Model Work Areas

[Scott H.]

Guys,

I've seen pictures here and there of people's work areas and was wondering what other people have set up?

Right now I'm using a tray table that I can set up and take back down when needed because I haven't made a permanent place for building again yet. As I was starting to clean out an old storage shed I rarely use any more to convert it to my dedicated hobby room, I found out it as has a bad roof and is leaking. Until I fix it, I'm stuck with my tray table...

So... Whaddya got??? Inquiring minds want to know!

-Scott H.

[Jantrix]

I have a work bench in the garage which I use from Oct-Mar.

And from April-Sept (when it's too bloody hot to use the garage), I have a small card table that the wife allows me to set in the dining room.

[javathehut4]

Hello all, I used to own a espresso stand, but that is another story. It’s 8’x12’ and took everything out but the walls and outlets. Put in a new floor, painted, added a bunch more outlets, benches on three sides and shelves everywhere.

I have most of the stuff in like a small refrigerator, microwave, wall heater, TV w/5.1 stereo. You know just the basic things. I told myself I won’t start another project until this is done, is that incentive or what.

Any comments or ideas are welcome. Looking forward to seeing what others look like.

[Scott H.]

Rob,

I hear ya on the heat! Here on the coast of S.C. it gets so hot and muggy in the summer that you just can't hardly move without the A/C blasting on you! When the shed gets finalized for use, there's definitely going to be a small window unit sticking through the wall! As a good friend of mine once said: "A/C is NOT an option in this state!"

Scott,

That's something similar to what I was planning to do to my shed.

Do you by chance have an exhaust fan in there? In each end of mine when I get back into being able to actually convert it again, I'm going to put in 2 cheap bathroom fans that I removed from my old house when I remodeled the bathrooms in it. I figure that should be good enough to clear out the paint fumes and cigarette smoke when needed.

-Scott H.

[cruz]

Wow Scott, I love your set-up there, looks like you had a lot of fun just putting it together!!!

[crazyjim]

We put up a 20 x 40 steel building a couple of years ago and I took 10 x 20 of that for my hobby room. Besides models I also have an interest in stained glass. Some of those projects take up quite a bit of room. The hobby room is all insulated, drywalled and painted, ceiling fan, floresent lights, heat/AC unit, refrierator, sink, tile floor.

My actual model building is done on a desk that I had when I was a little kid.

[Mike]

I have a work bench my uncle gave me and an unfinished basement (which is being finished this summer some time) and this is what the unfinished basement looks like presently with --33 below temps for a normal winter in North Dakota.

[crispy]

I have a dedicated room in the basement. The workbench goes 3/4 the way around. Plenty of workspace right? Nope, Always could use more. I have a spare room connected to the workshop that will eventually get done as my Room of Zoom.

Here's a few pictures of my area:

Model kit storage runs around the same length as the workbench and underneath the bench as well.

The one thing I can't stress enough is to make sure you have enough light and outlets.

Chris

[Farmer Wilding]

Y'know, sometimes I get jealous of you guys who have basements. We don't have them in Australia.

I have two modelling areas. I do my building and detail painting on a side desk in my library. For daytime use I have light from the east and south, and good spotlighting at night. I have a stack of pull-out trays for my paints, but the colours I use most stay on the bench. Under the bench are my part-built projects - about sixty of them.....

Spray painting gets done in the shed. It's about a 30' x 50' tin shed, insulated, also with good lighting. Half the workbench is covered with newspaper. I keep my spray paint out here, with the cans arranged so I scan see the colours at a glance.

[Terry Sumner]

Here's mine... It's a corner in my basement 8' X 12' with a side room that's 5' X 7' for the spray room and sink area. My spray booth is literally the room. I put in a 10" hole in the wall and some 10" flexible duct that leads to a furnace fan blower and straight to the outside. The door has a filter in it. Works great! Anyway, here are a few photos. There are more on my Fotki site here... http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/my-modeling-shop/

Here's the main work area..

Hosted on Fotki

The right side..

Hosted on Fotki

The left side...

