Phil Kapelko

London design week exhibition 2011.

Games Workshop sells paint in spray-cans to its customers for them to apply a base coat to Game Workshop miniatures. The miniatures are then over-painted by hand. The problem with this spray-can system is the hydrocarbon based propellant and paint systems that they contain. These produce inflammable green house gases: hazardous in transit, to users and the environment which are under increasingly stringent regulation, particularly in export markets. The can is also not reuseable. Game Workshop's brief required a solution that avoids the hazardous propellant and paint system; a solution that avoids the need to discard the container at the end if a single filling.

The design replaces the HC propellant with air pressure; the HC paint with a water based ones. The product is cleanable & refillable. The user fills the pressure chamber with their choice of paint. The user fills the pressure chamber with their choice of paint. The chamber is pressured with air using the hand pump. The paint is led through a flexible tube to a spray pen which is customisable to users tastes. After use, the container is depressurised; any paint is removed & saved for future use; the contained, tube & spray pen is cleaned with water-based cleaners. The tube stores by coiling around the base and the spray pen sits on a grippable rest on-top the container.

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Design Development.