Masterson Sta-Wet Handy Palette Review (2026): Worth It?
An 8.5 by 7 inch airtight sponge-and-paper palette made in the USA, at $17.97 and rated 4.7 by 7,587 owners — the cheapest reference design on the shelf.
$17.97
Sta Wet Palette Review — Masterson Handy Palette, 8.5 x 7 in
An 8.5 by 7 inch airtight tray with a sponge and palette paper, made in the USA, at $17.97 and rated 4.7 by 7,587 owners. It is the fine-art product on a wargaming shelf, and the oldest design here by decades. We score this sta wet palette 8.3 out of 10.
This review is research-based. We did not physically test these products; specifications, ratings and prices are taken from the live listings on the date shown. This sta wet palette is one of five compared in our best wet palette guide.
On this page
- Sta wet palette — Key Specifications
- The Oldest Design Here, and the Cheapest Reference
- A Sponge, Not a Foam — and Why the Sta Wet Palette Behaves Differently
- The Weight Field Says 18 Grams
- Sta wet palette — Limitations
- Setting Up This Sta wet palette
- Who Should Buy This Sta wet palette?
- The Verdict
- Sta wet palette — Frequently Asked Questions
Sta wet palette — Key Specifications
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Reviewed model | sta wet palette |
| Price | $17.97 at the time of writing |
| Amazon rating | 4.7 from 7,587 ratings |
| Model number | 11000002 |
| Dimensions | 8.5 in L x 7 in W x 1 in H |
| Stated weight | 18.14 g — see below |
| Material | Plastic, matte finish, white |
| Manufacturer field | New Wave, LLC |
| In the box | Tray with lid, sponge, palette paper |
| Sheet count | Not published |
| Country of manufacture | Made in USA |
| Stated hydration time | “Days or even weeks” — no conditions given |
| Warranty | None stated |
The Oldest Design Here, and the Cheapest Reference
Masterson’s Sta-Wet system predates miniature painting as a mass hobby. It was built for acrylic painters working on canvas, which is why the copy talks about classrooms and small projects rather than armies, and why the tray is a plain white rectangle with no strap, no brush layer and no colour scheme.
That matters for one reason: it is the category reference, and it is also the second cheapest product in this group at $17.97. Where we looked at brushes, the hundred-year benchmark cost four times the budget option. Here the long-established product undercuts both hobby brands by twelve and sixteen dollars, which is unusual enough to say out loud.
What you give up is every convenience the wargaming brands have added since. There is no seal named, no strap, no spare sponge, no stated sheet count, and the lid is a press fit. What you get is a tray that has been sold essentially unchanged for long enough that 7,587 people have rated it 4.7.
A Sponge, Not a Foam — and Why the Sta Wet Palette Behaves Differently
The four hobby trays here ship an open-celled foam pad. Masterson ships a sponge, and the listing’s own Item Type Name field calls the product a “unique sponge and palette paper” system. A sponge holds more water per unit of thickness and releases it more slowly, which is why this design survives on a one-inch tray where the others need foam and a deeper box.
The trade-off is the one every long-term owner describes: a sponge that stays wet is a sponge that wants washing, and a dense sponge dries more slowly than foam. There is no spare in the box, so the day you wash it is a day you do not paint. That is the single strongest argument for the Redgrass and Nicpro trays, which both ship multiple pads.
The paper is the other half. Masterson sells replacement Sta-Wet paper in sizes cut for each tray in its range, and the sheet count in this box is not published anywhere on the listing — the only one of the five that does not tell you how many sheets you are getting.
The Weight Field Says 18 Grams
The structured data records Item Weight: 18.14 g for a plastic tray with a lid, a sponge and a stack of paper. Eighteen grams is about three sheets of A4. The Redgrass tray, which is smaller, weighs 322 g; the Jucoci tray weighs 240 g; this one is physically bigger than both.
