidier for the Mrs.

So it came to time for taking the plunge and buying some MDF from the internet. Thinking about the paints I had, I knew I was going to need something that could take the Games Workshop paint pots, the Vallejo dropper style bottles (I think Army Painter use these type of bottles too), and hopefully also the tall pots that P3 and Cote D’Arms currently use (and that Games Workshop used to use back in the day).

I visited the Hobbyzone site and found that they did paint racks that  would take the Vallejo dropper bottles (they call these “small” paints) and others that take the Games Workshop size pots (they call these ones “big” paints – love this, it’s nice and simple). The paint racks are also available in several capacities, which handily enough should suit the paint collection needs of a range of folk.  They even go as far as giving you the dimensions for these things when they are put together, which is pretty handy if you only have a limited amount of space on your desk top.

I now had my rough estimates of paints and available space in mind and opted for 2 of the smaller capacity racks, 1 of each for big paint pots and smaller dropper bottles.  Now the price for these things is in Polish Zloty, and I had no real idea how much this was  gonna cost me in terms of English quids, so a quick trot over to an exchange rate website reassured me that 35Z is the equivalent of just under 7 quid. Fucking winner. So I was looking at £14 for the paint racks. Cheap as chips.  I was actually that amazed that I stumped the extra money to get them shipped UPS rather than waiting for standard Post Office delivery which was about the same price. What can I say? It was a crazy day.

Then I paypalled them, at which point it got a bit weird. No acknowledgement email came from Hobbyzone. The website says they usually ship stuff within 2 working days. Thought I would wait and see for a bit if anything would turn up, or what.  Just as I was starting to get a bit nervous, and literally as I was about to start emailing them to see what was going on (8 days if you’re remotely interested or still reading), the package turned up on my desk at work.

Obviously I was well keen to go home and get the fuckers built, but at 10.20am, sadly this was not an option. Insert standard workplace related grumble here. Blahblahblah. So eventually I got home and unboxed the goods:

Confusing bits of MDF

Weirdly enough, they don’t come with instructions, and to a total dunce like me, it wasn’t obvious how to put them together. Thankfully, I had the nowse to look at the picture on the website and all became clear. Only 5 minutes or so later I had managed to put them together. I felt like the king of DIY. It was a great feeling.

Shelves for paints. A thing of beauty.

Now comes the really important bit. Will the paints fit in the racks? The answer my friends, is as follows: Small paint size rack takes the dropper bottles perfectly.

Small paints

Big paint size rack takes the Games Workshop hexagonal pots perfectly and the circular pots really well. The openings in the rack are too wide for the taller P3 Cote D’Arms style bottles though. Not a problem for me, as I underestimated the amount of paints I had…

So now you can witness the strength of my fully operational painting table…

Overall, if I had any feedback for Hobbyzone, send confirmation emails that: 1. you’ve received the order, and 2. that you’ve sent the package. Also put instructions on how to fit these things together in the box!!  Apart from that, these are a great product that I would recommend to anybody. They are inexpensive, do the job and arrive within a decent amount of time.