Elves & Ordnance: The Blog – Entry #4 – April 23, 2026:
In June of 2025 I waited, I must admit impatiently, for a package to arrive. For several months I had read through the advertisements for the compact and portable Krydrufi Art Station. I finally placed that order and eagerly awaited delivery.
I had been painting my miniature tanks from the Ogre game by
Steve Jackson Games, and was starting to paint on a faction of Miniatures for
Warhammer 40K. I had a set up for painting; a plastic cup for cleaning water,
some paper towels, brush cleaner, and the drawer of a converted tackle box for
brush storage. I needed organization.
The box arrived. I got the full set up. The dual water well
with two square storage cups (that can also be used as water wells, four brush
holders (holding four brushes each), two agitation pads for scrubbing the
brushes clean at the bottom of a water well, and the containers that attached
underneath. With the full kit, I received two wet palette containers, and two compartmentalized containers for storage of paint or small miniature parts. It
also came with paper and sponges for the wet palettes. This was actually quite
a bit of painting support items for the price.
Fast forward to April 2026. I have now received prototypes
of their larger storage box (with adjustable dividers, their silicone palette
for thin contrast paints, the glass palette, the new brush agitation pads (with
a lip so they may be used outside the water wells for brush cleaning without
dirtying the water), and the textured dry palette for dry brushing practice or
offloading paint from your dry brushes.
I have now been using the original Krydrufi components for
over nine months and have had time to thoroughly check out these soon to be new
offerings.
My overall opinion? I can’t live without the Krydrufi
products in my little corner of the hobby world. It all combines to be an
ultra-portable, stick it your back pack, travel everywhere tool. This item has
allowed me to paint miniatures in nearly every room of my house. I have moved
from a fixed hobby area to a folding table when needed and the Krydrufi deploys
where needed and allows me to work with almost any size work space. I have
painted outside on picnic tables. It has accompanied me on business trips so I
can continue my hobby work while in a distant hotel room. It even went with us
on a 2,000-mile round trip driving vacation where I was able to paint from our
VRBO near a beach in Ft. Lauderdale. It is simply a versatile, near
indispensable, portable tool center.
With that said, I will run through each component:
The basic set up, water wells, cups, brush holders and agitation/cleaning pads: This part of the set is a dual chambered water well and square cup holder. Each of the square, deep cups fit in a corresponding water well. When being transported, the brush holders that normally hang on the outside or inside of the cups or carrier, can be taken off and stored in the cups along with the agitation pads (and any paint pots, bottles or jars you like). Even a container of brush cleaner fits in the cups. Your brushes can also be stored upright in the cups for transport. The outer water well container serves to hold all of this and has a handle across the center for easy three to four finger carrying. It is what I would consider to be fairly lightweight.
The wet palette container and regular storage box nest on the bottom of the Krydrufi, making it a modular tool kit. You can customize it how you like. Wat to have two wet palettes and two storage containers? No problem, it will take all four (although it does make it a bit tall). You can do what you like here. Just want a wet palette? Yep. Two wet palettes? Sure. Whatever combination you want to do. As the slogan under the logo says, “Your Art,
The brush holders are of two styles; open bottom for over
the water in a well or cup, and a closed bottom tray style that can be used on
the outer side (but you can chose to attach them as you wish). Again, they fit
on the water wells or the cups. The silicone agitation cleaning pads also fit
in the bottom of the wells or cups for brush cleaning and are very easy to
clean with just dish soap and water. I should add here that the components of
the Krydrufi do not stain easily. Mine looks brand new after months of usage. I
bought mine in the original moss green color with light tan cups and lids.
Pull the Krydrufi out and deploy it with whatever components you need and when done, reassemble it and put it away for next use. It is fast and simple.
So how about the new components?
The most visually impressive is the new color available for
the water well carrier potion. It comes in a woodgrain-colored plastic. I
really like that for fitting in with my hobby area. I know that I am eventually
going to end up with at least three of these setups. I may put my oldest one in
a “ready to go” portable, backpack situation, and keep the woodgrain one on my
work desk. That will leave a third to be used by a guest as my oldest daughter
often comes over to paint her miniatures and I am teaching my middle son to
paint (as he just got
into Warhammer).
Since we are talking silicone, let’s discuss the new brush
agitation/cleaning pad. It has the raised surfaces in lines needed for brush
cleaning, but this is a bit thinner silicone than the original and has a nice
lip feature around it. This could still be used under water in one of the cups
or wells, but… it can also be used just sitting on your work surface with a
small amount of water and brush cleaner to deep clean the brushes. This would
allow you to do the primary brush scrubbing outside of your primary water well
and keep that water cleaner longer. And like all other components, it will fit
within the Krydrufi for storage, in this case at the bottom of the cup like its
predecessor. This has rapidly become one of my favorites of the new release
components.
The first is the glass palette. A lot of miniature painters have yet to use these, but it is growing on me rapidly. It allows you to get a proper amount of paint and thinning medium in one place and NOT have it continue to thin more like you see with a wet palette. The paint beads up a bit on the glass and does not really flow anywhere, so it stays wet for a bit; long enough to do detail work, and remain at one consistency. For me, who always thins base paints, this is an amazing tool. Cleans easily. This is only a few millimeters thick, and once again… you guessed it, modular. The glass palette will store between the module layers under the Krydrufi, like the wet palette paper, or you can also place it in the same style container normally used for the wet palette if you would like it better
The second palette is the dry palette which is much as you
would think it would be with planks, bricks, skulls and vents for dry brushing.
It too is modular and will fit inside a wet palette module. So now it is easy
to take a dry palette on the go. This is sectioned for four different primary
textures Once again, packable and convenient.
Lastly, I have a prototype of the new, deeper well storage compartment (the test one is white and just for evaluation). It fits on the bottom like the other flat modules. This one is about 1-3/8” deep and has adjustable partitions, so you can use it to store the parts of several minis for assembly, materials to add to bases like debris or skulls, steel balls for paint mixing, or just about anything that would fit. It will also fit several Army Painter
The Krydrufi art station is a grand and versatile tool. I am
at the point where I do not want to paint without it. I hope that you will give
it a try. I find it to be my number one tool. It is fairly priced, solidly
thought out by those who make it (they ask opinions of their users very
frequently), and very innovative. The Krydrufi lives up to the tag line below
the logo, “Your art. Your way.”
I really hope that you will give one a try. I doubt you will be disappointed. I have been using the first edition for over nine months and am overjoyed with how well it has supported my hobby.
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