Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A New Paint Storage Rack


Fritz is better organized now that his paints are neatly stored in the Hydra paint rack, shown in the picture above. (click pix to enlarge)

Last week on The Miniatures Page ("TMP") I saw an advertisement for this nifty tiered paint storage rack available from Hydra Miniatures LLC (28118 James Drive, Warren, MI 48092, USA). Hydra imports these "MiniaturicuM" brand paint racks from Germany. They are made from wood and the pieces appear to be laser cut so that the mortices and tenons fit precisely. I liken the assembly to putting together a model with Tinkertoys (plug in and push system).

You can contact Hydra on line at www.hydraminiatures.com to place an order. I ordered the 72-bottle paint rack for $35.00 plus shipping for a total cost of $40.20. The assembly was very easy an I had it put together within about 5 or 10 minutes and loaded it up with my paint bottles. You can see the finished results in the picture above (click to enlarge the view). I was able to get about 62 bottles into the rack, but about half of my bottles were older, wider Ral Partha/Iron Wind Miniatures bottles that are a little bigger diameter-wise than the standard Reaper or Foundry or various other bottles available these days. You can also buy a 92-bottle rack or you can purchase racks for eye dropper style bottles (such as Vallejo) that allow you to store the bottle upside down. Kind of cool.


Fritz's painting desk is now free of the clutter of multiple bottles of paint, now that they are stored away in my Hydra paint rack. Above is a picture of some Elite Miniatures French Napoleonic Dragoons and Cuirassiers that I am working on for my 1806 Project.

The main point is that having this rack made it easy for me to clean up my painting table and get things organized. So I am really glad that I found this product, as I had been looking for a tiered storage rack for some time. Highly recommended! (as Hal Thinglum would say).

2 comments:

  1. I think I'm going to order one of those. My current paint storage system involves pulling paint pots out of the drawer until I find the one I want, repeating whenever I need another color.

    This paint rack seems much easier to work with.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use craft paints (2 oz bottles), so I prefer the Provo Craft Spinner Paint Rack (holds 160 2 oz. bottles) . . . but for what you paints, your rack looks like the better choice.

    If I might suggest . . . since paint dries a different shade than when wet, you might want to do what I do.

    I paint the top of each lid with the color of the paint inside . . . it makes it easy to find the shade I want. And I first paint non-white caps white, then after it dries, paint the bottle color so they all come from a similar background.

    Anyway, it is great to have a good rack for your paints, so "bravo, sir."


    -- Jeff

    ReplyDelete