Storage of miniatures, and painting stations.

[dijit]

Im having to make space for my wife's desk now shes working from home. Which means that all my rather untidy modelling stuff has to be packed somewhat more neatly than now.


So drawing on the collective wisdom of the LAF, heres a couple of questions.
What do you guys use for storing your minis? Whats most cost effective?

What do you guys use for portable painting stations? Im thinking something that can be taken out of an evening then easily packed away during the day and easily transported.

[Orctrader]

What do you guys use for portable painting stations? Im thinking something that can be taken out of an evening then easily packed away during the day and easily transported.

I use the Hobby Zone Paint Station LINK

There is a larger version but I only have a small space.

I of course have far too many paints to fit on the station  and I store those in another container.  On the station though I can always have enough paints to hand for whatever project I'm on at the time.

[Davout]

I use bankers boxes (file boxes). The foam I store my figs in fits snug in the box, the boxes themselves are sturdy and stack-able with strong lids. 

[Norm]

For painting, I have the mobile HUMBROL painting tray, which is quite roomy and has a cutting mat. My paints are kept in two large and strong piano type boxes, it takes seconds to bring it all out.

My miniatures are in shallow draws in cabinets (office style that fit onto book cases) for 15m and less and for larger, I use those slightly deeper plastic boxes with clip on lids. (as sold by reallyusefulproducts dot com and available in office stationers).

All of these things go onto open backed book cases - These things are a lot less problematic to store than terrain, which is where my main storage problem is, causing me to want to rationalize down to a single scale.

[has.been]

Plus one for 'really useful' boxes. Most of my collection are in the A4 file box size, but the beauty of their system is various sizes can work together. As an example I have one A4 box with my Barbarian Dragon Rampart infantry & above it two deeper but A5 size boxes which hold the War Mammoth & cavalry.

[galvinm]

For storage the wife got me a 2 storey 16X16 building. Unfortunately, it has not been prepped with power yet. Therefore most of my painting is done in the house. I have 2 of those 5 drawer, rolling plastic storage towers you can find at most stores. One contains figures, the other paints, tools, etc.

The miniatures I am working on at any particular time are kept in wooden serving trays, 16X16X2, stacked on a shelf.

Since I have the attention span of a gnat, I usually have a few dozen from every period I enjoy, which seems to be all. Very easy to move around the house.

I have 2 large Plano boxes for travel transportation.

[carlos marighela]

Kmart polythene storage boxes. The deep ones store about 100 standard Vallejo bottles. The shallow ones store around fifty to sixty 28mm figures mounted on 3/4" washers. I take flexible fridge magnets cut them to size and glue them to the bottom of each compartment. If you drop' em figures will obviously fly free of the magnets (true of most storage systems) but for normal transport/ movement they hold 'em in place very nicely.

The boxes cost between about $9 and $15 AUD. Magnetic strip cost me nothing. Cheap, tidy, practical. For anyone worried about the perils of rot, you can always drill some holes in the boxes.

[vodkafan]

Not much standardisation going on in my leadpile. A variety of plastic tubs and those partitioned hobby boxes. Thanks to has.been I now have a couple of cabinets though with projects in progress on metal trays

[dijit]

Not sorted out the storage of my minis yet, but I have progressed with what to do with my paints.







Two 3bottle wine cases, hinged together, then with selves installed. The biggest problem was that one of the two cases wasnt square and as you can see they dont quite match up as a result, but never,ind, I'll manage anyway. It has space for most of my paints, putty, brushes and other tools. Wish though now id made another of the taller holes that my puttys and glue could stand in. May go back and redo that later.

When sorting through my paints its a bit scary to realise that my greys and browns have a whole shelf each!

[khartoum2]

For my paint storage (not so good for Vallejo type bottles, I use a fishing tackle box I bought a Lidl when it was their weekly item.  Doesn't take all my paints but when I keep it in order does work well and they are easy to transport