Alright, so I know we've all been there before, standing in the friendly local game store, looking at the huge range of paints on offer and thinking to ourselves, well maybe this one would be great on my Tyranids. Then before you know it, you've picked up another 15 paints and somehow a Biovore has found its way into the basket as well.
Then you arrive at home, ready to add the paints to your collection, but wait, why is that another bottle of Khorne Red you see before you?
It's not just about knowing what paints you own either. Once you've got multiple projects on the go, maybe some Dark Angels, an Imperial Knight and that Necron Combat Patrol you've not finished yet, remembering which paints you bought for which project becomes another challenge entirely.
That's just some of the reasons why it's worth tracking your paints, not only those you have, but those you wish to buy. Without some way of keeping track of what you own, the overwhelming amount of choice available today can quickly become difficult to manage. Well unless you have a photographic memory... but anyway, back to tracking paints.
So, we now know why we might want a paint tracker, but what should we use? There are a number of options, some better than others, that we can take a look at.
Pen and paper
Whether it's a notebook, or a folded-up piece of paper you keep in your wallet, this is an option some might want to use. However, the problem with this is that that piece of paper, that notebook, will quickly get too cumbersome to manage. Ran out of Leadbelcher? Time to scratch that one off the list and add it to your shopping list. Standing in the store and wondering if you have Craven Yellow already? I'll give you a few minutes to look through your list.
For smaller collections, a notebook can work surprisingly well. The challenge comes when your collection grows. Updating your inventory and shopping list by hand starts taking more effort than most of us want to spend managing paints, time that could be spent painting more miniatures.
Spreadsheets
How about getting a little help from a computer in the form of a spreadsheet? Now that provides a few advantages that paper doesn't have; you can search your list and find a paint much more easily and quickly. Paints can be sorted and categorised. You have the space to add more information about each paint, such as its brand, even which projects that paint is used in.
Spreadsheets solve many of the problems that paper lists suffer from and can even help you create shopping lists. The challenge is that they still require manual maintenance. Every new paint needs to be added, every empty bottle needs updating, and before long the spreadsheet itself starts feeling like another hobby project, or worse, it becomes something that you no longer keep updated and you're back to not knowing what you have.
Photos
Alright, how about I just take a photo of my paint rack before I leave home? Sounds great; then you have a way to check what you already own right on your phone and also it's one of the lowest effort ways to track what you own of all, great for when you need to head out and it only takes seconds to do.
While a photo of your paints is a great option, it's not without its downsides. If you're anything like me, you too have invested in a nail polish rack from Amazon as it's the ideal way to store those paints; however, if you have the same one as I do, then you can't see the names on those paint bottles without being right there to check them if they are not on the bottom row.
Secondly, what if you were mid-project and didn't have time to put all your paints back into the rack and forgot about the ones that were on your desk? Do you remember which ones those were? How old is that photo you took of your paint rack too? I'm fortunate enough to remember my phone when I leave, though sometimes that's only when I go to hook it up to the car's radio to play the latest episode of The Independent Characters podcast. I know I can't count on myself to have an up-to-date photo each time I go out.
It's definitely better than just trying to remember what you have, but it can easily develop some cracks over time, allowing that extra pot of Nuln Oil to slip in. Though in all fairness, Nuln Oil seems as though it's the most spilled wash out there, so maybe a few extra bottles of it wouldn't be so bad.
Brand-specific apps
If you're relatively new to the hobby, perhaps you've found that your favourite paint maker has their own app? I, for one, used the Warhammer Colour app for a long time to track all my paints and what I wanted to purchase, and it was great for that. The downside, however, was that it kept me locked into that one paint brand. I didn't feel as if I was able to step outside that Warhammer Colour bubble because as soon as I started buying paints from other brands, my collection no longer existed in one place.
Following tutorials
While on the topic of being caught in that paint maker bubble, buying only one brand, I wanted to say that being in the store isn't the only reason to track your paints. For me, the most important reason to know what paints I have and didn't have was tutorials, and that's also the one that made me step away from using apps that were brand-specific.
Often, tutorials from creators such as Midwinter Minis, Squidmar Miniatures, Duncan Rhodes, and especially Warhammer's official YouTube channel, have their brands of paints that they like to use. The problem is I don't always have those paint brands, so I need to have lists of what to buy that might span multiple brands, and then when I own multiple brands of paints, a paint maker's specific app is no longer a viable solution.
Dedicated hobby apps
Not all hobby apps are created equal, some are like a database of paints from everyone that's ever made one, some stick with one brand, while some others are just checklists where you need to enter in all the paint information by yourself. After looking at so many different options, there was something more that I needed, something I felt was missing.
I was the one frustrated, standing at the paint section in the Warhammer store, not being able to remember which paints I needed. Or standing in my friendly local game store, which didn't happen to stock many Warhammer paints, and not ending up buying any, because I didn't know what would work for the tutorial I'd been watching from other brands.
That's what led me to create Hobby Rack.
What started as a solution to help me store what paints I owned and those I needed, has evolved into something more. It helps me quickly create projects based on tutorials I'm watching and then when I don't have one of the paints mentioned, it lets me find others in my collection which are close matches and suitable alternatives to use. It's saved me both time, and money, by letting me use the paints I already own to complete tutorials, instead of hunting around through maker's comparison charts in the hopes that I'll find just one paint I have that I can use.
Final thoughts
At the end of the day, the best hobby tracking system, be that for paints you own, or projects you're working on, is the one you will actually use and can keep up-to-date.
For some hobbyists that's a pen and a notebook. For others it's a photo of their paint rack or a spreadsheet.
Whatever method you choose, keeping track of your paints can save money, reduce duplicate purchases, and make following tutorials significantly easier.
As for me, well I'll continue to use Hobby Rack.
It still hasn't solved the problem of miniatures mysteriously ending up in my hands when checking out at the hobby store, or arriving in the mail, but perhaps that's something to work on for version 2.0.