Well, after the failed attempt at any gaming activity last weekend while my wife was away I decide to take last Thursday off work. I was feeling rough anyway but not really bad enough to justify a sickie! So with a day of ‘freedom’ I decided a little progress was required. After watching episode seven of Pacific (good series but not grabbing me the same way Band of Brothers did) I adjourned to my attic and began task one: assembling a paint rack.
I’d seen a picture of one belonging to Micheal at Angel Barracks and after enquiring he said he had a spare which he offered at bargain price! What he didn’t tell me was that it came flat-pack and that the construction would stretch the patience of a hardened IKEA man like myself!
The model was from Australian firm Model Scenery and was their 34 pot holding standard model which forms part of a modular system including corner rack, part racks etc. The product comes as several sheets of cut 3mm mdf templates where you have to snip out the components prior to contruction.
This relatively straighforward but sometimes it can be a little confusing as to what to snip and what not! Not something I would attempt either drunk or very tired!
The instructions are minimal but pretty clear and the first stage is to put together the actual holders, applying a little PVA to secure the joins:
And then construct the outer frame:
The difficult bit is deciding how much PVA to put on and where. I was probably by turns over-zealous and stingy! Once you have the main frame together it’s a pretty straighforward process of slotting in each layer from the bottom up until the rack is complete.
At each of the stages you need to apply a little pressure to hold the layer in place. I probably rushed things a little and if you are not careful where you press then lower levels can come apart again.
Overall, it took maybe two hours but I wasn’t rushing! The end result is:
It takes most paint pot sizes but the Vallejo drop down into a smaller hole. This, to me leaves them too low. There is a section of MDF which is clipped out from thse holes which could be left in and in retrospect I would do this. I’ve ended up putting three strips of card on each shelf to stop the Vallejo falling through! The only paints it doesn’t take are the few old large pots of Humbrol I have but it holds enough of my current choices to make them accessible and visible.
My only concern is that there is a lot of leftover MDF which I’m sure I could find a use for!
VERDICT: I’m glad I got it. I’ve since seen other options which may work better for me but to be honest, for the price, this does nicely. I’m tempted to get another but Michael hints that the corner units are harder work – but then he got his wife to make his! – so I may just get a matching one. Anyway, there aren’t enough brush holders in just one!
Disclaimer: sorry for the crappy pictures. My camera was playing up. I’d obviously changed a setting somewhere that affected the brightness and it was only after a camera reset that it got back to normal!