We visited: Hobby stores around Europe
This summer we visited several attractions throughout Europe and in these series of articles we will bring you photo reports from each of them. The last article won’t cover any attractions, rather it will give a review of the hobby shops I visited.
Zwehrener Modellbau-Lädchen
First hobby store I visited was Zwehrener Modellbau-Lädchen in Kassel. It’s basically a model railroad shop but it does have some plastic models as well. Plenty of hobby supplies, paints etc are also on offer. The store manager is really helpful, loves the hobby but knowledge of German is a must. His English isn’t great.
Address: Frankfurter Str. 243, 34134 Kassel, Germany
Opening times: Mon-Fri: 10-18, Sat: 10-13, Sun: closed
Berliner Zinnfiguren
Second hobby store I visited was the highlight of the trip for me. Berliner Zinnfiguren. It’s a lovely shop with plenty of display miniatures and busts, both painted and unpainted, fantasy and historical on offer. It boasts several paint ranges, loads of plastic models (historic). Also it is a treasure trove of hobby books. The staff is really helpful, knowledgeable.
Address: Knesebeckstraße 88, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Opening times: Mon-Fri: 13-18, Sat: 10-15, Sun: closed
Modulor
Third one on the list is Modulor, also in Berlin. It’s a huge department store with huge hobby assortment. You won’t find any plastic models or miniatures for gaming or display there (only minis there are architectural miniatures in tiny scale). But hobby supplies are a plenty. Prices are high, so the only advantage this place has is that you can get everything in one place – from materials to tools.
Address: Prinzenstraße 85, 10969 Berlin, Germany
Opening times: Mon-Fri: 10-20, Sat: 10-18, Sun: closed
Battlefield Berlin
Next up is the famous Battlefield Berlin, a longstanding sponsor of ours. Being mates with the former employee has its perks so I got to enter the store from the back entrance. Huge assortment of gaming stuff, be it tabletop or RPG or just boardgames. Games Workshop, Corvus Belli, Wyrd, you name it, they have it. Wide range of paint suppliers is also on offer. And for us painters they do carry some display miniatures as well.
Address: Gneisenaustraße 43, 10961 Berlin, Germany
Opening times: Mon/Wed/Fri: 10-20, Tue/Thu: 10-19, Sat: 10-18, Sun: closed
Hobby 2000
We leave Germany and head to Belgium where, in Liege, we find ourselves in Hobby 2000, a huge warehouse of hobby heaven. Even though there must have been 6 or 7 employees there, none of them paid any attention to me. They must have a busy online store as all of them were busy packaging parcels. The hobby goods were laying around and I literally had to sift through boxes and boxes of minis to find something I like. But at least I could take my time about it. The biggest part of the warehouse is dedicated to railroad, then military models (plastic). Then come the hobby supplies with loads of paint ranges, materials and tools. There are some wargaming miniatures as well as a limited supply of display miniatures (which all seem second hand).
Address: Quai de la Boverie 78, 4020 Liège, Belgium
Opening times: Mon-Sat: 9:30-18, Sun: closed
Kit ou Double
Next store is an accidental find that I stumbled upon in Bastogne – Kit ou Double. A proper old school hobby store. Any plastic model you can think of, you can find it there. Probably a lot of OOP boxes and kits as well. The owner is an older gent, leaves you alone to shop around but if you have questions is ready to answer them.
Address: Rue de Neufchâteau 14, 6600 Bastogne, Belgium
Opening times: Tue-Sat: 10-18, Sun: 13-18, Mon: closed
Modellbahn Kaufmann
The last store on the list (before an honourable mention) is in Dornbirn – Modellbahn Kaufmann. A dedicated model railroad store – similar to the first one in Kassel, but without the plastic models. The owner is forthcoming and helpful.
Address: Bahnhofstraße 12, 6850 Dornbirn, Austria
Opening times: Mon-Fri: 9-12 and 14-18, Sat: 9-12, Sun: closed
Warhammer
Honourable mention goes to all the Warhammer stores in all the cities that I visited. I managed not to enter a single one. Even if I wanted to, they were all closed at the time I arrived. However, they all are alike (like McDonalds), they all carry the same products. And what I managed to see, peaking through the windows, all of them require dusting of the display cases :D
Warhammer Hamburg, Colonnaden 15, 20354 Hamburg, Germany, Mon-Sat: 11-18, Sun: closed
Warhammer Zwolle, Sassenstraat 15, 8011 PA Zwolle, Netherlands, Tue/Wed/Fri: 12-18, Thu: 12-17:30 and 18-21, Sat: 11-17, Sun/Mon: closed (someone had been high coming up with those opening times!)
Warhammer Metz, 52 En Fournirue, 57000 Metz, France, Mon/Thu: 13:30-18:30, Tue/Wed/Fri: 10-12:30 and 13:30-19, Sat: 10-19, Sun: closed
Warhammer Strasbourg, 5 Rue des Frères, 67000 Strasbourg, France, Tue/Wed: 11-19, Thu: 14-19, Fri: 11-13 and 14-19, Sat: 10-19, Sun/Mon: closed
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Science behind Acrylic Paints
- Binders (eng. resin) – form a film – in our case probably pure acrylates, I suspect they are styrene acrylates.
