DropTop: A patent-pending alternative top to Citadel paint pots hits Kickstarter

I gave up trying to paint my minis decades ago. It’s a skill that I can’t master, and it’s incredibly messy. It seems that the mess is an issue for gamers who have gone to master the art.

DrTabletop is a company trying to raise $40,000 to produce an intelligent alternative to the standard tops on Citadel paint pots. At the time of blogging, there are a chunky 57 days still to run on the Kickstarter, and they’re halfway there with $20,000 raised. You can check it out for yourself over at the campaign page.

[Back this Campaign]

The video might remind you of one of those infomercials where the actors ham up doing everyday actions very badly so that their alternative solution seems far more intelligent.

It’s worth watching closely, though. There’s a scene in which a little ball is dropped into the paint pot. The FAQ calls that the agitator, a non-metal ceramic blend ball to help mix up the paints. I had assumed it was a necessary part of the dropper function, but that’s not the case.

The FAQ also reveals that the DropTop is patent-pending. The squishy top is the new solution to the messy paint pot saga. It allows a small amount of paint to be let out from the pot in a clean and controlled way.

A pledge of $10 will get you 5 of the reusable DropTops. That’s $2 a top, and given the cost of wargaming and mini collecting as a whole, I think that’s good value.

I imagine the most hardcore of painters might have 10, at most, pots on the go at once and will be able to cap them all with a $20 pledge.

As it happens, the discounts kick in after that. $30 gets you 20 DropTops, $65 gets you 40, $100 gets you 70, and you can go higher still.

The agitators only become part of the pledge at that $65 mark. In addition to those 40 DropTops, you’ll also get 50 agitators. I imagine those little ceramic balls are easy to misplace.

DropTops looks like an excellent project for painters. I’ll admit, though, I’m a little curious to what Games Workshop will make of the campaign. They don’t have a great track record when it comes to being delighted by other companies making money off their ecosystem of products. I hope they do the right thing.