Hosted on Fotki

The paint room...you can see the dehydrator there too..

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

In a couple of months this whole thing is going to be remodeled into a new much larger shop....stay tuned.

Terry Sumner

[MarkJ]

The breakfast nook table. I keep all my stuff in two big plastic storage containers in the spare bed room which you can hardly walk in and out of. I transport the stuff I need to the table and then take it back to the storage bins when I'm through for the morning. I dont mind because the breakfast nook has a nice view of the back yard and I don't feel couped up like I would if I had a permanent place to work like back in that bedroom where I would be staring at a wall while I worked. There's just too much stuff in there to even make enough room to work. We use it for storage because we keep both cars in the garage.

[Corvette.Jeff]

i seriously envy you guys with a lot of models and stuff i counted i only have like 3 or 4(but then again im jsut getting back into the hobby from a 8 year breake ) for a work bench i have a kobalt work bench(3 drawer) that my parents got me from lowes, before that i was using a old school desk thats older then me! i dont have an area set up to paint yet, im thinking of converting my old desk into a spray booth. i have the whole shebang for modeling though a peg board full of tools air brushes and an air compressor(havent used it because i still dont know anything about it besides its good for blowing off my bench!) its true about light you cant have enough! the bench i use came with a built in light and power strip so i have a few lights in im going to be adding to it though soon

[Corvette.Jeff]

please excuse my typing, i cut my finger this morning and had to put a bandaid on it(thank you lord for spell check!)

[FactoryStock54]

I have a dedicated workshop for model building, a converted bedroom, on the second floor of my house.

I built a large main workbench, L-shaped, out of an old fouton bed frame with eight 2 x 2 legs attached.

Also built two large work tables for the painting area.

Pretty nice set-up, though since my divorce I haven't spent as much time building as I used to. Maybe it was a form of escape and now I don't need it as much? Who knows.

[Clay]

I have a dedicated workshop for model building, a converted bedroom, on the second floor of my house.

I built a large main workbench, L-shaped, out of an old fouton bed frame with eight 2 x 2 legs attached.

Also built two large work tables for the painting area.

Pretty nice set-up, though since my divorce I haven't spent as much time building as I used to. Maybe it was a form of escape and now I don't need it as much? Who knows.

[ronr]

My current work area is a 8` x 12` building. But...........In process is my New Workshop. 12` x 24` , 16` of work bench, 42` total of shelving. Just finished the wiring and planning on installing walls tomorrow. Will be kinda chilly as the low tonight is in the low teens. I`ll post pics as soon as it looks presentable. Here are a few pics of my soon to be abandoned work shop;

[javathehut4]

Hello, some of you indicated that I may have a bit of a sick mind with my too clean work space, and to be honest, there is a little truth in that. But anyway does this picture make me look a little bit healthier ?

[my80malibu]

Here's mine... It's a corner in my basement 8' X 12' with a side room that's 5' X 7' for the spray room and sink area. My spray booth is literally the room. I put in a 10" hole in the wall and some 10" flexible duct that leads to a furnace fan blower and straight to the outside. The door has a filter in it. Works great! Anyway, here are a few photos. There are more on my Fotki site here... http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/my-modeling-shop/

Here's the main work area..

Hosted on Fotki

The right side..

Hosted on Fotki

The left side...

Hosted on Fotki

The paint room...you can see the dehydrator there too..

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

In a couple of months this whole thing is going to be remodeled into a new much larger shop....stay tuned.

Terry Sumner

This is one nice setup

[Ramcharger]

Here's mine. We recently moved and I have a space in the basement. I've moved it from an upstairs bedroom and then to another part of the basement. It's not much, but it's my little slice of heaven!

No spray area yet, but I'm working on it.

[Terry Sumner]

This is one nice setup

Thanks much. But wait till I build the new one in 3 times the space. Man it'll feel good to have some room to spread out a little and get some display cases for my builts. And the reason this is happening is because my wife and I will finally be alone in our home. Yep! The last of the four offspring is finally moving out! That means a room is opening up and some things are going to get moved around, opening up more space! I'm finally going to learn what it's like to be an empty-nester!

