Rupert's Insights: Paint Storage Carousel

During a recent reorganization of my train room and workshop it struck me that I had hobby paint squirrelled away in various places. Consisting of spray cans, acrylics, tiny Testors enamels and paint in tubes, these were on various shelves and drawers. Not only was this lack of storage system inefficient (“where did I put that …?”) but it wasn’t easy to see the various colours in my inventory. Also, my airbrush and its accessories were tucked away in an inconvenient closet.

Here is a picture of the lack of organization, not including the spray cans and the airbrush and accessories:

I have seen various commercial paint carousels for sale on-line but have not seen one that can accommodate containers as large as spray cans to as small as Testors enamels – and they certainly have no space for airbrush equipment. The solution was to divert my attention away from working on my layout for a few days and make my own custom paint carousel.

I purchased some 19 mm (3/4 in.), 10 mm (3/8 in.) and 6 mm (1/4 in.) plywood; 3 mm (1/8 in.) Masonite hardboard; a couple of European cabinet hinges and a lazy susan bearing. I had determined that a 90 cm (36 in.) height and a 48 cm (19 in.) width would fit nicely under my layout benchwork. The 19 mm plywood comprised the top and bottom of the carousel and the 10 mm plywood served as the sides and the shelf supports. The shelf bottoms were made from the 6 mm plywood and the 3 mm Masonite served as the outer edges of the shelves. After some simple cutting and routing for the shelf supports, I had assembled a simple wooden box with shelves all fastened with wood glue.

One side has small shelves to hold the Testors and other very small containers. Two sides hold the small (2 oz.) and large (8 oz.) acrylic paint containers as well as oil and acrylic paint in tubes. The fourth side holds spray cans.One side is hinged outwards to reveal shelving that can accommodate the airbrush, pump and accessories as well as things like my paint shaker and gouache paint set. I gave it a coat of paint to match the colour of the walls in my train room. I elected not to make a place for paint brushes because I already have these stored in a home-made device which is located on a shelf adjacent to the paint carousel.

Now I can find all my hobby paint easily and in one place and have freed up the various drawers and shelves to be used for squirrelling away other items for which I will no doubt find myself asking the question, “where did I put that …?”.