My son and I have taken over the island in the kitchen. We don’t have a dedicated modeling area - we don’t have the room. The wife wants to clean the house up for some family coming in soon.
How do you folks store your paints, brushes, sprues, and other modeling stuffs when you’re not actively painting?
Today we made a box that can store 42 Games Workshop paint pots. We also started a lameass ™ box that the paint box goes in, and intend to make additional trays for storing knives, cutters, styrene, glue, epoxy, and so forth. We’ll finish it tomorrow.
Well, for tools and stuff that isn’t used very often,I have a plastic organizer, the kind with all the little drawers you find at walmart in the hardware section. For brushes and exacto knives, things used all the time, I have an organizer I found at hobbylobby. Its a carousel organizer. much like the one found here http://www.craftsetc.com/Store/ShowProduct.aspx?p=399428
I’m kind of in the same boat as you are Antinice. I get to utilize the kitchen table for hobby time.
I bought both my son and I this toolbox from Wal*Mart so we can carry most of our needed project supplies and tools back and forth.
It’s big enough that we can put our car model box in the bottom and still have room for supplies (such as sand paper, spools of wire, spray cans, pliers, tape, etc…). The top tray carries, oh I think I have around 30+ paints, brushes, nail files (emery boards), tweezers, pin vise & bits, glues & cements, X-Acto knife and spare blades, toothpicks, etc… Plus there are the 3 compartments on top that 2 are removable. I put some spare left over kit parts in them for customing another kit possibly.
I have 2 old car model boxes on the shelf of my bedroom closet that I store extra paints, glues, brushes, wire, etc… in. But for the most part, the toolbox is ready to go. We took it with us on a week trip to CT one time. My wife wanted to visit her family and then my parents. So I figured as bored as my son and I would be for a week, let’s bring the gear. Only thing I did ahead of time was spray the car bodies so they would be dry in time for the trip. Summer time we sit outside at the table with our toolbox next to us. Nothing better, father and son enjoying the great outdoors LOL.
Some of my tools I keep in a carousel. Others end up randomly distrbuted in the drawers of my workbench. Others end up half-buried under raw materials and resurface peridocally…
When I model outdoors or on a road trip, I use a separate set of modeling tools that I keep in a fishing tackle box. Specifically, the box I use is a Flambeau Outdoors Model 2059 Hip Roof Box. It has no fewer than seven folding trays and I got it for less than 20 dollars! Too bad I don’t have a digital camera or I would show it to you.
At home, some of my tools are now kept in a two-level silverware divider in which the top level slides back and forth. For limited storage space, it’s a terrific thing! Paints are kept in another (wood) silverware divider that is attached to the wall through the divider’s bottom. (In other words, sideways, so the dividing walls act as little shelves to put the paint on.) My spares box is a cheap divided plastic box that I found for five bucks or some darn thing at a sporting goods store. It has plastic kit parts, bits of scrap plastic, round pieces, scrap wood, you name it, all in that one compact little box. Perfect for putting in the ice chest when taking the model on the road. A similar, but smaller box holds subassemblies.
It would have been easier to get a toolbox or tacklebox as mentioned above. But did I? NOOOOooooOOOoooo.
I made two boxes. The first is about 18x7x2", has 3 shelves, and holds 42 Games Workshop paint pots. It’s made of 1/4" plywood. It looks just terrible. I glued it together real fast since once the weather gets cold the woodshop is closed. The iron machinery will suck your heat out.
The second box, and probably the less practical decision, was to make another box. This one’s sized so the paint box just fits inside it. Next I’ll build a tray or two. The top tray is intended to be for glue, knives, and other tools. The bottom tray is intended for sprues and bitz. We’ll see… My plans change on a minute-by-minute basis! [:D]
Both boxes are made of scrap/salvage plywood so the cost is nominal. And the weather’s been so nice…
Where I can’t find it when I am looking for it. [X-)] I finally got stackable plastic organizers at Wally World and keep my modeling supplies in when not using them. It is after I take them out, I run into problems, trying to locate something. Just this week I was looking for a tool and looked for over ten minutes. I finally gave up and was about to walk out of the room when I realized I had it in my hand. Now, who would think of looking there? [banghead] [banghead]
i too am in the same boat. I just dont have the room in my house. I have hijacked the kitchen cupboards and lobby cupboards. I just have too much that would fit into a plastic box…
i need a bigger house, or cupboard. I also have the bedroom cupboard full of completed models and large unbuilt models and RC plane/car lol
When reading through this tread I remembered how we used to have some tools at assembly plant I worked for earlier.
Tools that where used regularly was attached to thin wire. The wire was on a kind of a spool that would retract when the tension on the wire was released. When not used they where hanging on approx. head level, you just grabbed the tool and used it then just let go of it and the wire pulled it back into the air. The tools where easy to find.
I have to try this at home. Would be usefull only if you have a permanent working space.
I used to use utility storage boxes, and a tackle box. Now I have a workbench of my own, and I seem to have a hard time putting things away. So, I have some items that I never use stored away and a giant pile of crap taking up 80% of my work space. It would seem I am willing to trade workspace for not having to get up and go over to the closet.
Mine have actually taken permanent residence on my desk. There’s an assortment of boxes for half-finished kits, plus several smaller containers for sub-assemblies, sand, stirrers and stuff. Most of the deskspace is taken up by an assortment of Warhammer figures and 30something pots of acrylics, though.
i am banished to the kitchen table since we live in apartment not much room so to keep everything organized i picked up a 7 draw storage bin from rubbermaid from target and it fits nicely in the closet plus it keeps the wife happy everything is out of the way
I am currently living in a house that is under varying degrees of renovation…modification…temper testing…etc. Between work and renovating I do still find time for my newly rediscovered hobby of modelling 1:48 scale WW1 Biplanes (yes I enjoy the self torture). My solution for storage had to be semi-portable and easy. I keep my airbrushes (2), their hoses, their bottles, assembly/disassembly tools, and various cleaning devices in a plastic tool box. It isn’t any larger than your every-day tool box but it holds all the above mentioned implements in the removable tray (except the hoses) with the manuals, hoses, and my trusty little compressor in the bottom. I love it and would you believe I picked the exact size I needed on my first shopping trip? Plus it came with a smaller version box for free.
My paints and glues I keep in my bedroom in plastic hobby trays. And all those brushes and pointy objects sit on my dresser in over sized coffee mugs.
It ain’t always pretty setting up for a paint session but I can grab the items I need in groups depending on whether i’m airbrushing on a bench in the basement or detailing with small brushes at the coffee table in the living room.
This is probably one time when being the Logistical support Noncommisioned Officer in Charges’ buddy pays off. I got hooked up with a govt issued table that has an overhead cabinet. It’s not terribly big, which is good for the home office in my apartment. As for the tools, I took a wooden silverware tray and use that to keep stuff organized. Since i don’t have a whole lot, it works just fine for me! I’ve even got a dock for my iPod so i can throw down a little Black Sabbath when i’m at the bench.[tup]
I have 2 small glass salsa jars that i keep brushes and kinves in. I also have one of those modular storage boxes from home depot that has like 18 or so trays/drawers in to stash stuff. Not to mention the work bench