Oh and btw, that countertop with the sink in it isn't bent like that photo shows. It's nice and straight. Just distortion caused by the camera.

Terry

[dryvr12]

wow, everyones set up is NICE! i have a spot on a table that has so much ###### on it i can barley keep track of my parts! its close to a 1x1 area

[Ken]

I originally had the spare bedroom when we had the apartment. Now, that we have a house, I have the den/front room/office. I usually end up at the dining room table so I can watch TV. Lately, the wife has been complaining that I have taken over the dining table, she is right, I have. Well, I took the week off to finish some other projects and decided to start small and organize the front room, so I can actually use my desk and such. Anyway, here it is in mid-project. The batteries ran out in the camera and the alarm guy is coming tomorrow so the project room is not finished per se. So onto the pics.

this is the desktop, that will eventually become my workspace. In the apartment, it was twice as long so I am having to condense quite a bit. Most of it is going under the footwell to the right. All painting is done right outside the back door. I do have a 'paintbooth' out there. but it is all reliant on the weather.

This is the closet just to the right of the desk. It houses about 1/3 to 1/2 the stash. The rest are outside in storage sheds. The wife has to use some some of this closet, notice the cow coat and the barbie box. This limits the storage space. Some of the kits worth mentioning... 1/48th B-1B; 1/32nd F-4; 1/32nd Tornado; 3 or 4 Revell Darts... I found them on clearance and bought like crazy!!! What you can't see, 2 more Accurate Minatures B-25s; Revell 1/48th Mudhen (F-15); Revell 1/8 Deuce.

This is the top shelf above the desk. The leaning tower of kits is squashed between the shelves and the closet. It hasn't fallen yet....

Stuff that was in the closet and in the way... You can also see my other 'ADULT' hobby. Plenty of storage with all the empty cigar boxes... and yes, I emptied them.

A detail shot of the pile. The gig bag holds a bass guitar. My sister brought it back from Russia about 15 or so years ago. I can't seem to get rid of it. Yes, I did play bass at one point and occasionally I can pick out 'smoke on the water'

One of the bookcases in the room. Yes, there are more empty cigar boxes... I haven't even shot the cigar storage still in the closet... This shelf houses TRJ, Old Skool, CK deluxe, HR Deluxe and my favorite Rod and Kulture Illustrated. There is a separate bookcase for model magazines. Don't worry Jarius, you have your own shelf... including some really old issues in black and white.

Eventually, I would love to have a shed or something to convert, nothing would be greater than sitting working on a kit and smoking a fine cigar, which I must do outside, but this will do for now.

[CB]

Here's where I work on my models. Right in my bedroom/studio,

which can be good, and bad. Got this old multi-drawered desk at

a church rummage sale for $5. Already I have trouble finding

stuff in it

Felt really strange taking this picture---aint never been this far away

from the bench.........

Little closer........there's SKWIRLY 2 getting some air. I originally mounted the

four 75-100watt light bulbs above the bench there so's I could set stuff on top

to heat em up, like tires--so's I could create a more realistic bulge in them,etc.

Turns out, them 4 light bulbs keep things nice and cozy when me & SKWIRLY are

hanging out together at the bench.

[dptydawg]

I have a room in the basement for my models. It includes a build area, kit storage and model displays. However some of the finished models have migrated into the rest of the house. Thats something that doesn't thrill the wife too much. A couple years ago I redid the model room walls in slatwall. This gives great flexability in shelf arranging. My paint booth is an old audio -visio unit that I rescured from our firehall. It is on casters, Has 2 downdraft fans and vents out the window. here are a few shots that show the typical mess that usually lives there

My paint booth. Compressor rides an botom shelf

My work bench. Stoll it from my kid after she went off to school. I doo most of my work on the front 6" of the desk

The opossite end of the room (storage and display area)

This is along the wall behind my desk. It has a 4'X12' display table with storage below. The room is about 16'X11'

Thanks

Carl

[midwest 1953]

" I usually end up at the dining room table so I can watch TV. "

Why not buy a TV for the Model Room?