Decent paint stations: Advice, reviews, what have you got?

[battle captain corpus]

Hello all!

Ok, so I'm in the market for a decent, well made paint station to go in our home office. I have had both incarnations of the GW ones; the wooden version and the current black plastic version. I liked the current Citadel one, its a fair size and handy etc etc.

But I know there are others out there! And yes, I could trawl the t'interweb looking for them but I thought as you fellows/fellowettes are such a great resource youre my first call!

So: Anyone have a favourite and why? What led to you buying it?

Please help, as I am a brother lost!

BCC

[Fibonacci]

I have seen a few nice paint racks at various price ranges but what I have been using the past few years is home-made from foam core board and hot glue.

 

My whole paint station is based on a computer desk (90$US).  It is set up on 4 spacers -- 4" PVC pipe couplers (about  25$US) -- to raise it up to a good working height.  It has a fluorescent desk lamp mounted on one side and an LED magnifier mounted on the back.  The fluorescent lamp is old and I have no idea on what it would cost. A new side lamp could be had for 30$ that would do the same thing.  The magnifier was about 60$US.

 

I keep a scrapbook style cutting pad on top as my work space and repace it as needed.  The paint rack as mentioned is self made and cost about 10$US in parts.  Add in a wet palet and a couple of wash buckets for the brushes for another 25$US tops and that's my paint station.  Call it 250$US for the whole thing.

 

It's kind of hard to describe in a few words and I am not at home to include a picture ATM.  You can see the desktop and part of the paint rack in the background here.  If you are just talking about something to hold your paint, I use a stair stepped shelf made from foam core poster board and hot glue.

[JeffTibbetts]

I have seen a few nice paint racks at various price ranges but what I have been using the past few years is home-made from foam core board and hot glue.

 

My whole paint station is based on a computer desk (90$US).  It is set up on 4 spacers -- 4" PVC pipe couplers (about  25$US) -- to raise it up to a good working height.  It has a fluorescent desk lamp mounted on one side and an LED magnifier mounted on the back.  The fluorescent lamp is old and I have no idea on what it would cost. A new side lamp could be had for 30$ that would do the same thing.  The magnifier was about 60$US.

 

I keep a scrapbook style cutting pad on top as my work space and repace it as needed.  The paint rack as mentioned is self made and cost about 10$US in parts.  Add in a wet palet and a couple of wash buckets for the brushes for another 25$US tops and that's my paint station.  Call it 250$US for the whole thing.

 

It's kind of hard to describe in a few words and I am not at home to include a picture ATM.  You can see the desktop and part of the paint rack in the background here.  If you are just talking about something to hold your paint, I use a stair stepped shelf made from foam core poster board and hot glue.

 

Side note: That's a good looking Knight, Fib. So fresh and so clean, clean. 

[Aspecti]

I have a HobbyZone large paint station I got as a gift and I really like it. It's lightweight but surprisingly durable and there's plenty of room for brushes, paints and sculpting tools and whatever.

[Fibonacci]

Side note: That's a good looking Knight, Fib. So fresh and so clean, clean.

That was a gloss coat to get it ready for decals. It is some what "dirtier" now.

[Fibonacci]

Here's a nice set up.

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/4635/dragon053qs7.jpg

But mine looks like this:

[DarkMark]

I use a 10€ wooden coffee tray from Lidl. I do most of my painting sitting on the sofa so its ideal.

[Kilofix]

I just have a folding table, a tool box with paints and tools, and GW boxes / shoe boxes with bits.

 

[Kaedes Nex]

I use the black plastic Citadel one complete with the palettes and cups. It's expensive, over-priced, has many alternatives, etc, but by the Emperor, the placebo effect it has on my painting and productivity is amazing. Well worth the price if only for me.

 

I don't have a dedicated hobby desk so I desperately needed a painting station, and I'd much rather pay Citadel's prices for theirs with its molded features than pay much less for one of those laser cut wooden ones that I dislike. Before that I was just sort of clearing stuff of tables and painting like that, and it made picking up a brush and getting down to work much less appealing to have to clear tables and set up supplies.

 

I think the best painting station would be a nice empty desk with all your stuff set up and a good lamp.

[FashaTheDog]

I got my hands on an old Citadel retail paint rack years ago and use that for all my hobby tools, paints, and whatnot.  I set up a desk next to it and just grab what I need and put it back when I'm done, but with my responsibility at home during the day requiring me to be downstairs in the living room for most of the day, I pile what I need for a the minis I plan to work on onto a plastic tray along with some brushes and odds and ends and work entirely off that as I need to be fairly mobile between the coffee table, a small window side stand, and the kitchen table.  It sucks, but is functional for my needs.  I also have my "travel kit" which is very similar but is a cardboard box with a lid (whatever is handy, usually a GW product one or a shoebox), a cork for the x-acto, and one of those little tiny water bottles to clean my brushes in.