[Log] Workshop 5 - Hobby Holder

In December, I received a production sample of the Hobby Holder. The Hobby Holder comes from a Kickstarter project that I backed late last year. I was lucky enough to try it out before my actual pledge arrives. Overall, I am very happy with the product and plan to be using it for most of my miniature paintings.

It feels very durable. The only way I can see it being broken is if you were intentionally trying to break it or through some extremely rare freak accident.

The Hobby Holder provides both stability and more surface area to hold onto comfortably while painting a miniature. That bulk helps someone like me that have clumsy fingers from accidentally dropping the miniature (as much!) while painting.

While I never had issues with strain in my hands, a secondary effect of using the Hobby Holder is less strain on my neck and back. I tend to hunch over so that I can use my elbows and the table for support while painting. So far from my brief use of the Hobby Holder I don't hunch over as much. In fact, I tend to lean back on my chair.

Here are some images I took:

1. The obligatory image of the Hobby Holder next to my previous method of holding a miniature as I paint -

2. I can see myself switching how I hold the Hobby Holder, but I found this grip to be the one I likely will be using the most -

It allows me to turn the model as needed while comfortably holding the miniature for a long time. The handle acts as a support by resting in the crease between my thumb and index finger -

 3. I feel like I will use this grip when I want to use the handle of the Hobby Holder to steady my brush -

Before I used the Hobby Holder, I steady my brush by resting the wrist of my painting hand on top of the wrist of hand holding the miniature. I will have to change the current location of my light source as the handle sometimes block the light.

My first use of the Hobby Holder was with the regular sized models on 25 mm to 30 mm bases. With larger models the grip I used above is not as practical. In the future, I will try the Hobby Holder in the "grip" configuration which was intended to accommodate larger models.

It took me a while to figure out how to easily remove the handle from the base -_-;;. So I went back to the Campaign page of this Kickstarter...watched the GIF animation...chant silently "push one end of the clip, then pull the handle" and it becomes a piece of cake on removing handle. It is also a lot easier to remove the handle when the bottle cap is not attached to the base -_-;;.

Switching out the bottle cap is very quick. Because of that, I think those using bottle caps will be happy with just one Hobby Holder. I pledge for five Hobby Holders intending to share them with the nephews and nieces. With so many Hobby Holders...I think I can start an assembly line with them to paint lots of miniatures quickly! :P Again, I am very happy with the final product.

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