- Fillers – in addition to adding volume to the paint, they also affect the viscosity, coverage and appearance of the dry film
- Pigments – the main division is into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Inorganic ones are more covering but have less vivid shades, while organic ones are often quite poorly covering (yellow for example) but their shades are vivid and bright
Additives:
- Anti-foam
- Rheological modifiers – affect the behavior of wet paint on the substrate (e.g. spillage) and the behavior of the paint when a force is applied to it (brush, roller, spray, airbrush). Rheological modifiers also include thickeners that affect the viscosity of the paint.
- Dispersants – envelop pigment and filler particles and prevent their agglomeration during standing. Good dispersion of pigment and filler affects the coverage and uniform appearance of the dry film. There are a bunch more but I won't go into too much detail
- Solvent – in this case water.
Contrast paints and speed paints – high pigment content, but not so much that it causes high coverage. They are formulated to spread, not to stay where you put them. The result of spreading is that the paint collects in the recesses, where a thicker film of paint remains than on the protruding parts of the miniature. Where the film of paint is thicker (the recesses), the shade of the contrast paint is more pronounced, unlike on the protruding parts where the film is thinner, which is why the shade is then influenced by the color of the substrate.
Composition:
- Binders
- Pigments
- Additives – all listed above + surfactants that reduce the surface tension of the wet paint film, which is why it flows
- solvent
- I would say they do not contain fillers, or contain very, very little of them
Washes – similar in formulation and behavior to contrast agents, only they have a much lower proportion of pigments, certainly no fillers, a higher proportion of surfactants, lower viscosity, and probably less binders.
If we want to greatly dilute acrylic paint or contrast, it is better to use a product intended for this purpose from the manufacturer of that paint rather than water, because it contains all the necessary amount of binders and additives for that paint to retain its properties.
" ["content_hrv"]=> string(4306) "U ovom članku, naša Dunja nam otkriva znanost iza akrilnih boja.
Akrilne boje – visoki udio pigmenta i dobra pokrivnost. Ako su dobro formulirane ostaju tamo gdje ih naneseš, ne ostavljaju „brush marks“ i suše se dovoljno sporo da stigneš napravit što želiš na minijaturi a opet dovoljno brzo.
Sastav:
- Veziva (eng. resin) – formiraju film – u našem slučaju vjerojatno čisti akrilati, sumnjam da su stiren akrilati.
- Punila – osim što dodaju volumen boji utječu i na viskoznost, pokrivnost i izgled suhog filma
- Pigmenti – glavna podjela je na organske pigmente i anorganske pigmente. Anorganski su više pokrivni ali manje živih nijansi, dok su organski često dosta loše pokrivni (žuti npr) ali zato su im nijanse žive i jarke
Aditivi:
- Protiv pjene
- Reološki modifikatori – utječu na ponašanje mokre boje na podlozi (npr razlijevanje) i na ponašanje boje dok na nju djeluje sila (kist, valjak, sprej, airbrush). Pod reološke modifikatore spadaju i ugušćivači koji utječu na viskozitet boje.
- Dispergatori – obavijaju čestice pigmenata i punila i sprječavaju aglomeraciju istih stajanjem. Dobra dispergiranost pigmenta i punila utječe na pokrivnost i ujednačen izgled suhog filma.
- Ima ih još hrpa ali neću toliko u detalje
- Otapalo – u ovom slučaju voda.
Kontrastice i speed paints – visoki udio pigmenta, ali ne toliki da uzrokuje visoku pokrivnost. Formulirane su da se razlijevaju, a ne da ostaju tamo gdje ih staviš. Posljedica razlijevanja je skupljanje boje u udubine gdje onda ostane deblji film boje nego na isturenim dijelovima minijature. Tamo gdje je film boje deblji (udubine) nijansa kontrastice izraženija, za razliku od isturenih dijelova na kojima je film tanji zbog čega na nijansu onda utječe boja podloge.
Sastav:
- Veziva
- Pigmenti
- Aditivi – svi nabrojani gore +
- surfakanti koji smanjuju površinsku napetost mokrog filma boje zbog čega i dolazi do razlijevanja
- otapalo
- rekla bih da ne sadrže punila, ili ih sadrže vrlo vrlo malo
Washevi – po principu formuliranja i ponašanju slični kontrasticama, samo imaju puno manji udio pigmenata, sigurno ne sadrže punila, veći udio surfakanata, manji viskozitet i vjerojatno manje veziva.
Ako želimo jako razrijediti akrilnu boju ili kontrasticu bolje je koristiti za to predviđen proizvod od proizvođača te boje nego vodu, jer sadrži svu potrebnu količinu veziva i aditiva kako bi ta boja zadržala svoja svojstva.
" ["created"]=> string(19) "2025-11-20 13:03:37" ["modified"]=> string(19) "2025-11-20 13:03:37" } ["Member"]=> array(10) { ["id"]=> string(2) "64" ["group_id"]=> string(1) "1" ["first_name"]=> string(9) "Krunoslav" ["last_name"]=> string(8) "Belinić" ["first_name_mask"]=> string(9) "krunoslav" ["last_name_mask"]=> string(7) "belinic" ["username"]=> string(5) "Kruno" ["password"]=> string(40) "eb3fda45fbec0258e90d809803b10491c548b22f" ["born"]=> string(19) "2015-01-18 09:19:00" ["created"]=> string(19) "2015-01-18 09:20:39" } } Krunoslav Belinić, 20th November 2025 - We attended: ModelMania 2025 Marko Paunović, 5th November 2025
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