Improving A Warbases Paint Rack

In October last year I cleaned my painting desk and re-organised my paints.  When I'd finished I realised it was time to invest in a vertical paint rack as I was running out of space on my desk no matter how I arranged things.

I looked around online and ordered this from Warbases for £12.00 plus £2.60 postage:

Sunlight
Sixty paints.  Who has more than sixty Vallejo paints?  Clearly, I have.  The rack was full as soon as the glue had dried.  However in spring, I noticed that the paints were in direct sunlight and getting hot.  The rack faces a large window and it's very open at the back.

My temporary solution was to cover the back with a tea towel.  It wasn't ideal, as I kept catching it every time I drew the curtains, but it worked.

Another problem
About a month ago I noticed that the rear cross pieces were bowed outwards in the centre.  Then I noticed that it was a bit harder to tell what colour the paints in the centre slots were.

With the weight of ten paints in a row the cross piece isn't rigid enough to stay level; it's only 2 mm MDF after all.  All the cross pieces had flexed 3 to 4 mm.  Enough to ’cause me to wonder how long they would last.

The solution
It dawned on me I could solve both problems by attaching a back to the rack.  The points at which the cross pieces are attached to the frame are solid enough and would make good anchoring points for a back.

Thanks to Geoff at LaserCraft I soon had a custom back (28.8 by 25.7 cm) cut from 2 mm MDF.  I tried Warbases as well but only Geoff replied.  The piece was only £2.00 but I had to pay to have it posted.  I'd arranged to pick it up at the recent Northern League competition but Geoff forgot to pack it.  Drat, curses foiled again!

Glue-tastic
The back was simply glued on with tacky glue on most of each cross piece.  I left 10 mm at either end where I used superglue.  The latter held everything in place whilst the tacky glue dried.  As you can see I got glue everywhere but I was aiming for stability not show.

As extra insurance, I used a few 40 by 15 mm MDF bases to support the corners and the centre of the top and bottom edges.  The latter moved slightly whilst the tacky glue was wet and I didn't want to take any chances.

The end result is now very solid and proof against sunshine!