To be fair, I can’t see this rack being that good for the storage of small bottles of acrylic paint either, though you might be in luck if you want Daemonette Hide of Slaanesh Grey.
Right, step two, putting all those nicely filled dropper bottles in to something to keep them organised. But what?! The issue was I didn’t want something that stacked horizontally over levels like my previous one. It was great, but space is a premium here, and going from one to another was absolutely pointless. So, what options are out there?
A lot of companies do these, in various guises, but they’re predominantly all based on a tiered system, which is not the style I needed. TT Combat do one that Troll Trader sell, again, tiered, there’s one over at Basecrafts, also tiered, and so it seems at the time of writing this, there’s a new one out there that holds 80 bottles and stacks vertically, coming in at £28. There’s one over at Games & Gears but that’s again, a tiered system and not in stock unfortunately, but Corehammer’s Kev Walsh backs these guys, so if you needed a seal of quality, there it is.
I actually got mine from Wargame Mods, its a 120 bottle rack, it goes up vertically, and was made like the rest, from laser cut MDF. It came in at £25.99 plus postage, so it’s big enough, and less than the Basecrafts, and you can get more in it.
This is the rack as shown on the website, fully built, sans bottles of paint.
Inspection
The rack arrived pretty fast and was sent recorded, so no issues there whatsoever. Great service. The rack itself is like most MDF stuff of this nature, self assembly, and came in several pieces, a top and bottom, two sides, two supports and a series of inserts for the bottles to sit on. It kind of looks like a really small wine rack, the bottles sit in with their nibs slightly downwards so you don’t have to shake them as much. Good idea, but to add to the mixability, I’ve nicked an idea from Kev, putting lead fishing shot in each bottle, absolute gold!
Sling one of these bad boys in each bottle, stops it separating out and going lumpy.
Assembly
This is where I had a bit of an issue. The instructions weren’t particularly informative, they were for a smaller rack as well, not the 120 one I ordered. From someone who builds Forge World kits regularly, you’ll understand how vague they actually were. A more detailed set of instructions, or even a set you could download to save on their printing costs would be immensely useful here, as two bits actually broke while I was making it. The MDF is VERY thin here so be careful and take your time, it’s much thinner than the stuff the Polish rack was made from.
Having taped up the snapped top section and worked out which way the rack went together, it was really quick to assemble and glue together, and very well thought out design-wise really. I had wasted about 35 minutes before this however, poring over it and putting it together the wrong way, hence the breakage.
Once you have the frame up, two supports, two sides and the top/bottom, the racks slide in and clip in to place, add some glue and the whole structure suddenly becomes much more robust the more slats you put in. This bit went together nicely, no breakages, and really does make the whole unit really robust. It has enough of a footprint to stand up by itself, but it’s best putting it next to a wall if you can. The bottles all fit in nicely, though Vallejo Game Colour droppers don’t fit quite so well as the other Vallejo ranges, the Army Painter ranges and the bought Ampulla bottles for some reason.
This is the finished article up and glued together.
The size of this is also another great bonus, it’s small, and takes up very little space given the droppers aren’t all that tall. However, a few centimetres on either side wouldn’t make much different though if thicker board could be used.
Side view, you can see how thin the MDF is but once assembled, it does form a really solid whole.
I did mention the breakage and the thickness of the MDF to Wargame Mods, as understandably, I wasn’t happy however they remedied the situation by offering to send out replacements for the broken pieces, which was spot on.
Conclusion
I cannot fault the service offered by Wargame Mods, the design of the unit is excellent, and its more than fit for purpose. My only gripe would be the price point, given the rigidity of the MDF used. Having assembled the stand from the Poles, it felt more like thick cardboard when assembling the initial stages. If better instructions could be provided for download, and the price was a little bit lower, then this would be THE rack. It’s still priced competitively when looked at £ per bottle held, but as mentioned, the MDF lets it down ever so slightly.