So after three months of waiting, my painting station arrived! By the Emperor's withered testicles!
My friend and I ordered one each back in the misty reaches of April from the Polish company Hobbyzone. Their prices were very reasonable, though initially they didn't have a setup for delivery to the blasted wasteland of New Zealand. We haggled for a bit and they agreed upon a cheaper delivery price, which would take longer to arrive. I was in no hurry and promptly forgot about it for the most part.
Look! Boxes!
And inside, everything had survived the three month travel ordeal pretty much unscathed. One corner of the base had a slight bit of wear, easily fixed with some tape to stop it from deteriorating further.
The instructions were easy to follow. There was a lot more gluing than I anticipated, but that's not really a complaint so much as just an observation.
Now for anyone else getting one of these stations, there's three pieces of wood that act as support beams for the shelves that you have to bend and fit into curved slots. One of the beams was 2 cm too long for the slot and so had to be cut to fit, and then it's just a matter of being very careful as you glue then bend it into place. Just slot one side in and then bend the rest into place in increments and you'll be sweet.
I then employed a ton of old fantasy books to weigh them down overnight while they dried. My house smelled pleasantly like my highshool wood-working class.
The next day! I glued the three main frames onto the back support piece and waited for most of the afternoon while they dried, then adding the two side pieces and giving it another couple hours. I also added some tape just to keep everything in place, but it held up fine by itself while it dried.
And then it was just a matter of gluing the shelving frame down onto the base and weighing the sucker down with a bunch of books for a few hours. I noticed that the whole unit wasn't quiiiiiite flush in places, some of the measuring or possibly component cutting was a bit off in places, but not enough that it caused any major problems.
And here's the station ready for action!
And here it is with all my paints, tools and stuff in place, ready for use.
All in all I'm very happy with the finished product. It holds my paint collection very nicely with a bit of room to add more, plus brushes, small water cups, decal solution and some tools. Most importantly it provides an easily mobile station that I can pack away under the table with lots of surface area for models.
The cheap plywood material was a bit of a concern and I ended up running masking tape all along the bottom edges and corners so that it would have some protection in the long term, but I think that's what you get for the low price and I don't really see that as much of an issue.
Would definitely recommend it!
0 bleatings to Megapope: