Work Stations

I have two dedicated spaces. One is an old drafting table I picked up from the local college during one of their yearly cleanouts. It only has one drawer but I bought one of the plastic 5 drawer stacks to go under that one. I have a small multi-parts drawer unit sitting at the back. Since the mag light is hooked to this table, all figure painting is done on this one and most modeling work. The table's drawer and the stack hold all the tools.

The other is an old 6' dining table with a drawer stack under each end and small shelf unit along the back. One of the drawer stacks holds all the bottle and tube paints and brushes. The other has all the craft supplies and paints. This has become mainly an open box flop table but primary use is for large projects, if and when I get to them :-) The wife also uses this when she paints Christmas figurines.

Paint booth is an old 3' cube dust cover from a line printer. The top and front are clear and hinged, exhaust fan in the back.

I still do all my decal work at the kitchen table (so I am closer to the back door) and I do most dry fitting at the coffee table in the TV room.

-- Chuck Ryan snipped-for-privacy@REMOVEearthlink.net Springfield OH

I'm lucky enough to have two work areas - pic of my workbench is at the bottom of the page here:

other is a corner of the garage, in a large cardboard box where I do my spraying and airbrushing. As you'll see from the workbench - I'm allright if I can just get enough little stowage boxes to put everything in :-)

Treadhead

"Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination. Do not become the slave of your model" - Vincent Van Gogh Howard Freeman IPMS(UK) 9169 snipped-for-privacy@afvs.co.uk

I converted an old student desk from the local unfinished furnature store by adding a 42" wide counter-top (with a four inch high splash wall at the back. I mounted two gooseneck lamps, one with a magnifyer in it ('cause I'm getting old) and mounted a 6" deep shelf aloong the top of the splash wall for most-needed tools. My workshop has numerous other shelves, rubbermaid drawers for scraps and small tool drawers for odds 'n' ends. Trouble is my basement workshop is currently around 48 degrees F, way too cold for any serious work. I've never seen a winter like this one down there.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

I have built a number over the years, from starting long ago with a card table.

The latest was easy to build. I boguht a couple of these new plastic drawer stands, one holds three poly drawers, the other four, both on casters. I built a box with 1 x 2 frame, and between two sheets of 1/2 particle board, each cut to 18 x 48 inches for the top. The drawer thingies were not as high as I would like for the work surface, so I built two boxes of particle board, scrap from the top pieces, to raise top piece about four inches above drawer stands.

I built a frame to hold 1/8 perforated pegboard for a back, to hold tools. This is fastened to top and drawer stands. I cover bench top with contact paper, replace easily when it gets to sliced, painted, and glue dropped. I really like the new bench.

Also have a nice light, a positi>

i had that problem in ma. i went to the dollar store, bought some of their plastic frop cloths and made a wall around my workbench. i already had some dumpster dived carpet down, i put a small electric heater on a milk crate and it was usually warm enough to work in 15 minutes. just shut the fan off if you spray paint.....

Hi Trevor.

In the days that I was moving from Nicaragua to San Francisco, back to Nicaragua, then to Costa Rica, then to Houston, then to Florida (yes, I was working for an airline) After the move to Houston I went the easy, movable way.

I bought a door, yes a door and two saw horses. At some time Sears had small shelves that you had to put together in any lay-out you desired.

Now living in a condo I've converted the "guest" room into my hobby room. In the center I have ol' faithful door with a sheet of glass that was "rescued" from the dumpster (One man's trash is another man's treasure...heh) The shelves are against the wall. On either side are two "work" benches. On the left one I have the paints and some sort of paraphernalia of odds and ends. On the right one I have the tools, knives, files, tweezers, rulers etal. Small tools.

Along the shelving I have, on the left side my stereo, radio, cassette, CD player (gotta have my music going !), speakers up on the four corners of the room, small, 5" TV set with yes, cable box. Along the center the glues, plastic and crazy, putties, polishers, tapes, rubber bands and other miscelania. To the right I have my liquor cabinet (Made in house, thank you very much) and a small fridge.

On both sides of the work bench (door) I have lamps that I can position in any direction/angle.

Along the other three walls I have more shelves (this time the bigger ones) for the reference books, magazines, decals and kits, including the closet. No, I don't collect, but I think I have 'round forty or fifty kits that I doubt I'll get to build in my life time. Not the way I built ém anyway.

You play/plan with what you have as far as space or lay-out and make it user friendly.

Be well.

Kitt

All spraying gets done in the garage, which believe it or not is (marginally) warmer than the basement. It's enclosed and surrounded by house.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

My simplest one is a six foot slab of counter top laid across two dishpack moving boxes.

Modeling space shares off ice space for MAI/ESM 72.

The work table is an old 6'3" dining room table. Comfortable desk chair. It faces out of a table overlooking the street. The files for MAI/ESM 72 are set back 19", seventeen in all.Piles of work to be done on each end.

Typewriter and laptop are in the center. When not in use one or the other or both go on top of the file boxes.

For modeling I spread out a plastic sheet on top of a thick (15 1/2"x12 1/2") safety glass panel.Large modeling tool box is one one side on the floor, reference material on the right.

Behind is a closet converted to file cabinet housing and a large computer armoire (sp?) containing more modeling materials, research material and the like. At the moment it's blocked by a dozen cases of books and magazines being worked into disposal listings.

Airbrushing is done in the garage, which also contains the 7000+ MAI Library and a couple of thousand kits.

