This review is for Frontier Wargaming's paint and tool organizer set.
BACKGROUND - I'm new to this hobby, just now building my first armor kit. I've spent several years working with RC trucks and helicopters, so scale models and their assembly isn't a completely foreign world to me.
REASONING - A place for everything, and everything in it's place. I love an organized work space. I didn't want to scratch build something, so after a few evenings of searching I found this beauty. Originally the model I found was from CNC Workshop out of Australia. I searched for an American distributor, but couldn't find one. So I purchased this set on eBay for $75 after shipping. It was shipped from Latvia, which took about four weeks.
BUILD QUALITY - All the pieces are precision cut out of MDF and looked and felt sturdy. There were only two trivial defects I encountered. The first was on a side wall for a corner unit. The pieces are supposed to have a small circle inscribed on the outside surface to indicate where the magnets should be glued, but both side walls were duplicates, so on one side these circles are on the interior of the unit. It doesn't affect assembly at all, but it was out of place. The second issue wasa locating hole in the bottom plate of the corner paint stand was cut wrong. I had to trim two vertical pieces at the bottom tier of this unit to get them to fit. No big deal, but a defect all the same.
ASSEMBLY - Everything fit together well, and felt solid afterward. The instructions say you can build without glue, and I'd believe it. However, I chose to apply a small dab of wood glue at each joint, just for good measure. The corner units required a little more care to get all the pieces to mesh, but overall it took no more than 90 minutes start to finish, and shouldn't be difficult if you take your time.
FEATURES - This is a one stop shop for paints and tools. This universal model has holes drilled for all different brush and tool sizes, and fits all popular models of paint. The plates where the paints sit are drilled wide at the top to accommodate your larger diameter paint bottles and each lower tier in the unit extends to the rear so that smaller bottles like my Vallejo have somewhere to sit. All the labels are visible, and legible thanks to the cutouts at the front of each tier. There's even a small hole in the base of each paint well that will hold the tips of dropper bottles if you like to store them upside down. The cutting mat in my pictures is 24X18 inches, so the set should fit any average work space.
VERDICT - I am very happy with my purchase. It may seem a little expensive, but I'd rather have the right tool for the job, and this is it.