Hello dear junglereaders!
Today the monkeys want to present you another useful product for our hobby. You can find more Miniatures- and Material Unpacked here!
This time Bene will lose some words about the new Miniature Holder designed by the famous "Kringelmeister" Stephan Rath. The miniature holder which is reviewed here is Generation 3, so there is visible that Stephan has this idea since a long time and put a lot of time, tests and experience into the development of this product, to bring it to the best possible result.
Build Quality/Finish
We start by having a closer look at the build quality and the finish of the miniature holders. As you see, there are two color options available a light beech - like one and a darker one, something like walnut. In my opinion both colors are a nice choice and it depends only on your taste if you prefer the lighter or darker tone.
The wood for the handles is very nice manufactured, the shape of the miniature holder is well thought out and fits really comfortably in your hand while painting or sculpting. Also the finish of the wood is very smooth and a pleasure to have in your hand.
Functions and features
If you want to put your project aside for taking a break, the miniature holders are delivered with something like a pedestal, where you can easily put the holders with your project in and they will have a save stand on your desk.
As you can see, there are also different types of cork, on for busts and ond one for full miniatures or sculpts. Normally they also come with a wire bracket, but I´m so used to work without, that it didn´t show up on the pictures. They can be very helpful indeed when you work on freehands or very small details and want to stabilize your hand. There are also some different sizes for the wire brackets available, 32mm, 54mm and 75mm.
Here you can see the mechanism for releasing the cork to mount a miniature into the miniature holder or when you want to switch the cork for painting a bust for example. You just need to stick the end of a brush or another tool into the hole on the side of the miniature holder and with a bit of levering the cork will come off easily. Still it sits very stable once lightly pressed into the wood part of the miniature so there is no danger that you figure will come off the holder while you are working on it.
This is how it will look with a miniature mounted on the holder. You can mount the miniature with its tag like I did in this example although this is actually quite impractical. You will have to cut it off after the miniature is finished and also the tag is already a bit thick to fit it into that cork. Much better is the second option, by cutting the tag off and just using a wire pin. The miniature will still be hold safely and you don´t have to remove the tag after finishing the miniature.
These pictures were from a test painting session where I finished this little figure and also added a few very simple freehands for a test purpose. While it was nothing really complicated it felt much more comfortable to do the work on the miniature holder instead of a simple wood block or cork.
Conclusion
After reading that little review you might ask yourself if you need these miniature holders or not?
Well, the most used other options are from my experience relatively simple wood blocks or just corks. These two options will do the job also but from my testing I can say that the miniature holder is offering quite a lot more comfort and therefore makes miniature painting or sculpting even more fun and relaxation for me.
So to answer the question above: You probably don´t need it, but if you are looking for a nice and comfortable solution to hold your miniatures I definately can recommend the miniature holders and I´m pretty sure that they will give a little benefit to your workflow and comfort while painting.
Currently the kickstarter is still running so make sure to take a look at it. But not much time is left and I´m not sure when the holders will be available after the campaign.
Posts
Thank you for the review! I've been considering backing the KS, but haven't pulled the trigger thus far.
Does the stand accommodate miniatures with integrated bases, rather than slotta bases? Most of my figures are pre-1990, so I'm definitely curious about how well the holders manage such bases.
Thanks!
Allan.
I'm a Early Bird. ;)
I was also an earlybird - getting in while the amounts were still edging toward the initial goal. Now that I see just how successful this Kickstarter has been, I know I was right to back it early on.
I've also tried to custom build a holder using a toothpick holder and a large wine-making cork - it's OK but I still look forward to receiving my light Beech holder.
Thanks for the review.
Tony
Thank you for your comments!
@Grodog/Allan: Sorry for responding a bit late to your question, I was travelling the last days and was visiting a miniature show, where I had barely time to check and care for my online stuff.
As I have seen on the kicksater page Stephan is also offering corks which are made to fit normal gaming bases, maybe it works with them. As I didn´t have them myself for a test I can´t tell you exactly if they work also for the older bases.
Another option, which I would prbably choose is to drill a little hole into the base and miniature (where the miniatures foot is for example) and glue a pin into it. This way you can also use the slotted cork I used in the last example and just mount it with the pin into it. Depending on the miniature you probably should use two pins, aligned a bit like a normal tag on the bottom of the base so the miniature will have a better foothold.
After finishing painting, you can remove the pin from the base.
I hope that helps a little bit, although it´s a bit late.
Best regards
Bene