It takes only a minute or two to swith from publishing and order filling duties to building models. There is a tv a couple of ft. from my left elbow with the Wings channel or aviation videos going most of the time.

Oh, wet sanding is done in the garage sink as the kitchen sink is part of the brand new Disney kitchen.

Tom

Tom wrote a bunch of stuff about a neatly organized work/research/publishing/modeling area.

Sick, sick puppy!

Two 8 foot folding tables (L pattern), 6 steps to the kitchen sink, 8 steps to the frig, a couple of more steps to the bathroom. Stereo/TV across the room. Remote on the table.

6 foot to the balcony for paint vent. Whole thing relocates and sets up quickly in case of a move accross country. Oops, almost forgot a piece of tempered masonite on the floor for the chair and a nylon mesh net over the a/c outlet to restrict the carpet monster's friend.

Oxmoron1 MFE Portable modeling center

"Neatly organized"? I guess so, but the piles of books and magazines for the disposal list is accompanied by three stacks of cookbooks, about twenty good size boxes, left by my mother for one of my sons. Then there's the piles of assorted stuff to go through and make room.

Almost every project, no matter how small, means time to move stuff in order to get to the things I need.

Tom

Mine is a 1940s teacher's desk that I aquired from a elementry school that was about to go under the dozer's blade( to make way for another mall of course) Its six by four (feet) with six large side drawers and spacious middle one. I rigged it up with a four outlet A/C box, a magnified swing lamp and a quarter inch thick plastic top.The drawers are large enough to store my compressor, air gun and paints on one side and all my other modeling encouterments in the others. This middle drawer just acts like a grab bag where I keep my most often used tools and junk. The whole lot cost just under a C-note with the swing lamp being the most expensive item. Mike IPMS

I use (what I am told is) an antique (ca. 1920s-40s) Postmaster's or Postal Inspector's desk. It's pretty big, but I've got so durn much stuff (books, tools, a paint cabinet, three spares cabinets, in-progress models, etc.) on it that my actual work area is only about 12 or so sq. inches! My models are in/on various closets, cabinets and shelves scattered about my apartment -- or stacked on the floor against a conveniently out-of-the-way wall...

Luckily my wife also builds models...in fact she's the treasurer of the local IPMS chapter whereas I am merely a director...but anyway, we converted a spare bedroom into a Modeling room. We each have a 6' foot folding table from Sam's Club. They're cheap and plastic, so every now and then we clean them with windex(we only use acrylic pain). We have tackle boxes and those shallow plastic drawers to hold paints and whatnot. I also bought a 4' plastic table which we use as a spray table for airbrushing. I cover the walls around the spray table with cheap posters I find on clearance at Walmart. (currently Spongebob and Marvel comics). The spray table is only two foot deep, so I bought a big roll of freezer paper and I tape it down on the table. When spills/overspray gets too bad, I just throw it away and put down a new piece.

Brad and Julie Vaughn

Sounds kinky. But in a nice sort of way........ ;-p

Oops...I guess I should read this crap before posting.

Brad and Julie Vaughn "Paging Dr. Freud...Paging Dr. Freud"

In article , snipped-for-privacy@aol.comspamless (The Old Timer) wrote:

Everything gets done in the garage, which means no one but me cares what it looks like. 3' x 6' custom-built bench, w/header across the back and a large shelf underneath. A tray along the front edge (16") nominally for tools, though most of them are scattered across the bench top most of the time. The tray is really there to catch pieces trying to escape to the floor--it catches about a third of the escapees, and another third scatter back onto the bench surface to be found fifteen wasted minutes later. Two paint racks holding together about 30 bottles pof paintsome tool hooks and a really large vice are also attached to the front edge. two more paint racks attached to the header, and anohter onthe inside surface of the cross member 2x4 that supports the shelf under the bench. Four banks of sorting trays for parts and suchlike along the header and to the side. A tool rack on the wall to the left, and various storage devices for tools on the bench to the left. Brushes, sanding sticks and side cutters in a small sorter with a magnet adhering to more sorting tray boxes (metal) to my left. Sanding blocks to the right. Spare sandpaper in a vertical tray attached to the wall over the bench header. Two business card trays, one filled with toothpicks and the other with Q-Tips, float here and there, along with another fifteen bottles of paint, a water tray, scattered tools and brushes, one or both Paasche VLs, assembled or not, Dremel bits mounted in a fragment of particle board, 4-6 semi-assembled kits, plans (which are supposed to be pinned to a bulletin board to my left, but until my new glasses come, I can't read the damned things there), and a goodly amount of dryer lint (therein is the biggest problem with living in the garage). I cna almsot guarantee that if my bench was tice as big in surface area, I would lose net working space (right now, I've got about a square foot.)

Mark Schynert

And I thought that was only me. I think that I might have a bit too much crap on the desk when I barely have room to build a medium-sized 1:72 scale WWII fighter. Bombers? Fergitaboutit!

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

In my case it's time to go through the to do pile when I can't open a file drawer because the pile is too high.

Aside from a display case I have an antique breakfront for moels and Disney stuff. Right now the bottom shelf is cluttered and needs attention. The closed bottom half is stuffed with reams of different types of paper for ESM 72 production.

I have to clear the entire bottom shelf out for the upcoming 1/96 Disney Nautalus sub. I love it when modeling and other avocations get together.

Tom