Dustan recently posted in our forum about his homemade paint station and I’ve edited his posts into this blog entry. There are more photos and details of construction in the forum posts if you’re interested – Stu.
I decided to revamp my tired old painting table with a stepped shelf system designed for more comfortable painting and protection from my daughter Pagyn (almost 2 at the time of writing). I wasn’t alone on the mission as my boy Shaun lent a hand and was a wonderful help to keep things flush while I screwed them.
The materials were all scavenged from about the garage. I had a 1200×600mm sheet of 4.5mm MDF, the chipboard was about 200mm x 595mm at 20mm depth. The screws were the only part I needed to buy, about 85 screws all up at $0.10 a piece. The tools used were a jigsaw, skill saw, coping saw, a couple of clamps and a drill.
The table has been kicking arround with me for the longest time, it is an old TV table and I have been using it as a paint station for years. It’s a good size for hiding between furniture when not in use and the lower part of the table is where my current models, bitz and tools are stored.
I sketched up a diagram of roughly what I wanted it to look like, then after cutting the back and sides I drew the plans straight onto them. This first shot shows the table with the back and splash shields in place. I didn’t have any hole cutting drill bits so I used a coping saw to make the water jar hole. The cuts were made by clamping a guide rail onto the material to cut. The shelves are made from a system of screwed together steps with MDF tops and chipboard walls.
Here’s a shot of the fully stocked table so far. I am also over half way through building a breadbox style lid, made from old ventian blind slats, which will slide into the void above the top shelf.
So far construction has taken about six hours, and the design and measurements where largely made up on the fly. Painting at the table is nice as everything is available and arranged tidily, and the high sides limit Pagyn’s angles of attack which has made it much easier to get things done.
Very nice work Dustan. I admire both your scavenging and DIY abilities, and I particularly like the inclusion of a large storage area underneath the work surface. I’m also slightly jealous of your collection of GW paints. Most of mine have been used, or dried up and I’m left with the horrifying prospect of purchasing some more, at $7NZ locally for a single bottle! – Stu.
Nice work – but watch your knee’s when you sit at it?? :o)
Cheers Steve, its just below knee hight and I use it mostly as a tool box to hold my stuff.
I most often can be found painting in the lounge watching movies and the low hight suits our lounge chairs quite well.
Wow, nostalgia. Some of those paints must be about 10 years old or more. They never should have stopped producing those old paint bottles. THEY NEVER DRY OUT. I still have some emerald green from when I first started collecting Warhammer about 12 years ago.
I love the table, I’ll have to think about making one of those up myself just so I don’t have to keep all my paints in a plastic bag.
Yeah good spotting there Scott, I got a hand full of other older paints which have survived the test of time.
I think they had to change the paints cause they just never ran out and never dried up. Some of the older bottles are missing half the rim but it still makes a better seal then the rubbish pots they use today. Quite frankly the new ones seem to be mixed with a drying accelerant.
There were a couple greens in an imperial armour paint set I got 14+ years to the left and above billious green (the bright green). I think they are the ones I will miss the most when I run out.