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So I just bought a bunch of shelves and tidies with which to make my hobby area less of a bombsite. Finding my spray cans don't fit upright in the shelves I bought, I ask myself - are these safe to store laid on their sides, like in a wine cellar?

So I'm starting this thread partly to solicit an answer to this query, and also as a general 'top tips' thread on improving workflow and safety at our P&M workspaces.

To kick us off, I've found a metal tobacco tin makes a good sharps bin for all those old blades and drillbits.

Tube desk tidies (below) seem like a good idea for files and other small tools, but when you're reaching for something they can be dangerous. Better to have a small set of drawers for potentially stabby stuff.

I've taken to using large GW tray boxes (Arachnarok Spider, Trygon, etc) as P&M 'inboxes'. I'm not allowed to start any more modelling projects if there's no space in the modelling inbox, and I'm not allowed to finish any more modelling WIP's until there's space in the painting inbox. I enjoy sculpting more than painting and am a dreadful hobby butterfly, so I tend to end up with a massive bottleneck of unfinished projects; this helps me maintain a workflow and actually get finished units on the tabletop. It also prevents workspaces getting cluttered with unfinished projects that just look depressing and put me off sitting down and getting on with it.

Newspaper isn't bad for protecting a table, but when laid down on a carpet it can make dark smudges of newsprint and is little protection against a major fluid spill. You can get a thick plastic dustsheet from a hardware store that'll protect carpets and furniture from anything, punctures from dropped tools notwithstanding.

If you don't have a hobby desk, a food tray is way cheaper than GW's paintstation thingy and pretty much does the same thing.


Don't do it, they suck