I’ve got all of my paints off to the side next to my workbench. Model Master and Tamiya bottles are stored in Keurig (K-cups)metal pod holders. On Amazon they go for over $25 new but I’ve been picking them up at Good Will for $3.99. They hold twenty- thirty bottles and they stack on top of each other nicely. My Vallejo bottles are stored in clear fingernail polish bottle holders that I get from the Dollar Store. Then my large craft acrylics bottles are kept in a multi drawer IRIS cart. Sadly, I don’t have enough space on the top of my workbench to store all of my paints.
This is how I started storing my new collection, I found running out of space when I was using paint racks on my bench top.
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All my paints are now in my spray room where the booth lives, a few steps away from the modeling room. The wood rack I made out of red oak and the other rack is a repurposed medicine cabinet with the doors removed. The Model Master paint holder was given to me by a good friend before he moved West 3 years ago.
I prefer to keep as little as possible on the bench top because it takes up space and, I don’t like seeing the clutter. This was a reason I made my “pencil drawers”, to hide things away.
Steve
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Hey @ctruss53,
Regarding your question of location of paint as a ratio of work.
For myself I’d say my time is evenly split. Maybe leaning a bit more towards time painting. It might be a function of subject matter as well. I build a lot of sci-fi, and many of the kits I work on don’t require a whole lot of body work and even fewer have aftermarket detail kits. I usually just have glue, a couple of files/sanding sticks, and a hobby knife out. Whereas when it comes to painting, I may have upwards of a dozen bottles of paint pulled out from my racks in front of me. Because it’s sci-fi there aren’t a whole lot of standard colors so I do a lot of mixing to achieve the colors I am looking for. Being able to easily peruse my color collection makes it a lot faster to identify which colors I need for a mix. Additionally, I enjoy weathering my models. I like the look of something used rather than brand new.
All this results in a workspace that’s evenly split between the two activities.
Hope that helps demystify some of the organizational choices. 
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Yes, It could come down to subject matter. I build cars.
There is so much prepping, adjusting, tweaking, detailing, and modifying done in the process. That the building does outweigh the painting.
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Now that is impressive. And I thought I was organized. Your drawers, 
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Same with me. I don’t want to have to open drawers looking for anything. I have everything on shelves in front of me.
Quite honestly SPACE is never a problem for me. Because of that I like to keep all of my materials displayed so I can view them from my seat. Some of these benches look very nice, well organized with drawer dividers and all. But everybody’s situation is different. I have the room so I’m not going to hide anything where I have to open drawers and search. Just me. Processing: IMG_5925.jpeg…
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I’m not sure your pics uploaded correctly. I can’t view them. But I agree. We all have to adapt to our unique situation.
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@hh60gblackhawk your workspace is very impressive. Thanks for sharing.
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I appreciate that, thank you!
hh60Blackhawk, your work space is very impressive and I’m very envious. I’ve always wondered how you guys who have a flat screen TV or a computer monitor on your work bench how do you keep them clean and dust free?
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Just have to dust them periodically, but I bought a cheap TV so that it wouldn’t hurt quite so much if something was to happen to it (dust, heat, errant board while cutting some wood on the table saw, things like that).
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Thank you. Keeping the flat screen clean is just as simple as wiping it down every now and then with a microfiber cloth. Besides, despite it is a smart TV, it was relatively cheap, $120ish. It’s nothing special. Now as far as my work bench, thank you. My workbench is in my little shop in my backyard. I’m retired and like to tinker with small engines and other things. The shop is 12’x16’, built to code, insulated, heat, A/C, WiFi, frig. On the back wall is a 12 long WORKBENCH topped with 1/8” steel. Have all my hand tools hanging on the back and right walls. Coming off the left side and down the left wall is my framed wooden HOBBY-BENCH, which is 8’ long and is visible in the pics I showed. Thank you VERY much for complimenting! Have a great day and happy modeling!
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I like it A LOT. Nice and cozy.
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Good suggestions to keep the TV on the cheap side just in case an accident happens. Tom show you how “Frugal” I am, I have a small TV/VCR(Yes, I’m the last person on Earth who still watches VHS movies) set on top of my spray booth and only use it when I’m not airbrushing and it’s always covered with a cloth.