The likely explanation is a unit error — 18.14 is a plausible number of ounces for the shipping weight of the larger Sta-Wet trays, and 0.64 ounces is 18.14 grams. Either way the figure in the field cannot describe the object, and a shopper filtering on weight gets a nonsense answer.
The Manufacturer field is the other oddity: it reads New Wave, LLC, not Masterson. New Wave acquired the Masterson line, so it is accurate rather than wrong — but it is the third shelf running where the manufacturer field names a company the buyer has never heard of, and there are four separate UPCs listed against this one product.
Sta wet palette — Limitations
No sheet count is published, so the consumable arithmetic that decides the real cost of a palette cannot be done before purchase. Every other product here states how many sheets are in the box.
One sponge, no spare. Washing it costs you a painting session.
No seal, no strap, no gasket named. The lid is a press fit and the copy claims days or even weeks with it closed, with no conditions attached to the claim.
The stated weight is wrong by an order of magnitude, and the manufacturer field names a different company from the brand.
No warranty term is stated. Four of the five here are silent on the subject.
Setting Up This Sta wet palette
Soak the sponge, wring it out hard, and lay it in the tray. Masterson’s paper wants to be wetted too — run it under the tap, lay it on the sponge and smooth the air out from the centre. A dry sheet dropped onto a wet sponge curls at the corners and lifts.
Mix near the edges and keep the middle of the sheet clear for thinning. Press the lid down firmly all the way round rather than at two corners, because with no gasket the seal is only as good as the last inch you pressed.
Rinse the sponge every week and let it dry right through before it goes back under a closed lid. With a single sponge and no spare, that is the whole maintenance routine for this sta wet palette, and skipping it is what produces the smell people blame on the paint.
Who Should Buy This Sta wet palette?
Buy it if you want the cheapest product on this shelf that is not a generic, or if you also paint on canvas and want one system for both. It is an acrylic painter’s palette that happens to work perfectly well for miniatures, and at $17.97 it is twelve dollars less than the nearest hobby-branded tray.
Buy it if you value a design that has not changed in decades over one that was launched last year. There is a reason 7,587 ratings average 4.7 on a product with no features to speak of.
Skip it if you need a spare sponge, a sealed lid or a published sheet count. Skip it too if brush storage is the point, in which case The Army Painter tray is the only one that offers it.
The Verdict
Scored 8.3 out of 10. It is the best value on the shelf and the only product here with a lineage, and the sponge-and-paper system is genuinely different from the foam the hobby brands use rather than a cheaper version of it.
It loses marks for a specification table with a weight that cannot be true, for a missing sheet count, and for shipping one sponge where its rivals ship two or four pads. If you want the most paint-keeping for the least money, this sta wet palette is where the money goes furthest.
Sta wet palette — Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Sta-Wet palette the same thing as a stay-wet palette?
Sta-Wet is Masterson’s trade name; stay-wet, wet palette and hydration palette all describe the same three-layer idea of a watertight tray, a water-holding layer and a semi-permeable sheet. The names are not standardised and no specification underlies any of them.
How many sheets of paper come in the box?
The listing does not say, which is unique among the five palettes we compared. Masterson sells replacement Sta-Wet paper cut to each tray size in its range, so budget for refills without knowing where you are starting from.
Can I use a kitchen sponge as a replacement?
Mechanically yes, and plenty of painters do. The density is what changes — a loose dishwashing sponge holds less water and releases it faster, so the paper floods early and dries early. If you substitute, press it out harder than you think necessary.
Does it really keep paint usable for weeks?
That is the claim, with no temperature, humidity or method attached, and the same wording appears on the Redgrass listing. In a cool room with the lid pressed down properly it is plausible; on a warm desk under a lamp it is not. No maker on this shelf publishes a figure you could check.
Where to Buy
Check the current price on Amazon — Masterson Sta-Wet Handy Palette, airtight paint palette, 8.5 by 7 inches, made in USA, listed at $17.97 at the time of writing.
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